Welcome back to Term 2!

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to Term 2.  I hope you have had a very restful and relaxing holiday and enjoyed some of this stunning weather! After an 11 week term, I'm sure the children will be ready to get back into it!

Welcome back to Xavier Hayhow who will be joining Year 1P this term. We are lucky to have you Xavier!

This term we have a focus on Mini beasts in Science, Aboriginal Culture  and places of significance in our local environment in our HASS and Art units. We will also be looking at ANZAC day and how the importance of this day is recognised in our history.

We sent home a news roster last term but please see the picture below if it has gone missing!

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 (5 columns of Maths question). 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 One will be due at the end of week 2 (Friday 11th May) as we have completed Day One of Unit One in class. 

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

Mandalas

On the final day of Term 1, we worked on an inquiry task where we explored and created our own mandala designs. Did you know that the symbol of the mandala represents the universe?

We created mandalas using doilies, colouring materials and loose objects that we placed on mats and trays. Many thanks to all of you for organising the children with engaging materials for them to manipulate - we had some interesting items including shells, fresh flowers, bottle tops, twigs, leaves, coloured stones, beads and gumnuts. The children had lots of fun playing with their designs and there was a great sense of calm in the classroom while they shared materials and thought carefully about their arrangements.

Here are some examples of what we created:

UR STRONG Friendology 101 JR

This is the wonderful friendship and social emotional program that we will be starting this term to support the children in helping them make better friends and strengthen and foster healthy relationships. Within the program the children may be starting to use the language of UR Strong: Friendology including: 'Friendship fire', 'Talk it out', 'Quick comebacks' and the 'Friend-o-cycle'. We will be providing some information to parents on the blog as we complete the lessons of the program.

Parent Roster

The Year 1P parent roster is outside our classroom on the bulletin board. Parent roster will start in week 3 and will run from 8.45-11.00am. I ask that you only put one name in each of the spaces and you only put your name down once as there were some parents who missed out last term.

If you have any questions please email me.

Thank you for your ongoing support

Miss Prowse

Week 11 and holiday information

Good evening parents,

Firstly I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone for coming along to the parent meetings. It has been a huge privilege to teach your children so far this year and I have loved getting to know them and how they learn! If you have any queries or follow up questions about your child, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Holiday Packs
As mentioned in some of the parent meetings, I have made up some holiday packs which include:
- A reading strategies bookmark
- Dotted thirds paper
- Writing prompt story starters
- Sky, grass and ground letter placement chart
- Time activities (telling time to the half hour)
- Editing desk strip
- 120 number chart

I have also included a news roster for next term :)

Home Readers and using the Reading Eggs Library
I will be collecting up the home readers tomorrow, so could you please make sure your child comes to school with their reading file tomorrow, that would be greatly appreciated.

I have also put up a video and video about how to access the Library so your children can continue to read or choose books that interest them through the term. Their Reading Eggs login is attached to their Reading file on the inside flap.

Reading Eggs Library guide

Please refer to the below picture of where the library is located on the home screen.

When choosing a book for your child in the library, please change it from the lexile number to reading age (see circled area with drop down button).

Commonwealth Games day 
Just a reminder that the children will be participating in the Commonwealth games sports activities in their Sports lesson tomorrow. This isn't whole school event, just something fun they will be doing in their sports lesson. Children are welcome to wear t-shirts, coloured ribbons, medals or anything else which supports their chosen country.

Thank you again for a wonderful term. I have really enjoyed the term, but also looking forward to holidays!

Miss Prowse

Week 10 Merit award winners

Congratulations to Daisy and James who were the week 10 Merit Award winners. You are both Year One super stars!

Miss Prowse

Mandala Materials

Mandala Art
This term, the Year Ones have been exploring pattern and line in Visual Arts. We would like to finish off the term with some exploration into Mandala patterns and have a go at creating Mandalas of our own this Friday 13th April. We will be seeking donations of objects that the children can share and use to create our Mandalas.

What can I bring in?
- fairy stones
- beads
- bottle tops
- gum nuts
- flowers
- rocks/stones
- twigs/bits of driftwood
- a variety of leaves
- shells
- seeds
- anything else you can think of!

Please bring your child's items in a zip lock bag or similar with their name on it.

We are also looking for some round mats or pieces of material (a variety of sizes would work), that we can lay out our mandalas on, before we photograph them. If you have any place mats at home or would be willing to cut out some material for us your help would be greatly appreciated.

See an example of some nature inspired mandala art below:



Many thanks
Mrs Sherborne

Parent Interview timetable

Good afternoon parents,

I hope you have had a lovely Easter break and enjoyed this beautiful weather we have been having.

Parent interviews

Thank you to those parents I have met with already, I have loved telling you about your children's progress so far this term. The interviews will last 10 minutes and I will have a timer on to ensure I don't go over time and have people waiting. I have allocated 15 minutes for changeover and questions.

As the interviews begin at 3.10pm, I ask that you are prompt to pick up your child from class as I don't want to hold anyone up or push anyone back.

Please have a look below at the interview timetable and if anything has changed, please let me know as soon as possible.

Thank you for your ongoing support

Miss Prowse