Prep Team News

Hello Prep families,

We hope you all had a restful break with your families and stayed warm! It has already been a busy start to Term Three. We are looking forward to many upcoming events including our Storytelling Incursion on Wednesday the 29th of July and 100 days of Prep celebration on Friday 31st of July.

Our Willy Kid theme this fortnight is ‘Willy Kids Manage Their Emotions’. We read ‘It’s Great to Keep Calm’ by Jordan Collins and talked about the strategies and actions we can take if we are feeling strong emotions. The Preps wrote sentences and drew some wonderful pictures highlighting the strategies they use when feeling sad or angry, such as taking a deep breath, reading a book or asking someone for help. We love seeing the Preps use these strategies in the classroom and playground. 

Williamstown Library Visit

As part of our Inquiry unit, 'What's My Story? What's Your Story', the Prep students are learning about the different ways stories can be told. To kick off our investigation, we visited the Williamstown Library this week on Monday 17th July. The students enjoyed meeting the children’s librarian, Tace, and exploring the different sections of the library. We looked at different styles of books and talked about how information can be communicated in different ways. The students loved spending time at the library, so if you are not a member, we encourage you to sign up!

Prep Storytelling Incursion 

On Wednesday 29th August, the Prep students will be immersed in a drama-based incursion which will unpack the story of ‘Tiddalick the Frog’. This incursion will support the learning we are undertaking in the classroom about storytelling as part of our Inquiry unit this term. Moreover, it will build on students' growing understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories and cultures. Please see the event on Compass for further details, and provide permission and payment for your child to attend at your earliest convenience. 

100 Days of Prep 

The hundredth day of school is coming up, on Friday 31st July. A reminder that  students are invited to dress up for the special day. Your costume could be party clothes, dressing as someone 100 years old or making something for the theme one hundred. We are beyond proud of the growth that the students have made thus far this year and cannot wait to celebrate their success with them!

Term Three Specialists

This Term, all Preps will attend Specialist classes. These include Visual Art, Music, French  and Physical Education. Please see the weekly timetable below.

Parents, could you please support your child to return their library books on their given day. Please also ensure your child is dressed in their P.E. uniform and is wearing runners on the day that they have P.E. Students remain in their P.E. uniform for the entire day. 

Curriculum Focus: Weeks 1 - 2

Reading - Students will continue learning about appropriate reading behaviours, including pointing to the words as we read and taking a breath at full stops. They will also discuss text features such as full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks and question marks. As part of our Little Learner’s program, students are now beginning to explore digraphs (/ll/, /ss/, /ff/), adding the -s suffix to words (dogs, cats, runs, cuts), and final adjacent consonants (camp, tent, jump, sand).

Writing - Students are continuing to develop their letter formation and sound knowledge to write sentences. In particular this term, students will be reading narrative texts as a class. Students will then summarise these stories by writing a few sentences about the characters, setting, problem and solution from each text. We will also be looking at the structure of stories, unpacking and identifying the beginning, middle and end of a range of texts. 

Numeracy - Students are revising the numbers 11-20, and addition and subtraction. We are revisiting a range of games and strategies to reinforce understanding of these concepts. 

Inquiry - This term, our inquiry topic is ‘What's My Story? What's Your Story'. The Prep students are learning about the different ways stories can be told.

Homework - Each Monday, students will be given an activity to complete at home that relates to our weekly sound or maths focus. The activity in their ‘Home Learning Book’ will be collected each Friday. Homework in Prep should take no longer than 15 minutes.  

Respectful Relationships - This term for Respectful Relationships our topic is ‘Gender Norms and Stereotypes’. We will be reflecting on the influence of gender norms and stereotypes, developing an awareness of positive and negative gender norms, challenging negative gender norms and developing appreciation and respect for differences. In Prep, these activities look like: conversations about the fact that everyone likes different things and that’s okay (e.g. everyone can like or dislike pink or soccer or fish), realising that everyone experiences the same emotions (e.g. happy, sad, angry) and can express them in similar ways. If you would like to know anything more about these lessons, please contact your child’s classroom teacher

Prep: Key Dates Term Three

Enjoy the weekend and stay warm! 

Warm regards,

The Prep Team–Caitlin Sullivan (Prep S), Claire Davies (Prep D) & Georgia Grainger (Prep G)