Observation Survey Testing

Hello Year One Parents,

On Thursday and Friday this week, I will be conducting individual Literacy testing using an assessment called The Observational Survey. This assessment gives myself an insight into how your child reads and writes and from this information, how they can be better supported or extended within the classroom.

There are six tasks that each child completes and these include:

A Running Record (to monitor fluency and reading behaviours)

A word reading test (Burt Word)

Concepts about print (eg. Asks where is the beginning of the sentence, punctuation, sentence, word and letter recognition etc)

Word recognition Test (Duncan Word list)

Letter and Sound identification (both capital and lowercase)

Independent Writing task (involves the child writing down as many words within a given time frame focusing on spelling and sounding out)

Listening and Hearing test (Similar to dictation where children must listen to a sentence and write what they hear)

I will be around in the morning and afternoon, but If you have any questions, please email me.

Thank you for your support

Miss Prowse 

Sight word testing

Hello parents,

Today the majority of the children were tested on their sight words. If your child was tested, they would have received a letter in their reading file which would state whether they did or did not pass their set of sight words.

If your child gets more than 3 incorrect, they remain on their current set of sight words until they can both read and write all of them. They are encouraged to practise the words they got incorrect and they will be tested either later in the week or early the next week.

We encourage parents to help their children practise their sight words at home by using them as flash cards to read and calling them out for them to write. You are welcome to keep a 'sight words practise book' for your children to write in, otherwise a scrap piece of paper will be fine.

Below are some ideas for children to practise their sight words in a fun way!

If you have one of the soft cover reading files, I have noticed that some of the sights words have been slipping out of these. If you could please make sure your child's sight words are in their file when they come home, that would be greatly appreciated. 

I also still have 3 Reading files at $7 available if you would like them. 

Have a lovely day

Miss Prowse

Exploring the Sacrament of Baptism in Year 1P

During our Religious Education sessions, the Year One students have been exploring the Sacrament of Baptism. We watched a video of a real Baptism and listened to the special words the priest said, the special oil (Oil of Chrism) that is used and a lot of the children brought in things from when they were Baptised or when they were a baby and welcomed into God's family.

The children asked many questions throughout of week of exploring the Sacrament and many parents also said to me that they were being asked about Baptism at home too.

On Thursday we were lucky enough to have Baby Lila (a doll)  in our class and we were able to conduct a special Baptism for her. I explained to the children that our classroom was going to be transformed into the church and they must show the same respect they would if they were in a real church.

We made the sign of the cross when we came into the classroom and found our seats. The children the watched our Mum and Dad (Olivia and Hudson) present their baby to the Priest (Amelia) to be Baptised. Of course the Baptism couldn't take place without the God parents (Flynn and Emerson). The children learnt about the special words, the oil that's placed on the child's forehead and the candle and certificate that is presented to the baby after the ceremony.

Below are some photos of the beautiful ceremony that the children took part in.

On Wednesday we will be having a Mass at the school hall to mark Ash Wednesday - the first day of Lent. We will be talking about this more in class, but please encourage your child to think about something they could go without eg. lollies/juice or something that they can do eg. help clear the plates after dinner/help clean the dishes for the season of Lent.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Miss Prowse

Week 4 Merit award Winners

Congratulations to Piper and Cruz who are the week 4 merit award winners! You are both Year One Super Stars!

Miss Prowse

Year One comprehension packs

Throughout the year, the Year One children will be receiving a variety of story books from the school that will aim to build and develop your child's comprehension. This was done in Pre-Primary last year so here is a quick refresher of the process:

- The Comprehension Packs will be given out on a Thursday each week. You have 6 days to read the book. 
- The Books are required back by the following Wednesday of each week.
- In your child's comprehension pack they will receive: A story book and a set of questions (and answers to the questions) on a separate laminated page. 
- The Comprehension Packs can be returned as soon as your child has finished reading the book and answering the questions. 
- If your child did not read the book, it still must be returned as our librarian changes all of the packs and does not have any spares if one is forgotten. 
- If your child is sick, please endeavor to bring it to school with a sibling or other parent as it can affect the whole class if one book is not brought back. 

Please note that some of the stories might be too difficult for your child to read so please make this a special time that you can read with your child to model correct reading skills and promote a love of reading!


Below is an example of what the packs will look like and what they will have in them.





If you have any questions, please email me. 

Many thanks

Miss Prowse 

We are smarty pants in Year 1P

We have had such fun reading the book Smarty Pants by Joy Cowley last week! We got to read together 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!

We made smarty pants biscuits and the children loved decorating them and putting the rainbow patches on their pants.

We then recreated the sentence "I am a smarty pants see me..." And the children had to use a verb to finish their sentence.

