Classroom News – Year K/1

The students in K/1 have been involved in all kinds of interesting learning experiences in the last three weeks.

In Mathematics, the students are developing their understanding of numbers, patterns and data. They find it interesting when equipment and objects are used for different types of tasks. For instance, the geometric shapes have been used to create patterns and collect data as well as being able to help the students to develop their understanding of 2D shapes and their properties. It is really important for students to make connections with their learning.

In English, the students have continued to develop their knowledge of sounds for reading and writing. They are working hard on blending sounds in order to read phonetically-based texts.

Next term they will start to take home and learn sight words as well, so that the range of texts they will be able to read and write will become greater. Their collection of published texts is becoming larger and they are looking forward to sharing their work with the Preschool children next week.

In Geography, the students have continued to study places. They worked in pairs to create towns and then presented their ‘towns’ to the class, naming all of the things that they thought should be in a town.

The Questacon Science visit and the activities they presented were well-received by all of the students in the school. One of the Kinder students summed it up beautifully when he said, “That was so cool!”

The Taronga Zoo mobile visit was another enjoyable experience. The K/1 students were fascinated with how the animals felt and they enjoyed the singing as well.

In Religion, the students have been learning about Lent. They all contributed to a Lenten cross of ‘ways we can be try to be better people’ during Lent.

In Visual Art, Mr Briggs freely gave of his time to come and teach the K/1 students how to make pinch pots using clay. The students really enjoyed this experience and hope to have more art experiences with Mr Briggs later in the year. 

NUMERACY

Mathematics lessons in year 5/6 have focussed on Statistics and Probability. Students were given 20 coloured counters and they recorded the fraction, decimal and percentage value of each counter as well as the coloured collection. This was recorded on a 0 to 1 number line. Students also recorded the probability of choosing a counter from the collection and named using chance language, such as highly likely, 50/50, not likely. Then this data was graphed using a column graph. Students are quickly learning to closely check data results before giving a value to the Y axis to fit all the data into the graph.

Year 2/3/4 have also been collecting data and graphing results. They are learning about the non-negotiable features of a graph, such as title, X and Y axis and labelling the axis so the information is clear to the reader.

Kindergarten and year 1 students have finished their unit on Patterns. They quickly learned that a pattern is a repeated set of items ranging from using counters, pattern shapes and playing cards.

It is pleasing to see students beginning to make connections between 2 D shapes and how we can use the same resource in pattern making.