Prep Team News

Hello Prep families,

What a wonderful fortnight in Prep we have had. We have been busy getting ready for our Special Person’s Afternoon and hanging out with the firefighters from Newport Fire Station. We are looking forward to more exciting events throughout the last week of Term Three, including the Prep Breakfast and Footy Day on the last day of term.

Our Willy Kid theme this fortnight is ‘Willy Kids Persevere’. We read ‘The Crocodile Who Didn’t Like Water’ by Gemma Marino. We discussed how the main character in the story demonstrated perseverance and how we can show this at school.

Firefighters Visit

Over the last two weeks we have been incredibly lucky to welcome some firefighters from Newport Fire Station to our school. 

In our first session, we learnt about the importance of checking our fire alarms. We also learnt the difference between safe and unsafe fires and why we should have an agreed upon safe meeting place with our families and carers in case there is a fire. A massive congratulations to all the students who completed their safe meeting place drawing and shared confidently with their classmates! 

During the second session, we learnt the saying ‘Stop. Drop. Cover. Roll’. We put this into practise in a role play and then got to visit the fire truck. The Preps loved having a go putting out a ‘fire’ with the hose and exploring the fire truck. A huge shout out to all the firefighters who visited, but especially, Kate and Jono (Prep Parents and Firefighters!) who made the visit so memorable for all our Preps. 

Prep Breakfast

On Wednesday 16th September the Prep students are invited to have breakfast at school. This is a great first step towards preparing our Willy Kids for the camps they will participate in throughout their formal education.

On this day, the Prep students will arrive at school at 8:50am in their pyjamas. We will then sit together to eat a breakfast of cereal, toast and juice. During class time in the weeks prior to this date, the students will choose the items they would like to have for breakfast. If your child has any dietary requirements that staff should be aware of, please let your child's teacher know ASAP. After breakfast, the students will be responsible for washing and drying their own dishes. They will then get themselves changed into their school uniform. As the students will be getting changed in a communal area, please ensure that your child has a fresh pair of underwear on before they come to school. Over the next week, children should practise independently dressing themselves each morning at home, to prepare themselves for our breakfast. The students will be required to bring their own bowl, plate, spoon, knife and tea towel to the Prep Breakfast. Please ensure that these items are as 'child friendly' as possible. The knife will only be used for spreading toppings on toast, so a blunt butter knife is suitable. We also recommend plastic plates and bowls (no glass). Your child will need to bring these items to school in a bag clearly labelled with their name.If you have any questions, please speak to your child's classroom teacher. We are looking forward to a fun morning!

Ooshies ban

As per our email, please note that ooshies are now officially banned from our classrooms and playgrounds. While it’s been lovely to see the students enjoying them, trading has caused a lot of confusion and upset. As the promotion is now over, we appreciate your support in reminding your children to leave their ooshies at home. 

Reminder- Father’s Day / Special Person’s Afternoon

In honour of the special people in our lives, we are hosting an exciting afternoon tomorrow from 3pm just for them! The Preps had been busy in the lead up making cards for their special person and are excited to welcome them into our classrooms tomorrow. 

Reminder- What’s That In The Letterbox?

As part of our inquiry unit this term, the Preps are looking at the different ways stories can be told. Over the last two weeks, we have read ‘Letters to Felix’, ‘The Jolly Postman’, and discussed how we can communicate and tell stories by writing letters. The Preps have written a letter to their families about something they’ve recently done at school. Soon we will be walking to our local letterbox to post the letters home to families. We hope you enjoy receiving these letters and reading them with your child. 

Curriculum Focus: Weeks 7 and 8 

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. Our current focus is on the /sh/, /ch/ and /th/ sounds.

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. 

Numeracy- Students are exploring the concepts of measurement including mass, length and capacity. Students are ordering items based on their mass, length and capacity. We are also applying our knowledge and skills to problem solving activities. 

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. Thank you also to all the families who dressed their children in purple to celebrate ‘Wear it Purple Day’! 

Prep: Key Dates Term Three

Have a great weekend. 

Warm regards,

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