Fortunately, most of the letters of the alphabet have unique shapes. No matter which way you turn them, the letter i looks quite different from the letter x, and f looks different from k.

There are two notorious troublemakers, though: the letters b and d. It is easy to see where the confusion comes in: flip the b and it becomes a d.

Here are some of the ways we practice.

Bulldoze the letter b to clear up b/d confusion (and d dies)

Stickers/post it notes on the dice all have a b or a d — great activity to force kids to attend to letter shape when reading b/d and writing/tracing b/d

Sorting through all the letters to find the bs or ds

Miss K

Every year as in preparation of our Camp program the Grade 1’s come to school for dinner!

This year was a little bit different. The students were asked as part of their CBL challenge to create a healthy Grade 1 dinner. The students had to think of a ‘balanced meal’ for their dinner.

The Menu:

Chicken Nuggets

Fish Bites

Chips

Salad- Lettuce, Tomato, Carrot

Cauliflower

The children decided that it was okay to have these foods as it covered Protein, Vegetables and Carbohydrates. The children understood that this was not an everyday dinner, but a special/sometimes dinner.

Here are some photos from the night!

We would also like to thank all the parents who cam to help on the night!

Miss K

We have been learning about the water cycle in Science the past few weeks.

To help us learn some of the words about the water cycle, we sang this cute little song and did the hand actions. The song goes to the tune of ‘She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain’

Water Cycle

Water travels in a cycle, yes it does
(use pointer finger to make a big circle)

Water travels in a cycle, yes it does
(repeat finger circle)

It goes up as evaporation
(moves hands up to the sky

Forms clouds as condensation
(make a cloud overhead with arms)

Then comes down as precipitation, yes it does!
(sprinkle with fingers while bringing arms down in front of you)

 After we sang the song a few times we made clouds with rain. (unfortunately like with any science experiment some of the clouds didn’t rain, but that’s okay!)

Miss K

Wow! What a busy time we have had in Grade 1 this Term.

Last Friday the whole school had a Historical Hats Day where the students were invited to research some facts and wear a hat. We came up with a variety of hats and learnt heaps of new things.

I wonder if you can guess what our hats represent?

First this happened..

..then this happened..

..then we looked like this!

We had lots of fun! We look pretty cool too.

Miss K

Our CBL challenge this term was to ‘Show our community why stereotypes are unfair or true’.

Here are some of our kids posters that they have displayed around the school.

We have been learning about  stereotyping and this is what we learnt.

By Ryan, Alex and Lachie.

Oops, it’s been a busy few weeks and I haven’t had a chance to write about our wonderful excursion to Scienceworks!

Scienceworks offers an exciting range of experiences for students and teachers, with interactive exhibition. I know I love Scienceworks!

Here is some photos from our adventures.

We had a great day! We love Scienceworks!

Miss K

Over the past 2 weeks children in Grade 1 have being discussing the properties of cooked and uncooked spaghetti.

First we listened to a poem-

Spaghetti

Spaghetti, spaghetti, all over the place,

Up to my elbows–up to my face,

Over the carpet and under the chairs,

Into the hammock and wound round the stairs,

Filling the bathtub and covering the desk,

Making the sofa a mad mushy mess.The party is ruined, I’m terribly worried,

The guests have all left (unless they’re all buried).

I told them, “Bring presents.” I said, “Throw confetti.”

I guess they heard wrong

‘Cause they all threw spaghetti!

– Shel Silverstein

The children enjoyed illustrating pictures from parts they may have enjoyed from the poem. e.g. a bathtub full of spaghetti or alternatively think of another spaghetti scene.

The next week the children were asked about the properties of uncooked spaghetti. We came up with many answers.

The children were then asked to build towers with the uncooked spaghetti (we worked out that cooked spaghetti wouldn’t work!) and marshmallows.

We had lots of fun learning all about Spaghetti!

Miss K

Friday is now our Show and Tell day. This Term we are trialling different ways to present our Show and Tell. We have a different topic each week. Last Friday our task was to bring in a book that we enjoy the most.

The children then sat in a circle and discussed the Title of the book, their favourite pages and why?

Abbey brought in the book ‘Colour Me Happy’ by Shen Roddie. Abbey said ” I like it because it has a color of every feeling you have. It’s also my favourite because Mum and Dad gave it to me.

Alex’s favourite book was the ’39 Clues: The Maze of Bones’ by Rick Riordan. Alex said I like the book because it is exciting. I don’t like it when I have to stop reading. This book is the first in the series. It’s my favourite because it’s the start of the adventure” 

Riley enjoyed the book ‘The Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs’ by Joanna Cole. Riley likes the book because ” it tells you lots of facts of dinosaurs when they were on Earth and it shows lots of different types and what they look like”.

Some students even discussed how they enjoyed the Books which also has Movies.

What a wonderful Show and Tell session we had.

I can’t wait to see what the students bring in this week! The topic is something they’ve achieved.

Miss K

Today 1K explored the mystery of this object.

It looks like an icy pole, but it doesn’t feel like one.

The children explored this mystery item using ‘Think, Pair, Share’.

Here we are sharing our ideas in pairs.

I like how the children were really listening to each other.

What wonderful partner sharing!

In the end we decided that it was an icy pole, just melted because ‘Miss K left it out too long, Miss K took it out of the freezer, and it was left in the sun’.

Next week we will be doing something with spaghetti!! I hope they don’t make too much of a mess!

Miss K