Prep
Dear Prep families,
We hope that you enjoyed an extra long weekend in Week 5, enjoying memorable moments with your families.
Reading
The Preps are continuing to strengthen their reading skills and comprehension through a range of activities, including shared stories, reading with their teacher, and enjoying read-aloud sessions. Students are showing great enthusiasm for listening to their favourite stories and rhymes, especially when entering the classroom in the morning, and love exploring books both independently and with friends. They are learning to identify key features of a text such as the setting, characters, and main plot, to demonstrate their understanding and build deeper comprehension.
Alongside these comprehension strategies, it remains important for students to continue practising decoding strategies when encountering unfamiliar words. This fortnight, the focus strategy is, ‘chunking’ breaking larger words into smaller, manageable parts.
Writing
Students are continuing to build their capacity to use strategies that help them spell new and unfamiliar words. An example of how students begin learning a new word can be seen in their work with the word, ‘people’. Students began by carefully examining the word, pulling it apart to discuss its tricky parts and features noting that it has two syllables, six letters, three vowels, and three consonants. This helped them better understand the word’s structure before moving on to the next step in learning how to spell it using the (LSSCWC) Look at the word, Say the word, Spell the word, Cover the word, Write the letters that spell the word, Check your attempt, and repeat if necessary strategy. This consistent process supports students in developing effective spelling habits that can also be practised at home.
We have also explored the ing onset and rime, helping students understand how learning to spell one word, for example, ding, can support them in spelling other similar words such as ring, bling, fling, sing, etc.
Maths
Learning to add collections together is more than just remembering number facts. Students have been busy using concrete materials to model addition problems, focusing on developing a strong understanding of part–part–whole relationships in addition. For example, this part (5) and this part (4) together make a whole (9). We have been practising the language of ‘5 and 4 make 9,’ and so on, using a variety of numbers and combinations with materials such as pom poms, counters, and blocks.
Reminders:
Hats - A reminder that hats need to be worn from this term.
Students are expected to bring their satchel to school EVERY DAY.
Please remember to pack a spare change of clothes for your child. Sometimes, little children can have toileting accidents and spills at school.
If you would like your child to practise our school song, this is the Youtube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua5RnSttwyY
Warm regards,
The Prep Team