Year One was totally bugged out!

Today the Year One students had the pleasure of taking part in an incursion today with the 'Bug Man' Phil Moore. He is the wonderful gentleman who we sourced our leafy stick insects from and today, he brought some outstanding bugs for us to observe and look at.

Phil began our session with a story about a butterfly and had the children in awe about how the caterpillar changes throughout it's life cycle. A favourite part was when he emphasised how much the caterpillars went to the toilet - laughs were had all round! 

The children then acted out the caterpillar lifecycle with Phil and were given some time to go and observe the insects that he had brought in. The rich conversations that were happening between the children were amazing and Phil was happy to answer all of the children's questions - mainly about where they can source a taranula as a pet (watch out Mums!). 

The children explored, shared, discovered and asked questions about the insects and they were so interested that Phil even let us stay on for an extra 20 minutes! Some of the girls even picked up the bug guides and enjoyed reading the interesting facts to the class, something I was very proud of!

A huge thank-you to Mrs. Birch for bringing Phil down here!

Miss Prowse

Talk for Write Writing Program in Year 1P!

As many of you may have heard from your children, we have been learning about a new story called the Bad Tempered Ladybird. This is a teacher made re-make of the classic Eric Carle book based on a lady bird who is often grumpy. We looked at the narrative story structure and began to learn the different parts of the story. This has been based around our Talk for Write program where children learn a text type through actions, and then learn to apply the structure of this text type to their writing. 

We have looked into the structure of a narrative and have learnt that it is made up of 5 parts. This is also known as the story mountain! These include:

- The opening
- The build -up
- Problem
- Resolution 
- Ending

We have loved building our story map and creating actions to accompany our Bad tempered ladybird narrative. I have seen the children's confidence grow when attempting to write their own stories in class and have enjoyed seeing their vocabulary and creativity develop! 

We are currently learning how we can change and adapt the story to create a new one of our own. Have a look at the story that we created using the same aspects of the original story. The Grumpy Grizzy Bear was a big hit with the children! 

Please have a look at our Talk for Write Display at the back of our room and ask your child if they can tell you the story. Three very brave children volunteered to tell the story to put on the blog and 'Be famous'. Please see the video below of the story :)

We are loving learning how to write narratives and I am so excited to get the children's work into a class book which can be shared in our book corner!

Watch this space for some budding authors!

Miss Prowse 

Merit Award winner and Week 4 information

Good evening parents,

Just a few messages about this week (before it's almost over!):

Merit Award Winner for Week 3

Congratulations to Jett who was our week 3 Merit Award winner. You are a Year One star Jett!

Pupil Free Day this Friday

As mentioned in the newsletter, this Friday is a Pupil Free Day for the children. On this day, the staff will be participating in a Bright path inservice, which helps with writing moderation and assessment of children's work. It should provide the staff with some great information which can guide us in the right direction of future planning. 

Book Fair 

Over the next two days, the Library will be hosting the Scholastic Book Fair with all commissions going directly to the school to buy new resources. The Library will be open from 8am until 4pm for purchases. 

Sight word testing: 

As many of you have seen, we have updated our Sight word feedback form. As mentioned at our parent meeting at the start of the year, the sight word rings are made up of 25 sight words and those sets are divided into two parts of 15 then 10 words. This is to ensure we are taking our time to learn the words and not moving the children too fast though the sight word program. 

On the form, we will now be stating which sight word level your child is on, as well as highlighting the words they will be tested on next time. The lovely Mrs. Hughes has the testing down to a fine art and regularly tests children on a weekly basis to ensure children are retaining their sight words. 

Please see an example below of the form that may be sent home with your child: 

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

Thank you for your on going support

Miss Prowse 

Week 3 information

Good evening parents,

I hope you enjoyed some of the great weather on the weekend and had a wonderful mothers day filled with LOVE!

Mental Maths

From all reports, most of the children loved the Mental Maths last week and were very keen to complete unit 2 this week! If your children finish unit 2 before Friday, please pop it in the purple box at the front of the room. Thank you to those who gave instant feedback to their children by marking their work. We very much appreciate it.

Snails
Next week for Science we will be looking at snails - how the move, what they look like and where they live. We are also going to (attempt) to build a snail enclosure this Friday so we would love to have as many guests in our 'hotel' as possible. If you have any snails at home, could you please bring them to school this week for our Science lessons. We would love to have a hands on experience with our slimy friends.

New friends in Year One!



We now have two new additions to the Year 1P classroom. We have Leaf girl and Stick girl, two spiny leaf bugs who are living in our class. Feel free to come and have a look and meet them! The children are loving our Science unit on mini-beasts!

Constable Care visit

This Friday, the children in Year One will be visited by Constable Care on how they get to school. They will be learning how they can travel to school safely and also talk about road safety. Keep an eye out for photos of this great community initiative.

Walk to School Day

Please refer to the newsletter with information about walk to school day this Friday. I will hopefully be joining the children from Cape Rise!

Reading Testing

Over the next few weeks I will be testing the children on their reading as a part of their final semester grade for reports. Please ensure that your child brings their reading file to school each day as I will endeavour to change their book to their new reading level as soon as they have been tested. I have loved seeing the children's growth since the beginning of the year!

If you have any questions, please email me.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Miss Prowse

Week 2 information

Good afternoon parents,

A few messages about this week...

Targeting Mental Maths

Today your child would have received their Targeting Mental Maths book. They have been very excited to get their Maths book, but please only complete unit 1 by this Friday. There will be a purple box at the front of the room that the children place their books into when they have completed the unit for the week. If they finish early, please feel free to pop it in the next day.

Please remember this book is a revision of the Pre-Primary concepts taught last year. If your child is having a lot of trouble with any of the questions, please let me know.

Comprehension Packs

The comprehension packs were a bit late this week - this was my fault as they were so neatly tucked under the front desk by someone and I completely forgot about them, my apologies! Please have them back by Wednesday to avoid the horrible 'late PLD comprehension pack' text.

Mothers Day Breakfast and Mass

Please come along to our Mother's day breakfast at 7.30am in the Hall this Friday. We also have a Mass down at the church beginning at 9.30 and would love you to join us if you can.

Sight words

Please continue to practise the sight words at home as you have been doing. The lovely Mrs. Hughes managed to test almost everyone last week and although there were some students who needed a bit more practise on some words, I have been very impressed with the children's progress so far this term.

Please be aware that the coloured sight words are split into two sets, with the first set being 10 words and the next set being 15 words. This is to ensure your child is getting all of the sight words correct and so they have a more attainable way to practise and be tested, instead of 25 at a time. 

Thank you for your ongoing support

Miss Prowse 

Week 1 Merit Award winner

Congratulations to Aurelia who was the week 1 Merit Award winner!

You are a year one super star!

Miss Prowse