Optional writing over the holidays

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 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 Thursday for the children to take home so if you would like one, please email me on: prowse.monique@cathednet.wa.edu.au I will make them up tonight.

I have also spoken to a couple of parents and I just wanted to make sure everyone is getting my b log posts so I have emailed this one just incase. Make sure you have logged onto our actual blog and typed your email into the follow me tab which will then lead you to a security screen which asks you to type in some letters or numbers.

Have a restful last couple of days before holidays!

Watch the blog for information about RAZ Kids tomorrow afternoon if you would like to know how to log on to this fantastic reading program.

Miss Prowse

Palm Sunday Performance

On Monday the 30th March, the Year One and two students took part in a Palm Sunday peformance to begin the first event if Holy Week. Our beautiful children did a great job learning all the songs, learning their lines and even acting out their parts! We had a wonderful time acting out the event when Jesus entered Jerusalem. Well done to all you fabulous parents for the time you took to get your children looking fantastic!

Some photos of the Year One stars!

Miss Prowse 

Funky Hair Friday!

On Friday 27th March, everyone came to school with some funky hair but the Year One students definitely had the funkiest hair of all! We had green, red, sliver and even glitter hair spray! Some of the girls had piggy tales coming from everywhere not to mention the rock star wigs we had! We had a very funky day!!

Star Citizen for Compassion

Congratulations to our star Citizen Ruby Eastaugh for recieving the award for our school value of Compassion. Well done Ruby!

Information about sight words and spelling

Sight words

I must say, I am throughly impressed with your gorgeous children and their eagerness to learn! I have been hearing some great feedback about the children learning all of their sight words and moving onto the next set. Mrs Keast has had to make extra sets because they have been reading them so well.

The next stage of the sight word rings is not only for your children to be able to read them, but to be able to write and spell them and further into the semester, apply them into their writing. I have no doubt your children will be eager to do this as I love hearing them come up to me and tell me they know all their sight words!


Spelling

Spelling has been a real journey for all of us in Year One. I love seeing children identifying their particular sounds in books or out words they recognise around the school. This shows me they have really internalised what is being taught. Our spelling structure is as follows:

Tuesday: Introduction of sounds as a whole class (the children are exposed to three different levels of sounds - diagraphs - Sh, ch, th , cvc words - cat, run, rug and blends - fl, st, mp) and I model on the board how the words are sounded out. I give 3 examples out of their 8 words and then they then colour code their words using two colours to identify the sounds and write them three times. Eg shop

Wednesday: We review their sounds on the board together and then using our spelling list, they cut up their words into sounds. Some of the super stars in our class just below.

Thursday: We do a quick review of the sounds in a group discussion and then they colour code thier
words once, then illustrate their words in pictures next to their writing to show the meaning. This is a good way for the children to be exposed to new words and vocabulary which can be applied to their writing.

We also get an opportunity to use the PLD app which incorporates our focus sound of that week and we play games that encourage us to look at the word and sound it out with the help of a partner.

Friday: On Friday we have some time to talk about our sounds and might play games such as shot gun sheriff which involves two children with whiteboards listening to one if their spelling words and then writing it down as quick as they can before the other person. This creates some great incentives for the children to listen and then sound out their words especially when they love receiving the praise of their peers. We also have buddy time for 20 minutes just before lunch, where their buddies call out their spelling words for them and they write their 8 words down in their spelling pad. This is a good way to consolidate their sounds for the week and the results get better and better each week! Some pictures of us just below.

 

Spelling has been a great learning opportunity for the children and I am amazed at their willingness to learn new things!

Watch the blog for updates about some great tips for writing and log ons for Raz Kids which is an online reading and comprehension program that can be accessed from home.

Thanks once again for your support.

Miss Prowse

We have our Smarty Pants on in Year One!

We have had such fun reading the book Smarty Pants by Joy Cowley over the past few weeks! We got to read as a class and we even had some very clever people read on their own in the big book corner!

Throughout the book, a very funny clown called Smarty Pants tells us what he can do....he can ski, swim, jump, play music and at the end, he shows us he can swing....right into a tree!

We found out that all these doing words are called verbs! We learnt a rhyme that goes like this:
'A verb is a word it's an action word, if you can do it, then you do it, if you do it, it's a verb,'
We created ourselves into smarty pants and wrote about some things we are good at!

Here are some of the Smarty Pants in our class! Don't you just love their faces!

During our literacy session, we participated in a language activity by making and decorating smarty pants biscuits, with real smarties! Some people went a bit crazy with the green icing, but they looked and tasted delicious!

Finally, we acted out some of the things that Smarty Pants could do...Saffi even got to wear some funny pants when she was acting out!

We had great fun in our shared reading sessions learning and reading about Smarty Pants!

Miss Prowse

Week 7 Merit Award Winners

Congratulations to Lucas and Annabelle for being this weeks merit award winners! You are both Super Stars! 

Miss Prowse 

Getting our 'add' on in Maths!

Throughout this week, the year one children have been exploring addition in our math lessons. We have had to use our knowledge of numbers to create new larger numbers in a fun and interactive way!

We started with small numbers  and used a variety of manipulative materials to help us count. When adding, we remembered our friends of 10 ( 6 + 4, 8 + 2,  5 + 5 etc) to make combinations to 10. We learnt about different words that mean the same as addition such as plus, combine, in all, altogether and in total.

At the end of the week, some of the children asked to write some sums on our mini white boards without the using manipulative materials and they experimented adding 3 digit numbers!  For myself, this was fantastic to see them applying addition to bigger numbers. We had so much fun this week in maths and we can't wait to use addition at home and around the school!

Have a lovely weekend! 

Miss Prowse