Mental Math Books

Dear Parents,

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 apart 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 One will be due at the end of week 3 (Friday 13th May)

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

Miss Prowse

Welcome back to Term 2!

Dear Parents

Welcome back to Term 2, I hope you had a restful and enjoyable break with your beautiful children.

This term in Science we will be learning about Mini-Beasts and learning how to research for information and put it into a report.  In Technology the children will be designing and creating a suitable environment for their mini-beast by using a variety of recycled materials.

We will be learning more about place value and numbers to and beyond 100, telling the time to the half hour, chance events, skip counting, addition and subtraction. 

This week we will be focusing on ANZAC Day, what it means, why we celebrate it and why it's important to us. It would be great if your child has any special photos or war memorabilia to bring in to share with the class for news. 

We hope you enjoyed the writing packs that the children took home over the holidays and I'm sure there has been many great pieces written that I would love to read!

Reading will recommence this week and we will swap books for Wednesday and Thursday, please continue to support your child in reading on a daily basis both their book and sight words. Remember that your child needs to be accurately reading and spelling their sight words before they can move onto new words. 

Please have a brief discussion about the holidays with your child in the morning on the way to school. This will greatly assist with their writing tomorrow morning.

Have a great last night and look forward to seeing you tomorrow. 

Miss Prowse  

What a term it has been!

Dear parents,

Well... I can't believe that we are already at the end of Term 1. The time has absolutely flown and I have loved seeing you children grow in both their learning (and their height!).

We have had a big term of learning and I love hearing that the children are coming home and telling you what they have learnt in class today. The following are just a few snaps of some of the outstanding work we have been producing...

Description Blob Monsters and Making Jelly

We read the Big Book 'Monster's Party' and loved reading what the silly monster's got up to at the birthday party. Some were flying, playing,  jump and the last monster could jump into jelly! We had a wonderful language experience making some wobbly jelly - just like the one in the story. We followed a procedure to make the jelly and most of all, we loved eating the delicious jelly!

We also got to create our own blob monsters where we had to create what our monster, ate, smells like, what it likes doing and finally if it was friendly. We got to add some detail to our monsters - a scary mouth or three eyes which gave al of them some wonderful character! Below are some of the monsters that we made.

Easter Writing

We read a great story called 'If I was the Easter Bunny' in class which created a stimulus for our Easter writing.  We brainstormed all the funny things we could get up to if we were the Easter Bunny and a lot of children were very keen on eating all the chocolate! Here are a few of our wonderful bunnies with some outstanding writing!

Spelling

As many of you know, we have our end of rotation spelling review this week and the children were absolute spelling stars! We love going to our spelling rotations on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Here is a little snap shot of some of the things we get up to.

We can separate our sounds by cutting them rainbow writing them and drawing pictures to show our understanding.

We play PLD applications on the i Pad to reinforce the sounds we have learnt for that week. We also play spelling games using the mini white boards and we always sound out our words!

Learning our sounds is great fun in Year One!


Parent Interviews

Thank you everyone for taking the time to come and see me, I have absolutely loved telling you about your child's learning and it seems that they are loving life in Year One! I love hearing the feedback from all of you and I apologise if your child comes home with 'Miss Prowse' stories (eg. I'm actually 83?!)

Take care over the holidays and I hope you enjoy the holiday writing packs!

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 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 have them ready by the end of the week to take home. 

I have also spoken to a couple of parents and I just wanted to make sure everyone is getting my blog posts.  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!

Miss Prowse