Prep News

Zones of Regulation

For the last two weeks, we have been introducing the Preps to the Zones of Regulation. The Zones of Regulation is a framework which helps to teach children about their emotions and to further develop their self-regulation skills. 

The Prep students can now recognise when they are in the Blue Zone (feeling sad, tired, bored or sick), the ideal Green Zone (feeling happy, calm, focused and ready to learn), the Yellow Zone (feeling worried, frustrated, silly, excited) or the Red Zone (feeling angry, mad or panicked). 

The Prep children have participated in activities and discussions designed to help them recognise when they are in each of the different Zones as well as to give them strategies to help them change or stay in the Zone they are in. 

We thank Mrs Duffy-Fainu'u (Disability and Inclusion Leader) for providing us with some fantastic resources to share with the Preps.

Easter Buddy Activity

It was so wonderful to be able to meet with our Year 5 buddies for some Easter craft! The Prep children all had a lot of fun decorating and making bunny ears and Easter baskets. The Easter activities were made even more special by having the Year 5 buddies help the Preps with all the tricky bits! 

The bunny ears will make a special appearance on Friday afternoon at Term 1's final assembly.

Kindness Culture Day

On Friday 25 March the Preps enjoyed celebrating ‘Kindness Culture’ Day. They enjoyed adding a ‘touch of orange’ to their school uniform. The children brought a gold coin donation for the Alannah and Madeline Foundation.

Traditionally, orange signifies social communication and meaningful conversations. It also relates to the freedom of ideas and encouragement of mutual respect.

The Preps enjoyed watching a PowerPoint on kindness and brainstorming different ways they can be kind. They then designed a poster displaying an act of kindness.

Number Work

Last week, the Preps began maths motations as a means of engaging students and consolidating prior learning. Similar to our Daily 5 for literacy, maths rotations give the students some time each week to explore numeracy through hands on activities. The Preps all thoroughly enjoyed making numbers out of playdough, ordering playing cards from 0-12, rolling dice, identifying different ways numbers can be represented and practicing writing numbers 1-10. 

They all did a wonderful job and especially enjoyed working cooperatively during pair work.

Mentone Girls' Secondary Performance

The Prep children were extremely lucky to enjoy a pantomime performance of five different fairy tales by the Year 9 Scripted Performance class from Mentone Girls' Secondary College. 

There were hoots of laughter from the Preps as the girls ran up and down the aisle dressed as Goldilocks and other famous characters. It was a wonderful experience for the Preps to enjoy some live theatre, especially since we have all been unable to appreciate these sorts of performances the past two years. 

We really appreciate Mentone Girls' Secondary taking the time to come and perform for us and we are sure they had as much fun as we did!