February, 2017 Try Everything

Welcome back to school! What a great year 2017 will be for our Year 1’s. Students are settling in well and adapting to their new surrounds, teachers and unfamiliar routines. We have been impressed by all students’ attitudes and their willingness to begin the year on a positive note. We look forward to getting to know you and your children as we continue to work together in partnership. There are many exciting opportunities and challenges ahead as we strive for the best possible outcomes for the children in our class.

The 2017 school theme is ‘Try Everything’. The children have been enthusiastically singing our theme song, ‘Try Everything’, as part of the afternoon assemblies. ‘Try Everything’ reflects our school motto of Courage Always. ‘Try Everything’ is linked to always having a go, trying your best and realising that mistakes are part of learning.

Parent Helpers are welcome! We will put up a roster on the doors. Parent Helpers will be welcome during the Literacy Block upon completion of class testing. Please see your child’s teacher if you are interested in assisting on a regular or occasional basis. If you would like to come in for a chat at any time, we’d love to see you, remembering we have Staff Meetings on Monday and Wednesday after school. The morning is busy and allows us time to talk with the children prior to the day’s learning. Once the meditation music has commenced our focus needs to be on settling the children and being ready to start the school day.

RELIGION/INQUIRY In our Term 1 unit, ‘Friendship’ we will be guided by the big question, ‘How do others influence the way we live?’ We will explore how friendships are important to our personal and spiritual growth. What it means to be a good friend and how Jesus Christ is our model for good friendships. Other concepts that will be addressed include relationships, forgiveness, love, change, discipleship, journeys and symbols. Towards the end of the term, the children will be learning about Holy Week and participating in the Palm Sunday Liturgy. You will be notified of important dates by the newsletter.

LITERACY In Reading, this term we will be teaching children to identify and use good reading strategies, including decoding and comprehension skills. We have commenced our Home Reading Program (Please refer to the homework section for expectations and how you can help at home).

The children will bring home a book each day along with their Reading Diary. The children are expected to change their book daily from the box in the classroom with their name on it. It is important that your child reads to you each night and that the Reader Diary is completed together.

In Writing, this term we will be focusing on a number of different Writing Traits, encouraging correct structure of basic sentences such as application of capital letters and full stops and the use of grammatical features such as adjectives to develop their writing. Each child will also create their own Writer’s Notebook, which will be used in conjunction with their Writing book throughout the year. The Writer’s Notebook will be developed as a tool to help generate writing ideas and provide children with opportunities to write for a range of purposes.

Children will be regularly encouraged to become active listeners and be given opportunities to share their work, ideas and skills within small groups and whole class discussions. We will also be expecting children to use their best manners at all times and think before they speak (for example, “I need the toilet!” or “What?” can be easily rephrased).

MATHS This term we will be developing the children’s knowledge of number and place value. Children will count forwards and backwards by 1’s to 100 and learn to recognise, model, read, write and order numbers to 100. They will learn by using different materials, playing games and lots of repetition in a variety of ways to learn basic number facts. They will partition numbers using place value and carry out simple addition, using counting strategies such as counting on, small doubles and partitioning 5 and 10. Children will also learn about duration of time for example, months, weeks, days and hours and use calendars. They will investigate location and relative positions with opportunities to give and follow directions.

HOMEWORK Our homework program has begun. We encourage you to establish a home reading routine as soon as possible, 15 minutes each night. This is an important step in the children accepting responsibility for their learning. Home reading books should be at an easy level for your child. This is to develop fluency and expression in their reading and also understand what they are reading. Ask your child questions about what they have read (during and after reading) and what they think about the characters and events, etc. Teachers will monitor this and check the children’s Reading Diary regularly.

In Term 1, Homework will include reading and counting. Counting will consist of counting forwards and backwards from different numbers appropriate for your child. Please write the numbers you started counting from in their Reading Diary.

INDEPENDENCE We expect children to change their own readers/take home books. We will be encouraging children to develop their independence and become more responsible for their learning and possessions. Children should be responsible for placing their own bags in their lockers and getting their things ready to start the day.

SPECIALIST CLASS OVERVIEWS

LIBRARY – Helena Graham Students participate in Library lessons once every two weeks on a Tuesday and for Year One students this will be on week 2, 4, 6, and 8. During library lessons students have the opportunity to borrow and return books as well as participate in lessons to develop an understanding of library organization, specific features of books and increase their appreciation and enjoyment of literature. The library is also open every Tuesday at lunchtime for students to browse, borrow or return books and play board games. Students can return books to the library any day by placing them in the black tubs marked RETURNS, located in the library. Year 1 students use their reader bag for their Library book.

This term students in Year One will focus on how junior fiction and picture fiction books are organized on the shelves and book carousel so they can locate books they wish to read. Students will explore the features of a book, to identify the title, author, illustrator, spine and blurb. We will share picture fiction books which align with the Classroom Integrated Unit of ‘Friendship’ and our school theme of ‘Try Everything’. Students will be encouraged to respond to the text through making connections and sharing personal experiences.