We had lots of fun learning about smarty pants!

See the video below which shows another story of smarty pants!

Miss Prowse

Reading files and sight words home today

Good afternoon parents,

This is just a quick reminder that reading files will go home today. Inside the reading files will be your child's reading book, reading record and current set of sight words.

As mentioned at the parent information session, your child's reading level and sight words will be tested throughout the term. Please write in the comment section of the reading record if you would like to communicate anything to me about your child's reading eg. Monique struggled with the words said, was and here but after reading together, got the words.

Below are the book changing days:

Please encourage your child to bring in their reading file everyday even if it's not their book changing day as they may be tested on their sight words. When you come in tomorrow, you will see two tubs at the front of the class with either a red dot or a blue dot - please encourage your child to bring their reading file in with them and put it in their coloured dot tub. 

The sight words will be tested regularly and it is an expectation that children be able to both read and spell the first 100 sight words. So if you could both read and call out to your child  their sight words, that would be greatly appreciated. 

If you have any questions please feel free to email me. 

Many thanks 

Miss Prowse 

Week 3 in Review!

Dear Parents,

What a week it was!

Thank you all so much for your support with swimming last week. The children loved their lessons but I could safely say, they were incredibly quiet and tired in the afternoon when they returned from swimming each day. I really appreciate the children coming to school with thongs, bathers, towels and warm clothes to change into after the bus ride back to school.

News mix up
My apologies to those children that were rostered on in week 3 for their news day. With the timetable for swimming, our class actually missed both recess and lunch everyday last week so we had to fit each of these into class time which, with specialist classes, left no time for children to have news last week. The children that were rostered on last week (week 3), will be able to do their news this week (along with the children that are rostered on week 4) but I will send a paper copy home of their news plan to fill out with you but I would please ask for you to send your children's news in with a plastic bag as the news bags will be used by the week 4 children. Thank you for your support with this.

10 Frame Fun!
Last week, the children got to put their learning into a fun hands on activity through the use of ten frames, the children were given two friends of 10 numbers and were asked to represent them as quick as they could on a 10 frame. The children loved racing their classmates and found out that two numbers - such as 7 and 3 could look different on each others 10 frame. As the children become more familiar with their friends of 10 sums, the children rapid recall of facts will grow to numbers beyond 10 and they will be able to apply it to bigger numbers such as 70 and 30 make 100. Below are some photos of the children having fun in Maths :)

OLC attended a whole school mass at OLOSC with grades 1-6 attending the church. From all accounts, the children were outstanding and were very respectful and they enjoyed working with their buddies in the Maybrook forest. This week we will have a general assembly so please feel free to join us on Friday. 

Please check the blog later in the week to see the fun we had with the book Smarty Pants!

Thank you for your ongoing support

Miss Prowse

Baptism photos, candles or clothes

Dear Year One Parents,

As apart of our Religious Education Program we have been talking and learning about the Sacrament of Baptism. Through Baptism, those being Baptised become members of God’s family, the Church.

You might like to talk to your child about:

-     -   What happened on their Baptism day

-      -  Who their God parents are and why they were chosen

-     -   Who else was present at their Baptsim

-       - Any photos, memories or video commemorating the event

We would love to see one or more of your child’s Baptismal photos to bring in and display in the class anytime from next week (Monday 20th). If you can make a copy of the pictures that would be fantastic but if this is not possible, you can bring in your photos in an envelope with your family name on the back and I can make a copy for our display.

If you have their Baptismal clothes or candles your child is more than welcome to bring it in to share with the class.

If your child has not been Baptised, you might like to send a photograph of your child as a baby or one taken with friends celebrating a special occasion. Please take this opportunity to reinforce to your child that they are loved by God.

Thank you again for your support.

Miss Prowse

Year 1P goes Wishy Washy crazy!

This week the children in Year 1P have been reading the classic story of Mrs. Wishy Washy as apart of our shared reading time.

Mrs. Wishy Washy written by Jo Cowley is a book that has been around since 1980. This was always one of my favourite books during school because I remember having such fun reading as a whole class while doing lots of different actions to accompany the text.

The book revolves around a cow, a pig and a duck getting dirty in the mud and when Mrs. Wishy Washy sees them, she decides to give them a scrub in the bath tub. After washing them, Mrs Wishy Washy goes back into her house and as soon as she does so, those naughty animals hop back into the mud!

Mrs. Wishy Washy was a fantastic book that our class explored last week and we had such fun reading it altogether! We found out that the 'sh' sound in Wishy and Washy related to some of our spelling words so we found it easy to read!

