Prep News 

Dear Prep families and carers,

We have continued exploring our first Unit of Inquiry centred around the Transdisciplinary Theme; ‘Who We Are’, focusing on the Central Idea, ‘Many things impact who we are in our community’. The students were immersed in a range of learning activities connecting their curiosities with our unit during our Provocation Day.

The students explored a range of concepts including; family cultures and traditions, their body and feelings including the zones of regulation, community helpers, our environment and important places within our community during their Provocation Day.

The Prep students inquired into growth, change, people and how they work together as they shared their special artefact with their peers, displaying effective communication skills. It was fantastic to hear them present their knowledge on the special item discussing how it represented who they are.  Students have shared many different items including photos of themselves as babies, their family photos, kindergarten artwork, and objects that represent communities they are a part of, such as tennis clubs, football teams etc. 

We are proud of the dedication and growth mindset the students exhibited when sharing their special artefacts to their class and enjoyed hearing them be inquirers as they asked their peers questions when listening to each others presentations.

Reading

In Reading, we continued to explore making predictions, introducing how we can change our predictions during reading the text, as well as stopping to predict the end of a text. 

Students considered and summarised what happened at the beginning and middle of the book and used this knowledge to create a prediction about the end of the book. They were encouraged to justify their predictions using evidence from the text, explaining why they predict this may happen at the end of the text. 

Each week, we continue to revise and introduce ‘Good Reading Strategies’ to the Prep students. This week we have continued to explore the strategy, ‘Stretch the word out loud’. We encourage the students to practise using the strategies they know when independently reading, both at school and at home.  Some of the other strategies we have discussed so far include, ‘Get your mouth ready to make the first sound’, ‘Look at the pictures’, and ‘Slide your finger underneath the word’. 

Writing

In Writing, the Prep students continued to explore text-self-connections as we read the mentor text, ‘When I Was Five’ By Arthur Howard. The students were encouraged to make connections about themselves and write about what they want to be when they are older. Using the think, draw, write and share model the Preps were able to successfully draw and/or write about their ideas and verbally share this with their peers.

We have continued to write in our ‘Special Writing Books’ each week, with the purpose of this being to learn the structure of sentences, introduce new high frequency words, and revise the elements of a sentence, including finger spaces between words, a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and a full stop at the end. Students are encouraged to practise tracing and writing their sentence independently at home, as well as completing their illustrations to match the sentence, if this was not completed during the allocated class time. 

Mathematics

In Mathematics, students have been inquiring into different 2D shapes, investigating shapes around the school and making connections between everyday objects and the shapes they can see within these objects. 

When inquiring into patterns, the students have been exploring what a pattern is, how we can explain a pattern and the different types of patterns. Students are developing an understanding of the repeating part of a pattern and how to create patterns using colours, shapes, dance moves and objects. 

Reminders

• Friday 8th April Last day of Term One
• Thursday 7th April Prep Incursion Brainstorm Productions 'Saving Lil & Archie'
• Hats MUST be worn during outdoor play in Term One and Four. Please pack your child’s hat in their bag and clearly label it with their name.
• Students should now be bringing their iPads to school each day. Please ensure they are fully charged. iPads must be configured to the Saltwater system.
• All children must bring their reading satchels with them to school every day. Students take home readers, Special Writing Books and Oxford High Frequency Word key rings must be inside and brought to school every day.

Regards,

The Prep Team