Week 5

We are now half way through the first term and the children are all settling well into Year One. If you have not heard from me yet then be assured your child is doing well.

There has been a steady stream of volunteers on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings for reading.  Thank you to all these parents and relatives.  It makes a great difference to the children's reading when they get regular practice.  They have also had the opportunity to run through their sight words.  Remember when you progress to the RED words don't go too fast.  No more than 3 new words   per night.  Constant revision of the old lists is needed for your child to retain them.

Good listeners sit still in Year One.

The children have been using the IPads to play an app called Sentence Maker.  It is a cheap app that is fully customisable.  Our IPads now feature photos of the children.  They are getting a real kick out of seeing themselves on the IPad.  "This IPad has gone crazy and is getting pictures of us!"

Our school has a subscription to Sunshine Online.  It is a fantastic resource where stories are read to the children in a variety of levels and there are matching activities. Levels are chosen by the teacher to match the reading ability of the students.

The children played an alphabet game today where they matched pictures to the letters based on their beginning sound.  

These students worked with a School Officer to make words using magnetic letters.

In Maths we have been concentrating on numbers zero to ten.  All children can easily count to ten out loud but some are having difficulty making numbers with hands on materials.  The activity above was helping the children to realise that the number five can be represented different ways.  They need this skill to be able to understand the concept of addition and subtraction.

Some children have been using the Leap Pad to read EBooks and play games to reinforce numeracy and literacy skills.  They think they are playing but really they are learning.

We have four Leap Frog Tags in our room and an assortment of books to go with it.  This amazing resource reads stories to the children, modelling excellent fluency.  They can tap on individual words to hear them read.  On some pages there are phonics games as well.  We received a lovely donation of a Map of the World to be used with the Tag pens this week.  The children are keen for me to install it on the pens.  It has been a worthwhile investment to see them all so engaged in reading. 

Although we have digital reading we read ordinary paper books as well.  Some children are needing reminders to turn the pages gently from the corner of the page.  It would be great if you would help them to practise this skill at home with their own books and the home readers.  Most children also need to be encouraged to point to each word on the page.