Welcome back and info for Term 2

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to Term 2.  It has been great seeing all the children again with all the wonderful smiles on their faces. The children have slid straight back into the routines of Year One, more often than not, reminding me of what to do!

I hope you all had a restful break and didn't work too hard. If some of you have been in our class this week, you might have seen at the back table that we will be learning about minibeasts through our Science unit. The children also participated in some ANZAC day activities over the last few days and have read and seen some wonderful videos explaining ANZAC day at a child's level.

Below is some important information about homework and some of the programs and events that we will be running in class.

Think Mentals Mental maths book

The children are very excited to be starting their Think Mentals Math book this week which was purchased at the beginning of the year.

Mental maths such as addition and subtraction, counting on, sequencing of numbers and number recognition are some of the concepts that we have covered in class. These will be reinforced in our Think Mentals book that will help your child gain confidence and apply mathematical concepts in a fun and supportive way.

In supporting our Math program in class, we would like for your child to complete one unit over a fortnightly period. When completing questions with your child, we would ask that you support them by reading questions if necessary and marking the questions to give your child instant feedback on how they went and writing their score at the bottom of the page.

An example of one unit

We encourage you to use a combination of visual and manipulative tools such as number lines, hundreds charts or counters to help your child complete these tasks.

Please do not spend more than 10 minutes at a time completing these activities and make it a part of your child's reading and sight word routine.

At the end of the fortnight, the books will be collected by myself and checked to make sure your child understands the concepts covered. We ask that your child does not complete more than one unit a fortnight as to ensure we can review these concepts in class if necessary.

Unit Two will be due at the end of week 3 (Friday 12th May) as we have completed Unit One in class. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please email me.


UR STRONG Friendology 101 JR

This is the wonderful program that we will be continuing (as we started the first lesson last term) to support the children in helping them make better friends and strengthen and foster healthy relationships. Within the program the children are required to bring in a small stuffed toy for role play opportunities. This will be happening in either week 3 or 4 but I will be posting a blog post to let you know when this will be.

Camp Fun Run

This will be held on Week 2, Wednesday 3rd of May from 1.30-2.45. Children are encouraged to raise funds for our Year 5 and 6 camps by asking for donations from family, friends and the wider communities. Please bring in all donations in an envelope with your child's name on it with the Fun Run form as soon as possible.

If you have any questions please email me.

Enjoy the three day weekend!

Miss Prowse

Reading Files and Sight words

Dear Parents,

I have collected up all the children's reading books at the request of the librarian Ms. Kemp so there will be no reading books coming home tonight. Please take this opportunity to spend some time with you children and enjoy the last night before school holidays :)

Every child has been tested on their sight words this week and a lot have passed and moved up to the next set which is such as great achievement! I love how motivated they are to compete their sight words and I can see it coming through in their writing too, which is wonderful!

I have handed out the majority of the holiday packs to parents this morning but if you missed out, please email me and I can organise one for you tomorrow. Children are more than welcome to also use their Reading Eggs and Mathletics passwords during the holidays and we would really appreciate if you do go on these programs, to allow your child to practise logging in independently so when it comes to class time, they won't need as much assistance.

Thank you for all your support this term, it has been a great start to the year!

Many thanks

Miss Prowse

Stations of the Cross photos

A big thank you to all the parents who helped get aLo the wonderful costumes together for the stations of the cross. The children did an outstanding job of acting out the first three stations. Here are a few pictures from the performance.

History reminder

Just a quick reminder for the children to bring in their last important thing for their history unit. This week's focus is things in the future that I want to become eg. A football player, an actor, a painter etc. if they can bring in something that represents this, that would be wonderful.

Many thanks

Miss Prowse

Holiday Writing Packs

As the holidays draw near, I can feel your little ones bursting to get out and about and enjoy their break! I definitely encourage children to have a rest from school and enjoy their holidays but if you would like to do some writing about what you’re doing in the holidays, I am going to make up some little writing packs so your children can write about their adventures!.

In this pack, I’ll include:

- A finger space buddy

- Some dotted thirds pages

- A guide of how the letters should sit on the line

- Some stimulus pictures that children can choose to write about if they feel so inclined

- A list of story starters

- Sequencing pictures that the children can cut out and write about

Let me please make it clear that THIS IS NOT COMPULSORY. This is just a way to encourage your little one to be more confident in their writing and letter formation when beginning term 2.

Some ways you can support your child with their writing at home....

- Read your child’s writing or have them read it back to you and comment on the positive aspects. For example “I really love the way you have used a capital letter at the start of your senetnce”.

- Praise your child for having a go at writing words that are new to them.

- To develop word and spelling concepts it’s always fun to play games such as scrabble, boggle and even I spy eg. I spy something beginning with the ‘ch’ sound.

- Write notes, letters or stories together. Your child will love creating something with you!

- Keep a holiday journal where you might write down two sentences of what you did that day and how you might have felt after.

- Ask your child to label some of the things around the house with scrap paper - encourage them to sound out all the words and to have a go even if they are not sure.

- Ask your child to write to someone else in the class over the holidays - this can include your child telling them what they have been doing and even asking questions of what they might be up to.

- Use fun and funky coloured writing implements...kids go crazy for gel pens, textas and coloured pencils or crayons!

- To practise letter formation, the best thing I have found is for children to use a thick paint brush and a bucket of water and let them go crazy with it on the wall...they will be able to see their writing, with no mess for you! Another alternative is to use chalk or foam on the ground or wall which will wash off with water.

- Display their writing at home...children love seeing their work up and the fact they did it at home is even more special.

I will have some of these packs available on Friday for the children to take home, but please remember this is not compulsory.

