Investigating Sound and Light in Science!

We have had a fantastic start to our Science inquiry this term and the children have been very interested in learning about how sound and light is formed and how it travels and reaches the human body.

We began our investigation of where sound comes from and where around the school we can hear different sources of sound. We brainstormed what we knew about sound and what questions we had about sound which we found we had a lot - which is always a great start to our inquiry!

We assigned some children to be photographers and some to be sketch artists of what we found, I quickly learnt that the children had a very good ear for hearing lots of things including birds, Mr. Hogan on the lawnmower, the wind, leaves rustling along the ground and some children even swore they heard a ghost in the undercover area! The children loved sharing their findings on the ipads and we found answers to a few of our questions while we were exploring the school.

In our second lesson we talked about light and sources of light, the children loved finding light and dark places around the school and saw that the sun cast shadows on the bricks. The girls were quick to point this out! We found the lightest place was on the oval and the darkest place was in the hall behind the curtains, where no light could come in. We then went inside the classroom and experimented with refracting light. We used torches and found that when we used a glass and some water, we could make rainbows! The children took great delight in investigating different types of prisms and experimenting with light that could bend.

We are looking forward to discovering how sound waves reach our ears and how light enters our eye. Keep an eye on the blog for information about our STEM project of constructing a sun chime.


Miss Prowse

Parent Night Info

Thank you to all those parents who could make it last night. We hope that we have provided you with the information to make your child's time in Year One, one to remember!

If you weren't able to make it, please click on the link below which has our parent night slide show attached and if you require any further information, please email me. I will also send home your parent night pack with information for the coming year.

If you could please bring back the Early Childhood survey and the parent/Grandparent survey by Monday 18th of Feburary, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you and have a lovely night.

Miss Prowse

Year One Parent Night Slide Show

Electric Fry pans for Shrove Tuesday

Good afternoon parents,

As it will be Shrove Tuesday next week, we will be looking at procedures and how we can make pancakes, similar to the way people used to feast in celebration before Lent.

In order for this to happen we are after some electric fry pans to help cook our pancakes. If you have one we could borrow, could you please email us as we would love to take part in this celebration.

We would also love for you to talk to your child about something that they might like to give up (eg. chocolate, lollies, after dinner treats) or take up (eg. making their bed, unloading the dishwasher) during the season of Lent. We will be talking about our Lentern promises next week so if you could talk with the children about this, we would be very appreciative.

Have a lovely weekend! 

Miss Prowse

Week Two information

Good evening parents, 

Swimming is almost over for another year. My deepest thanks for getting your little ones organised and ready with their swimming bags, sip and crunch and fresh clothes to change back into. I know washing bathers and towels can be a tedious task, but we love you for it! 

Please have a read of some important information over the next week:

Homework Folders
If you have not yet brought your child's homework folder in from last year, please do so and we will continue to use it throughout Year One. If you do not have a folder from last year, please let us know, so that we can use one of the clear plastic folders we have at school.

Parent Information Evening
Stay tuned for this week's Newsletter which will outline further details about our whole school Parent Information Evening next Tuesday 13th February starting at 5.00pm and concluding by 6.15pm.

Readers and Sight Words
I am in the process of testing the children on their knowledge of both reading and writing a series of sight words. We will begin sending home sight word flash card rings from week 4 onward. We will also commence home reading from week 4. The children should have two different readers go home each week on either a Mon/Wed exchange roster, or a Tue/Thu exchange. The reason we have readers over two nights is to build their fluency on the first day and then comprehension on the second day. We would ask that your child bring their reading file everyday because we may test their sight words or have people they read their home reader to at school. 

Parent Help Roster
I have placed a Parent Help Roster outside the classroom for those of you who may be able to assist at school during our Literacy blocks in the mornings. The roster will commence from week 5. If you have any special gifts or talents that may be useful in our class this year(eg. cooking, sewing, singing or dancing) please let us know! We would love to have you come in and help us, or teach us something!

