Learning Space News
Foundation
Language Experiences
Each week students participate in language experiences, which are based on letters of the alphabet. They participate in a fun, engaging, language provoking activity that students can write about the following day. By the end of this term will have been exposed to the sounds of the 26 letters.
Author Study
Students have been enjoying reading books from two authors, Aaron Blabey and Pamela Allen. Some of their favourite stories have been in Aaron Blabey’s ‘Pig the Pug’ series, where Pig has gotten up to lots of mischief. They are currently reading Pamela Allen stories that feature lots of farm animals to support their language for their excursion to the farm.
Maths
Students have been building their knowledge of numbers to 20. Through hands-on activities, they have developed a sense of number where they can recognise and order numbers and count forwards and backwards from various starting points. They have been identifying numbers before and after, as well as identifying missing numbers.
Students have explored 2D shapes and how to define shapes using their attributes. They have been on shape hunts to locate common shapes within the environments and have created images out of shapes such as a robot and a monster. They have described where objects are located using language such as next to, under and behind and they have learnt about the days of the week and activities that they complete during certains times and parts of a day.
Some students have started to explore addition and have been using number lines and counting on to find the total sum but next term, all students will be diving into the operations and exploring addition and subtraction, as well as measuring the length, mass and capacity of different objects.
Farm Excursion
This term students have been learning about the animals that live on the farm and have explored a range of rich, non-fiction texts. They created their own farm information booklets to showcase the factual sentences they had learnt about each animal, which will be a lovely keepsake to take home at the end of the term. Students and teachers really enjoyed the excursion to Chesterfield Farm where they learnt all about the workings of a farm and its animals. They experienced milking a cow, riding a tractor, watching a sheepdog herd a group of sheep into a pen and even got to pat and feed some of the animals! It was a great experience!
Library
Each Wednesday, students borrow a book from the Library. They have the opportunity to browse and then select a book of interest.
This is what some students had to say about sharing their book at home with their family:
‘I read a starfish book with my Mum’. - Jerrick
‘My Dad read the book to me. It was about a dog show’. - Cindy
‘I read a funny book with my family about a tiger who lives under the bed’. - Erick
Students have learnt how a library is organised based on the author's last name. They know how to put the books back and to take care of them by making sure the ‘book spine’ is facing out.
City of Greater Dandenong ‘Reading Buddies Library Program’
Each Monday, a group of students enjoy a variety of engaging picture storybooks, shared by Janet, the team leader from the Greater Dandenong Libraries' Family Literacy Project. These students were especially fortunate as they each received a goodie bag including, coloured pencils, a book mark, picture story books, a jigsaw, a scrapbook, a pencil case and information about the local Springvale and Dandenong Libraries.
