Prep Team News

Hello Prep families,

It has been another busy couple of weeks in Prep with our Melbourne Aquarium Excursion and the commencement of our kinder transition sessions. It has been wonderful to have many responsible Preps helping during these sessions, as we welcome our newest Willy Primary students. 

As we are now in Term Four, students are required to wear their school hat outside at recess and lunch times. Parents, could you please support your child to ensure their hat is in their school bag each day.

Term Four Specialists

Specialist classes this term include Visual Art, Music, Library, 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. 

Melbourne Aquarium Excursion

As part of our Inquiry unit this term, 'What Do Living Things Need To Survive?', Prep students visited the Melbourne Aquarium. It was an exciting and informative day, learning about different sea animals and their habitats. Thank you to our wonderful parent helpers for their assistance on the day. Please enjoy some photos below. 

Prep Swimming

As you know, the Prep swimming program is due to start shortly.  In preparation for this, we are asking for volunteers to assist us at Sweeney’s Swim Centre in Altona.  There is space for a maximum of two parent helpers per class each day.  Prior to attending, you will need to provide a copy of your valid Working With Children Check to the front office and have completed the online parent helper training.  From this Monday 30th October, there will be a sign up sheet out the front of each Prep classroom.  If you are willing and able to help, please add your name to these rosters ASAP. If you have any questions, please speak to your child’s classroom teacher.

Please also ensure you have provided permission and payment for your child to attend via Compass. This is due by Monday 13th November. Thank you for your support. 

Take Home Readers

Thank you to our families for their support this year, listening to your child read the Little Learners Books at home each night. Our decodable take home readers are such an important part of our Literacy program that reinforces the work we do each day in our classrooms. 

Reading the decodable texts at home allows students to develop their confidence as readers, build up important vocabulary, and improve their fluency. Without this important  home practice, it can be difficult for teachers to determine when to move students to a new text as reading fluently is a keen indicator. Students will be more able to read these texts automatically once they have read them at home for the week. Thank you for your continued support with this. We ask that families remember to record the title of the Little Learners text each night in the Yellow Reading Record book and of course, continue to read other material as well if there is time. 

Curriculum Focus: Weeks 3 - 4

Reading - Students will explore the features of non-fiction texts including the contents page, index and glossary. As part of our Little Learner’s program, students are now beginning to learn other common sounds including digraphs and trigraphs. Our current focus being long vowel sounds including /ee/ and /ea/. 

Writing - Students are continuing to learn to correctly form letters and use their sound knowledge to write sentences. Further, students are using their knowledge of narrative texts from Term Three to now begin creating their own stories. 

Numeracy - Students are exploring the concept of sharing by using materials to share items equally between groups. We will also discuss and investigate what happens when we cannot equally share items between groups, resulting in leftover / remaining items. 

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?

Prep: Key Dates Term Four

Thursday 16th November            Prep Swimming

Friday 17th November                  Prep Swimming

Thursday 23rd November            Prep Swimming

Friday 24th November                  Prep Swimming

Thursday 30th November            Prep Swimming

Friday 1st December                     Prep Swimming

Thursday 7th December               Prep Swimming

Friday 8th December                     Prep Swimming

                                                              Assembly: Prep Christmas Performance

Enjoy the wonderful weather this weekend! 

Warm regards,

The Prep Team–Caitlin Sullivan (Prep S), Hayley Thibou (Prep T) & Andrea Duxson (Prep D)