Prep Team News

Hello Prep families,

It has been another exciting week in Prep. The Preps have now well and truly begun settling into their routines at school. There has been lots of learning happening in each Prep classroom over the last fortnight, as we continue to learn our single letter sounds and count our days at school. Keep up the great work, Preps! Please note that Wednesday 25th February will be the last rest day. After this day, the Preps will be attending school full time.

Wellbeing Incursion 

Our Preps will experience their first incursion at school in Week Six when we have a team of specialised Wellbeing teachers come to visit.  This session will run on Tuesday 3rd of March and will focus on emotional regulation, concentration and relaxation. Please keep an eye out on Compass to ensure you complete the permission and payment for your child to attend. 

Prep Welcome BBQ

Please join us for the annual Williamstown Primary Prep Welcome BBQ on Thursday 5th March from 4:30pm - 6pm in the Prep Playground. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet other Prep families and celebrate the first few weeks of school.

Blue Book Bags

The Preps have now received a blue book bag. These blue book bags will need to be brought to school each morning and will be sent home in the afternoon each day. In your child’s book bag you will find a ‘Starting School Book’ and ‘Home Learning Book’. This is where you will also find important notes that are sent home by teachers.

Term One Specialists

This term, all Preps will attend specialist classes. These include Visual Arts, Music, French, Library 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. 

Reminder - A Note about the Yard

To continue to encourage independence and resilience amongst our Preps we ask that parents please refrain from visiting the Prep playground at recess and lunch times. Please be conscious that for some students this can be quite distressing as they wonder where their own parents are when their friends get visits from their parents. Moreover, as there are a range of different teachers on Yard Duty in the Prep Area, not all teachers are able to recognise Prep parents, and will need to ask you to leave in line with our school policy. If you have any messages or items to pass on to your child throughout the day, please call the office and it will be passed on to your child’s classroom teacher. Please also be aware that students are not permitted to climb any of the fences surrounding the school grounds due to safety concerns. We appreciate you supporting us with this by reminding your child not to climb the fence before and after school. 

Curriculum Focus: Weeks 4 - 5

Reading - Students will learn about appropriate reading behaviours, for example direction of print and caring for books. They will also discuss book features such as the front cover, pictures and text. As part of our Little Learner’s program, students begin the year learning single letter sounds, with our current focus being the /f/ and /a/ sounds. To help us remember these sounds, we have met Felix the Frog and Ally the Alligator. There are songs about these characters available on Spotify, which you may like to listen to with your child at home or in the car.

Felix the Frog song 

Ally the Alligator song 

Writing - Students are learning to write their name, correctly form letters, trace over a modelled piece of writing and copy it underneath. Across these two weeks we are focusing on forming the letters ‘f’ and ‘a’.

Numeracy - Students are learning to graph information about themselves, their classmates and their school. They are also finding different ways to represent a number by starting our count to 100 Days of School.

Inquiry - Students are investigating how Willy Kids can be successful and engaged learners.

Willy Kids - Our Willy Kid topic for this fortnight is ‘Willy Kids Wonder’. The Willy Kid topic for the next fortnight is ‘Willy Kids are Problem Solvers’.

Respectful Relationships - This term our Respectful Relationships topic is Emotional Literacy.  The aim of this topic is to assist students to recognise and identify their own emotions, and describe situations that may evoke these emotions.

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

Prep: Key Dates Term One

Have a great weekend!

Warm regards,

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