Foundation (Prep)

Hi everyone and welcome to another week in Prep C.

Magic 100 Words (M100W Books)

Children’s M100W Books will be sent home inside their reader bag next week on Monday, 7 March. These books include the 100 most common words found in books. Please take the time to read the information inside the booklet. 

Please remember:

• Children within one prep class are not the same age. 
• Children learn when they are developmentally ready.
• Be patient and praise your child for his/her efforts. Many of these words are not easy to read because they cannot be sounded out. 
• Please do not mark the words in the book.

If your child is having a lot of difficulty learning the words, the best thing to do is to put the book aside for a few weeks. (Just pop in and let me know. However, I may also recommend that you do this). Struggling over the same words for an extended period of time is no fun for any child and can in turn put them off learning their words.

As you can imagine, classrooms are very busy places! I will try to give your child the opportunity to read their words to me once a fortnight. 

Numeracy

In Maths sessions this week, the children have continued to learn the correct formation of their numbers. Prep C also created another pictograph. We collected information about the number of people that live in each house and discovered that families with 4 people were most popular. 

At ACPS, we use a program called Essential Assessment, to complete pre and post assessments on Maths topics and track progress throughout the year. Some students had a chance to complete their pre-assessment task for number this week. If your child has not had a turn, they will have an opportunity to do theirs early next week.  

The students also continued their work with measurement this week. We revisited the three important things to remember when measuring: use an object of the same size, start at the edge and leave no gaps. Students worked with a partner to record how many icy pole sticks long their jump was.

Handwriting

Students have been learning the following letters: c, a, d, o, g, s, f, and q. 

 i, l, b and t. This week we introduced n, m, r, h, p and k.

Please refer to the email I sent, if you are looking for a way to help your child consolidate their learning of these sounds. 

Reader's Workshop

One of our book responses this week was to Windy Day. Students were asked to think about the story and think of something that might have blown away. The class came up with enough ideas to create our first class book. Each student made a page and we have bound it and placed it in our class library.

Specialist Timetable

Our specialist days are as follows: 

Show and Tell

We will begin Show and Tell next week. 

Show and Tell gives children the opportunity to develop their confidence and speaking skills. I do not expect all children to participate if they are not ready.

Each child can do Show and Tell once a week, however it does not matter which day of the week it is. I would prefer that children only bring one item each week please. It is also more engaging for the audience if your child chooses something they think will interest the class. Examples might include a book, share a photo, something they have made, etc. When they bring something along to school it should be put in the tub next to the teacher’s chair. We will then work through the Show and Tell items throughout the day, the following day (or even throughout the week) if we are very busy or there are lots of people to get through.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Amanda Callaway

amanda.callaway@education.vic.gov.au