20 May 2016

Year 1 Update – Wk 35

Thursday 9th June – Public Holiday
Friday 10th June – BHS CPD Day
Friday 24th June – End of Term 3. School closes at 12pm.
Classes are still missing portfolios from when they went home at student led conferences! Please return these as soon as possible so that we can put in the final items before the end of the year. It’s not enough to put them in the backpack – please remind your child to give them to his or her teacher or include a note in the diary. Thank you!

How the World Works

Central Idea: The Earth’s changes affect the activity of living things.

The unit is off to a great start, with a wide variety of student interests. Many students are interested in how the solar system was created and works, and even the big bang came up! Other students seem unsure about their place in the solar system. It might be a good idea to have a discussion about how the Earth is our home and where it fits in space. Other popular topics about the Earth included volcanoes, earthquakes, weather, mountains, day and night, the seasons… a lot of great topics for students to look into!

If you would like to foster your child’s interest, consider a trip to your local library for some nonfiction books, or watching some documentaries on how the Earth works!*

Note that we are trying to focus on physical changes of the Earth specifically, as living things was the focus of our Sharing the Planet unit.

 

 

The children seem to have a very strong understanding of patterns, so classes will move on to upcoming units and areas that need more attention. In the coming weeks students will spend time on measuring time, capacity, and weight, as well as revisiting data handling and much of the number skills visited throughout the year.

With the upcoming focus on reading the time it might be good to consider getting a small inexpensive watch for your child to reinforce their learning. Even digital watches help build familiarity and helps children compare digital time to analogue clocks found throughout school and home.

This week students had a chance to write one final piece of unaided writing for teachers to assess their ability. At this stage, we are looking for writing that is making good use of a lot of features, but isn’t necessarily perfect. We also want students to love writing!

Next week we will be revisiting writing to describe. We will practice orally, describing photos and illustrations for changes in the Earth. You can practice at home to get their thinking ready!

Group Six Phonemes and Camera Words
ck, ng, qu, x
 
away  see  look  very  once  we 

If you took home the reflection from Sharing Day, please return them by the end of next week!