PE – Beck Young In Physical Education this term, the program will focus on the fundamental motors skills and movement patterns in a variety of tasks including individual and group games. These activities will have students participating in moderate to vigorous activity on a regular basis through our Fitness and Games for Understanding units including preparation for our upcoming Athletics carnival. Students will be working on developing control with and without the use of equipment and begin to understand the link between physical activity and health.

PERFORMING ARTS – Lara Tolj The Performing Arts gives all students the opportunity to communicate their ideas and expand their mind imaginatively through Drama, Music, Dance and Media. It provides children with a creative outlet and allows them to extend essential values and explore the classroom Curriculum in new and exciting ways. During Performing Arts lessons, children develop and consolidate their knowledge of physical movement and coordination with Dance, public speaking and confidence building skills with Drama, musical instruments and notation while learning to sing safely with Music and how to express themselves dramatically, undertake dance routines and respond to different media.

This Term, the Year 1 students will continue to explore Performing Arts through a variety of team- building activities. They will use the school theme ‘Try Everything’ to challenge themselves in all areas of the subject. The students will begin exploring character role-play and also explore global music, through listening and responding to a variety of songs from different cultures. In doing so, they will learn some simple global songs with actions.

ART – Lisa O’Sullivan During Term 1, students will be experimenting with grey lead to apply pressure to create tonal depths for their own owl inspired artwork, with oversized and over exaggerated facial features. Students will be using charcoal and blending pastel colours to create a smooth finish in the features of the owl. Students will use simple shapes to create realistic images and use specific vocabulary to respond to their artwork. Students will explore the use of basic art elements used to show close up detail in drawings. Students will take inspiration from the mentor artist Brian Commerford to create their series of drawings.

JAPANESE – Yumiko Aiki A Brief Comment About the Japanese Language Japanese (日本語 - "Nihon-go" - in Japanese) is the language spoken in Japan. Japanese makes extensive use of Chinese characters, or kanji (漢字), in its writing system. A large part of the Japanese vocabulary is borrowed from the Chinese language (Chinese loanwords). Along with kanji, the Japanese writing system uses two syllabic (units of sound) scripts: hiragana (平 仮名) and katakana (片仮名). Modern Japanese is written using these three systems; that is · kanji. Which are words adopted from the Chinese language into Japanese, but which also includes a number of native Japanese speech elements; and · two syllabaries (that is, two sets of sounds): hiragana and katakana. Hiragana is based on Chinese cursive ideograms (graphic signs or symbols) and is generally used in newspapers and general literature. Katakana, also based on Chinese ideograms, is primarily used to represent foreign words, plant and animal names, and for emphasis. Japanese students begin to learn kanji from their first year at primary school. The Japanese Ministry of Education specifies 1,006 simple kanji characters that a child is to learn by the end of sixth grade. Children continue to study a further 1,130 characters in junior high school. The resultant 2,136 characters provides a basic level of literacy in the Japanese language. Although the list of kanji to be learned in Japanese primary and secondary school is regularly reviewed, the number comprising the list remains steady.

Distinguished Visitors During term 1 in 2017 Japanese visitors from the education sector of the Nagano prefecture in Japan will visit Stella Maris school in week 8 of term. They will attend the school Japanese assembly and visit classrooms during Japanese learning activities. (The Nagano Prefecture (長野県) is in the Chūbu region of the island of Honshu, Japan’s largest and most populous island. Its capital is Nagano City, which hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics.) Stella Maris will also host other visitors during term 1, including: · Professor Koichi Kanayama, professor of education from the Waseda University in Japan, scheduled towards the end of February); · Dr. Dat Bao, a senior lecturer of education from Monash University (scheduling to be confirmed); · Mrs. Nishiyama, a teacher from our sister school in Japan (in week 9 of term). (Waseda University (早稲田大学) is a large, private university in Japan, with a main campus in Tokyo. It was first established in 1882. Monash University is of course a world ranking university in Victoria. And our sister school in Japan is the Tsutsujigaoka Primary School in Nabari, a city of about 80,000, located in the central Mie Prefecture on Honshu Island.) Year 1 students will be introduced to the topic of “friends” in term 1. They will revise some Japanese learnt in 2016, including the names of animals, how to say their names in Japanese. The students will explore ways of introducing their friends, including friends’ names in Japanese. Students will also revise the Japanese hiragana characters they learnt in 2016 by way of games and songs. The students will also be involved in Japanese culture activities.

The Year 1 class will participate in activities involving visits by the school’s distinguished guests in term 1. Year 1 students will be age appropriately assessed in terms of self-introductions, the introduction of their friends and the Japanese names of their favourite animals.

Timetable 1S Even Weeks Odd Weeks Monday PE and Performing Arts Tuesday PE and Library Wednesday Japanese and Art Japanese and Art

1PB Even Weeks Odd Weeks Monday Performing Arts and PE Tuesday Library and PE Wednesday Art and Japanese Art and Japanese

Children will be required to wear their sports uniform on Mondays and Tuesdays and bring their library books and bags on Tuesdays.

We are looking forward to a great term working together with you and your family,

Yours Sincerely, Vince, Majella and Jess.