Both Amy and I have had an absolutely wonderful first term with your children and we are looking forward to the fantastic year ahead!

Have a restful last couple of days before holidays!

Miss Prowse

Easter Preparation and Parent Meetings

Easter Raffle

Thank you to those families who have donated chocolate eggs and bunnies to our Easter raffle. If you haven’t made your donation yet, there is still time! The basket will be out until Monday 3^rd April. The more eggs we have, the more prizes we can give away! All the money raised from the raffle goes towards Mission fundraising. Donations of baskets for the raffle are also much appreciated, please take them to the front office if you have any.

Stations of the Cross

A letter went home yesterday to all Year One parents outlining the roles that the children will be playing in the Year One presentation of the Stations at 9am on Monday. We have discussed with the children that we need to keep the costumes simple! The photos below might help if your child is a disciple or an onlooker.  Mrs Derickx has kindly made the soldiers and Pontius Pilate a hat which we can leave at school until Monday morning. Readers will stay in school uniform. If your child has been selected for a reading part please practise with them as much as possible before Monday! We will be doing the same at school this week. Any other questions, just ask us!

Parent Teacher Interviews

Many thanks to all of the parents for attending our Parent/Teacher meetings over the past two weeks. Your input into your child’s learning is invaluable and we really appreciate all of your support and feedback.

Miss Rundle and Miss Prowse

Year One Sound Review and helpers for Science and History items

Good evening parents,

Below are the sounds that your children have been learning for the past 8 weeks in their spelling rotations. On Monday we will be having our term spelling review to test their knowledge of sounds. Below is a table with all the sounds that you children have been learning. They will be able to tell you what group they are in, but please email me if you need clarification.

A way you can help them is to call out a word with that particular sound for them to write down on a scrap piece of paper eg. if you child is in the blue group you can use the 'tr' sound, ask your child to write down the word trip and so on.

If you need any more information, please email me to let me know.

Science Helpers

We have designed our musical instruments and the children have put a lot of time and effort into their plan. On Friday, the children will be using their plan and construct their musical instrument but any help from parents to help glue, stick and tie would be wonderful. We would love some help from 11.20-12.45 on Friday this week so please email me if you are available.

History items

This week we are looking at things from the present so we are asking your child to bring in something that is special to them now. They can bring it in tomorrow or Thursday for our second last History lesson this term.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Miss Prowse

Week 8 in review

WOW! What a big week it has been! We have had a great week of learning in Year 1P and I feel like we haven't had a chance to stop and let you know what we have been doing!

Skip Counting

This week during Maths, we have been exploring the skill of skip counting. We started skip counting by 10’s and we had a wonderful time discovering that if we times a number by 10, all we needed to do was add a zero! (eg. 6 x 10 = 60). We then sang some songs about counting in 10’s and then we felt confident enough to have a go at ordering numbers by 10….up to 100! We got so good at doing this that we started from any point and was able to count up to 100 by 10’s.

We then looked at counting in 5's and 2's and I must say I was very impressed at some children's ability to skip count past 100.  We participated in a range of rotating activities this week which involved sorting 2's, 5's and 10's flash cards into order, using the application doodle buddy to write down our skip counting numbers and represent them with little pictures and finally working in a small group directly with myself to show the pattern of skip counting when looking at the hundreds chart.  Below are some photos of the children during their Math rotations. 

If you would like to do some practise at home, I have uploaded a google doc with flash cards of 2’s, 5’s and 10’s that you can cut out and order at home. This is a great way for your child to consolidate some of the Maths we have been doing in class and relates directly to the to the Year One Western Australian Curriculum outcome within the Number and Algebra strand:

Develop confidence with number sequences to and from 100 by ones from any starting point. Skip count by twos, fives and tens starting from zero(ACMNA012)

I have also included the song we have sung in class if you would like to be involved in the singing side of things (definitely not my forte!).

2's, 5's and 10's flashcards - Simply highlight the address and put it into your URL:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PRfqa5dsv33Q1JsYz_yV3-yR9biyJPYeRC1Y1dbncm0/pub

Lots of Socks day to acknowledge World Down Syndrome Day 

On Tuesday the 21st of March the whole school celebrated World Down Syndrome day, it was a wonderful day which we were able to acknowledge and celebrate that everyone is unique and different. I especially love this beautiful photo of both Year One classes, having fun with their friends. 

Year One and Six Buddy Mass 

On Wednesday, we were lucky that the rain held out and we were able to walk down to the church with our Year Six buddies. It was a beautiful morning and we were welcomed into the Parish by Fr Ian and the parishioners. Fr Ian lead a wonderful Mass and all the children were extremely reverent and respectful throughout. See below for some pictures of the children at church. 

Parent interviews

Thank you to those parents who met with me last week, I really appreciate your feedback and I am looking forward to a wonderful year ahead. If you haven't already, could you please put your name down on one of the remaining spots on Wednesday 29th March. 

Friendology PD Day 

On Friday the 31st of March I will be going up to Perth to represent OLC in the UR STRONG Friendology summit at Perth College. I feel very lucky and privileged to be asked to attend and I will be coming back with a sound understanding of the wonderful Social and Emotional program that OLC has taken on. Mrs. Melinda Katana will be taking my place on this day but I will still be available on my emails if you need me. 

Stations of the Cross assembly

As Easter draws closer the school will be holding mini assemblies to represent the different stations of the cross. Year One has been asked to perform the first three Stations of the Cross on Monday the 3rd of April at 9am.  A note will be coming home on Tuesday which explains what part your child will play, some readings which they may need to practise (if they are selected) and a costume they may need (very simple). 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me. 

Many thanks 

Miss Prowse