News from the Prep/1 Room!

What a whirlwind fortnight it has been in the Prep/1 classroom! We had a wonderful time welcoming our new 2025 Little Learners on Orientation Day. Our Preps showed beautiful kindness and responsibility as buddies, helping new students during Stick Man activities, guiding them through Jellyfish number crafts, and showing them the playground with confidence and care.

We also had an amazing whole-school excursion to Funfields, where students enjoyed a day full of excitement, laughter and new experiences. Back at school, the class has continued to enjoy their afternoon swimming practice, building confidence in the water and learning to follow instructions in a different environment.

Literacy & Writing

In Writing, our students have been focusing on recount writing, using transition words such as first, then, after, before and finally to organise their ideas clearly. They have been practising adding details; who, what, when and where, to make their writing stronger and more interesting. Foundation students have also been learning how to complete sentences using if and when, and how to tell a finished, complete idea.

Across the fortnight, both year levels have also enjoyed working through our Christmas Literacy Booklet, which includes festive sentence writing, grammar, letter formation, vocabulary and comprehension tasks. These activities have been a fun way to keep literacy learning engaging as we head toward the end of the year.

InitiaLit & Reading

Both Prep and Grade 1 groups have been revising their CVCC/CVCC spelling patterns, the suffix –s, and lots of tricky words. Students have been practising blending, segmenting, reading, and writing words using magnetic letters and small-group rotations.

Guided Reading, independent reading, Bingo Bus/Bingo Blast-Off, and word-building games have helped students continue to strengthen their fluency and decoding skills. We have also begun completing our final rounds of Dibels testing for the year, checking each student’s growth in reading and spelling.

Numeracy

In Maths, we have been exploring symmetry, using hands-on activities to investigate whether shapes and pictures are the same on both sides. Students created beautiful butterfly symmetry paintings, completed a symmetry hunt around the classroom, and learned to fold shapes to discover how many lines of symmetry each one has.

Alongside this, students have continued with Number and Algebra warm-ups and daily reviews. The festive Christmas Maths Booklet has also been a hit, providing extra practice in number, matching, problem-solving and shape recognition.

Science

In Science, the Prep/1 students have continued learning about push and pull forces. Students explored how different toys move when pushed or pulled, how force changes direction, and how we can design objects that use these forces. They particularly enjoyed the hands-on investigation using Kendamas and Daruma Otoshi toys.

Transition Morning

During our special transition session, students enjoyed listening to Stick Man before rotating through colouring stations, a mini-book making room, Stick Man maths mazes, and a fortune-teller craft. Our current Preps were outstanding role models, supportive, patient, and welcoming.

Swimming

Our afternoon swimming practice sessions have been a lot of fun. Students have been showing bravery and persistence in the pool, practising water safety, floating, kicking and listening carefully to instructors. Their confidence grows each week!

Prep 2026 Little Learners Program

It has been a wonderful 5 weeks of Prep transition for our 7 new little people joining us as our 2026 Prep cohort. We have spent a lot of time getting to know each other, learning about school routines and structures, meeting new friends as well as our 'big buddies' and just generally getting a feel for what school life is all about. We are so excited to welcome our next group of students and their families into our IPS community and look forward to many exciting years ahead with them all!

Final Report from the 2/3 Room!

Well, we've finally made it to the last newsletter of 2025. The 2/3 room has been buzzing with excitement this week as they finally test the waters as 'big grade 3/4s'. I'm so proud of the way they stepped up and tried new things with their new teachers for their big transition day. Plus, we've had such a HUGE week with swimming lessons, Funfields and an incursion. Despite all the craziness of the end of year, each 2/3 student continues to be the same bubbly, silly, kind, enthusiastic learner they have been all year. What an amazing effort.

In Literacy this fortnight, we have been wrapping up our InitiaLit program just in time for the end of the year. We've had a review of a number of different common spelling patterns in our Spelling program, revisiting prefixes (such as 're' -just like in 'revisit!') and tricky-to-remember digraphs, 'ai'/'ay' 'oi'/'oy' and 'oa'/'ow'. In Grammar, we looked back on verbs, adverbs and conjunctions and how we use them correctly in sentences. In Comprehension, we have been identifying when to use different comprehension skills while reading complex texts and trying them out independently. We are so excited to finally be nearing the end of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone; I'm sure there's a bunch of keen readers who'll want to try out the Chamber of Secrets over Christmas! We're certainly making strong predictions about what shenanigans Harry and his friends might fit in before the book ends!

In Maths, we have been ending the year with the exciting topic of Probability. We have focused on the language of probability and correcting misconceptions about the meaning of impossible, unlikely, likely and certain events. We have highlighted how hard having an equal chance outcome is in the real world, as most things are never truly 50/50! Students have enjoyed experimenting with dice and spinners to find patterns in probability, and to highlight the fact that landing on a 1 on a dice does not alter its chance of re-rolling!

As my last newsletter for the year, I just wanted to say thank you to all the students and staff for the amazing experience I've had at IPS over the past 4 years. Thank you to my beautiful class for making my final year so fun, silly and memorable, and to the families for the wonderful support you give your children each and every day. IPS is truly the best school in the world, and that is testament to everyone's efforts - both within and beyond the school itself - in maintaining such a wonderful, welcoming atmosphere.

I will miss you all so much 2/3s, but I am sure I will be popping in virtually for a video chat every now and then at school to say 'Gday'!

Please have a safe and happy Christmas and an incredible 2026.

Miss Ferguson

4/5/6 With Miss Childs

With the year wrapping up, we have pushed ourselves to the very end! We have continued to complete all of our school work to our high standard and have even had some extra tasks to focus on such as practising carols and skits for the awards night, swimming every afternoon, transitioning to new schools, and stepping up into our new classroom for next year for a trial day. Last week we celebrated all of our hard work with a day at Fun Fields... it was amazing! The grade 6 students also had their celebration night in at the zone.

In Literacy we finally finished our shared novel, 'Thomas Appleby, Convict Boy'. We have also watched some short documentaries about 'Convict Kids' and looked at a couple of picture books this week that explore the same content... The Rabbits by John Marsden and My Place by Nadia Wheatley. We really enjoyed the novel and learning all about life in the olden days in London, about the voyage of the first fleet and about how Australia was settled by the Europeans. Our convict biographies are completed and are on display in our classroom for anyone who wishes to come and have a look.

In Maths we have been reviewing a few concepts such as balanced equation and equations with missing numbers. It is really important for us to remember that this symbol '=' does not mean 'the answer', it means that whatever is on the other side needs to be 'balanced/equal'.

This week we have had a Christmas spin on some of our maths such using coordinates in a Christmas themed game of battleships and creating a budget to buy pretend Christmas gifts for Miss Childs. We also had a bit of fun trying to represent the numbers 6/7 in as many ways as possible using all of out maths knowledge, e.g. 6.07 on clock, 6/7 as a fraction, equations that equal 67.

IPS School Values Award Acknowledgments are....