Prep
Welcome Prep students and families, the Prep team are thrilled with how well the Prep students transitioned into their first month of primary school. We are honoured to have them as part of the Saltwater College community.
Literacy
An important part of Prep is learning High Frequency words. This month we began our first investigation into the words ‘I’, ‘and’, ‘for’ and ‘the’, through language experience and sentence development activities.
Phonics
In line with the Department of Education approach to reading, our Prep students have been exposed to daily Phonics sessions. Phonics helps children understand the relationship between sounds and letters. By learning to decode words through sound patterns, children develop the skills to read and spell. In Prep, we use engaging activities to teach phonics, helping students to break down words into manageable parts, recognise common sounds, and blend sounds together to read.
Reading
Students have embraced the expectations of Independent Reading, a daily time dedicated to reading either alone or with a partner. During this time, students select their own books to read, applying the strategies they've learned in shared and guided reading sessions. Each week, they extend their reading time to build stamina, developing both their reading skills a love for reading. The Prep students are also practising how to use strategies when reading unfamiliar words. The strategy they are focusing on at the moment is the LOOK and GET YOUR MOUTH READY strategies, which helps them decode unfamiliar words, boosting their confidence and comprehension.
Writing/PYP
In our Literacy sessions, the prep cohort has been exploring the IB Learner Attributes by engaging with mentor texts to deepen their understanding of their significance. The IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) outlines these attributes as key qualities we aim to cultivate in students to help them become internationally-minded learners and responsible community members. These attributes are woven throughout the curriculum and are considered essential for students' growth as they advance in their education.
Our Prep students actively took part in discussions, reflecting on how to incorporate these attributes into their daily lives. After these conversations, students wrote sentences to illustrate each learner attribute, which inspired them to create craft pieces based on the texts. This process helped students internalise the attributes and express them creatively through their craft projects.
The Dot – Risk taker
The Good Egg – Balanced
In My Heart – Caring
The Bad Seed – Principled
The Day the Crayons Quit – Communicator
Curious George - Inquirer
Confidence in writing within their special writing books has greatly increased. Students are focusing carefully on letter formation, recognising letter sounds, starting sentences with capital letters, ending with a full stop, putting finger spaces between words and adding a picture that compliments their writing. This well-rounded approach supports both writing skills and creativity in our young learners.
Mathematics
In Mathematics, students have continued exploring patterns through hands-on activities, using concrete materials to create patterns with colours, shapes, images, numbers and letters. They have shown their growing understanding by creating various patterns, such as AB, AAB, ABB, and ABC.
Additionally, students have been learning about the concept of location, which has been an exciting concept for our prep cohort. They have actively participated in activities to master directional concepts like above, below, in, on, over, under, between, beside, in front of, behind, off, and next to.
Wellbeing
Wellbeing plays a crucial role in students' academic success. Our Wellbeing lessons are in full swing this term and students have been beaming with excitement, eagerly participating in a variety of fun activities. Over the past few weeks, they’ve had the chance to learn how to communicate with their peers to build strong friendships. Our Prep students have placed a strong emphasis on learning about the Zones of Regulation, focusing on identifying emotions in each zone and learning how to regulate their feelings in order to return to a ‘ready to learn’ mindset
Prep Information Night - Thank You!
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to those who attended our Prep Parent Information Session. Your presence and involvement made the event a great success, and we deeply appreciate your dedication to your child's education.
As partners in your child's educational journey, we understand the importance of open communication and collaboration between parents, teachers and the school community. Your participation in the information session strengthens this partnership and lays the groundwork for ongoing dialogue and cooperation. We look forward to continuing our work together to support and empower your child's growth and development.
REMINDERS:
Students are expected to bring their satchel to school EVERY DAY – If your child has not received one, please speak to your classroom teacher.
There is no school for the Prep students every Wednesday during February as assessment is conducted on these days.
Please ensure all your child’s belongings are clearly labelled with their first and last names.
Hats are to be worn when outside from August to April. Please ensure to put sunscreen on your child before arriving at school. We are unable to apply sunscreen on children, please practise this task with your child.
Prep students will begin using iPads in Term Two. Your child’s iPad will need to be configured by our IT team. Please look out for a notification detailing when to send iPads to school for configuration.
Snack and lunch times are 20 minutes long. Please encourage your child to eat their snack/lunch within a 20 minute period, as this will help them to follow school routine.
Please remember to pack a spare change of clothes for your child. Sometimes, little children can have toileting accidents as we transition into school.
Kind Regards,
The Prep Team