Investigating community

Each Monday afternoon over the past four weeks Year 1 have gathered together in the library as the students take part in a whole grade inquiry . We have been learning how the actions, values, traditions and people from the past have shaped present communities so that we can understand the impact of our actions as individuals in our communities. 

The students were placed in groups that were a mix of students from each classroom. Each week we have rotated through a number of learning experiences designed to have the students in Year 1 actively apply their knowledge by identifying ways in which they can contribute to the life of their communities and assist those who share them. 

We were very fortunate to be able to have the assistance of our Librarian to guide selection of resources and facilitate one of the group inquiries. Our inquiry culminates with a visit to the archives of our Dominican community later this week. Look out for our next post!
 

Problem Solving in Year 1

Addition and Subtraction Thinkboards

We have been learning about addition and subtraction these past two weeks. It has been wonderful to see the students strategies growing and watching them engage in the problem solving process. This morning I wanted to see how well they could apply these strategies from their 'toolbox' independently.

To do this I gave them a 'Thinkboard'. They are very familiar with these as a way of organising their mathematical thinking. After a brief introduction they set to work. The students were really engaged in the process. By allowing them to choose their own numbers the task was open enough that they could challenge themselves as much as they felt comfortable with.


The completed 'Thinkboards' demonstrate a range of strategies adopted by the students. You can see below in the photographs that students worked with 1 digit numbers through to addition of 2 digit by 2 digit numbers. There were some students that created multi-step problems which I was not actually expecting. Most students chose to create an addition thinkboard rather than a subtraction one which was also interesting.

These work samples give me a great deal of information about where to next for individual students.

Some comments from Year 1...
 

Exploring Our Past

We took ourselves back in time and tried to imagine walking through these gates as a boarder over a hundred years ago.

This is the sight of the original library!

This is the current sight of the library!

The old and the new.

The girls enjoyed trying on hats from the olden days.

Did you know that where this building now stands there was once a dairy?

Did you know that the ornate facade of Holyrood came from a bank in the city? It was carried to Strathfield block by block.

Community Day 2013

What a perfect way for the children in Year 1 to truely experience community! Our integrated unit this term has focused on what it means to be part of a community. Today we celebrated being part of the Santa Sabina community with our buddies, our friends, our families and our teachers through prayer, music, literature and play. It was a wonderful cross campus event.

Year 1 had great fun dressing up as their favourite book characters.

 

We enjoyed meeting up with our Buddies from Year 3 and even had a visit from our friends in the Middle School.

  There was even time for some community music making and appreciation.

Welcome!

Thank you for coming to see what we've been up too! We hope you enjoy stopping by now and then to share in our learning. Year 1 are looking forward to posting some of their exciting discoveries here.