Foundation

Communicating with the Foundation Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2022, and welcome your input:

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

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

TERM 2 IN FOUNDATION!

INQUIRY

Our topic for Inquiry in Term 4 is Science! Throughout the term, students will investigate how they are Scientists by nature and how people use Science in their daily lives. They will participate in a variety of guided investigations, including making observations using the senses, to explore and answer questions. They will predict, question and observe Science through a range of fun and engaging experiments and explore physical and chemical changes. The students are so excited about this topic and are very keen to participate and learn more about the world around them.

So far the students have used their senses to investigate the properties of a variety of materials and developed their vocabulary by using different describing words to discuss their features. They have made predictions about what might happen if we mix Borax and hot water together, using their Science Journal.

ENGLISH

In English this term, we will be continuing to follow the InitiaLit Program. The main focus of these lessons will continue to be based on teaching and introducing new letter sounds, and their characters, and how to blend these sounds to read words. The students will also be introduced to tricky words, which are irregular high-frequency words. These are words that contain uncommon spelling patterns and are words that cannot necessarily be sounded out to read. As each new tricky word is introduced, we add it to our trick word garden. These words are practised each lesson.

Each week the students will also be involved in a variety of reading and writing activities through our English sessions. This Term they will be exploring and reading Information Texts. The students will learn their purpose, structure and the difference between these texts and picture story books.

In Writing, we have introduced the students to their new lined dotted thirds work books. The dotted thirds help the children correctly form their letters using the appropriate size. The students have been super excited to be using these and have worked with concentration and focus. Our writing focus for Term 2 will be on the structure and purpose of writing recounts. Children will build up their word recognition and attempt to incorporate tricky words and basic punctuation in their sentences.

MATHS

In Numeracy during Term 2 we will be continuing to develop our number sense through counting and our place value knowledge. The Foundation students have been excitedly counting and recording the number of days we have been at school in anticipation of our 100 days celebration. We have also been explicitly teaching the formation of the numerals 0 to 20 to ensure that students are writing them correctly without reversals. During the Term, students will be using a variety of strategies to complete and model addition and subtraction problems using groups of numbers, including the use of concrete materials, fun hands on games and visual displays.

In Measurement and Geometry, Students have been focusing on learning the days of the week in the correct order, connecting these days to familiar events in their lives and sequence events in time order. They will be exploring the concept of weight by directly comparing the weight of everyday objects using mathematical language. Students will also be learning all about capacity and completing a variety of activities including pouring from one container into another to see which one holds more.

BUDDIES

Every second Friday we run our buddy sessions. All the students thoroughly enjoy these sessions and eagerly look forward to getting together each week and getting to know each other more! With the easing of restrictions, we are finally able to come together to complete activities inside the classrooms.

Last week we read the ‘Rainbow Fish’ by Marcus Pfister together. The children loved the story about friendship and sharing. Together they made a beautiful Rainbow Fish with one shiny silver scale.

MOTHERS DAY

The Foundation student's worked extremely hard to create their very own special gifts for their Mum's. They even made their own wrapping paper!

Last Friday we celebrated Mother’s Day with a fantastic afternoon of pampering! The Foundation students had a wonderful time painting the nails of their very special person. It was a hugely popular and busy activity and the Foundation Gallery was full of excitement!