Montessori Yr 1/2 Term 1 Overview
Term Overview
Welcome to all our existing and new parents and carers in Year 1 and 2. We have a fantastic school community so please if you can, take some time to connect with each other ahead of a busy term 1.
It is very important for students to attend school every day so they do not miss out on any of the curriculum or fall behind. It is also important for every student to have a healthy breakfast before coming to school to help their concentration and ability to learn. Please ensure your child comes with a healthy lunch, preferably as soft plastic free as possible.
In Montessori year 1 and 2 our children now join the rest of the cohort at break time to eat lunch together in the undercover JLC area. After they eat, their lunchbox and water bottles are stored in our class tubs and then brought back to classroom fridge at the end of breaktime. If names come off lunchboxes and water bottles, please make sure you rename them throughout the year, to avoid confusion and lost property issues.
QParents
QParents is here
Great news: Trinity Beach SS provides our parent community with the opportunity to register for QParents.
We will be sending out invitations for parents to register for QParents next week.
QParents won’t replace the traditional ways you communicate with our school, but it will provide another way to communicate with us.
More information about QParents can be found at https://qparents.qld.edu.au/#/about
Attendance
How to report an absence:
- Email attendance@trinitybeachss.eq.edu.au or
- Call the school's absence line on 4057 1444, then press #1 and don't forget to leave a reason why your child/children are away, or
- Send a note to the classroom teacher on their return
Our schools attendance target is 95%
Reading / Spelling
Montessori year 1/2 continues to implement a systematic synthetic phonics approach this year that has a teaching sequence for reading and spelling which goes across the entire school. Promoting Literacy Development or PLD for short, provides teachers with an innovative, evidence-based approach to literacy and advocates that children’s literacy and learning outcomes are maximized when the areas of literacy, oral language and movement & motor skills are simultaneously targeted. We will continue working with decodable texts instead of predictable texts in the teaching of reading.
Students may come home with games re high frequency words or sounds or home readers depending on their current focus. Please be assured that students will be getting a high level of reading mileage at school every day.
English
During the first term, we will assess where all children are at and deliver lessons frequently throughout the day to support children to progress in the area of literacy. For young children, we focus on oral language skills to build a solid foundation upon which to build. We will also systematically teach children letter sounds as well as blending and segmenting.
During semester 1, children will also be exposed to a variety of narrative, information report and procedure texts and practice skills such as expressing opinions, adapt ideas and compare similarities and differences between text types.
Maths
This term we are focusing on building children’s understanding of numbers. For our year one children this means ensuring they have a sound foundation in numbers to 20 including zero. They will then work with numbers to 100, ordering and connecting number names, numerals, quantities and applying knowledge of place value to partition two-digit numbers.
Year two will work with numbers to at least 1000, applying knowledge of place value to partition, rearrange and rename two and three-digit numbers in terms of their parts, and regroup partitioned numbers to assist in calculations.
Measurement will also be a strong focus this term. Our year one children will compare and order objects and events based on the attributes of length, mass, capacity and duration, communicating reasoning. They will also explore the use of uniform informal units to measure length. Year two will extend this knowledge to use uniform informal units to measure and compare shapes and objects re a range of different attributes.
Our children will continue to use a range of hands on materials, including the specialized Montessori number materials to develop their mathematic knowledge this year.
Science
This semester our year one and two students will participate in guided investigations of toys. The year ones will work to describe toys and the effects of interacting with them, make predictions and respond to questions. The year two children will investigate and report on the push and pull forces that cause the toys to move and describe how changes made to the toys could affect movement. To compliment the investigation of forces this term, elements of Montessori’s 6-12 Cosmic Science framework such as the telling of the Great Stories and opportunities to participate in cross-curricular related science tasks will also be offered.
HASS
In History our year ones are learning about their own past. We will explore the nature, diversity and structure of families; investigate the ways we commemorate past events that are important; and recognise how family stories are shared and remembered. Children will draw a picture of events they have commemorated with their families and respond to questions about those events and family members. Children will identify, describe and sequence personal and family events and describe things that have stayed the same and things that have changed.
