It has been another busy and exciting few weeks in the Grade 1 and 2 learning spaces!
Literacy
Our Fairy Tales unit has come to a wonderful conclusion this week with a Readers’ Theatre performance of Jack and the Beanstalk. Through this experience, students developed their reading fluency, expression, confidence, and teamwork skills. Working in groups, students performed for their classmates and provided thoughtful feedback to one another. It was fantastic to see everyone embracing their roles and bringing the story to life.
Mathematics
In Mathematics, we have been working hard to develop our understanding of division by exploring how to share items into equal groups. Students recently completed a learning task based on the Pat Hutchins story The Doorbell Rang. This task provided an opportunity for students to demonstrate their understanding of equal sharing and division concepts. These pieces of work will be assessed and shared with families on Compass later this term.
😊 Respectful Relationships: Positive Coping Strategies
In Respectful Relationships, students have been learning about positive coping strategies to help them manage big emotions, particularly feelings of anger. We have discussed how everyone feels angry sometimes, but it is important to respond in safe and respectful ways. Students have explored different strategies they can use to calm their bodies and minds before solving problems or talking about their feelings.
Some of the strategies we have been practising include:
- 🌬️ Taking slow, deep breaths
- 🧘 Having a quiet moment to calm down
- 🚶 Going for a walk or getting some movement
- 🎨 Drawing, colouring, or doing a calming activity
- 🗣️ Talking to a trusted adult or friend
- 🔢 Counting slowly to 10
- 💧 Having a drink of water
We encourage families to talk about and practise these strategies at home, helping children build confidence in managing their emotions in positive and healthy ways. 💛
Inquiry Learning
Inquiry has been a particularly exciting area of learning! We have begun planning for our Shadow Puppet Plays, which will be showcased at this term’s Open Afternoon in Week 9. Students have loved experimenting with shadows and puppets and discovering how light can be used to create different effects. We are looking forward to designing and building our very own shadow puppet theatre over the coming weeks.
A big thank you to the families who have generously donated large boxes to support this project. Your contributions are greatly appreciated and will help bring our creative ideas to life.
For now, we will continue enjoying all the wonderful learning opportunities taking place across our Grade 1 and 2 spaces. We are very much looking forward to participating in all the festivities for ‘Book Week’ and are especially excited to see all the amazing costumes next Friday at the Parade. Don’t forget we have a book swap in the Steam space (next to the art room) on Monday from 2:30pm.
We hope to see many of our families next Monday 24th for 3-way conferences beginning at 2:30pm.
How Families Can Help at Home
A few simple activities can make a big difference to your child’s learning:
- Read together each day and talk about the story.
- Encourage your child to share something new they learned at school.
- Practise counting, number facts, and simple problem-solving in everyday situations.
- Log into Think Square using the username and password provided by your child’s teacher.
- Celebrate effort, persistence, and a positive attitude towards learning.
Kind regards,
1/2 Team
