History- Comparing Toys of the Past to Toys of the Present

In History we have been focusing on how things we use in the present, have changed from the past. We brought in two toys each, one that is from the past and one that we use today. We sorted the toys into three groups. One group was for toys of the past that we wouldn't find at the shops anymore. The next group was of toys we can buy today and the final group was for toys that are from the past and the present. We had so much fun sorting our toys.

Weeks 5 and 6 in Room 7

In Week 5 during our 'Talk 4 Writing' lessons we focused on retelling the story in a variety of ways. These included as a whole class, in small groups and pairs, with hand puppets and stick puppets that we made ourselves. 

In our Maths lessons we focused on recognising and ordering the days of the week, months of the year and the seasons. We also looked at how to represent one and two digit numbers in different ways such as its written form, picture form, in tally marks, expanded form and breaking it into tens and ones.

In Week 6 during our 'Talk 4 Writing' lessons we innovated both our class story and our own stories. We did this by changing key parts of the original story 'Cat, Prickle and Pelican'. 

Home Reading in Year 1

Home reading commenced today. The students were very excited, which was fantastic to see. 

Home reading is extremely valuable as it allows students to practise the reading skills taught in class, as well as assisting them to develop confidence and a love for reading. For this reason the students will take home a variety of books throughout the year that are either challenging, at their level or easier for them to read. 

Students will need to bring their yellow folder to school each day but books will only be changed on Mondays and Wednesday's. They are encouraged to read the whole book or a part of the book each night. 

I have sent a coloured reading card home with with students in their yellow folders. This is to help with questions to ask them while they are reading to assist in the development of their comprehension skills. It also has a list of tricky words for students to practise reading and writing. 

Please see me if you have any questions.

Mrs Pye :)

Reading Activities in Week 4

Last week we commenced our reading rotations. 

We read in small groups with Mrs Pye, as well as participating in other activities to strengthen our reading skills.

Introducing our new Talk for Writing story 'Cat, Prickle and Pelican'

Last week we began learning our new Talk for Writing story 'Cat, Prickle and Pelican'. 

On Monday we received a letter from one of the characters in the story asking us if we could help him find his treasure.

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At this point we didn't know who Cat was but we were all very excited to help him. 

We searched the classroom very thoroughly, being sure to check every shelf, tray and draw for Cat's missing treasure. After about 5 minutes of searching Jayden found it at the back of red draws. 

When opening the treasure we discovered gold coins as well as some chocolate coins. 

We made sure we returned the bag of gold coins back to the office for cat to collect. 

We kept the chocolate coins of course. 

WhIle eating our chocolate coins Mrs Pye read us a story called 'Cat, Prickle and Pelican'. As we listened we realised that the cat in the story lost a bag of treasure and wondered if it could have been the same cat that we helped. 

After speaking to some students from Room 6 and Room 8 we found out that they had a missing bag of gold in their classrooms that belonged to Pelican and Prickle. 

We were extremely excited to realise that the animals we had helped were from a story. So naturally we wanted to read it again. We created a story map with actions to help us learn it. 

Our Second Week in Year 1

Last week we worked very hard and participated in many learning experiences. We even met our new  buddies from T3 on Friday afternoon. We are very excited to see them again in two weeks. 

We continued to learn and practise our Talk 4 Writting poem called 'Our Cats'. On Wednesday we practised in small groups, before taking it in turns to perform in front of the class.

 Mrs Pye was so impressed with how well we could retell the poem.

Last week we listened to the story 'The Rainbow Fish' during Shared Reading. We focused on the reading strategy 'predicting'. Once we had listened to the story we each predicted and wrote what game we thought the Rainbow Fish would play with his friends if the book was to continue. Then we decorated the front of our Rainbow Fish.

Our Rainbow Fish look great and are swimming in our classroom.

Last week in Maths we looked at skip counting in 5s and 10s. After practising through clapping games and using hundred charts we participated in 4 rotations. These rotations included making bundles of 5 and 10 in groups, locating and ordering number cards in 5s and 10s, laminated skip counting charts and writing the patterns on blank hundred grids. 

Our First Week in Year 1

We have had a fantastic first week in Year 1. 

We are really enjoying having our own stationery and our own desks! 

On Monday we got to know our new teacher and classmates by playing a get to know you game called 'Spider Web'. We each took it in turns to introduce ourselves, before passing the wool to someone else. This created a huge spider web. We had a lot of fun letting it go when we had finished.

On Tuesday we split into small groups and took turns sharing two things we did in the school holidays. Once we each had our turn we drew and wrote about the two things we shared. 

This week we began our 'Letters and Sounds' work, with a review of three Phase 2 sounds each day. We brainstormed as many words as we could think of for each sound in only 3 minutes. 

After our brainstorms we participated in four rotations. 

This week our rotations were;

1. Blending and segmenting 3-5 letter words with the focus sound.

2. Practising our letter formation of the focus sounds, on laminated handwriting posters.

3. Picture and tricky word bingo games.

4. Print walk (walking around the classroom looking for words with the focus sounds and writing them on whiteboards.)