Foundation 

We cannot believe that we are already half way through the school year! As Foundation teachers, it has been incredible to look back and see just how far our students have come since the beginning of the year. We are looking forward to seeing them continue to grow and learn in the second half of the year.

Term 2 Recap:

In Term 2, we moved from developmental play in the mornings and introduced a Literacy Block with explicit phonics teaching focusing on: 

• Phonemic awareness - rhyming, identifying initial and final sounds, as well as adding, deleting and manipulating sounds. 
• Reading fluently - re-reading a text to add expression and to read at an appropriate pace. 
• Letter formation 
• Segmenting words to spell with improved accuracy 
• Recording a decodable sentence with finger spaces, capital letters and full stops.

Pictures of some writing samples: 

In Mathematics, we covered various topics including patterns, numbers to 20, 2D shapes, and length (longer/shorter). Mathematics was also linked to our STEAM Project where the students created a Sun Smart hat. They moved through the whole STEAM process from experimenting, to designing, creating and finally presenting to the class.

• Science - The students made predictions and experimented about light and shade with different styles of hats. 
• Technology, Engineering and Art - The students designed and created a Sun Smart hat by adding a brim and different decorations that they thought would be suitable. They explained that the most challenging part of the process was trying to stick different materials on, such as feathers and ribbons. 
• Mathematics - The students sorted and classified the materials that they used to make the hats by using vocabulary such as hard, soft, smooth and rough.

Pictures of students completed hats: 

What is ahead in Term 3?

Important Dates

Tuesday 22nd - Wednesday 23rd July - Parent Teacher Interviews

Wednesday 30th July - 100 Days of School!

Wednesday 6th August - Myuna Farm Excursion

Week of 18th August - Book Week

Friday 19th September - Last day Term 3

Term 3 Overview: 

Literacy

In Term 3, we will be transitioning from our Literacy Block to an MSL (Multisensory Structured Language) block. This approach applies knowledge of how the brain works to help students gain stronger skills in identifying letter sounds, sounding out words, fluency, accuracy and comprehension.

During this block we will introduce new content, such as:

• Learning digraphs - ‘wh’, ‘ph’ 'sh', 'th', 'ch', 'ng'
• Learning trigraphs - 'igh'
• New spelling rules, including when to use a double letter in a word
• Segmenting and spelling four and five letter words
• Letter formation on dotted thirds
• Writing two to three sentences to develop an idea
• Continuing to make predictions, connections and retell stories in Reader's Workshop, as well as introducing the skill of inferring. 

Mathematics

During Term 3, we will be covering several topics in Mathematics, continuing to use concrete materials and hands-on activities to keep students engaged. The topics will include: 

• Place Value
• Mass - understanding the difference between heavy and light
• 3D shapes 
• Addition and Subtraction using a range of strategies, such as counting on, number lines, and making tens

STEAM

Our STEAM topic for Term 3 is 'Imaginary Animals.’ The Foundation students will learn about the difference between a need and a want, what animals need to survive, and the difference between living and non-living things. The students will also be visiting Myuna Farm to explore real-life animal habitats.

The students will work together with a partner to design a 'diorama habitat' for an imaginary animal. There will be criteria that each pair must adhere to, including food, diet, habitat, which will need to add up to a total of 20 objects.

Throughout the unit, the students will be expected to explore, design, and research information that they will incorporate into their written task of an animal report.  

Following this STEAM project, there will be a STEAM Expo presented entirely by the Foundation students to other year levels and family members. This will be confirmed later in the term. 

Wellbeing

Throughout Term 3 we will continue to work on the student's social and emotional development by learning how to persevere when faced with a challenge, collaborate with others to achieve a shared goal, and use active listening skills. 

Kind Regards 

Foundation Team 

Meg Nicholas, Eileen Banal and Ilana Arndtheim