Welcome to Year 1S!

Hello and welcome parents to the Year 1S blog,

I hope you have all had a relaxing and peaceful holiday and we are very excited for the year ahead!

I am looking forward to getting to know your beautiful children and working with you throughout your child's learning journey this year.

Year One is a big, but exciting year where your child will, discover, grow, create, learn, reflect and experience an abundance of fun and interesting things in our class!

As a parent of a Year One student, it is extremely important to keep in mind that we all build on small successes.  Each child will progress at his/her own rate, acquiring skills as he/she is developmentally ready.  Maintaining each child's self-esteem and building a secure foundation for future growth will always remain a priority in our class.

Here are some ways you can help:

•  Celebrate your child's success, no matter how small they may seem.  This will keep your child enthusiastic about learning and proud of their work!
• ·         Look for and read any notes and letters going home and stay updated on what’s going on in our regular blog posts. These will have important information and helpful reminders.
• ·         Read to and with your child every day, if possible. The more your child is exposed to language, the easier it will be for him/her to incorporate new skills in reading and writing in the classroom.

This blog will be the main communication for any parent information over the coming year. Please enter your email into the 'follow by email' section on the left hand side of the blog so you will get email updates when I post to the blog.

A few important things over the next weeks:

Swimming

Swimming commences this Thursday the 1st of February and will continue until Wednesday 7th February. Please bring the swimming note that was sent out the last day of last year. Alternatively, if your note has gone for a 'walk' the lovely ladies in the office have sent out another note which can be filled in and brought to school as soon as possible. 

We are last group on the day, leaving school at 11:40pm for a 12:15pm lesson. The children will be participating in 2 x 40 minute lessons, with a 10-minute break in the middle. We will bring the children’s Crunch and Sip snack to the pool, along with their drink bottles to help them restore some energy during this break time. We are aiming to return to school just before home time, so depending on time allowance, the children may return home in their bathers.

Please bring a towel, goggles and a spare plastic bag (for wet bathers) in either a separate sports bag or plastic bag which will hang outside on their bag hook until our swimming time. We ask that your child come to school in their thongs and sports uniform. If you wish, they can wear their bathers underneath (or change at school beforehand). Sports shoes will be unnecessary, as the children may have little or no time to change when we return to school.

Home Reading

As the children are settling into the new routines and expectations of Year One, we will begin sending home reading books from week 3 on a 2 day roster. Your child will be scheduled a changing day (Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday) but we ask that you bring their reading folder everyday so they can read in the morning and keep their sight words in them for the year.

Sight Words

The aim of the sight word rings are for your child to practise reading them every night in conjunction with their reading books as a way to build up their vocabulary and easily recognise the words in the books they are reading. It is important to remember that children do not learn new words by being exposed to them only once, repetition is the key to sight word acquisition.

The children will be tested every few weeks on their sight words and they will be moved onto the next list of 25 if they have mastered all of the words on their ring. Please note for your child to move onto the next set of 25 sight words the children must be able to both READ and SPELL all the words correctly. Over the year I will provide you with some games that you can play using the sight words to make the learning fun!

Specialist Days

Tuesday: Music and Health

Wednesday: Library and Indonesian

Thursday: Physical Education (wear teal OLC sports shirt)

Friday: Class Sport (wear coloured faction shirt)

Support Staff

We are very fortunate to have the outstanding Ms Mel Kent to help and support the children in their learning journey throughout this year. The lovely Mrs Lynn Peacock and Mrs Chris Derickx will also be in Year One for short periods of time throughout the school week to support the students.

News

The children will be rostered on for news once a fortnight, beginning from Week Three onwards. Each fortnight on the afternoon before your child’s news day, a bag will be sent home with a laminated news chart in it. 

The idea of the chart is to get your child to think about what they will say to the class before they speak. If you could spend five minutes the night before news assisting your child to fill out the chart (or writing a few prompts with them) that would be greatly appreciated! Please refer to the roster attached for your child’s news day and fortnightly theme suggestions.

Crunch & Sip

Each morning we will stop for a 5 minute Crunch & Sip break. The idea of Crunch & Sip is that the students have a short break to increase their energy levels, increase awareness about eating fruit and vegetables, as well as encouraging them to drink water and keep hydrated throughout the school day. You can refer to the Crunch & Sip website (crunchandsip.com.au) for specifics on a list of foods that can be packed for this time of the morning. Generally speaking, the list will include fresh fruit and vegetables (celery/carrot sticks, broccoli, chopped or whole fruit, as well as dried fruit). The only drink permitted is water.

