Discovery (Grade One) Learning Community Term Four Overview
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Welcome to Term Four 2024.
English
This term, the students in Discovery (Grade 1) will be introduced to a range of persuasive texts and
will be learning about opinions and facts. The students will continue to respond to texts, predicting
and making inferences about how the different characters may feel. They will continue to explore
different vocabulary, ask questions to clarify their understanding while reading and discuss the
texts that they have read. Students will compare the similarities and differences between different
types of texts when reading; for example, comparing informative and persuasive texts. Students
will continue to work on their phonic and word knowledge by learning to see patterns in words,
and reading and writing new words by adding, deleting and changing sounds. They will be focusing
on writing amazing sentences, remembering their capital letters at the start of sentences and
punctuation at the end of the sentence, and adding adjectives and adverbs.
At home, you can support your child by:
● Encouraging your child to participate in daily reading (please fill in their Reading Diary)
● Ask your child to retell the important parts of the story in order, identifying who the main
character is, where the story takes place and their thoughts about the story (Did they enjoy
the book? If so, why? If not, why not?)
● Listening to your child read aloud and ensure they are not reading too fast or too slow and
are pausing at full stops.
● Encouraging your child to ask questions about words or events in the book or story that
they don’t understand.
Maths
During Term Four in Discovery, we used mathematical materials to solve practical problems with equal
sharing. We represented sharing using mathematical resources and drawings. We will be extending our
learning about place value by exploring ways to partition numbers. students will explore capacity and
will investigate the maximum number of liquids/objects that a container can contain.
At home, you can support your child by:
● using pasta, Legos etc at home to model equal sharing
● using empty containers in the bath to measure the capacity
Investigations
This term during investigations, the Discovery (Grade 1) students will explore the concept of ‘Life is a
performance’, and investigate what drama and performance is and what types of performances they
know or are familiar with. Students will explore how voices, facial expressions, movement and space
can be used to communicate an idea or event. They will respond to the different performances,
expressing what they enjoyed and why. The students will discuss how opinions and thoughts may
change after hearing others’ ideas, and that different views are not better or worse, just different.
At home, you can support your child by:
● watching some age-appropriate drama, musical and art performances at home and/or in the
community.
● encouraging your child to use a range of different ways to communicate their ideas; for
example, through singing, dancing, acting, etc.
● when watching tv, performances or listening to different performances, pointing out how the
actors etc use their voices, facial expressions and bodies to communicate their message and
feelings.
● discussing what are respectful and constructive ways to respond, comment and criticize the
different performances and views.
Religion
In term four, students will learn about the importance of prayer through the Rosary and develop their
understanding of the joyful mysteries (happy stories) that are connected through prayer when praying
the Rosary. They will develop an understanding of the meaning of Advent and Christmas and its
connection to the birth of Jesus.
At home, you can support your child by:
● discussing the importance of Mary and her connection to Jesus.
● Assist your child in learning common prayers such as the Hail Mary and the Our Father. Your
child’s teacher will be more than happy to assist in providing you with a copy of those prayers.
● Pray the Rosary together as a family, or explore videos and books about the Rosary.
● Read stories about Jesus from the New Testament of the Bible.
● Read the Christmas story together and discuss the birth of Jesus.
If you have any queries or concerns, please contact your child’s teacher. We have provided emails
below and will endeavour to respond between 8.30am and 3.30pm on school days.
We appreciate your cooperation in fostering a positive and engaging learning environment for our
young learners. Thank you for your continued support.
God Bless,
Discovery Grade One Learning Community Teachers
Discovery 1 (Sarah, Monday to Thursday): sarah.pace@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au
(Nicky, Friday): nicky.gauci@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au
Discovery 2 (Nicky, Monday to Tuesday): nicky.gauci@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au
(Helen, Wednesday to Friday): helen.saunders@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au
Discovery 3 (Charlene, full-time): charlene.zhou@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au