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