Stationery

All class stationery (pencils, crayons, scissors etc.) will be collected together at the beginning of the year and distributed to the students on a shared basis. There will be no need to label any of your child’s items before bringing them to school. All text books will be labelled by the staff and checked off on a list when they are brought in to school. At the end of the year, all remaining stationery items will be shared out equally between the students to go home.

This year, we are trying to reduce our impact on the environment by not covering our books with contact. We have found in the past that the books have lasted throughout the year and it teaches the children to be responsible and take care of their belongings. 

Names

Please ensure that all personal items (hats, drink bottles, lunch boxes, uniforms, etc) belonging to your child are labelled to avoid losing items!

If you have any question or queries please don't hesitate to email me at:

amy.rundle@cewa.edu.au

My holiday news is that I got married! I will now be known to the children as Mrs Sherborne (but my email remains as my old name for the time being)!

I am looking forward to seeing your little ones on Wednesday! Have a restful night.

Mrs Amy Sherborne

Beach Day info

Dear Parents,

Tomorrow is our beach day and the Year One children will be leaving after recess to start their day. The schedule will go as follows:

8.50-9.40: School assembly
9.40-10.00: The children will leave for the Boat Ramp
10.00-10.15: Morning tea at the Boat ramp
10.20 - 11.50: Rotations of sand play, rock pool exploration, water play (Supervised by Smith's Beach Surf Life Saving) and playground.
11.50 - 12.05: Children return back to OLC for lunch
12.05-3.05: School activities

Your child will need to bring to school:
- Their Recess an water bottle in a PLASTIC BAG with their name on it
- Their school bag with only their lunch in it when they return from the beach
- Thongs to wear on their feet (they can wear these for the entire day)
- Change of clean undies to get changed into after.
- A wide brimmed hat or their school hat
- Come to school with sunscreen on (we will have some available for application duirng the day)
- Wear a rashie or collared t-shirt which must be worn in the water

If you have any questions about the beach day, please email me.

Many thanks

Miss Rundle

Last Week of Year One!

Wow, what a year we have had! It's hard to believe we are already in our final week of Year One. I would like to express to parents what a fantastic year of teaching and learning from your children I have had! Year 1R are certainly a special bunch of children who I am privileged to have taught this year. Their efforts as a class to continue to improve their learning and 'be the best that they can be' has impressed me. I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching such a cohesive and enthusiastic bunch of students who are a credit to their beautiful parents!

I would like to thank you all as parents for your contributions both inside and outside the classroom in supporting me with your children's learning. For those of you who have been able to assist in the classroom with learning programs, preparation, excursions and class fun days, thank you! And for the commitment to practicing sight words, reading with your children and working through their homework with them, thank you! A special thanks to Robyn Cross and Ainslie Higgins who were our fabulous class reps this year.

Over the year we have received wonderful help from Mrs Annert, Ms Kent and Mrs Stokes in the classroom who have all worked hard to support myself and the children. The Year Ones and I have been so lucky to have such a strong team of Education Assistants, whom the children and myself have had lots of fun working with this year. Not to mention thanks to the dynamite Miss Prowse who has been the best buddy teacher a girl could ask for!

A few reminders for our final week together:

Just a little more parent help required...
We would love some parent helpers to assist us with end of term cleaning this Wednesday morning. Many hands make light work! Thanks in anticipation for your help.

Sight Words
A collection of the first 200 sight words are on the children's desk mats which will go home this week. Some extra practice over the holidays to consolidate reading and spelling of these words would be very beneficial.

Returns
We require all PLD packs, overdue library books and home readers back this week before the year is out!

Plastic bags
We will start sending home some books throughout the week, to avoid the children lugging too much home on Friday. Donations of plastic bags will help us to pack things into the students' bags. Portfolio files will go home on Friday with some of your children's precious work samples from throughout the year, along with an end of year report.

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year with your families! Thanks again for a wonderful 2017!


Miss Rundle

End of the Year Events

Boardies Day
Tomorrow the children are invited to come to school in their 'boardies' for a gold coin donation, as per the information in the newsletter.

Boat Ramp Beach Fun Day
Stay tuned for more newsletter information on our whole school end of year fun day at The Dunsborough Boat Ramp. Let's hope we have a nice sunny day for it next Friday! We are leaving school to take the bus down to Old Dunsborough at around 10am and aiming to return to school by 12:30pm.

