Prep / 1 Mainstream
Celebrating Learning
PBL (play-based learning):
In PBL these past few weeks we have started exploring how a great idea can be modified to make it even better! Students have been working together to create something and are then encouraged to make a change to make their creations even better!
Maths:
As we continue our addition and subtraction unit, students are discovering how to represent their sums in different ways. We have practised simple number sentences (3+7=10) and are now investigating number bonds. Number bonds help our students to see that a whole number can be made up of two parts.
Writing:
Our writing focus is moving from fiction to non-faction. Students have been learning about the features of a non-fiction text. We have started looking at how facts can be categorised. The categories that we have been discussing are:
-classification
-what they eat
-what they look like
-where they live
-how they move
-interesting facts
Classes have come up with actions for each of these categories that we use while reading a non-fiction text and writing facts about animals and insects.
Reading:
An integral part of building fluency is reading out loud to a partner and receiving feedback. This gives students the chance to notice how reading words accurately impacts their own and their partners' understanding of the text. A listening partner can assist their reading partner to read a word accurately by saying:
- “That word is _____”
- “What’s that word?”
- “Good. Can you read that sentence again, please?”
We have gradually been introducing paragraph shrinking in our classrooms to assist with reading comprehension. Paragraph shrinking helps build student understanding of the text and therefore improves fluency. Students are asked to “shrink” either a very short page or paragraph of the text by identifying who the text is mostly about and what the most thing is that has happened. Students then say the main idea in a sentence that is 10 words or less.
In our reading groups over the past two weeks we have been focussing on the following sounds:
Rylee/ Anastasia and Jess:
- CVCC words with adjacent consonants at the end of a word such as dusk, limp and sulk.
- CCVC words with initial adjacent consonants such as glad, glum and drat.
Matt was learning:
- /ir/ as in birthday
- /ur/ as in surf/
- /er/ as in serve
Steph was learning:
- /oo/ as in oops
- /oul/ as in could
- /u/ as in push
- /a_e/ as in gate
- /a/ as in acorn
- /ce/, /ci/ and /cy/ as in space, city and cycle
What’s to come in the next two weeks:
- Thank you for continuing to support your children to take home readers and practise at home.
- There are screenshots of the card game, “making 10” and “part-part whole” in the pictures folder. All you need is a packet of playing cards to have a go at this at home with your child.
- Thanks to families who have donated cardboard boxes! If you have some lying around at home that you would be willing to bring in, hand them in to Jess or Juliette. We will be using these in PBL in the upcoming weeks.
- Please keep sending warm spare clothes as PBL can be very messy in the colder months!
- Swimming is coming up in week 9. More information to follow along with a social story that you can chat about with your child at home!
warmly
Rylee, Anastasia and Jess