Inquiry
Week 4 was dedicated to preparing for the wonderful assembly we shared last Friday the 11th. All the children worked really hard to learn the words to not one, but two new songs about friendship and connection and the whole assembly was really lovely!
Well done to all the year 1’s!
Here is the video of the Assembly in case you missed it or you would like to see it again!
The past two weeks the learning focus has been to explore the different places we find ourselves in and thinking about what we do there. The children have been using the different spaces in the neighbourhood to express their thinking. There were many dramatic plays created in the performance space, lots of writing in the learning commons and creating and making in the studio space.
This week this concept was taken a step further as the children visited very spaces set up in different ways to support them to think about how they feel in different surroundings. There were three spaces.
One was a freezing cold room, with very bright light and cavernous dripping sounds and howling winds.
Another was really warm and comfortable with meditative music playing.
And the last room was full of bright flashing lights and fairy lights and sounds of wind and rain.
The kids visited each space and drew and wrote about what it sounded like, what it felt like and what it made them think about in each space.
The Inquiry will now be focused on what things are required to evoke specific feelings for others.
Maths
Number
We have been looking at addition and subtraction strategies such as friends of ten, making to ten and counting on from the larger number. We have been using these strategies whilst playing a game called “Who has?” – a call and answer game focused on single and two digit addition and some subtraction.
Measurement
We have been singing the days of the week song and the Months of the year song to learn the names and order of the months.
More recently we have been learning the knuckles technique for working out how many days each month has!
Literacy
Writing
The children have begun the process of writing their own story-book. As inspiration, we have been reading the award winning children’s book A Lion in Paris. We began by looking at the overall structure of the story (beginning, middle, end) – and the problem and solution. From there, the children have began brainstorming ideas for their own story-book. This week, we will use A Lion in Paris to examine more deeply the conventions of story-telling to assist the children in the writing of their own story-book.
Reading
The students have been spending time focusing on independent reading. From this the it has emerged that some student are highly reliant on just one skill when they are decoding a text. To develop the students skills when decoding and to developing comprehension skills we will investigate “What make a good reader?” and how do I pick a just right book.