Prep News

Dear families,

We’ve had another fun and engaging week in Prep, full of learning, creativity, and new experiences!

Literacy

In Literacy, students have been busy engaging in daily phonics practice. We’ve been revising and consolidating our knowledge of letter-sound relationships, practising spelling, blending and segmenting sounds in words, and manipulating phonemes to make new words. Students have also enjoyed participating in independent writing tasks to apply their growing phonics knowledge in context.

A highlight has been drafting our adventure stories as part of our upcoming Book Week celebrations! We’ve been focusing on planning our stories with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Students are experimenting with exciting characters, imaginative settings, and surprising plot twists. We can’t wait to share their published books soon!

Numeracy

This week in Numeracy, we’ve been revisiting the important concept of partitioning numbers—the ability to break numbers into parts in different ways (e.g., 5 can be split into 2 and 3, or 4 and 1). Partitioning helps build a strong foundation for addition, subtraction, and mental maths strategies.

Students have been using hands-on materials like counters, tens frames, and number sliders to explore the many ways numbers can be made. They are becoming more confident at recognising number combinations and explaining their thinking.

Inquiry – Exploring Thailand

We were incredibly lucky to welcome Jane and James (Krystal’s parents) into our classroom this week for a very special Thai cooking experience! Students had the opportunity to make Bua Loi, a traditional Thai dessert made of colourful rice flour dumplings served in warm coconut milk.

Students were creative in shaping their own dumplings before cooking and tasting their delicious treats. While waiting for their turn, they took part in a variety of engaging Thai-themed activities thoughtfully prepared by Jane and James.

A huge thank you to Jane and James for giving up their time and energy to create such a memorable, hands-on learning experience. We are so grateful for your generosity and for sharing your culture with us!

As part of our continued exploration of different cultures in Asia, we’re very excited to welcome Catherine (Mackenzie in Year 3’s mum) next Monday, who will be teaching us Chinese calligraphy. This will be a wonderful opportunity for students to learn about traditional Chinese art and writing techniques, and try their hand at brushwork and Chinese characters.

We’re also thrilled that on Monday 18th August, we will be joined by Greg and Vinh (Tyler and Evander’s dads), who will be sharing a traditional Lion Dance experience with the students. The Lion Dance is a vibrant and energetic cultural tradition often performed during celebrations to bring good luck and happiness. Students will get to see the costumes up close, learn about the significance of the dance, and even try some simple movements.

We are so appreciative of the generous families who are bringing these cultures to life for our students—thank you for helping us make learning so rich, meaningful, and fun!

Show & Tell – Our Favourite Books

This week for Show & Tell, students brought in their favourite books to share with the class and explain why they love them. We heard some wonderful responses:

Amira: "I like my book because it has a lot of detail."

Allison: "I like the book because it has unicorns."

Evander: "I like the Gruffalo and pictures"

Zoe: "I like the eggs in the story, it's my favourite"

Hailey: "The pictures are nice"

Rupert: "I like it because it’s hilarious"

Krystal: "I like this book because it’s pop up"

Tyler: "I love rockets"

We love seeing the enthusiasm our students have for reading!