Dear families,
It was wonderful to have the opportunity to invite you into our learning spaces at the Welcome Expo this week. We hope you enjoyed having a glimpse into the daily life of Year 1/2 Neighbourhood 1. The students have been demonstrating pride and ownership of the Neighbourhood, taking increasing responsibility for the organisation of spaces and understanding the need to take care of our resources. This has been evident in the enthusiasm and determination to get the Neighbourhood sculpture ready for the Expo!
Over the first 6 weeks of Term 1 students were demonstrating such keen enthusiasm in sharing information about their pets as part of their families, our inquiry focus has turned to investigations into animals and their habitats. Students have just begun showing what they already know about animals and habitats and are starting to raise questions like “What will animals be like in the future?” and “What do animals need to survive humans?”
On the 9th of March we were lucky enough to be visited by Bernice Dowling (yes, that’s Shannon’s mum) who worked for many years as a zoo keeper and park ranger. Neighbourhood 1 was treated to a range of interesting, funny and sometimes scary animal stories from Bernice’s long career working with animals and their environments and had the opportunity to ask her all sorts of questions. Students picked her brain for facts about the funniest, fastest and smallest animals in the zoo. They also got the opportunity to hear about the Hooded Plover recovery project Bernice was a large part of in the 90’s and 00’s – a bird species of particular interest to the Clifford family! Xander, Arlo and Elliot also enjoyed exploring the animal hides, Australian mammal encyclopedia and frozen snails Bernice brought in for provocations.
Numeracy – patterns focus
Our Numeracy focus this week has been on patterns, understanding that we see patterns everywhere in our environment – including on animals. We have explored a range of colour and shape patterns as well as number patterns, using our number knowledge to identify and continue sequences while skip counting. In Provocations, students have been creating patterns of their own, and were invited to think about the purpose that these patterns could have. Can they help to camouflage an animal? Are they necessary for keeping a structure stable? Are they pleasing to look at?
Literacy – continuing sentence construction
Students have been working hard to learn about the different components of a sentence. We now know what nouns, verbs and adjectives are as well as how to use these words when constructing ideas. We are still working on starting our sentences with a capital letter and ending them with a full stop. This week, our focus began to shift from who we are to animals and nature. Using this as a guide, students worked to write information booklets about animals, including their habitat and needs. In literacy workshops, students developed informative and descriptive sentences about an animal of their choice and will have an opportunity to publish their sentence alongside their own scientific drawing in the coming week.