Prep / 1 Mainstream
Celebrating Learning
What we have been up to:
Incursions:
On Thursday the 22nd, the Preston Proactive Policing unit visited TPS to speak to the Y1/2s about bullying prevention and cyber safety.
“It was really fun because we watched a video learning about the internet. The boy in the video learnt from his mum and dad that some people are nice on video games and some people are doing unfriendly things that will make him feel sad.”- Teagan
“We learnt that we shouldn’t talk to people we don’t know on the internet”- Jarvis
“We don’t tell people our real name on the internet because we don’t know them.” - Remy
On Friday the 23rd, our F/1 students participated in a Wurundjeri incursion. Tully, our facilitator, led us through stories with tools, art, and language. Students were proud to share and learn with Wurundjeri educators.
“I was a bit shocked about the stone axe. It was made on stone and stuck together with tree sap.”- Sitara
“I liked learning about how Wurundjeri people made fire with a little bird's nest, wood with a hole and a big stick.” - June H
“I liked seeing the drawing on the possum skin.” - Tom
PBL (play-based learning):
We have been discussing how problems and challenges are a part of everyday life, and identifying personal strengths and actions that can be taken to manage them. Feelings like anger, frustration, embarrassment, sadness, loneliness have been shared and discussed with students actively problem solving together.
This week we can sometimes feel when we try something new and students unanimously agreed that they would move into play being brave and seeking out something new in their play. At the end of this students reflected on what they had tried. This group were brave to include someone they don’t usually play with and worked together with a new idea to trial design and build something new.
“This is a Cybertruck! It can drive in water. It has a pipe that can push water out when it’s underwater so it stays dry. “ - Zev, Jarvis, Rafferty
Maths:
We built a village! Students worked together to select, discuss, and justify shapes for their building. Students were then given the challenge of bringing their buildings together to build a village. It was great to see students support each other with suggestions and ideas to bring this seemingly simple task together.
In Number, students are working with practical situations to represent ‘the same as’ using materials and subitising strategies.
Reading:
An integral part of building fluency is reading out loud to a partner and receiving feedback. This gives students the chance to notice how reading words accurately impacts their own and their partners' understanding of the text. A listening partner can assist their reading partner to read a word accurately by saying:
- “That word is _____”
- “What’s that word?”
- “Good. Can you read that sentence again, please?”
We have gradually been introducing paragraph shrinking in our classrooms to assist with reading comprehension. Paragraph shrinking helps build student understanding of the text and therefore improves fluency. Students are asked to “shrink” either a very short page or paragraph of the text by identifying who the text is mostly about and what the most thing is that has happened. Students then say the main idea in a sentence that is 10 words or less.
In our reading groups over the past two weeks we have been focussing on the following sounds:
Juliette and Jess:
- /v/ as in vulture
- /y/ as in yak
- /r/ as in rabbit
Matt was learning:
- /ay/ as in play
- /ai/ as in snail
- /ee/ as in bee
- /ea/ as in clean
Steph was learning:
- /er/ as in river
- /ir/ as in bird
- /ur/ as in Thursday
What’s to come in the next two weeks:
- In maths we will continue measurement (time) and space (shape). In number we will move to place value.
- Please keep sending warm spare clothes as PBL can be very messy in the colder months!
warmly
Juliette and Jess