Our Learning in Years 1
Literacy
Grade One students have read the Pig the Pug books together. They learned about the characters, important messages in the stories, and how the stories connect to their own lives. They also talked about the stories and noticed how the author used words to make the books fun to read. Students also participated in Book Week Dress up day where the theme was “Book an Adventure”
Numeracy
Students practiced subtraction by using models and exploring how addition and subtraction are connected. They learned about the whole-part-part idea and used the “count back” method to understand numbers better. They also used their number facts, number lines, and hands-on materials to help their thinking. Students also explored 2D shapes by finding, naming, and describing them. They also looked for shapes in everyday things and made shapes using different materials and objects.
Our Learning in Years 2
Literacy
Students commenced the term by exploring descriptive information texts. They learnt to identify the purpose, organisation, and key features of these texts. They created ‘All about…’ books based on animals of their choice, organising their books into subheadings that included classification, habitat and diet. Using double bubble maps, students compared and contrasted animals such as big cats and whales and dolphins, learning to use comparing and contrasting vocabulary such as ‘tigers and cheetahs both live in trees’ and ‘unlike jaguars, tigers are excellent swimmers’, to show similarities and differences. From this, they summarised key points and then expanded their ideas into their own descriptive information texts.
For the remainder of the term, our focus will shift to procedural texts. Students will learn how to recognise an author’s purpose and explore the importance of directional language when writing and reading procedural text.
In Numeracy, students have continued to strengthen their number knowledge through skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. They have used this skill when looking at patterns and have practised identifying whether a pattern is increasing or decreasing. To strengthen their number knowledge further, students have explored double numbers and the connection these numbers have with multiplication. We have also learnt how to divide numbers by sharing into even groups and through the use of repeated subtraction. In shape, students are continuing to recognise and describe shapes using language such as opposite, parallel, curved, and straight. We are also learning to identify and demonstrate quarter, half, three-quarter and full measures of turn in everyday situations. Students are learning to apply this knowledge to time, by reading an analogue clock to the hour, half-hour and quarter hour.
Auslan
This term we have been learning lots of new signs in Auslan! We have learned how to describe ourselves, our friends and animals using phrases such as “LONG HAIR, TALL, GLASSES”, or “BLACK AND WHITE STRIPES, FOUR LEGS”. We can use signs for places, activities and subjects at school to describe our daily routine, and tell our peers what we did on the weekend.
We are learning more about grammar and sentence structure, as well as ways to gain people’s attention to help us communicate in Auslan. To ask us what we’re doing on the weekend, sign “YOUR WEEKEND DO WHAT” and we can tell you in Auslan!
Inquiry:
In Term 3, students have been learning about Our Past and Present. In this unit, students investigated how daily life, technology, and places have changed and stayed the same over time. They explored how people’s lives, work, travel and communication have been affected by new technologies. In addition, students have learnt about the significance of people and local places within our community. The rest of the term will be spent exploring Country and Place and how these places are significant culturally and spiritually to Indigenous Australians and how we must care for them.