We learnt about adjectives and how we can use adjectives to describe a noun. We decided that we would look at mud...sticky, brown, thick mud! We thought it would be a great idea to make our own mud...but not the yucky, smelly mud like in the book, we decided to make delicious, fluffy chocolate mud! You can understand that this was very popular in our class. Here are some photos of us making our 'mud' from Mrs. Wishy Washy!

We also had a lot of fun acting out the story with costumes, tubs and even the odd bit of mud! Some of the children became characters from the story whilst the other children were the narrators. Kai loved sitting in the teachers chair while he pointed to the words we were reading.

We used the text to self comprehension strategy to think about what we would do if Mrs. Wishy Washy put us in the tub...and there were some very interesting responses from: pushing her into the tub, to  running away from Mrs. Wishy Washy to having a spa bath with a hot chocolate. The children were very creative.

We had a wonderful time reading Mrs. Wishy Washy and if you'd like to share the story with your child, please click on the video below.

Miss Prowse

Books sent home to cover

Good evening parents,

This is just a quick reminder that some books were sent home yesterday to cover. If you could please cover them with clear contact, it would be wonderful.

Keep an eye out tomorrow for an update on our learning for week 2!

Many thanks

Miss Prowse

Week 2 Information

Dear Year One Parents

Parent Information

Thank you for your attendance at our Year One Parent Information Session. We hope that you found the information valuable and feel ready for the year. A copy of the slide show from the night has been added to the last post on our blog.  

Swimming Lessons

Our first swimming lessons begin tomorrow! Please refer to the swimming timetable that was sent home this week for our lesson times. The children will be eating their recess a little earlier at around 10.40 but will not be eating their lunch until they return to school at around 1.30pm. With this in mind, we would really appreciate it if you were able to pack a little bit more for their recess as it will be around 2 1/2 hours before they eat again.

As mentioned in the parent info session, the children are able to come to school in their bathers and thongs. Boys are permitted to wear their board shorts to school but are also asked to bring their black sports shorts and underwear to change into after swimming.

Please help us out by making sure all items are labelled to avoid items going into lost property! The children may wear thongs during the week, or bring them in their bags to change into before their lesson.

Homework

After our week of swimming, we will begin homework in week four. It will start with a bundle of sight words that the children are required to be able to READ and SPELL all 100 by the end of Year One. A new home reader will go home every 2 days.

Parent Reps

Many thanks to Alice (Piper’s Mum),  Sarah (Olivia’s Mum) and Nat (Matilda's Mum) who have offered to be our class reps this year. Yay! The power of three!

Have a wonderful afternoon.

Miss Prowse 

Thank you for your attendance

Many thanks for the parents that attended our Year One parent information session this afternoon. For those who couldn't make it or missed some of the information, please click on the link below to access our information slide show.

Year One Parent Information

Thank you for your on going support and have a great night.

Miss Prowse

Year One parent night

Good evening parents,

This is just a friendly reminder that the Year One parent night will be on tomorrow afternoon (7th Feb) at 4.30pm in the library. If you are not able to attend please email me and I will arrange to have your 'parent pack' taken home tomorrow afternoon.

The whole presentation will be available on the blog later in the week if you missed anything or need any more info.

It was also brought to my attention that the text for the book covering didn't get processed properly. I will resend the books home this Friday and would really appreciate it if you were able to cover these books with clear contact as they have covers on already.

Have a lovely night

Miss Prowse

Our first day in Year One!

Good evening parents,

We had an absolutely wonderful first day of Year One! If you children are anything like me, I'm sure they will be very tired.

We started the day with some games to get to know each of the children's names. The children loved playing the 'Cookie jar game' altogether! We then moved into a bit of dance and movement and I introduced the children to the brain break website 'Go Noodle' - which many of the children had previously experienced and loved.

We then spoke about our holidays and completed a writing activity where we wrote three sentences about what we did and drew a picture to accompany it. I was so impressed with some of the children's writing! The next stop was a tour around the school which showed the children where they sit for lunch, where they can go to the canteen and the best part, the Nature play ground!

After recess, we started our Maths session and counted all the way to 100 together! We then looked at our friends of 10, which comprised of two numbers that added together to make 10. We used unifix cubes and made the different sets of 10 as a class. This hands on maths experience proved to be a wonderful way for the children to work together.

The afternoon was our creation and play time where we explored our classroom resources and used them to build, make and invent some outstanding structures. Some children loved the book corner and other children played turn taking games such as Guess Who and Pop up Pirate.

We ended the day with a visit to the Library where Mrs. Meyer read a story and the children were also allowed to borrow a book.

We had a great first day and I can't wait for the rest of the year!

Thank you for your ongoing support

Miss Prowse