Prep/1 Mainstream 

Celebrating Learning

What we have been up to: 

Our F/1 students have been settling into their new classrooms and routines over the past weeks. We have been getting to know each other and students are enjoying making new friends with their classmates. 

PBL (play-based learning):

In PBL, students have been exploring the farm and garden beginning with what grows above ground and what senses we might use to explore. Our gardening lessons with Emily shifted student focus beneath the ground, as they learnt about compost systems and shovelled and carted soil into raised garden beds.

Maths:

In number, we have been counting and recording a collection of objects by auditing classroom supplies and investigating visual prompts.  Students began by exploring how many different ways they could count a collection with some students extending their learning by representing their count in different ways, such as partitioning numbers by place value - how many tens - how many ones? 

Reading:

Our F/1 students have started learning about characters and settings in stories that are read out loud to them. We have introduced these story grammar elements with a flash card and an action to help students recognise different elements of a narrative text.

In our reading groups this week we have been focussing on the following sounds:

Juliette and Jess:

• /m/ as in map
• /s/ as in snail

Matt was reviewing:

• /-ll/ as in shell
• /-ss/ and in mess
• /-ff/ as in puff
•  /-zz/ as in fuzz 
• suffix s 

Steph was reviewing:

• /ck/ as in sick
• /sh/ as in shop
• /th/ as in thump
• /ph/ as in dolphin
• /ch/ as in chop
• /tch/ as in watch 
• /ng/ as in song
• /wh/ as in whale 

Writing/ speaking and listening:

Students have been practising discussing events that have happened on their weekends. Foundation students have been learning about recording events visually and explaining their drawing to their teacher. 

Year 1 students have been reviewing how to write a sentence. We have been discussing how a simple sentence needs to include at least two information fragments”- a “who/ what” and a “what happened”. E.g.: Jess played football. This work reminds our year 1s to write in complete sentences so that their writing continues to develop.

What’s to come in the next two weeks:

• Please make sure your child is coming to school with a broad brimmed hat every day. 
• We will continue to use our story grammar flashcards and actions when reading a story. We will start to introduce the next element, “problem”. 
• We will introduce the concept of measuring length in maths and PBL.. 
• We will continue to develop our understanding about how a number can be represented in different ways.

Juliette and Jess