Our year two students will describe a person, site and/or event of significance in the local community and explain why places are important to people. They will explore and recognize that the world is divided into geographic divisions and that places can be described at different scales. Students will also describe how people in different places are connected to each other and identify factors that influence these connections.
HPE
Students in year one will develop the fundamental movement skills of dodging and running and test alternatives to evade others and objects in tagging games. They will explore positive ways to interact with others, including strategies to work in groups and play fairly during tagging games. In Health, students will select and apply strategies to keep themselves healthy and safe and will be able to ask for help with tasks or problems.
Students in year two will demonstrate fundamental skills to test alternatives to solve movement challenges, to reach their targets in different games and sports. In Health, students will describe changes that occur as they grow older. They identify how emotional responses impact on others' feelings.
Music
In year one, students will learn to move and perform with beat and tempo. They will learn dances to develop body control and movements. Students will practice singing songs as well as listen and analyse music of different cultural back grounds. Also they will consolidate knowledge of solfa notes – C, E, G and A.
Students in year two will appreciate and analyse the music of Saint-Saens. They will consolidate their knowledge of rhythmical elements – Ta, Ti-ti and Za and learn tika-tika(semiquavers). Students will create and perform different rhythmical patterns using known rhythmical elements. They will learn about tuned and un-tuned percussion instruments and use these to produce rhythmical ostinatos. Students will be introduced to the musical forms of the canon, A form and AB form by singing different songs. They will consolidate their knowledge of the pentatonic scale.
Visual Arts
This term in Visual Arts, year one students view various famous artworks that also relate to characters in books and animated cartoons. Students will explore ideas, experiences, observations, and imagination to create visual artworks and design. They will use and experiment with different materials, techniques, technologies and processes to make artworks.
Year two students will be exposed to each of the seven basic elements of art. Elements of art are stylistic features that are included in artwork to help the artist communicate. These elements are line, shape, colour, texture, value space and form. Students view various famous artworks that have each element depicted in the artwork. Students will use and experiment with different materials, techniques, technologies and processes to make artworks using the basic elements of art.
Drama
Year 1
‘The Magic Beach’
Students explore the picture book "Magic Beach", through improvisation, mime, movement and reader's theatre.
Year 2
‘Amy and Louis’. Story Book Drama
Students create and perform roles in a story book drama based on the book Amy and Louis by Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood.
Assessment Schedule
| Learning area | UNIT OUTLINE | DUE DATE |
Year 1 English | PLD Spelling placement test PLD Monitoring Proceedure Pre test | Week 10 |
Year 2 English | PLD Spelling placement test PLD Monitoring Proceedure Pre test | Week 10 |
Year 1 Maths | Number monitoring Measurement | |
Year 2 Maths | Number monitoring Measurement | |
Year 1 MUSIC | Sing and play on glockenspiel the song ‘Rain, rain’ with lyrics and solfa. | Week 8-9 |
Year 2 Music | Singing the core song ‘Tony Chestnut’ with body ostinato. | Week 8-9 |
Year 1 HPE -Health | My safety, my responsibilities | Week 9-10 |
Year 2 HPE - Health | Stay Safe | Week 9-10 |
Contact Information
Contact your childs teacher via email:
1/2A - Kat Davies kdavi226@eq.edu.au
1/2B - Jac Williams jwill68@eq.edu.au
Specialist Teachers
HPE - Jodie Donovan jdono63@eq.edu.au
HPE - Rochelle Powell rapow1@eq.edu.au
Visual Arts - Vaness Graham vgrah5@eq.edu.au
Music - Svetlana Walker swalk146@eq.edu.au
Drama - David Terry dater1@eq.edu.au
HPE/Technology/Drama - Karen Arthur kaart0@eq.edu.au
Technology - Jacqui Kidney jkidn6@eq.edu.au