News
The News roster, as pictured below will go home at our parent information session next Tuesday. As we begin News from week 3, please refer to this copy of the roster. News ideas are suggested ideas only and the children definitely have a choice in what they would like to share with their classmates. I will endeavour to send the News bags home the night before to allow you some time to help your child prepare.

Have a restful night 

Miss Prowse

Our first day of swimming!

Have a look at us! First day of swimming and we had such a great time! I even had one little girl say "This is so much fun!".

We hopefully had no mix ups with shirts/shorts/thongs but please make sure all of your children's items are labelled. We will again take our sip and crunch to the pool and the children may come to school in their thongs and DO NOT need to change back into their sports shoes, they may wear their thongs until the end of the day. Yay!

I hope your littles ones aren't as tired as I am tonight!

Miss Prowse

Our FIRST day in Year One and Info about Swimming

First day in Year One!

What a day it was! It was a wonderful first day in Year 1P where the children got to play, write, learn about our class rules and borrowed from the Library!

We started the day with a beautiful story about school and how if you're new to a school, or are a bit nervous about starting a new year,  how we can be brave and try new things! The children loved dancing around the class to their go noodle songs in the morning, making sure they had the best moves (much better than myself!).

We then learnt about the values of the school and how we can use those values to come up with our class rules. We had some wonderful ideas of how we could make our class a happy and safe place for anyone to be in. The children loved drawing their own interpretation of pictures about our rules.

We then headed outside to explore the school and see our new places to play! The Nature Playground was a favourite of the children and the boys especially loved playing footy on the oval. The children then came in and we had a talk about what we did on the holidays. We had lots of people that went away camping, went to Bali, Perth and there was a lot of children who did Vac Swim both at the beach and the pool.

These are just some of the wonderful pieces of writing at the beginning of Year One!

After lunch, the children had some time to explore the classroom, promoting both their independence and agency. The children loved building structures, creating pieces and playing new games with their classmates.

To finish the day, we got to see the fabulous Mrs. Meyer in the Library and got to see the new and improved Library. The children loved talking about all the new books that had been added to the Library.

Swimming info for tomorrow

As mentioned in the previous blog, we are the first group to go swimming with the Year 5 class. We ask that you bring your child to school in their bathers eg. board shorts, rashie and thongs (they don't need to wear their OLC sports shorts over their board shorts - they may just wear their board shorts). I would ask that you bring a more substantial sip and crunch in a clearly labelled container or sandwich bag and place it in our school lunch order tub (at the front of the room) so I can take it to swimming with us, for the children to have in their break.

The children will eat their recess early at 9.10am and then get changed to get on the bus. Please place everything that your child needs (eg. goggles, towel/dressing gown) in a separate swimming bag (plastic or material) along with another plastic bag to put their wet towel and bathers in when they return from swimming at 12.30pm.

Please make sure you pack the children's OLC sports uniform - which they may wear for the whole week (including next week) and their sports shoes to get changed into after we get back from swimming.

Phew! I hope I have included everything, but please email me if you have any questions!

I hope that your children had a wonderful first day as I had most definitely had!

Miss Prowse

Welcome to Year One 2018

Hello and welcome parents to the Year 1P blog,

I hope you have all had a relaxing and peaceful holiday and we are very excited for the year ahead!

I am looking forward to getting to know your beautiful children and working with you throughout your child's learning journey this year.

Year One is a big, but exciting year where your child will, discover, grow, create, learn, reflect and experience an abundance of fun and interesting things in our class!

As a parent of a Year One student, it is extremely important to keep in mind that we all build on small successes.  Each child will progress at his/her own rate, acquiring skills as he/she is developmentally ready.  Maintaining each child's self-esteem and building a secure foundation for future growth will always remain a priority in our class.

Here are some ways you can help:

•       Celebrate your child's success, no matter how small it may seem.  This will keep your child enthusiastic about learning and proud of their work!
•       Look for and read any notes and letters going home and stay updated on what’s going on in our regular blog posts. These will have important information and helpful reminders.
•       Read to and with your child every day, if possible. The more your child is exposed to language, the easier it will be for him/her to incorporate new skills in reading and writing in the classroom.

