POYNTER PRIMARY SCHOOL Year 1 Room 3, Room 4 and Room 14 Information Booklet

Welcome back to a new school year! Each member of our year 1 teaching team has many years of experience working in Early Childhood Education. We are all looking forward to working collaboratively together. Room 3-Terrie Mumme and Natalie Perera Room 4-Julie Haque and Cathy King Room 14-Kathy Ridley Our Educational Assistants are: Paula Pearson, Jody Harper and Dot Wright This information is provided so you can get an insight into your childs classroom. ENGLISH Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening and Viewing are interrelated. The English programme enables all children to: Read a wide range of texts with purpose, understanding and critical awareness through purposeful talk. Write for a wide range of purposes and in a range of forms using conventions appropriate to audience, purpose and context. Speak and Listen with purpose, understanding and critical awareness in a wide range of contexts. View a wide range of visual texts with purpose, understanding and critical awareness. Reading The classroom reading programme incorporates a variety of texts, both Fiction and Non-Fiction, and a range of activities. The use of big books, for whole class shared reading, and ability level texts, for individual and shared reading, will be alternated. The class will experience: Shared reading Individual reading Modelled reading Writing The children write in a supportive environment, in which they are encouraged to take risks. Writing is incorporated into many learning areas although a writing time is set for each day. The class will experience: Shared writing Teacher selected writing Child selected writing Modelled writing Every Thursday, a child in each classroom will volunteer to take one of the class puppets home for the weekend. Over the weekend, they will be required to write a story with the puppet as one of the characters and they can draw a picture to go with it. They will then present their writing to the class on Monday. It would be great if you could help them to write their story although it is not necessary for the story to be perfectly punctuated, all words correctly spelt and their printing to be very neat. Your child is in Year One and experimenting, and we would like the opportunity to go through their writing with them at school, teaching them how to proof read and edit their own work at an ability appropriate standard. It is a perfect opportunity for one-to-one teaching and learning. The children will be provided with opportunities to discover and experiment with sounds in words through the Diana Rigg programme and Words Their Way activities. These activities will help them to become more aware of the sounds (phonemes) in words and the letters (graphemes) that can make those sounds. Spelling Journals help to individualise spelling on the basis of the childs needs. The children will have a list of words in their Journals to practise every week night. The handwriting programme can involve copying, tracing, making , designing and teacher-directed lessons. A copy of the Victorian Modern Cursive letter formations is attached. Viewing The children will be discussing and writing about their interpretations of visual texts (pictures, films, art works, television programmes etc).

Speaking and Listening The children will be involved in speaking and listening activities throughout the curriculum areas, although the following are regular activities; Thursday three children will be given a Mystery Bag. They choose an item (that is not a toy), from home, to place in the bag. At school, the other children ask questions to discover the contents of the bag. Monday-Thursday The children will be able to tell or bring something of interest for News. Sometimes the children will be asked to bring News on a selected theme too. News will be spread over a fortnight and a time-table will be sent home by your class teacher. Mathematics Students will explore new concepts using a range of manipulative materials. It is important that students are given a range of practical hands-on tasks and the opportunity to talk and reflect on their learning. They will be encouraged to record what they have learned in pictorial, written and symbolic form. We will endeavour to have the children build a recall of basic addition and subtraction facts to 20 and beyond. They will be introduced to a number of mental strategies to assist with this recall. We will be using number journals to assist students to be able to read, write and say numbers in order beyond 100 (count on or back). Students will have their own individual targets to work towards. The children will be provided with a range of learning experiences to assist them to grasp space, measurement and chance and data concepts. Maths tasks given to the students will be modified to cater to individual abilities. The Arts Visual Arts are encouraged in class. Some of the Technology and Enterprise learning are is incorporated into the Visual arts. The children will be designing most of their art work before making it. Mr Wilson will be taking the children for Art. Mrs Goddard will be taking the classes for Music. The children will also be learning song in class so their appreciation and understanding of music can be developed further. Learning Technologies The children will go to the computer lab with Mrs Goddard. The classroom computers will be utilised for extension, remediation and word processing. Science In Science, the children will be given opportunities to; Plan investigations to test ideas about the natural and technological world. Collect and record a variety of information relevant to their investigations. Translate and analyse information to find patterns and draw conclusions to extend their understanding. Reflect on an investigation, evaluate the process and generate further ideas. Buddies The Year 1 children will be assigned a Year 7 buddy to help them settle into school. The older children can assist their buddies by showing them around the school, explaining the boundaries and being a caring friend. Health and Physical Education Ours school is Nut Aware. We have a number of children who have anaphylaxis. Please do not send your child to school with peanut butter sandwiches, loose nuts or products containing nuts. To promote better health practices, we have Crunch and Sip Time. Children will be encouraged to bring a small container of fruit or veg each day and we will set aside time in the day for the children to eat. All year round the children will be encouraged to keep a drink bottle of water (please no frozen water) on their desk. This enables them to have a sip when needed without having to consistently leave the classroom to do so. The bottle needs to be a pop-top one as this reduces the spill if they are knocked over.

