Year Prep Report

Faith Life Inquiry

RE Focus: Solidarity/Belgoning

We explored the concept of Solidarity and Belonging, to look after one another and to “love our neighbour” through the scripture reading of The Good Shepherd, identifying the characteristics of Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd and The Good Samaritan. 

We ask ourself the following questions:

• Who is like the Good Shepherd?
• Do we know that the Good Shepherd will care for us as we care for others?
• How are we all connected?
• How do we care for each other?

Whilst exploring how we are connected to each other, we looked at how we are connected to our place and the land. 

Inquiry Focus: Geography -  What makes this place unique?

We investigated the concept of important and special places. We thought about what makes a place special and how and why special places need to be taken care of. We were introduced to maps and how we use them to find places, creating our own map of travelling from home to school and a map of SoGS with the help of our Year 5 buddies. We attended an excursion to CERES where we connected with Aboriginal cultures and acknowledged the significance of land. We understood that we all hold a responsibility for caring for the land. We participated in cultural practices such as sharing the Tiddalik story, the Merri Merri Cultural Walk, trying bush foods and participating in the Marngrook game.

Literacy 

In Reading, we have been learning about digraphs which are two letters that make one sound, for example ch for cheese and th for think. We enjoy finding digraphs in our shared texts and in our own books. We have introduced our own book boxes/folders where we can choose our own ‘just right’ books to read independently. This is where we have explicitly learnt what we need to do before, during and after reading. Independent reading promotes active problem solving and higher-order cognitive processes (Krashen, 2004). Over time independent reading allows children to have ‘better reading comprehension, writing style, vocabulary, spelling and grammatical development’ (Krashen, 2004, p.17). 

In Writing, we have been creating different short texts including recounts, narratives and descriptive writing. We have been learning how to construct a sentence using capital letters and punctuation. When we write, we use our letter-sound knowledge to listen to the sounds in words and write the letters to match. We have been learning to spell our high frequency words correctly. We have also been using our ground, grass and sky paper to teach us how to write uppercase and lowercase letters correctly. 

In Speaking and Listening, we have been building our vocabulary by exploring different places. We have learnt that we can use words to describe places using our five senses. We listen to books each day and respond orally by sharing our thoughts, feelings and connections. Using our phonics focus, we have been learning how to speak tongue twisters. You could have a try too at home: 

• Charlie chooses cheese and cherries
• If two witches would watch two watches, which witch would watch which watch?
• The rigging, swinging, singing singers sang winning songs.

Numeracy

We explored sharing quantities equally by using concrete materials and discussed what to do with ‘leftovers.’ We also engaged with literature texts that involved sharing and developed an understanding of what is fair and unfair. We have continued to develop our numeracy skills including counting, adding and subtracting. Soon we will be connecting our geography skills in mathematics to learn how to give and follow directions.