Foundation

What a wonderful start to school we have had in the Foundation rooms! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and everyone is quickly adapting to all the new routines and expectations a day at school requires.

Wednesdays remain a necessary, and much needed, rest day until the week beginning Monday 3rd March, and then it is full time schooling for everyone. With the loss of a day off however, comes the possibility of a lunch order. Lunch orders must have the correct money in them, be clearly labelled and be in the tub before Jane comes to collect them. 

CURRICULUM INFORMATION EVENING

Wednesday 12th March.

SCHOOL CLOSURE DAY

Thursday 13th March- Students DO NOT attend school this day as staff are travelling to St Brendan's in Shepparton for Professional Learning in "The Knowledge Society".

LITERACY

This year has seen the implementation of a Diocesan wide approach to the teaching of Literacy and Numeracy. Each day the Foundation students receive 2 hours of explicit  Literacy instruction. We are following the Initialit program for our Literacy teaching, and the first four weeks have gone very smoothly indeed. We have been focusing on words, identifying words in a sentence and also looking at concepts about print and how books operate. We have also been investigating rhyme and syllables, with 'that rhymes!" now a common catchphrase from the students.

Our Initialit story has been "Grandpa and Thomas" by Pamela Allen. Every two weeks the students listen to a different picture story book, and then there are activities to follow. Last Friday we spent an enjoyable time in the sandpit, building sandcastles just like Grandpa and Thomas did. 

We have been playing an alphabet identification game called "Kaboom!" and refining our sportsmanship qualities at the same time... Who knew icy pole sticks and a plastic cup could provide so much fun and learning???

Writing names has also been a daily focus for many students. We aim for every child to be able to write their name independently before the end of Term One, using a capital letter to begin and lower-case letters for the remainder of the name. Most children learn how to write their names in capital letters, which tend to be easier to write. So now the next logical step is to write our names using the appropriate punctuation and letter formation. 

NUMERACY

It has all been about patterns for the first 3 weeks- movement patterns, colour and shape patterns, two-part patterns and even three-part patterns. We have discovered how a pattern repeats over and over, and have identified the 'unit of repeat' in different patterns. 

We have made patterns with our bodies, with classroom objects and even outside in the playground. It has been lots and lots of fun.

Next, we will move onto investigating time- morning, afternoon and night, and Days of the Week. There may even be a song or two to learn along the way. We guarantee it will be a catchy little tune you can't get out of your head once you hear it!

We have learned a new game called "Last Dino Standing" which is a bit like Chinese Checkers but you have to work together as a team. Great fun, but still requiring a lot of concentration at the moment. We will try to teach a new game every couple of weeks to reinforce skills and cement concepts.

RELIGION

"We can talk to God" is the unit of work the Foundation class have been exploring in Religious Education lessons, with the basic concept that we can talk to God anywhere and at any time. We are learning to make The Sign of the Cross, and are saying a simple prayer each morning before beginning work. This prayer usually consists of something personal to the students, with more and more students contributing something to this short session each day. We have prayed for thing requests as a pet dog's sore leg to get better soon, for Nanny to come home from holidays and that Mr Saxon had a nice birthday. We have looked at the Prayer Table in our classroom and learned about each object on it. We now know that the Church uses different colours during the year, and that currently the prayer cloth is green, for Ordinary Time. We have also discovered that it is Father Tony, and not God, who was in charge of the School Mass we attended recently...

Throughout the Term each class has an opportunity to attend Parish Mass together. The Foundation students' Mass is in Week 9, and we will be sure to remind you closer to the date.

THE RESILIENCE PROJECT

Every Tuesday the Foundation students have a one hour lesson from The Resilience Project program. Developed by educators across Australia, the Primary Wellbeing Program is evidence-based and tailored to each year level to provide proven impact.

Centred on The Resilience Project’s core principles — Gratitude, Empathy, Mindfulness, and Emotional Literacy — each lesson has been comprehensively scripted with fun & engaging Student Journal activities. The students have enjoyed 'meeting' Hugh through a video presentation, and have been discussing healthy and unhealthy habits that can impact our well-being. Things like drinking lots of water, getting plenty of sleep and not worrying about things can be very positive, whilst poor eating choices and too much screen time before bed can have a negative impact. 

For more information, please look at The Resilience Project website, via the QR code shown.

INQUIRY

Our first unit of work in our Inquiry lessons centres around "What is a family?"

Students have discussed all the different things families do together, and how families are made up of different people. Families come in all shapes and sizes, and students are working towards an understanding of this concept. 

With Wednesdays off at the moment, Inquiry lessons are sometimes difficult to fit into a very crowded learning schedule but once we have another day at our disposal, this should become much easier to manage.

ON-GOING REMINDERS

1. St John's is a "No Hat, No Play" school, which means everyone is wearing their hats every day. High ponytails and hair buns can cause difficulty for some students in trying to get their hat to actually sit on their head properly. Just something to ponder when creating hairstyles in the morning.
2. Everything needs to be labelled. And this mantra will be repeated on a regular basis throughout the year. You will get sick of hearing it, we will get sick of saying it, but please make sure your child's belongings can be easily returned to them should they accidentally be misplaced.

        3. Zooper Doopers are $1, Cake Raffle tickets are 50c. Both                           momentous events happen each Friday. 

        4. Lunch Orders are every Wednesday.

        5. Library visits take place on a Friday. If last week's borrowed book             is not returned, a new one cannot be borrowed. 

6. Birthday invitations- Foundation is traditionally the year of Birthday Parties. We are happy to hand out invitations at school if everyone is invited (just classroom cohort, not necessarily all of Foundation) But if you choose to only invite some friends to your child's party (and we completely understand this approach) we would prefer that the invitations were shared another way. Whilst life does have the occasional disappointment, not being invited to a party is pretty big one when you are 5 or 6 years old and we would rather the school not be the place of the upset.  

If you have any questions or queries about anything, please contact us. We have Staff Meetings after school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so these times are unavailable, but can probably make any other time work.

sredfern@sjeuroa.catholic.edu.au

tramsden@sjeuroa.catholic.edu.au

phone: 57952937

Thank you,

Sally, Thom and Damien