Prep Wonga Weekly

INFORMATION

🗓️ Upcoming Dates:

Wednesday 12th Feb: Assessment #4 - only students who have signed up for their assessment session need to attend school (see timetable below)

Monday 24th Feb: The NED show @ 2:30pm

Friday 28th Feb: Pop Up Canteen

Tuesday 4th March: Prep Information Session - 5pm

Thursday 20th March: Colour Run

📖 Update on Home Reading

We have had some questions about when home reading will be starting.

We will address this in depth at our Information Session. In the meantime, you can talk about the letters A and M (and later this week, S and T) and the sounds they make. Ask your child to show you the correct lower case formation for these letters! 

🎨 Specialist timetable

Library has now been added to the timetable. All Prep classes have Library on a Monday.

If you haven't sent along a library bag for your child, please do so, as they are unable to borrow without a library bag.

Wednesday - Assessment day

We have two more Wednesday assessment days left! Please see the schedule below.

CURRICULUM

📚 Phonemic awareness: reading and phonics

We are learning about the letters S and T, including the sounds they make and how to write them using correct formations. 

Students are also learning how to read and spell the Heard Words - 'the' and 'I'

Please note: we will explain UFLI in detail at our upcoming Information Session.

What can you do at home?

-Read bedtime stories to your child

-Revise the letters S and T by talking about the sounds they make. Revise the sounds of A and M. 

📝 Literature: reading responses and writing 

The mentor texts will be Whoever You Are by Mem Fox and The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be by Joanna Gains. These books have been carefully selected to reflect our CBL Guiding Questions. Students will compare and contrast ideas from the story, build their oral language skills by asking questions and reviewing the concept of 'beginning, middle, end'.

Students will continue to strengthen their fine motor skills for writing by engaging in activities like playdough, tracing, and cutting, which help build hand muscle strength. They will continue to develop a functional pencil grip (see pictures below) and focus on improving pencil control to create the essential lines for letter formation, including vertical, horizontal, and curved lines.

What can you do at home?

-Play with things that develop fine motor skills like lego, playdough, drawing and building blocks

-Help your child develop their pencil grip, using the guides below

-Write the letters A, M, S and T using taught lower case formations

🔢  Maths 

Students will explore the measurement concept of length. They will build their vocabulary to include 'tall, short, wide, long'. They will classify images to match these concepts. They will be introduced to informal concepts of measuring by using unifix to 'measure' height and width.

What can you do at home? 

-Have discussions using vocabulary of length ie. 'which tree is the tallest in our garden?' 

-Write numbers using taught formations

-Count collections using 1-1 counting

🌏 CBL - Connections

This week, we are exploring some of our Guiding Questions through our Mentor Text discussions and tasks (see above in literature).

We are also developing our understanding of Connections through our Wellbeing programs of Friendology and Respectful Relationships - see below!

 💛 Wellbeing

In Friendology, students are completing Session 2 called 'True Colours'. This session is focused on naming feelings, and helping students recognise and embrace both positive and uncomfortable feelings.

In our Respectful Relationships lessons, we will be building strengths through cooperative play. 

What can you do at home?

-Have discussions about emotions eg. what does it look and sound like if someone is happy? Angry? Needs a friend?