Welcome to Year 1
Posted by plantd1
Introduction
Welcome to the Year 1 blog. The purpose of the blog is to provide general information about Year 1, give an overview of learning and highlight important dates to remember.
We have had a positive start to the year with the Year 1 students settling in well. We are pleased to see the students developing independence through ongoing daily routines.
Thank you to the parents who attended the Parent Information Fair. Here is an edited version of the presentation.
Unit of Inquiry
As you may well be aware as an IB PYP school most of our learning is taught through transdisciplinary themes. Year 1 students experience learning through four different theme. Please see information about our first unit of inquiry below:
Transdisciplinary theme: How We Organise Ourselves
Central Idea: Communities can flourish through the involvement of its members
Lines of Inquiry:
- Our communities (connection)
- How a learning community works (function)
- Flourishing communities (responsibilities)
Over the past few weeks, the students and teachers have been setting up different routines in the class that enable us to learn. We will be identifying what ‘ready to learn’ looks like, sounds like and feels like. The students will explore how our classroom is a community of learners. We will be learning about the concept of responsibility and investigating how we all have a role to play within this community to be ‘the best we can be’ as well as supporting our peers to learn. We hope that by the end of this unit your children will be able to tell you about flourishing learning communities and have conversations with you about being happy, safe and ready to learn.
Well Being
Student well being will be an ongoing key focus throughout your child’s life at DC. Students with a higher level of well being are able to identify their emotions, have an understanding of how they best learn, are able to build positive relationships, are resilient and can identify their own strengths and use them when they face challenges. This term we will learn about character strengths and explore how the strengths of Self-Control, Teamwork, Love of Learning, Fairness and Kindness help us to learn and flourish both individually and as a community of learners. Throughout our current unit of inquiry, a snapshot of your child demonstrating Strengths will be posted on Seesaw.
To support learning at home: talk about well-being in your family; ask what your child is learning, how they are learning and talk to them about the things that you are learning; use the word ‘responsibility’ when you are giving them a ‘job’ to do at home (such as tidying their room), explore your ‘family community’, what are the expectations, what fun things you do together for well being?
Language
Language is a fundamental part of everything we do. Students learn language by using language and so we are intentional about the experiences we provide to facilitate rich and meaningful language. Through play, students develop language and learn to communicate with their peers and teachers. We encourage the students to also explore communicating through drawings and writing (letters, labels, words or sentences depending on their learning goals). The students will be learning about books, concepts about print, and how the alphabet works. To support learning at home: Read with your child regularly. Talk about the pictures and together discuss the story. Model how to retell familiar stories (in your home language). Make reading an enjoyable and family time. Encourage your child to draw and tell you about their pictures. Play rhyming games and read rhyming books. Puzzles, cutting and sticking, threading and construction toys are all great ways to develop hand-eye coordination. Physical exercise and climbing are great ways to develop gross motor control, as well as being very beneficial to our well-being.
Mathematics
Mathematics is around us every day and everywhere. Using a variety of materials such as blocks, puzzles, beads, Lego and counters, children are using the language of mathematics to solve problems and explore ideas such as; more than, less than, next, before and after, same and different etc which supports an understanding of number sense and develops logic and reasoning.
Through inquiry, we will understand that numbers are used for different purposes in the real world, to count and use number words to represent quantities to at least 20 and beyond. We will explore making sets of numbers to 10 and see how they can be represented in different ways. Using the skill of noticing, we will explore patterning of shapes, colours and numbers.
To support learning at home: Take every opportunity to count with your child, sing songs and notice patterns around them. Fingers and toes are portable counting tools when working out how many. Encourage them to read the numbers they see, when they are shopping, on the bus and at home. Play board and card games.
IMPORTANT DATES
Parent Workshops:
Friday 13 September 8:30 – 10:00 a.m. How do young learners develop and how can we support their growth?
Tues 17 Sept 8:30 – 10:00 a.m.How can we support our students as early readers?
Tues 24/25/26 Sept 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. Classroom Follow up sessions for parents who attended one or both of the two workshops above.
Parent Teacher Conferences: Wednesday 18th (School finishes at midday) / Thursday 19th September. Please sign up on Gateway for an appointment
Year 1 Assemblies (Term 3):
Tuesday 9th June 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. Mrs. Warner
Tuesday 9th June 9:30 – 10:00 a.m. Mrs. Kiprotic
Wednesday 10th June 9:30 – 10:00 a.m. Ms. Plant
Wednesday 10th June 2:30 – 3:00 p.m. Ms. Dunn
