Prep Team News

Hello Prep families,

It has been a very exciting fortnight in Prep, with our excursion to the Melbourne Aquarium last Wednesday. We have spent time in our classrooms reflecting on the day and recording some of our highlights and favourite animals. Across the remainder of the term, we will continue to dive deeper into some of the information we learnt while at the aquarium, exploring the different things that living things need to survive. 

Our Willy Kid theme this fortnight is ‘Willy Kids are Accountable’. We read ‘David Gets in Trouble’ by David Shannon, and discussed the ways that Willy Kids can be accountable with their learning, and when they interact with others.

Melbourne Aquarium Excursion

Last week, as part of our Inquiry unit, 'What Do Living Things Need To Survive?', Prep students visited the Melbourne Aquarium. They learnt about the different animals that live under water, how they are suited to their habitats, and what their habitats provide for them. One of the main takeaways from the day was that all living things use their habitats for four different purposes. These are: food, shelter, water and air. 

It was a wonderful  day, with many happy faces and excited students! We saw a range of animals including seahorses, turtles, fish and penguins. The highlight of the day was seeing the new crocodile at the aquarium, Coowonga. We learnt that Coowonga is around 400kg and can hear people's hearts beating in their chests. Please enjoy some photos from the day.

Art Show 

It was so lovely to see so many familiar faces at our Art Show on Sunday the 26th. We hear that the Friday night cocktail event was also a hit! Thank you to all the families who made the time to come and look at the art. The students should be incredibly proud of all the effort they put into their artwork, including the class pieces. A special shout out to Marcia for the countless hours of work she put into making the Art Show happen! 

Term Four Specialists

This Term, all Preps will attend Specialist classes. These include Visual Art, Music, French  and Physical Education. Please see the weekly timetable below.

Parents, could you please support your child to return their library books on their given day. Please also ensure your child is dressed in their P.E. uniform and is wearing runners on the day that they have P.E. Students remain in their P.E. uniform for the entire day. 

Curriculum Focus: Weeks 3 - 4

Reading - Students will continue learning about appropriate reading behaviours, including pointing to the words as we read and taking a breath at full stops. They will also discuss text features such as full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks and question marks. As part of our Little Learner’s program, students are continuing to explore digraphs, with our current focus being the long a sound (represented by the digraphs ‘ai’ and ‘ay’) and the suffix -ing. 

Writing- Students are continuing to develop their letter formation and sound knowledge to write sentences. In particular this term, students will be reading narrative texts as a class. Students will then summarise these stories by writing a few sentences about the characters, setting, problem and solution from each text. We will also explore non-fiction texts as part of our Inquiry Unit, and use these texts to record information. 

Numeracy- Students are revising addition and subtraction. We are revisiting a range of games and strategies to reinforce understanding of these concepts within and beyond 10. 

Inquiry - This term, our inquiry topic is What do living things need to survive? Our big topics will include: What are living things and how do we know they are living? What do different things require to stay alive? How can we help these things stay alive? Do living things need to be in the right place to stay alive?

Homework - Each Monday, students will be given an activity to complete at home that relates to our weekly sound or maths focus. The activity in their ‘Home Learning Book’ will be collected each Friday. Homework in Prep should take no longer than 15 minutes.  

Respectful Relationships - This term, our Respectful Relationships topic is stress management. Activities will assist students to recognise and identify their own emotions, describe situations that may evoke strong emotions, recognise and identify how their emotions can influence the way they feel and act, and develop self-regulation strategies. 

Prep: Key Dates Term Four

Enjoy the long weekend!

Warm regards,

The Prep Team–Caitlin Sullivan (Prep S), Claire Davies (Prep D) & Georgia Grainger (Prep G)