Prep 

Despite the flu spreading across the learning community, we have managed to have a tremendous fortnight of learning in Prep. We are so very proud of how resilient they have all been in getting through a very busy 2 weeks, filled with many changes and split classes. 

Reading:

You may have noticed that your child has not received any new sounds to add to their Sound Book recently and that is because we have been spending the beginning of each Reading lesson focusing on a particular reading comprehension strategy, paired with our book of the week. These strategies include, predicting, inferring, text-self connections and summarizing. 

By focusing on a strategy, a day, the students are able to develop a strong understanding of what the book is about. 

Our reading rotations have continued these past few weeks, and the students are now showing greater confidence in completing their assigned task independently, using their letter/sound knowledge. During these rotational sessions, each Prep teacher has been reading with a focus group, which has allowed us to determine where each child is at and how we can best support each individual in improving their reading skills. 

Writing:

In Writing, we have continued to begin each week with a fun and engaging experience that becomes our recount focus for the week. Have a look at the last few weeks' experiences. Last week we stayed warm and toasted marshmallows by a campfire and this week we witnessed a slimy mess in our library left by Arnold the monster.

After each of these experiences we discuss ‘Who’ was involved in the experience, ‘What’ we were doing and ‘Where’ the experience took place. These semantics assist us with forming a Word Splash, creating a title, drawing a picture to match it, and writing a sentence with depth and excitement.

Students are too encouraged to write their own sentence by listening to the sounds they can hear in each word and making use of the Word Splash anchor chart. 

It has been amazing to watch their confidence in writing continue to increase each week the more they practise. We look forward to watching their writing abilities develop further as we participate in many more fun experiences ahead!

Numeracy:

You may have had your child asking you some ‘Do you like…’ questions last week and that is because in Maths we asked each other these types of questions as a way of collecting data about one another. In this unit, the students learnt how to best record this information, and how to represent it so that it is easy to understand. We did so in an organised table using tally marks and ticks and crosses.

This week our focus in Maths shifted from data and we began learning about different types of patterns. We explored using hands on manipulatives, simple AB patterns, AABB patterns and ABC patterns. It was so great to see the students using their creative brains to make different types of patterns using coloured blocks, different shapes, coloured beads, coloured teddies, different dance moves and drawings.

Integrated:

Last week in Integrated we looked at the difference between ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ and how even though we may want something, it may not be something we actually need. The students learnt that needs are things that we absolutely need to live a healthy life, such as food, loved ones, shelter, water, and clothes. To enhance their understanding, they then cut out different images of real-life things and categorised them as either a ‘want’ or a ‘need’.

This week Integrated became a little more personalised, with a focus on personal strengths. The students spoke about things they were good at and their personal qualities that make them a good person. They also had a go at describing their peers’ qualities and in groups drew each other with the quality that best identifies with them.

We feel as though the concepts explored these past few weeks in Integrated were very valuable and eye opening for some. We hope that the students will be able to take on board this content and use it outside of school to perhaps make someone feel good.