Argus-Xenica

Welcome to The Argus/Xenica Community Newsletter, we have arrived at the end of Term 2 and we teachers are proud of the educational and social advancements of the Prep community. We have seen prodigious progress in our students in all areas of the curriculum. We hope the students enjoy their well-earned break and return rejuvenated and ready to learn. 

Reading

In Reading, we are currently continuing to work on Phase 2 and 3 sounds, students are in the process of fully understanding how to blend sounds to create a word. Thus far, we have seen plentiful success in our students' reading skills. We are also focusing on the structure of a big book, decoding information, and the construction of these big books. We are also working on sound swapping, where letters in a CVC word are swapped to create a different world. This builds on the overall understanding of students on the pronunciation and structures of these words, we have seen adequate growth in this section of the curriculum. In Term 3, students will begin to read a narrative book independently.

Writing

Students are showing proficiency in segmenting sounds and writing CVC words as we work on letter sounds. We are also currently working on sentence structure and formation. Students are provided with a picture prompt to help stimulate a sentence in which students focus on the shapes of their letters, gaps between words, and punctuation/grammar. We have seen major success in this area. In term 3, we will focus on writing individual narratives in an introduction, problem, resolution format. 

Maths

We are now focusing on patterns and recognizable arrangements. Students are exposed to patterns via manipulatives (unifex blocks, counters, etc) where they are prompted to arrange a certain pattern distinguished by colour, shape, and others of the sort. Students are also working on subitizing, which is a form of cognitive recognition in which students are trained to distinguish the number a dice rolls on and the number of counters in a group without counting. Students have represented a firm understanding of both topics. In term 3, we will continue to solidify the notion of patterns and introduce the aspect of addition. 

Refugee week

Throughout the semester, there has been substantial growth not just academically but socially and emotionally in all students in the cohort. We, teachers, are extremely proud of the accomplishments students have made this semester and remain impatient for the new heights they will reach next semester. We hope our students will enjoy their well-deserved break and come back well-rested and ready for another semester of learning!