YEAR 1

We are hoping all our families had a wonderful weekend celebrating Father's Day!  Year 1 worked very hard at creating a special gift for their Dads!

In English we have enjoyed reading 'The Paperbag Princess' by Robert Munsch. We've completed a variety of literature tasks related to the text including comprehension, brainstorming character traits, sequencing events in the text and writing a book report. 

Last week in Maths Year 1 were learning about fractions, in particular, half of a collection. Students used different hands-on strategies to help them do this, such as tens/twenty frames, counters and pictures. This week we are learning about telling the time using analog and digital clocks to the hour and the half hour.  

In Science our unit is called 'Up, Down and All Around'. We have been investigating and watching the weather, which also links in with our Geography study this term. Year 1 enjoyed taking our lesson outside to complete a weather observation chart. We took a thin piece of crepe paper outside and held it by the end - we knew the wind was quite strong that day, as it almost blew our paper horizontal! We have also been looking at weather in other locations around NSW. We were interested to see how different it can be - even in the same state - from hot and dry conditions to snow and rain! We have been learning about the different instruments used to help measure certain aspects of the weather. These include: thermometer (for temperature), rain gauge (for rainfall), wind vane (for wind direction) and an anemometer (which measures wind speed). This week the Year 1 students will be making their own wind vane to measure the direction of the wind....hopefully we will get a breeze to test them out!

In Health we have been looking at strategies to use for times we may not be feeling safe or comfortable. We discussed that our body gives us warning signs that we may not feel comfortable about a situation. These signs could be anything from sweaty palms or a shaky body, to butterflies in our tummy. Year 1 completed an activity called 'Our Support Network' where they traced their hand and recorded 5 people they trust to talk to on each finger.  

In Religion we have finished our unit on Baptism by discussing the different signs and symbols used in a Baptism Ceremony. These include: the white gown, the Baptismal Candle, Holy Water in the Baptismal Font and the Chrism Oil. This week we start our new topic about the Local Diocese.

As Friday will be my (Mrs Hingston's) last day with Year 1 before I commence Maternity Leave, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all. It has been an absolute pleasure teaching your children this year and I wish them all the best for Term 4!

In English, we are focussing on writing procedures with Mrs Dunn. We have written lots of procedures of our own and now we are working in groups to present a procedure to the class, having the rest of class follow the procedure to see if they get the correct outcome, for example, how to tie a shoe lace. We are also learning to use writing techniques to improve our creative writing with Miss Payton. So far we have focussed on alliteration and onomatopoeia. 

In Maths, we have been learning about length. We have done lots of measuring using our 30cm rulers as well as the teacher's metre rulers. We learnt how to convert metres to centimetres and centimetres into metres and centimetres. 

In Religion, we have started a new topic on the Liturgical Year. We have been looking at the different seasons of the Liturgical Year, where they fall in comparison to the Calendar Year and the different colours that represent the seasons in the Liturgical Year. 

We have also been incorporating Microsoft Teams and OneNote into our learning to improve our use of technology. We have even added some of our homework tasks to OneNote. We also learnt on Friday how to record ourselves saying our speeches about what we would like to be when we grow up. We had so much fun experimenting with some coding on Scratch Junior using the iPads!

As you all know we have been working extremely hard at preparing our play. We will have a dress rehearsal next Monday so please take some time to help your child look for clothes to suit their character. All narrators will wear their school uniform.

In Religion, we are learning about the history of the Catholic Church in Australia. We have discovered that there were 316 Catholics amongst the 1044 convicts who arrived in the First Fleet. We also learnt that there were no priests in the colony for many years and Catholics had to find ways to keep their faith alive through prayer gatherings. We have studied a timeline of the Catholic Church in Australia and it was interesting to see how the Church gradually came to be. We learnt about the history of St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney and about the hurdles faced in its journey to completion.

