Prep | Year 1 News

In Year 1, we have had a busy few weeks of learning. The boys have become accustomed to school routines and have enjoyed spending time developing new friendships.

Over the past few weeks Year 1 has continued their Unit of Inquiry “How We Express Ourselves”. The boys have been inquiring into different cultural traditions and religious celebrations and their similarities and differences. We have been exploring other cultures, communities and religions during our play-based learning inquiries. The boys have enjoyed engaging in making Chinese Lanterns, creating Rangoli patterns, reading books in other languages and drawing significant cultural sites.

As the boys gain knowledge and insights into other cultures and countries, they are developing an awareness of what it means to be open-minded and show appreciation for different cultures.

This week the Year 3 boys organised various activities for the Year 1 boys to engage in, focused on the topic of Harmony Day. Some of these activities included Cultural Basketball, Origami, a Harmony Day Drawing Competition, Gaelic Football and designing their own flag.

Please remember that next week on Monday 4th April, we have our excursion to St James Church in Croydon. On this excursion the boys will be inquiring and learning about Christian celebrations and religious traditions. The boys will need their excursion bag to take their Morning Break and a water bottle to the Church. The bus will depart at 9:00am and we will be back at school before Afternoon Break, so please ensure the boys still bring their normal school bag and regular lunch as well as their excursion bag. The boys will still need their Library Bags as they will be borrowing in the afternoon. Pick up for the boys will remain the same. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact your son’s teacher.

English:

In Literacy, the boys have been continuing to improve their recount skills by retelling different Aboriginal Dreamtime stories both verbally and in written form. They have been working on writing super sentences using capital letters, full stops, finger spaces and checking their writing to ensure it makes sense. There has also been a focus on using appropriate vocabulary and time connectives. Next term, we will be looking at understanding and writing information texts in relation to our new unit Sharing the Planet.

Maths

Over the last few weeks, we have been learning new strategies for addition and subtraction such as the jump strategy and showing our thinking using a number line and drawings. Next term in Maths we will begin by learning about position. The boys will learn to follow and give simple directions through using positional language, e.g. next to, in between, behind, left, right, on top of, under, diagonal, opposite.

Music

Year 1 has been addressing their collaborative unit of inquiry “How we express ourselves” with a focus on music and instruments of different cultures. We had an incursion with all of Year 1, where they inquired about the similarities and differences between different percussion instruments (e.g. claves, maracas, djembe drum) and made musical connections between different countries and cultures from around the world (e.g. South America, West Africa etc.).

In music class, the group is split into two halves where one half focuses on classroom music, whilst the other half is a strings program, in which they go off with specialist teachers into small ensembles (according to their string instrument type) and play through songs and work on musical technique. Our focus piece in music class is Italian folk lullaby “Nina Nana”, where we started with a writing activity of compass points where the boys had to write a sentence about; what they were excited about, what was worrisome, what they needed to know more about as well as their stance/ suggestion moving forward when learning this song. Then, we sang through the song with lyrics, worked out the different rhythms and sang through them with some dance moves to depict the different rhythmic values (combining music and movement). We are also getting an understanding of solfa and hand signs as well as pitch, which will be linked to the song – and sung whilst doing the actions. Overall, Year 1 has really enjoyed music and embraced the musical and movement element.

Mandarin

Our boys continued their learning in the transdisciplinary unit How We Express Ourselves by exploring and sharing the cultural understanding and experiences in food. Students completed the listening and speaking tasks after learning the six main canteen foods: han bao bao (hamburger), sha la (salad), bi sa (pizza), shou si (sushi), san ming zhi (sandwich) and yi da li mian (pasta). Then students learned the popular Chinese canteen foods: niu rou (beef), ji rou (chicken), zhu rou (pork), yang rou (lamb), fan (rice), mian (noodles), jiao zi (dumplings), and made new phrases by combining two learned words such as niu rou fan (beef rice), ji rou mian (chicken noodles) and zhu rou jiao zi (pork dumplings). They also extended their vocabularies by using the online dictionary and added popular Chinese canteen food such as “ya rou fan (duck rice)” and “long xia mian (lobster noodles).

Students did the role play in small groups by asking “Ni xiang chi shen me (What would you like to eat)?” and replying “Wo xiang chi…(I would like to eat…)” and “……hao chi (…..is yummy).”

The Approaches to Learning applied in Mandarin lessons are Thinking Skills (Analysing, Transfer knowledge), Research Skills (Data gathering and recording), Social Skills (Cooperating with others), and Communication Skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing).

Christian Studies

Over the last few weeks in Chapel, the boys have been exploring the Biblical concept of “covenant” or in other words, “agreement or promise”. They have been reminded that there are many examples where God has made a gracious covenant with his people, and yet they broke the covenant. With Easter approaching, we have a wonderful example of God’s plan of salvation through His son Jesus. In week 10, we are privileged to have the visit of “Quiz Worx” – a biblical puppet / interactive show explaining the importance of Jesus’s death and resurrection. This week, the boys are experiencing a visit from the Years 10 to 12 Summer Hill group “Berea”. Berea is a Christian leadership group that helps the students equip and share the good news of Jesus. These older students will be teaching every Christian Studies class this week, visiting CIA (Christians in Action) groups and running Chapel. There are very few opportunities for our boys to share in high school events and this mission will serve as a wonderful opportunity to build relationships and share in the wonders of Easter.

PDHPE

This term we have been exploring movement skills in PE and hopping in FAST. The boys have been developing the ability to be intentional in their movements as they respond to music. We have explored different styles of music and have been matching our body movements to the style of music. In recent weeks we have started learning about different movements used in gymnastics. We will continue to explore gymnastics movements for the remainder of the term. In FAST the boys have developed an understanding of the skill components of a hop and have been able to use this skill in games.