Prep Community News

Dear Prep Families,

Welcome back to school! We hope you have had a wonderful term break! The Prep Team is very excited for Term 2, we are going to be busy! Thank you so much for your support in our new morning drop off routines! Allowing the prep students to enter the pods by themselves is a huge step in their independence, and it has been so great to see students unpack their bags and join in their morning routines all by themselves! 

English 

Our InitiaLit program has continued to introduce new sounds and letters this term. We have focused on the letters p, i and f since coming back to school. You can help to support your child at home by asking them to share the sound that p, i and f make. You can ask them what sound does ‘pirate’, ‘iguana’ and ‘fish’ start with? You can also encourage them to practice writing their letters in Victorian Cursive font at home. There are so many fun ways to encourage writing at home, like writing in a sandbox, using chalk, or writing in the steam after a shower!

We are also incorporating daily writing and reading practice into our lessons, and students are using the letters and sounds we learned in Term 1, to read and write words such as “at”, “Sam”, and “mat”. 

We have started our vocab lessons this term. We focused on 3 words from the story “The Grumpy Bear” the first two weeks of term. The vocabulary words were “grumpy”, “yanked” and “shrinking”. Ask your child what these words mean, or if they can act out these words for you! 

Maths

In Maths, we have been learning to write the numbers 7, 8 and 9. We are practicing writing these numbers with the correct formations and saying rhymes to help us remember the formation! We have also been learning the names of the days of the week, and important events that happen on each of the days. Ask your child at home, “What special class do you have on Mondays…?”, “What is an activity we might do as a family on the weekends?”. Students have been counting collections of things up to the number 9, and are orally counting up to the number 16. 

Other Areas

Some other areas of learning that we have been completing each week include Digital Technology and Respectful Relationships. During Digital Technology, our students have been exploring the features of an iPad. In Respectful Relationships, our students have been learning about different emotions and when/ why we might be feeling them. We have also begun our history unit. In prep, we are learning about our family history and our cultural backgrounds. In weeks 1 and 2 of this term, we focused on identifying people in our families! It was so fun to learn about the students’ siblings, parents, cousins and extended families! They drew pictures of their beautiful families and shared their art with their classmates.  

Reminders

Take Home Reading

At Tarneit Rise, we encourage reading each night to practise and develop enjoyment in reading. Each child has an assigned day to change their reading books. Please bring their reading satchel on this day so classroom teachers can check reading journals and assist your child in getting new books. In the reading journal you can record how many nights of reading your child has done. At the end of each term, certificates will be given to celebrate hitting certain milestones for nights of reading!

With the colder weather starting this Autumn, please ensure that you label all extra clothing that your child brings to school with their name and their class (e.g. PA). This helps us with lost items and ensuring that your child’s items are returned to them. We quite often end up with parents having to repurchase uniforms as the children lose them throughout the day and they cannot be found. If it has a name and class on it, it will easily be returned to the teacher within a few days.   

The first bell rings at 8.45 am signalling students to make their way into class and be ready to begin learning at 8.55 am. The school day finishes at 3.10 pm. From term 2, parents drop their child at the pod doors in the morning. This supports building independence at school. All Prep children are collected from the classroom inside the pod. If your child will be attending Big Childcare after school, they will be collected from their classroom and walked over to the gym.    

Friday 30th May is a Pupil Free Day for report writing.

If you have any further questions, please contact your child’s class teacher for support. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about your child’s learning this week!

PLC Prep