Our Junior School Teachers
1M: Amy McDonald | 1PA: Denise Anderson & Marina Plesa | 1H: Tania Haimon
2F: Kirsty Finter | 2B: Sophie Bowler | 2M: Martha Mackenzie
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Dear Parents/Guardians,
Welcome to Grades 1 and 2 By now your child should be well accustomed to school and daily routines. They know to come in before school, put down their own bags and iPads or Laptop away and say goodbye to their parents. They are developing independence and taking responsibility for their own learning. Students are engaged in Literacy and Numeracy activities, as well as developing inquiring minds though Challenge Based Learning (CBL). They also participate in the specialist program offered at Oak Park, including: Japanese, Art and P.E. Library is taken by the classroom teacher on a weekly basis. Students also have the opportunity to attend R.E classes on Friday afternoon. The use of technology in the classroom enhances students' inquiry, helps them to learn independently and assists them in learning research skills. Whether students use an iPad or Netbook, it is their responsibility to bring it to school on a daily basis, fully charged. Incursions and excursions are organised throughout the year to enhance students' learning. Towards the end of the year, a sleepover and fun night will take place. Grade 1 students will go home after supper, while grade 2 students sleep at school. Throughout the year, students will be involved in fund raising events, as well as participating in the big school production in term 3. 1M Timetable 1PA Timetable 1H Timetable 2B Timetable 2M Timetable 2F Timetable Grade 1 Term 1 Newsletter Grade 2 Term 1 Newsletter |
Important Dates
Welcome Back to Term 1!!
Behalf of Oak Primary School we hope everyone had a safe break! We have lots of exciting things happening in this term. Grade 1 Literacy - Reading: Students will begin by building on the reading routines developed in Foundation. Students will revise, and be encouraged to use, a range of strategies to read unknown words. They will develop strategies to read independently and learn to choose books that are ‘just right’ for them. Students will also become familiar with working in small groups with their teacher. Students will revise sounds in words and gain knowledge of a range of sounds that are made by 2 letters (digraphs). Home Readers: Students take books home to practise their fluency, expression and comprehension, as well as to foster their love of reading. Reading logs are to be signed by parents each night, and we now encourage children to read for at least 15 minutes. To assist your child in developing their reading skills:
Home reading books will be changed once a week on a specific day. Each classroom may have a different day to change Home Readers. You will be notified of your child’s day once the program is set up. Literacy - Writing During Writing sessions, students will be focusing on using the dotted thirds writing lines and forming the letters of the alphabet correctly. They will be developing their knowledge of planning, writing and punctuating sentences. Students will be involved in a classroom based Inquiry spelling program. This will require students to use theme words and most common used words within their writing. Inquiry spelling is about teaching spelling strategies rather than learning by rote. When students make connections with words that they already know they are able to spell new words. Mathematics We will be focusing on fractions, money, recognising and continuing patterns and counting patterns. Time will be spent on revising and consolidating areas of the curriculum covered throughout the year e.g. place value, addition, subtraction, groups of and sharing. Students will use concrete materials to represent and solve written mathematical problems. Number fluency and skip counting will continue to be developed. The non-number areas covered this term will be:
Inquiry As part of our Inquiry program, students will be exploring the concepts of 'Success'. As part of this unit, students will explore the ways they can be a successful learner. They will learn about our school values, growth mindset, mindfulness and emotions. They will ask questions and investigate different strategies to understand themselves as learners. We will be developing a 'learning toolkit' to help them use a range of strategies. Grade 2 Literacy – Reading Students will be practising independent reading for a sustained amount of time, focusing on thinking about what they’re reading and responding to texts. Students will ask and answer questions about texts, make predictions and retell the stories. Home Readers: Children will bring home books to practise their fluency, expression and comprehension. Reading logs are to be signed by parents each night. We now expect children to read for at least 15-20 minutes. It is important to listen to your child read so that you can engage with the text, discuss what you have read and ask them questions about it. You should also talk about unfamiliar words and what they mean. We encourage you to read to your child too. It provides a special opportunity for them to get excited about reading and become engaged in stories, while also hearing what expressive reading sounds like. Some children may be asked to practise their ‘M100W (200 and 300) words by identifying and reading them immediately. This is important for the development of their reading fluency. Literacy – Writing This term, students will be practising writing skills relating to recounts and procedural texts. This will involve writing skills such as sentence openers, powerful adjectives, adverbs and synonyms. They will become familiar with grammatical rules surrounding conjunctions (and, so, because, etc.) and pronouns (he, she, they, etc.). Students will also practise different sentence types, such as questions and exclamations, and the corresponding punctuation (? , !). Students will be involved in a classroom based Inquiry spelling program. Inquiry spelling allows students to learn spelling strategies rather than learning by rote. They will cover dfferent spelling rules, pre-fixes, suffixes and phonetic sounds. When students understand how words are formed through strategy, it means more and they are more able to apply this knowledge to new words. Numeracy Students will be focusing on number fluency, counting and place value. They will revise the different ways a number can be shown through hands-on equipment, drawing and number sentences (2+4=6, 3+3=6, 1+5=6, etc). Skip-counting by 2s, 5s & 10s will be revised and students will also learn to skip-count by 3s. They will begin to work in 3-digit numbers, growing familiar with the place value of each digit through the use of Base 10 equipment. The non-number areas covered this term will be:
We ask that you discuss Maths in everyday life with your child through telling the time, using money, using a calendar, measuring ingredients for a recipe, cutting a pizza in half or quarters, etc. Please also encourage your child to practise skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s forwards and backwards beyond 100 and from different starting points (e.g. skip-coutning by 5s starting at 43). Inquiry Learning Our Inquiry concept this term is ‘Success. As part of this unit, students will be investigating what it means to be successful and healthy. They will become familiar with concepts such as Growth Mindset and Mindfulness. They will also explore the different things which keep us healthy; diet, sleep, etc. |