Term 4 Weeks 8 and 9

Hello,

Nose blowing

We are finding that some of the Preps have snuffly noses at the moment and when they are directed to blow their noses are a little unsure. They are wiping their noses rather than blowing them. It would be helpful if you could check that your child knows how to blow their nose independently. Thank you.

Word study

Our Preps will continue to learn about Silent Final E at the end of words. SFE has five jobs. Students have already been learning about job 1, jumping over the consonant and making the vowel say its 2nd sound (its name). Over the next few weeks we will be focusing on jobs 2 and 3.

Job 2 – SFE stops 'v' and 'u' being at the end of an English word. The rhyme 'job 2, v and u' will help them remember. Examples of these words are five, active, cave, continue, due and clue.

Job 3 – SFE makes 'c' and 'g' say their second sounds. The rhyme is 'job 3, c and g' to help them remember. Examples of these words are fence, face, place, plunge, huge, rage and stage.

To help remember this rule students have learnt that SFE is a secret agent, who comes in silently to help the words. If the SFE uses more than one rule in a word, SFE is a double agent. Kids love finding SFE double agents!

Reading

Students have also been learning about the features of narratives. We have looked at characters (who is in the story) and setting (when and where the story takes place). Now we are looking at problems and solutions (what happened, how is happened and why it happened). To help students grasp problems and solutions we have been learning about cause and effect.

Writing

In writing, the preps will create their own short stories that will be published into a class book. They will focus on one part of the story at a time by including the beginning, middle and end. In each part they will include the relevant text features whilst creating fluency throughout the story. There will also be a focus on shared editing, where students will be given the opportunity to review and enhance their writing.

Numeracy

In numeracy we are busy conducting formal assessment to ascertain your children's successes and next steps in learning. Your children will work in small groups with the teacher to complete an online test in all areas of Mathematics. During this time other children will work in small groups continuing their investigation into patterns. They will look at colour, number, picture and shape patterns. They will identify what a pattern is and demonstrate their understanding by continuing patterns. Other groups will be consolidating their knowledge of addition, skip counting and place value using games. Learning through games not only provides an opportunity for children to learn in a fun and engaging way but also fosters social and emotional learning such as turn taking, playing fairly and being a good sport.

Unit of Inquiry

We are continuing to explore different ways of being creative. The Preps are loving their time in the inquiry hall each week. Some of the things that they are exploring are painting, putting on puppet shows, completing craft projects, investigating colour and using musical instruments to create sounds.

The Preps will be practising providing their ideas about creative works. They will be working on expanding their vocabularies.

We will be investigating emotions and expanding the Preps' ability to describe them. We want them to be able to move beyond 'happy' and 'sad'. We will link emotions to artworks and the colours in them. For example, some paintings may include reds and blacks and look 'angry'.

Well being

Some of the Preps are increasingly appearing tired and are yawning during teaching sessions. It will be helpful for their concentrations, memory and resilience if they are having early nights during the week and saving the 'stay ups' for the weekend.

The Prep team

0A - Kathryn Morrison

kathryn.morrison@education.vic.gov.au

0B - Deb Barden

deborah.barden@education.vic.gov.au

0C - Danielle Palombi

danielle.palombi@education.vic.gov.au

0D - Julie Daniel

julie.daniel@education.vic.gov.au

HU - Krystle Horadam

krystle.horadam@education.vic.gov.au

Prep Fortnightly Snapshot

Issue 23 · 22 Nov 2020

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