This blog will be the main communication for any parent information over the coming year.  Please enter your email into the 'follow by email' section on the left hand side of the blog so you will get email updates when I post to the blog.

A few important things over the next weeks:

Swimming

Swimming commences this Thursday the 1st of February and will continue until Wednesday 7th February. Please bring the swimming note that was sent out the last day of last year. Alternatively, if your note has gone for a 'walk' the lovely ladies in the office have sent out another note which can be filled in and brought to school as soon as possible. 

We are very lucky to be first up in the day leaving OLC at 9.40 am and our lessons commence at 10.15am - 11.55am. This year the children will have 2 x 40 min lessons within this block, with a 10 min break between each lesson. Within this break, the children will be eating their crunch and sip to keep them sustained for the double lesson. 

Please bring their towel, goggles and a spare plastic bag (for wet bathers) in either a separate sports bag or plastic bag which will hang outside on their bag hook until our swimming time. We ask that your child come to school in their thongs but pack their sports shoes in their bag to change into after the lesson.

Home Reading

As the children are settling into the new routines and expectations of Year One, we will begin sending home reading books from week 3 on a 2 day roster. Your child will be scheduled a changing day (Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday) but we ask that you bring their reading folder everyday so they can read in the morning and keep their sight words in them for the year.

Sight Words

The aim of the sight word rings are for your child to practise reading them every night in conjunction with their reading books as a way to build up their vocabulary and easily recognise the words in the books they are reading. It is important to remember that children do not learn new words by being exposed to them only once, repetition is the key to sight word acquisition.

The children will be tested every few weeks on their sight words and they will be moved onto the next list of 25 if they have mastered all of the words on their ring. Please note for your child to move onto the next set of 25 sight words the children must be able to both READ and SPELL all the words correctly. Over the year I will provide you with some games that you can play using the sight words to make the learning fun!

Specialist Days:

Monday: Indonesian

Tuesday: Music and Health

Wednesday: Library

Thursday: Physical Education (wear teal OLC sports shirt)

Friday: Class sport (wear coloured faction shirt)

Support Staff
We are very fortunate to have the outstanding Mrs. Michelle Hughes to help and support the children in their learning journey throughout this year.  Mrs. Hughes will be in our class from Monday- Friday. 

News

The children will be rostered on for news once a fortnight, beginning from Week Three onwards. Each fortnight on the afternoon before your child’s news day, a bag will be sent home with a laminated news chart in it. 

The idea of the chart is to get your child to think about what they will say to the class before they speak. If you could spend five minutes the night before news assisting your child to fill out the chart (or writing a few prompts with them) that would be greatly appreciated! Please refer to the roster attached for your child’s news day and fortnightly theme suggestions.

Crunch & Sip

Each morning we will stop for a 5 minute Crunch & Sip break. The idea of Crunch & Sip is that the students have a short break to increase their energy levels, increase awareness about eating fruit and vegetables, as well as encouraging them to drink water and keep hydrated throughout the school day. You can refer to the Crunch & Sip website (crunchandsip.com.au) for specifics on a list of foods that can be packed for this time of the morning. Generally speaking, the list will include fresh fruit and vegetables (celery/carrot sticks, broccoli, chopped or whole fruit, as well as dried fruit). The only drink permitted is water.

Stationery

All class stationery (pencils, crayons, scissors etc.) will be collected together at the beginning of the year and distributed to the students on a shared basis. There will be no need to label any of your child’s items before bringing them to school. All text books will be labelled by the staff and checked off on a list when they are brought in to school. At the end of the year, all remaining stationery items will be shared out equally between the students to go home.

This year, we are trying to reduce our impact on the environment by not covering our books with contact. We have found in the past that the books have lasted throughout the year and it teaches the children to be responsible and take care of their belongings. 

Names

Please ensure that all personal items (hats, drink bottles, lunch boxes, uniforms, etc) belonging to your child are labelled to avoid losing items!

If you have any question or queries please don't hesitate to email me at:

monique.prowse@cewa.edu.au

I am looking forward to seeing your little ones on Wednesday!

Have a restful night

Miss Prowse and Mrs. Hughes