Year 1 Home Learning Statements

This term our reader’s workshop has two areas:

• Decoding: the ability to read a word by using phonics (the sounds within the word).
• Comprehension: the ability to understand and make sense of the text.

A fluent reader has the ability to put both of these skills together at the same time, which is a goal for  Year 1 readers.

This term we are focusing on persuasive and procedural writing. Students will also be practising forming lower case letters correctly on dotted thirds, using the Victorian Modern Cursive Script.

A persuasive text aims to convince the reader to change their opinion or to change their actions. Students will state their opinion and give arguments/reasons why.

A procedural text informs the reader how to do or make something. Procedural texts are organised into three parts:

• Aim (explains the purpose of the procedure)
• Materials (what you need)
• Steps (the instructions)

To support this learning at home:

• Follow procedures with your child such as recipes, origami, or arts and crafts activities. 
• Encourage your child to give reasons when requesting to have or do something.
• Talk about topics that have different opinions and have a discussion about reasons for/against. E.g. children should have less screen time.

To continue to build your child’s writing skills you can:

• Encourage fine motor development through activities such as cutting, pasting, playdough and beading. 
• Give your child the necessary resources, such as pens, pencils, paper or a notebook, and a space to write. 
• Support your child to read their writing aloud to see if it makes sense.

Click to access the Victorian Modern Cursive Script sheets.

Mathematics

This term we are working on addition, subtraction and telling the time. We will be learning about efficient strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems such as: counting on from the largest number, counting back, using doubles (5+5=10) and near doubles (5+4=9), using a number line, bridging to ten, drawing a picture and explaining your thinking. Students will learn to read and make o’clock and half past times on digital and analogue clocks.

To support this learning at home:

Counting:

• Practise counting by 1s (forwards and backwards), or skip counting by 10s, 5s, and 2s. For example, you may count by 1s to find out how many steps it takes you to walk to school or, you may count the letter box numbers to count by 2s (e.g. 242, 244, 246). 
• For a challenge, you could skip count by beginning on any number (e.g. by 2s from 7, 9, 11, 13, etc.)
• Play number games such as Snakes and Ladders, Uno or card games. 
• Practise counting when grocery shopping. For example, ‘How many apples am I putting in the bag?’ 

Addition and Subtraction:

• Tell a number story and encourage your child to draw it out, write the number sentence, or count on from the larger number to solve the problem. For example: The hen laid 4 eggs on Monday and 3 eggs on Tuesday, how many altogether? 4 + 3 = 7. Ask: what strategy did you use to solve the problem?

Time:

• Play Find the Time. Walk around the house and find all the different places you can read the time from. From the microwave to all the technology.
• Explore an analogue clock. Highlight times of the day when it is “o’clock” and “half past the hour”.
• Create a digital timetable. Make a table with all your activities and include the time that they are. For example:

Activity	Digital Time	Analogue Time
Netball	5:00pm

For more home learning ideas, see the Department of Education guide.

This term our reader’s workshop has two focuses:

• Decoding: the ability to read a word by using phonics (the sounds within the word).
• Comprehension: the ability to understand and make sense of the text.

A fluent reader has the ability to put both of these skills together at the same time, which is a goal for  Year 1 readers.

This term we are focusing on Recount and Narrative writing. Students will also be practising forming lower case letters correctly using Victorian Modern Cursive Script on dotted thirds.

Recount writing is the retelling of past events or experiences in sequential order. Recount writing consists of:

• Orientation (who? what? where? when?)
• Sequence of events (first, then, next, after)
• Conclusion (personal comment)

Narrative writing is an imagined story that has characters. Narratives come from two places; our imaginations or our experiences. Many stories are a combination of both. Narratives are organised into three parts:

• Orientation (used to introduce the characters and the setting)
• Complication (where something goes wrong)
• Resolution (where the problem/s are solved)

To support this learning at home:

• Give your child the necessary resources, such as pens, pencils, paper or a notebook, and a space to write. 
• Create an ‘ideas bag’ or ‘ideas folder’ to use as a writing prompt. To inspire writing ideas, collect objects such as photographs, pictures cut from magazines, brochures, movie tickets, or any other found item.
• Support your child to read their writing aloud.
• Encourage your child to create a picture, drawing or collage that visually represents their ideas.
• Always proudly display your child’s work in a prominent position in your house. This will give them confidence, and demonstrates the importance of writing. 
• Involve your child in authentic writing experiences such as writing cards and letters to family and friends.
• Encourage your child to keep a diary to recount important events.

Click to access the Victorian Modern Cursive Script sheets.

Mathematics

This term our focus in Number is counting and place value.

• Counting is an essential skill that underpins the understanding of number and algebra. Students should be able to count forwards and backwards by 1s to 100 from various starting points, as well as skip count from 0 by 2s, 5s, and 10s by the end of Year 1.
• Place value is the ability to know the value of each digit in a number; e.g. 24 is 2 tens and 4 ones. Students are working towards being able to recognise, model and order numbers up to 100 by the end of Year 1. This is an essential skill that supports addition and subtraction.

To support this learning at home:

Counting:

• Practise counting by 1s (forwards and backwards), or skip counting by 10s, 5s, and 2s to 100. For example, you may count by 1s to find out how many steps it takes you to walk to school or, you may count the letter box numbers to count by 2s (e.g. 242, 244, 246). 
• Identify the odd and even mailboxes.
• Play board and card games such as Snakes and Ladders. 
• Add the total number of cutlery items on the table. 
• Practise counting when grocery shopping. For example, ‘How many apples am I putting in the bag?’ 
• Count the legs (table, chair, human, animal) in your house. 
• Hunt for numbers throughout daily activities (e.g. cooking).

Place value (starting week 6):

• Use playing cards to make numbers with multiple digits and ask your child to read the number and say the value of each digit. For example 27, 2 tens and 7 ones or 27 ones. You could extend this by asking them to find the number that would be 10 more/10 less.
• Play ‘Guess my Number’. Choose a secret number, and students have to guess the number using place value to describe the number. For example, “Is there a 2 in the hundreds place?”

For more home learning ideas, see the Department of Education guide.