Prep Community News
Dear Prep families and carers,
Welcome back Prep families! We hope you all had a fun and relaxing term holiday. The students are now in their last term of the school year, and we are so proud of the progress they have made and continue to make! Let’s look at the learning we have been doing since coming back to school.
Reading:
In weeks 1 & 2, students have been learning to read fluently. We are reviewing the sounds that letters make so that we can recognise them in texts and blend them together quickly. We are also practising reading our heart words and high-frequency words quickly by themselves or in a text. By building fluency, students will be able to understand the texts they are reading and enjoy reading more! While reading at home, you can help your child increase their fluency by pointing out heart words or letters in texts and asking your child to read them quickly. Our new heart words for Weeks 1 and 2 were “kind” and “find”.
Writing:
In writing, students have learned a new sound rule called “Cry Baby”. This rule teaches children that the letter “y” makes the /i/ sound at the end of a short word (cry, by, my, shy), and an /e/ sound at the end of a long word (baby, sunny, body). A short word has one syllable, and a long word has more than one syllable. We have spent two weeks learning this rule.
We have also continued with narrative writing this term. We are focusing on the structure of narratives now and looking at what parts of the story are at the beginning, middle and the end of a narrative. Students have learned to write about the characters and setting at the beginning of a narrative, the problem in the middle, and the solution at the end of the story. It has been so amazing to see students become so creative with their stories by using adjectives and adding details into their writing. We will continue this writing unit for the next two weeks.
Maths:
We began to learn about Mass in maths after the holidays. Students are able to identify things that are light and things that are heavy and can compare two objects by hefting them. Prep students also learned how to use balancing scales in maths to compare the mass of two objects and even tried to measure the mass of objects! Prep D used the balancing scales and found out that one glue stick has the same mass as 104 counters!
Home Mass challenge: Ask your child to put 5 different objects into their backpack that would make their backpack really light. Then, change the five objects to make their backpack really heavy!
Reminders/Upcoming events:
- Swimming (Check compass for dates): Consent and Payment ($65) due on compass. In Term 4, Prep students will participate in a 5-day school Swimming Program, delivered by Bright Waves Swim School. When attending, students will be required to independently change their clothes. Between now and then, it would be a great idea to support your child to independently practise skills such as undressing, drying their body, dressing, putting socks/shoes on so that they are ready to swim in the pool! 6 classes have already finished their swimming program and have had so much fun at the pool! Way to go Prep A, B, C, D, E and I!
- Animal Land: We have another exciting excursion coming up in Prep to Animal Land! Students will have the opportunity to visit a farm and participate in activities such as horseback riding, milking cows and going for a tractor ride! This excursion is happening towards the end of November, please check Compass for your classes specific date. The cost is $35, payable on Compass.
Thank you so much for the ongoing support! We are so happy to be back at school for the last term!
PLC Prep