In English, last week we read the book ‘I’m Australian Too’ by Mem Fox. We discussed things that make Australia a great place to live and wrote a speech about ‘What it is like living in Australia.’ This week, we are reading the book ‘Sail Away – the Adventures of Skip and Nell’ by Mem Fox. This story follows the adventures of two dingo pups from Northern Territory who race their boat, called Dinki Di, along the east coast of Australia, down south until they headed west to participate in ‘the great race in the west’ – the America’s Cup. We have completed a mapping task, comprehension questions and learnt about idioms.

Last week in Maths, we learnt more about fractions. We counted by fractions, put fractions along number lines and learnt about mixed numerals. This week, our focus is Area using the square metre. In groups, we made a square metre from paper and used it to measure various surfaces around the school.

In Geography, we are looking at climate zones of Australia. We will be comparing the climate of Darwin to that of Hobart, and then comparing the climate where we live to each of these places.   

In Science, we talked about landforms in our region that have been formed by erosion. Some were: the cliffs at Bar Beach, creeks and gullies in our area, the sand dunes at Stockton, just to name a few. We chose three to draw in our books and we are completing an explanation activity to state how we think erosion formed two of these landmarks.

We have been enjoying our Sport activities each Wednesday with Year 4. We have played some really fun team games and have developed some very useful skills.

In Personal Development, we have been discussing various ways our body reacts when something isn’t right with us or when we feel uncomfortable about a situation. Some of these warning signals are: goose bumps, heart pumping fast, butterflies in the stomach and legs feel wobbly.

In Religion, we are learning about the history of the Catholic Church in Australia. We have discovered that there were 316 Catholics amongst the 1044 convicts who arrived in the First Fleet. We also learnt that there were no priests in the colony for many years and Catholics had to find ways to keep their faith alive through prayer gatherings. We have studied a timeline of the Catholic Church in Australia and it was interesting to see how the Church gradually came to be. We learnt about the history of St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney and about the hurdles faced in its journey to completion.

In English, we have finished reading our novel, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. We really loved the story and the intriguing plots. We are going to do a short film study of the movie and will watch it next week. We are all excited about seeing it and watching the novel come to life on the screen. We focused on developing an interesting plot in our narrative writing over the last two weeks. It has been great to share and to hear one another’s stories.

Our focus in Maths last week was Fractions and Decimals. We enjoyed many decimal activities and we extended ourselves to complete some quite challenging tasks. This week we are focusing on Area. We estimated then measured objects in square centimetres and square metres.

In Geography, we are focusing on different environments for the next couple of weeks. These include coniferous, deciduous and tropical forests and also deserts. It is really interesting to discover the many varied environments of our world. It is also fun to discover the animals of each environment. It makes us realise how important the environment is to our world.

In Science, we thought about landforms in our region that have been formed by erosion. Some were: the cliffs at Bar Beach, creeks and gullies in our area, the sand dunes at Stockton, just to name a few. We chose three to draw in our books and we are completing an explanation activity to state how we think erosion formed two of these landmarks.

We have been enjoying our Sport activities each Wednesday with Year 3. We have played some really fun team games and have developed some very useful skills.

In Personal Development, we have been discussing power. We know that everyone has power in some way. We each wrote about a situation where we have power and we explained how we should and should not use that power with others. It was good to think about our actions and their effects.

In RE, we have started looking at our next unit which is on the Sacraments of Service. We have identified ways that people remember important things in their lives and identified special ways that Catholics remember the important things in their lives. We have discussed ways that students have celebrated important times and widened the discussion to include sacramental moments such as their baptism or naming day, Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation.

In English, we are up to the next section of our novel, from the viewpoint of the main character’s sister. We can’t wait to see how she views the same events.

In Maths, we are finishing up with fractions and decimals – a journey we have been on for the last seven weeks. In this time, we have used Matific and played games to consolidate our learning. Some of us have designed and made a dominoes game based on our understanding. We can’t wait to play them on Friday.

In music the children are continuing to play the song 'I'm Yours.' The children have been practicing this together as a class as well as at home. The students have now learnt chords C, F, Am and G and are either doing a down, up, down strum or moving to the Island strum. It is great to see how well they have all already progressed. 

In science, students are now working in their teams to design their own sustainable home, with consideration about environmental factors and material properties. Students will construct diagrams within their teams before making their shelters.