Level 2 (Prep)

Curriculum Newsletter

This week's Newsletter is all about what we will be learning in Term 2.

Key Dates and Information

Please note that excursions are now live on Compass. Please ensure that you have paid the excursion levy and open Compass in your browser to give consent by the deadline date.

Monday 20th May 10 at 12pm

School Open Day

Thursday 23rd May PM

Excursion - Port Melbourne Beach Litter Pick Up

Wednesday 5th May AM

Excursion Prep A, B and C- South Melbourne Market.

Prep D, E and F- South Melbourne Market

Monday June 10th

Queen's Birthday Holiday

Thursday June 27th

Parent Teacher Interview day- no children in school

Tissues- We welcome boxes of tissues for the classes in the coming winter months

Inquiry

This Term, our Inquiry unit is focused on ‘Community’. A community is ‘a group of people living or working together in the same area’. Each week we will be unpacking and exploring one of the following questions with the students.

What is a community?
What communities do I belong to?
How can I take care of my community?
Who are the people in my community?
Who can we go to for help in the community?
What role would I like to play in my community?

We have some fun, hands on incursions and excursions that will help us understand this topic further. The fire fighters will visit to explain their role in the community. We will walk to the market to find out from some stall owners how they help the community and we will travel to Port Melbourne Beach to pick up rubbish to help our community. You can support your child at home by discussing the word 'community' with them and the different communities they are a part of. You can discuss the different people they will see in these communities and what they can do to help.

Circle Solutions

Whilst continuing to revist the 'Big 10', Circle Solutions sessions will centre around the value of ‘Character’. We will unpack this section of our student creed so that students have a greater awareness of what it means to have good character:

I smile and look on the bright side.
I am brave and use my initiative.
I am kind to myself and others.
I use my manners.
I choose to do what is right, even when no one is watching.

The children will also gain a deeper understanding of the Zones of Regulation through visuals, stories and role play. They will develop a vocabulary to express their emotions more accurately and begin to identify strategies to support them in returning to the green zone (ready to learn).

Linking nicely with their Inquiry unit on ‘Community’, the Preps will begin to identify people and actions within the community that help to keep themselves safe and healthy.

Reading

In Reading, students will continue to consolidate their learning of Concepts about Print through rich picture story books. They have been learning to identify focus letters, phonemes, words and sentences in the context of a book. Students are learning to make meaning of their books by going on picture walks, making connections to other books/events and using picture clues to help their reading. They will continue to create their own books that they can read and share with others.

We are very grateful and lucky to be a part of the Scholastic book club. Catalogues and information on how to order online went home last week. Please note that you can only place orders online by the 13th of May.

Students were assessed on their knowledge of the first 100 High Frequency Words and should be commended on all the learning they have done throughout the first semester. It is an expectation that they can read the first 30 words on the list by the end of term 2 so please ensure that you are regularly practising and engaging with this words at home. We will provide further information regarding how to do this next week.

Writing

In Writing, there will be a continued focus on handwriting, including using the correct pencil grip and beginning and ending letters in the correct place. Students will complete handwriting activities during the Writing Block and in the mornings from 8:45 in their overwrites. Students are very excited to write their weekend recounts on a Monday morning. Students enjoy sharing the events of their weekend with partners and listening to their teacher share about their weekend. The weekend recount enables students to focus on their spelling by saying the word, listening to the sounds and writing the letters that match. Students will continue to learn their High Frequency Words, which are the 'glue' words in a sentence. They will engage in activities that require them to read and write the words to support their recall and use in their writing.

Maths

We began the term by looking at days of the week and time. We are now learning how to subitise (knowing the amount without having to count) by looking at a series of pictures. This builds the foundation for identifying number relationships. We are also representing numbers using our fingers and by identifying patterns. The natural environment can be used often in Maths, for example by finding shapes around us and describing location at the beach. Preps also love to play, we will be teaching direction through using treasure maps, sand and chalk.

Later in the term Prep children will be learning more about number using ‘part-part-whole’ diagrams. You can see these models in the pictures below. Understanding this is vital for children, especially when they move on to using operations such as addition and subtraction.

In weeks 8, 9 and 10 the Preps will learn Measurement and Geometry by comparing lengths, masses and capacities. You might want to practise at home by measuring different lengths around the home. You could count the amount of footsteps it takes to get to the bus stop, or checking the length of the sofa by counting how many times we can put our hands one in front of the other. The children can also compare liquids and use their previous learning such as more and less to help them estimate and compare. Allowing children to help you cook and bake is a great way to sneak some fun Maths learning into everyday life.