In Our Classroom - Prep

Can you believe that we are almost at the end of the year and Preps have almost completed their first year of schooling? As we come to the end of their  year we would like to celebrate what they have been working on recently. 

In Reading, students have continued to learn about digraphs such as ‘wh’, ‘th’, ‘oo’, and ‘ay’. They have practised reading and writing these words and are also beginning to learn to read and spell CCVC words for example e.g slip. Through explicit teaching and implementing reading groups students have engaged in a range of activities such as reading stories, teacher focus groups and completing hands-on tasks to support their reading and writing skills. 

In Writing, we have continued to focus on writing sentences using a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and full stop at the end. Students have written different text types such as recounts, descriptions and narratives. Students wrote their own Mr Men and Little Miss stories which were published for our Art Show to match their Paper Mache characters. They did a fantastic job and should be proud of what they all have achieved, 

Liam  

Mr Bump

On a Sunny day Mr Bump, Mr Happy, and 

Mr Tickle played AFL on a ship! 

They had a fun day!

Jack 

Mr Tickle

On a sunny day Mr Tickle and Mr Bump 

ate lunch at Mr Tickles house. 

They had a good day. 

In Mathematics, the children have been revising number concepts. We have been focusing on partitions of five and ten. Students were given number cards with the numbers five and ten and needed to use different colour paper clips to make different ways of making those numbers. Students enjoyed this hands-on activity and this supported their learning of this number concept. 

In Integrated, students have been learning about light and sound. Students took part in an experiment about how sound travels. Students worked with partners and created the paper telephone experiment. They took turns talking and listening into their paper cup phones. Students reflected on how the vibrations passed down the string until it reached the second cup where students could hear each other through the cups. They responded by writing what was needed to create the experiment and discussed as a class  if the experiment was successful and explained reasons of why or why not.  Students enjoyed this experiment and it was a very noisy class room with everyone on the phone!

In Religion, students have continued to take part in prayer sessions on a daily basis. They have enjoyed these sessions and also taken responsibility in setting up these sessions including the Prep SO prayer cloth, candles and flowers. They have responded to prayer in a variety of ways such as meditation, singing and more formal prayers such as the Our Father.

Students have also listened to Bible Stories about Jesus and reflected on how he was a good friend to others. Students discussed ways on how they could be a good friend to others and follow in Jesus’ footsteps in our daily lives. 

In Social Wellbeing students have been focusing on the ‘Kindness Project’ and the importance of saying kind words to others. Students took part in the ‘toothpaste’ experiment where students worked in pairs and were asked to squeeze out all of the toothpaste onto their plate. Students did this and then were asked to put the toothpaste back into the tube. The students laughed and realised this was an impossible task. Students then responded to the question of ‘can you take your words back once to have said something  unkind?’ Students then reflected on the importance of saying kind words to others and realising that once something is said it can not be taken back and to think before you speak is important to being kind and also being a good friend to others.

It has been an absolute pleasure for us to teach Prep SO and what a wonderful year the Prep students have had. They have grown and learnt so much. We couldn’t be prouder! Thank you for all of your support and we are looking forward to having fun and working hard with the preps until the end of the year! 

Sarah O’Hara and Marie Georgiadis