Dhumbadjirri "Talk Together"

Prep / 1 Mainstream 

Celebrating Learning

 

Wow, half a year of school already! We have almost reached 100 days of learning for the Foundation students!! We are so impressed by our crew, they have grown and learnt so much. The support and encouragement they offer each other is wonderful to see.

 

PBL (play-based learning): 

We continue to learn about resilience - and what we can do to bounce back and be okay when things get challenging or difficult. There has been so much sharing about resilience and the kinds of personal strengths that can help us be resilient, such as kindness, bravery, never giving up, sharing, courage, and caring for others. 

 

Maths: 

In Number, we are introducing problems to students through storytelling using real life problems. We’ve found students love rising to the challenge to help solve a problem through mathematical reasoning. 

 

In space, we have continued to explore the properties of 2D shapes. Our Year Ones have been looking at the features of 3D objects. We have learnt some handy vocabulary for talking about 3D objects such as vertices, edges and surfaces. 

 

In measurement, we have been investigating ways that we can measure time. We have been comparing using the vocabulary ‘longer’ and ‘shorter’, e.g. It takes a longer amount of time to do ten push ups. It takes a shorter amount of time to do 10 star jumps.

 

Writing:

Our writing focus over the past few weeks has been retelling narrative stories. Elements of the story are supported by our story grammar cards and the accompanying actions. For example, character and setting have their own unique actions and when students hear these elements in the story, they will show they have identified these elements by making the gesture/action. 

We have been retelling the story through drama, small groups have rehearsed and then performed the story to the class audience - lots of fun!

 

Reading:

An integral part of building fluency is reading out loud to a partner and receiving feedback. This gives students the chance to notice how reading words accurately impacts their own and their partners' understanding of the text. A listening partner can assist their reading  partner to read a word accurately by saying:

  • “That word is _____”
  • “What’s that word?”
  • “Good. Can you read that sentence again, please?”

 

In our reading groups over the past two weeks we have been focussing on the following sounds:

 

Juliette and Jess:

  • /u/ as in uncle
  • /k/ as in koala
  • /x/ as in fox

 

Matt was learning:

  • /igh/ as in sigh
  • /_y/ as in my
  • /i_e/ as in bike

 

Steph was reviewing the 7.2 sounds:

  • /ar/, /a/, /al/
  • /or/, /aw/
  • /ir/, /ur/ and /er/
  • /air/, /are/ and /ere/

 

What’s to come in the next two weeks:

  • We have one more week of school, then we are off on two weeks of school holidays!
  • Juliette and Jess have handed out a form for Foundation students’ adults to fill out. Its a permission form for your child to have a check up by a school nurse. Please register as soon as possible.
  • Thank you for continuing to support your children to take home readers and practise at home. 
  • We will continue to explore place value, time and shape in our last week.
  • Please keep sending warm spare clothes as PBL can be very messy in the colder months!

 

warmly

Juliette and Jess