Physical Education will be taken by Mr Emery. On Friday the children may wear their House shirt. When possible, the children will have Fitness, which will incorporate different activities like running, obstacle courses, relays, games, etc. Library We will be visiting the library once a week and your child will be able to take home 2 books if they have returned all their books from the previous week. They must have a bag to put their books in. Testing and Reporting to Parents The students will receive a formal report at the end of the first and second semester. The children will be taking work home at various times throughout the year so you can see what they are doing. You can also come into the classroom before school and have a look at your childs work. The children may be taking part in both class and year level assessment tasks and school-based tests. Homework Your childs time outside of school is just as important as the time spent in it, therefore we try to keep it to a maximum of 15-20 minutes per night (or morning if more convenient) and no homework on the weekend. Any other homework will only be on a needs basis. Reading Homework Reading homework should be done every school day. Year level appropriate books are available in the Junior Reading Room, although the children can use other books as well. The children can choose to read their library books (school or public library) or anything from home such as; magazines, newspapers, comics, cartoons, poems, fiction or non-fiction, packaging. Anything you deem appropriate. What is important is that your child is reading! The children have a reading diary in which to record their homework. Your child (or yourself) write in the date, the name of the book and the pages read. Then you provide your signature to confirm that the homework was done. Home reading doesnt always have to involve them reading to you. It can involve you and your child alternating the reading (sentence by sentence, page by page, paragraph by paragraph, etc). Reading together or your child reading on their own. It is basically up to you and what you think your child needs. If they read on their own you can check your childs understanding by asking them to: Retell what they have read, Share their favourite part, Discuss a character, Tell about the most interesting fact they have learnt, Read silently with you and ask you a question. If your child is confronted with a difficult or unknown word, encourage them to have-a-go first by looking at the pictures and predicting from the initial letters of the word and then reading the rest of the sentence for further clues. If they still are unable to work out the word, tell them what it is. If your child has difficulty reading, read to them and get them to read a few words. As you are reading, continually discuss the text with your child (the words, the characters, the story etc). As their ability progresses, steadily increase the amount of text they are reading. Some children will also have a book of sight words to practise. Parent Help Classroom doors open at 8.30 and children read to a parent or the teacher every morning. Please put your name on the Reading Roster outside your childs classroom door. Parent assistance may be requested at other times. Please regularly check the Year 1 blog or the notice board outside the classrooms.

PARENT /TEACHER CONTACT We are happy to talk with you about your child and discuss any issues or concerns you may have. As you would understand, once the children are in the classroom at 8:30 am our focus is towards them. If you want a quick word with us, then please pop in and see us. If you want an in depth discussion, then contact us to arrange a mutually convenient time. We can be contacted by; seeing us personally, writing a note/letter, School phone 9448 4036, email julie.haque@det.wa.edu.au cathy.king@det.wa.edu.au terrie.mumme@det.wa.edu.au natalie.perera@det.wa.edu.au kathy.ridley@ det.wa.edu.au Please regularly check the Year 1 Blog www.firstpoynt.blogspot.com ABSENCES If you are taking your child out of school for part of the day, you will need to check them out at the office and give the teacher the card. If your child has been or is going to be absent from school, you will need to provide a written note explaining the absence. BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT PLAN Our classes have many incentives and rewards for good work and behaviour. These are in the form of play money earned for the Raffle, stickers, certificates, verbal praise, sharing work with others, Star of the Day, Worker of the Week, free time (constructive) and special class treats. The class rules and the school behaviour management plans are displayed in the classroom. The children are continually reminded of the rules. INDEPENDENCE In the classroom, the children are responsible for their behaviour and belongings. They are also encouraged to become more responsible for their learning. We try to make them as independent as possible and your help would be greatly appreciated. If you could please: encourage them to remember what they need to bring to school each day. Their Everything Bag needs to come to school every day as we use it for carrying homework, parent, teacher or school notes, Library books, and work to go home. let them collect, pack/unpack and carry their bag. let them bring their things, from home, into the classroom and put any notes in the correct baskets. get them to school at around 8:30 am. This really helps develop their organisational skills as they have time to read, to organise their school things and prepare themselves for the learning day ahead. We aim to provide an enjoyable, stimulating environment that enables your child to feel happy and safe about their class/school and that it fosters their learning and development. We hope we all have a positive, rewarding year together. Thank you for your co-operation and assistance over the coming year. Julie Haque Cathy King Terrie Mumme Natalie Perera Kathy Ridley Class Teachers