Foundation 

Communicating with the Foundation Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2023, and welcome your input: 

Holly Peters  Holly.Peters@education.vic.gov.au

Lisa Dam  Lisa.Dam@education.vic.gov.au

LITERACY TERM 2

Over the past couple of weeks the Foundation students have been busy learning new letter sounds and their matching characters. So far they have learned five letter sets; msta, pifr, codh, engl and kubj. All the letters introduced have an action that goes along with the sound. This action helps the children to remember the sound. Ask them for a demonstration! 

InitiaLit is taught in a three lesson cycle: 

1: Introducing the new sound - meeting the new letter character and sound

2: Getting ready for reading and spelling using the new letter sound

3: Text reading and writing and introduction of new tricky words. 

Through our InitiaLit lessons we have been focusing on blending three and four letter sounds to read words. Students use a variety of actions such as words stretching and counting the sounds using their fingers which helps them isolate the letter sounds in words. 

We are continuing to learn new tricky words and regularly revise the tricky words already learned. Tricky Words should be practiced until they are automatically recognised as they cannot necessarily be sounded out like other words. Each new tricky word learned is added to our tricky word garden for the students to refer to and use when they complete writing tasks. The tricky words are also located at the back of the Reading Diaries to help your child practice at home. 

We have also been learning the purpose of capital letters, when they are used and that they sometimes look different to lower case letters but still make the same phonetic sound. This supports the children subsequently using them when writing sentences and names of people and things.

During our literacy sessions, the children participate in small group activities and independent work which aligns with our InitiaLit lessons and has a focus on the letters taught. These include activities such as using the InitiaLitt sounds and words books, decodable readers, trick word activities, word and sentence grab bags and letter sound activities to consolidate their newly learned letter sound skills. 

We are continuing to practice our handwriting skills using our dotted thirds books. 

Students have been attempting to apply their knowledge of sounds and letters and are beginning to include some tricky words when completing their writing tasks. 

We have been learning about the purpose of recount writing and the important information that should be included in this genre of writing. 

RECONCILIATION WEEK AND SORRY DAY

Friday the 2nd of June was National Sorry Day and this week was Reconciliation week. These events are a time to come together and celebrate and enjoy or make connections with all Australians, whether they are first nations or from any other background. 

The students participated in a few fun activities which highlighted the importance of saying sorry. They were asked such questions as: 

What does the word sorry mean?

Why do you have to mean it when you say sorry?

If it was an accident, does that mean you do not have to say sorry? 

How does sorry make you feel inside and on the outside of your body? 

The students coloured in hearts and cut them out. They then were asked to scrunch up their hearts to represent the hurt that had been caused. The

SPECIALIST TIMETABLE TERM TWO

Please see below for information regarding the days each grade has their Specialist classes. Please note that these times are subject to change. 

PMP

In 2023 the Perceptual Motor Program (PMP) will be running on a weekly basis for the Foundation students. The purpose of this program is to grow the Fundamental Movement Skills of the students via working through different activities which require different movements. Justin Scicluna runs our PMP program.

  If there are any family members who would be willing to volunteer and assist with the PMP sessions, please email justin.scicluna@education.vic.gov.au. In order to assist with these sessions, you will require a current Working with Children Check (WWCC) and it must be presented to the office before commencing the session. If you do not have a WWCC and would like to obtain one, please visit the below link;

https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/individuals/applicants/how-to-apply-1

The PMP session times are as below;

Tuesdays:  

Foundation B: 11:50am-12:40pm

Foundation A: 1:20-2:10pm

We are looking forward to an exciting term of learning! If you have any questions please contact us via email or in person. 

holly.peters@education.vic.gov.au

lisa.dam@education.vic.gov.au