Awards Night
Our end of year awards night and Christmas carols will be held next Wednesday at 5:30pm in the hall. There will be two special awards presented to students in each class on this evening. We encourage attendance of all students for this highlight of the year.

Sight Words/Readers
There will be no sight words or readers going home in the final week of school. Please ensure that the children have brought back their books and sight words by next Monday to allow enough time to return to the library.

Spelling
Below is a link to the phonics patterns that we have covered in the spelling groups this term. It may be a good idea to practise these focus sounds with your child over the holidays, as the children will continue with this spelling program in Year Two.
Spelling Review

Week 7 Info

Our Silkworms
Have you seen the action going on in our silkworm tank? Our cocoons have hatched and the silkworms have re-emerged as moths! The Year Ones have been observing the silkworms mating and laying eggs. We have been learning about the lifespan of the moths and how to preserve the eggs for hatching next year. Ask your kids about what they know about these quirky creatures, they are very interesting indeed! Many thanks to Elsie and her family for donating the silkworms to the Year Ones. They have generated lots of inquiry and excitement within our classroom.

Vinnies Christmas Appeal
There is a box in the classroom for donations to the Vinnies Christmas Appeal. Some ideas for donations include: tins, pasta, rice, biscuits, crackers, sauces, jams, condiments, (basically any non-perishable good food, which can be used beyond Christmas). Thank you to those of you who have already contributed some generous donations to those who require our support at this special time of the year, which can be a difficult time for some families.

Think Mentals
The Think Mentals books are due in on Friday 1st December. The children should have completed Unit 23 by the end of next week. This will be the last Maths homework for the year. Thank you for working with your children to complete their Mental Maths homework this year. For those of you who may have some catching up to do, please endeavour to do what you can with your child. The remaining activities in the book may be good revision over the Christmas holidays before the children start Year 2.

Have a wonderful week!

Miss Rundle

Week 6 information

Good afternoon parents,

A few messages for this week...

Chicken Pox

There has been a reported case of the chicken pox in Year One. As there has only been one isolated case reported, we can not send out an official letter to parents just yet. Please visit your local GP if you have any concerns ASAP.

Washing of tea towels 
It has been a busy term and we have been using a lot of tea towels in our wet area. I was just wondering if there was any parents that wouldn't mind taking home a bag of tea towels to wash? I will have a few bags at pick up today and tomorrow if you can help out - Thank you in advance! 

OLC Christmas Concert and Awards Night 
The annual OLC Christmas concert will be happening on Wednesday the 6th of December. This is not compulsory to attend but I know from personal experience that the children thoroughly enjoy the night! 

Boardies Day 
Boardies Day for Smith's Beach surf life saving club will be happening on Friday December 1st. The children are encouraged to come in their boardies and faction shirt and bring a gold coin donation to support a great community run club.

Orientation Day for Year Two 
The children will be visiting their new Year Two class on Friday 1st of December and spend an hour with their new teacher experiencing a morning in their new class. I'm sure they will be very excited to meet their new teachers!

I think that is all for now...have a lovely afternoon.

Miss Rundle

A Post from Miss Bolton

Over the last four weeks in year 1R we have learnt many things!


In maths, we have learnt how to gather data by asking our friends which was their favourite fruit, animal and fairy tale. We really enjoyed data and were very successful in making picture and bar graphs. When we had finished data we moved onto measurement. In measurement so far we have learnt about length and capacity. We explored the length of different items in our classroom using blocks, dominoes and pop sticks. We partnered up to measure ourselves and compared our heights to our classmates. When learning about capacity we have used cups sand to fill objects and recorded how many cups they held.


Science has been very exciting discovering how food changes when it is heated and cooled. We explored the properties of popcorn as it changed from a kernel. This week we are investigating how eggs change and the variety of ways we can cook eggs.


In art we have been exploring texture and how different materials feel. We created a texture hand with 5 different textures. We also used amazing descriptive words for the textures. Some of the textures were bumpy and rough, others were smooth and silky.


I have been taking guided reading over the last 4 weeks and I am impressed with the knowledge and understanding your children have developed in such a short amount of time. We have learnt how to make predictions using the cover of a book and connect the character and events in the book to ourselves and our lives. We have also begun to use speech marks and write our own sentences using speech marks.


I have truly enjoyed my four weeks in this amazing and positive learning environment. I have made connections with every child and can see their potential to grow into fantastic members of our society.

Miss Bolton