Foundation

Literacy

During our first week back at school we have consolidated our learning around the digraphs ck, sh, ch, and th. During the second week we introduced the digraph NG as in king, and sing. Students have been engaging in lots of different experiences to consolidate their learning, to isolate the sound and to practise reading and recording the sound. 

In writing, students this term will continue to work on recounts, information reports and narratives. The Prep students have been refreshing their knowledge around recounts by writing about their holidays, the 'Fairytale Fiasco' and other experiences that we have done whilst being back at school. 

Students in Prep B have enjoyed learning the new sound of the week by practising their sounding out strategies. Students use whiteboards and count out the sound they hear so they can record the appropriate letters. 

Numeracy

Within our Numeracy sessions we have started exploring the concept of division and the connection to multiplication. Students have been working on developing their understanding of equal groups and fair shares. Students have been using lots of hands on materials to consolidate their understanding. 

We have also incorporated division into our problem solving focus questions. On Friday, our students and teachers, were lucky enough to have a maths problem solving task taught by Hannah from MAV (Mathematical Association of Victoria).  Students got to share their emerging knowledge of division and making equal groups through both the use of hands on materials and then recording their model within their books.

Social Emotional Learning

In SEL, we have been continuing our school values focus of kindness, respect and working together. We have talked about how this looks within the classroom and whilst outside. 

Inquiry

This term, our inquiry topic is investigating weather. We will be exploring weather changes through the seasons. This week, we looked at the 4 seasons - Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring. Each week we will be looking at the seasons in detail discussing where the weather comes from, what months the seasons fall under and what to wear in particular weather. 

Have a look at some winter collages Prep A made

Fairytale Fiasco

We had an exciting start to Term 4! The Fairytale Fiasco was at school on the first day. We listened to a mixed up fairytale and went to upside down town. We dressed up in costumes of cats, mice, pigs, wolves, dwarves, wizards and dragons. 

• School begins at 8:35am. Please ensure your child is at school on time as they will miss out on crucial social and learning opportunities. Children who come after the 8:50am bell must go to the front office to be marked as a late arrival.
• School finishes at 3pm sharp. Please ensure there is a parent or guardian present at pick up at the correct door (Prep A - front door, Prep B - Go through the breeze way to the playground side door) as some students are waiting for extended periods of time.
• Homework goes home on Mondays and comes back to school on Fridays.
• Families are welcome to come to our cohort and school assemblies on Fridays at 2:30. Cohort assemblies are held in the large Grade 1/2 space (through the blue door), and the school assemblies will be held outside under the COLA (unless otherwise advised).
• As the weather is becoming warmer, students are reminded to wear a hat (broad brim, bucket or legionnaire style) at school. Students that do not have a hat will need to sit in the breezeway. Please make sure your child's hat is labelled.
• Personal toys to play with at school are discouraged. This is to ensure that any items that may be special to your child are not broken or lost during play. On occasion there have been times where toys have been misplaced or damaged. We do not want this to happen to your child's precious items.
• Please ensure your child has a piece of fruit, a snack, and lunch as well as a water bottle.
• Lunch orders - Please ensure all lunch orders are placed in the lunch order basket at the beginning of the day. Occasionally, students have forgotten to place lunch orders in the basket and have had an emergency lunch provided.
• Keep up the positive after-school routines (homework, dinner conversations, bedtime).
• Don't forget - School begins at 8:35am daily. Students that attend after 8:50am will need to sign in at the office.

Tasks to work on at home:

• Letter and sound recognition (recognising upper and lowercase letters and their most common sound) for all letters of the alphabet.
• Heart word recognition (recognising explicitly taught words) - My, my, The, the, I, Me, me, like, can, to, so, go, was, we, she, he, do, of, are, too, for, her, see, say, day, into, you.
• Reading a shared book every night focusing on concepts of print (identifying the front cover, a word, a letter, 1:1 finger pointing, talking about the story and using specific vocabulary)
• Fine motor activities – using playdoh, cutting, threading – to strengthen hand muscles
• Build and write taught CV (consonant vowel) no, go, do, to, VC (vowel consonant), is, am on, up, and CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words, cat, met, top, pit, nut etc
• Having nightly dinner conversations with the family (talk about the day)
• Have your child help out in the kitchen by measuring ingredients when you are making meals, and counting items that are going in the basket at the shops. This will assist in developing counting skills
• Look at some of the information provided under the Literacy, Numeracy and SEL/Inquiry headings and review these tasks to reinforce learning.