Reading

Target Time

Phonological awareness is the biggest indicator of later success in reading!

We target phonological awareness daily. During Target Time we focus on the individual needs of our children. Students enjoy this time and are achieving wonderful learning outcomes! Each term we use a combination of observation, activities and assessments to determine our groups across all three classes. During term three we will focus on oral language and the consolidation of rhyme and initial sounds, blending and segmenting. The groups are fluid and teachers are monitoring students to ensure we are targeting each child's needs throughout the term. We will reassess skills at the end of the term to prepare our groups for the final term of school. Our goal is to ensure that all children have mastered the phonological awareness skills required for reading, spelling and writing. Data will be handed over to teachers ready for the following year to ensure these essential skills are consolidated.

Throughout the semester children will be participating in Guided Reading Groups. Children will work within a small group with their teachers to learn comprehension and reading strategies to help them decode and understand text at their instructional reading level. Children will be exposed to a broad range of text types to help them understand the purpose of reading and that we read different text differently. Children are also read aloud to daily using a broad range of books and electronic text while teachers 'think aloud' explaining how these texts work. We model fluency and explicitly teach children how to read both fiction and non-fiction text. Our focus for semester two will be procedures and information reports. Students will continue to be exposed to high quality narratives and expositions.

We will also continue to work with our year three and four buddies during the semester who read with the children, help them scribe during bookmaking and work with them on a variety of English tasks. Enjoy our photo gallery of these special times!

Phonics

Children will be consolidating the 44 sounds of English throughout semester two. We will continue to utilise the Jolly Phonics Program and Fitzroy Readers to help children consolidate their blending skills and to be able to sound out words and transfer these skills into their writing. Children are learning to recognise many high frequency visual words and will continue to bring home their Star Words to help them consolidate these essential words.

Handwriting

We will continue to use the 'Writing Time' Program. During the semester we will learn about the correct formation of Back Flip Lines (anticlockwise movement - a, d, g, q, c, e and o), Kangaroo Hop Lines (clockwise movement - n, m, r, h and k) and the correct formation of numerals. Using our dotted third lines we will have formal handwriting lessons where children will be expected to blend sounds into words and ensure they write these words and sentences with correct formation and pencil grip. All letters will be revisited and consolidated during term four to ensure correct formation and fluency.

WRITING

Bookmaking will continue whereby children tell, draw and then write the story. We will be formally learning how to write a procedure during term three and will move onto information reports in term four. We plan to use the text 'Potato People', as inspiration for our writing of procedures and the creating of electronic texts involving 'our potato people' using Book Creator.The children are going to love this one! In term four we will explicitly teach information reports which will incorporate our HASS unit about 'what makes a place special', and 'how we can look after these special places'.

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