Prep-2 Sector 

PREP

What a fantastic start to the year it has been! Our Prep students have settled in beautifully and should feel very proud of all they have achieved this term.

Over the past weeks, students have been busy learning new routines, building friendships, and developing their skills across all areas of learning. We are seeing wonderful growth in independence, with students confidently managing their belongings, following classroom routines, and beginning to take ownership of their learning. It has also been lovely to see their resilience grow as they try new things, persist with challenges, and bounce back when things feel tricky.

We are also really enjoying our daily hour of phonics. Students now have the routine down pat and have been having lots of fun decoding, spelling, and reading new words. It has been wonderful to see their confidence continue to grow as they build their early reading skills.

As the weather begins to get colder, please ensure that your child has their name clearly labelled on their jacket and jumper.

We encourage families to continue supporting learning over the holidays. Reading regularly with your child and practising counting in everyday situations will make a big difference. You can also continue to use the Decodable Readers Australia (DRA) website and complete assigned tasks on Study Ladder.

As the weather begins to get colder, please ensure that your child has their name clearly labelled on their jacket and jumper.

We encourage families to continue supporting learning over the holidays. Reading regularly with your child and practising counting in everyday situations will make a big difference. You can also continue to use the Decodable Readers Australia (DRA) website and complete assigned tasks on Study Ladder.

We are already looking forward to an exciting Term 2, including our Native Animals incursion and many more fun and engaging learning experiences.

Thank you for your continued support this term. We wish all our Prep families a safe and happy holiday break!

The Prep Team

Year 1

Over the past few weeks, the Year 1 students have continued to build their learning skills and confidence across all areas of the classroom. It has been wonderful to see their curiosity and enthusiasm during lessons.

In Reading, students have been learning and practising new sounds, including the long a and long e vowel sounds. They have also been exploring spelling rules that help them recognise how these sounds appear in different words. One of the exciting words we learnt to spell was “trapeze” – how amazing!

In Writing, we have been reading the stories Elmer’s Special Day and Sunday Chutney. Through these books, students practised making connections with the stories and discussing the feelings and traits of different characters. This has helped students think more deeply about what characters experience in stories.

In Mathematics, we have continued learning about tens and ones to strengthen our understanding of place value. Students have also been exploring one more, one less, ten more, and ten less, as well as solving puzzles by finding missing numbers on a number chart.

In Science, students conducted an experiment to investigate the basic needs of plants. Through this activity, they explored why plants need the right conditions—such as water, sunlight, and soil—to grow strong and healthy.

In Humanities, we have been exploring toys, transportation, and household items from the past and comparing them with those we use today. Students enjoyed discussing how these things have changed over time and how people’s lives may have been different in the past.

We look forward to continuing our learning and discovering many new ideas together in Term 2. 

'You can if you think you can'

The Year 1 Teachers

Year 2

The Year 2 teachers are proud of the effort our students have put in to improve their social connections and learning during Term 1. We appreciate students being punctual and arriving at 8.50am when classroom greetings and Morning Circle time begins. 

In our daily Phonics and Reading sessions we have been exploring base words and how adding prefixes and suffixes can change word meanings, for example, happy – unhappy, hope – hopeful, jump - jumped. Each day we read aloud from a variety of texts to work on our personal reading goals and develop our accuracy, fluency and meaning making skills. Well done to all the students who regularly read at home, fill in their diaries and bring them to school for their teachers to view.

In our Author Study we have continued exploring Bob Graham books, Max and Queenie the Bantam, examining the pictures and text and have made inferences as to how characters are feeling and why they make the choices they do. We have been writing summaries that include information about the characters, setting and key events. You may like to visit the Caroline Springs library as they have lots of other Bob Graham texts we have not read yet.

In Mathematics, the Year 2s are continuing to learn about our base ten number system, making models of numbers and ordering numbers along number lines. We are learning about reading larger numbers and about the role of zero as a digit in multi-digit numbers. We are looking at number patterns that increase and decrease by given amounts. We can identify the rule that a pattern follows and note patterns seen in the number sequence. 

In Science, we have explored the needs of living things and their life cycles, including understanding how butterflies, frogs and birds grow and change over time. Students are researching a living thing of interest to them. We are observing the results of experiments that were set up earlier in the term. See the photo of a plastic bags covering the leaves of a plant and what the photo shows. Amazing! 

Yr 2 Team