Spotlight on Learning

Year 1

Year 1 has had a fantastic and action packed start to 2026! From splashing through Water Fun Day to showing determination at Cross Country and celebrating inclusivity on Harmony Day, it’s been a busy and exciting term.

In the classroom, we’ve been working incredibly hard and have successfully completed our first full term of InitiaLit learning! What an achievement!

Our students have built a strong foundation in reading and writing, mastering a growing list of tricky words such as said, are, who, her, was, very, put, have, were, you, there, and they (just to name a few). We’ve explored short vowel sounds and begun learning about long vowels, while also developing our understanding of important language concepts.

We now know:

• A consonant is any letter that isn’t a vowel

• A digraph is two letters that make one sound

• A phoneme is a small sound in a word

• A noun is a person, place, or thing

• A verb is an action word

• A compound word is made up of two smaller words

We’ve also been working on breaking words into syllables and creating our very own Super Sentences, making sure they start with a capital letter, end with a full stop, make sense, and tell the reader something important.

We have been using Bond blocks to help us to learn how to bridge to both 5 and 10 using ‘part, part, whole’. 

We have learned math strategies to solve simple addition and subtraction problems, explored the connections between numbers using Think Boards, and used physical materials to partition numbers into their place value.

Our inquiry has been ‘Who We Are’. We have researched and explored our differences and similarities as people, what makes us unique, how to be safe, how to be a kind friend, and how to solve and identify ‘small, medium, and big problems’. Through collaborative and independent tasks, like drama and art, students have demonstrated their understanding of self, others and world. 

We are so proud of the progress Year 1 has made already and can’t wait to see what Term 2 brings!