Foundation

Welcome to the first Classroom Communication page for the year. These editions come out twice a Term and will hopefully provide a snapshot of what we have been doing at school.

We have started the year with a school wide focus on "Human Dignity". This is one of the Catholic teachings we would like all our students, from Foundation to Yr 6, to be aware of and try to follow in their day to day lives.

What Is Human Dignity?

We are all special because God made us.

Every person is created by God.

Every person is valuable.

Every person deserves respect.

Our actions should reflect this truth.

We have discussed ways we can put these beliefs into actions- something as simple as holding a door open for someone, greeting people and using their names and including others in games have all been offered as ways we can help make St John's a place where the dignity of each person is acknowledged and celebrated.

Literacy

For 4 weeks we have stamped, clapped, jumped in hula hoops and tossed beanbags during our literacy block in the pursuit of syllable, rhyme and word knowledge. It has been fun and quite often noisy, but everyone seems to have mastered this foundational phonemic awareness. Next, we move onto sounds and letters, which will make a nice change. The letters are taught in a specific order, with M, S, A, T, P, I, F, R the first ones we encounter. Once students can recognise the sounds these letters make, we will send home a decodable reader to practise each night. The books are written around these sounds, and students will have the same book for one week before we change it. At the start of the week the students will require support, but by the end of the week, after reading the book for 7 nights, they should be more confident.

I cannot stress enough how important the home reading routine is- it is a chance for students to continually practise and refine the concepts and skills taught in the classroom and is an excellent habit to develop as they continue up the school.

Each fortnight we have a different storybook focus with activities designed to increase students' understanding about how books operate and introduce new vocabulary to them. So far we have enjoyed "How to catch a Star" with the focus words wished and carefully, and "The Very Hungry Bear" with focus words yanked, grumpy and shrinking. Students have enjoyed the craft activity associated with the stories which are usually completed on a Thursday morning. Our classroom is looking very colourful and bright from all the student work.

There has been a strong classroom push for every student to be able to hold a pencil the correct way and write their name independently. The correct pencil grip is so important at this stage of school life- it makes forming letters easier, results in legible handwriting and perhaps most crucially-a poor pencil grip is VERY difficult to rectify if we leave it much later than now. We even have a catchy little jingle about a crocodile which serves as a reminder about where the fingers should be on the pencil. Most students can write their names as well, with the next requirement going to be a capital letter to begin and then lower-case letters for the rest.

Numeracy

Foundation Numeracy centres around the use of concrete materials- blocks, counters, crazy daisies and playing cards make up the majority of our time for Maths each day. We always begin with a game which is usually sourced from the Love Maths website. I cannot recommend this website highly enough for simple games that consolidate numeracy knowledge. So far, we have played "Get Out of My House!" and this week we are working on a co-operative game called "Last Dinosaur Standing". The games can usually be played with household items, although I do suggest buying a pack of playing cards if you do not already have some at home.

Numeracy units of work are taught through the Ochre program which has seen us investigate Pattern and Measurement (Time) up to Week 5. The rest of Term One will be spent on place value, working with numbers to 10. I have been delighted with the number confidence most students have started school with when counting and making numbers to 10, and we will continually revisit and revise throughout the year as it is such a vital foundation for future Math success.

PANCAKE DAY

We had a marvellous time last Tuesday as we sampled the culinary skills of our Yr 6 Buddies as they whipped up hundreds and hundreds of pancakes for the school. Feedback was very positive from the Foundation students, although general consensus was berries and ice-cream would have elevated the pancakes to another level. I'll pass these thoughts onto the relevant parties for next year...

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

We have begun the season of Lent, the 40 days preceding Easter which is fundamentally a time of preparation. Students have been discussing simple ways they can be kind and helpful towards others. They have also talked about Project Compassion and all the good work this organisation does in our world. A huge thank you to those parents who have encouraged their child to bring some money for the class money box. It is already feeling very heavy with coins. We even received a car wash token in case 'the poor people want to wash their car".

Morning Routine

We have started a morning routine to help get ourselves ready for learning. Students are now responsible for putting their bag in their locker, putting their chair down, placing a whiteboard, rubber and texta on their table and then heading out to play. Two days into the system and it is going like clockwork. This will alleviate some noise and hustle and bustle during teaching time when everyone was trying to get the equipment at the same time.

LAST WEDNESDAY REST DAY THIS WEEK. AS OF 4/3/26, ALL FOUNDATION STUDENTS JOIN THE REAL WORLD OF SCHOOL 5 DAYS A WEEK.

ON-GOING REMINDERS

St John's is a "No Hat, No Play" school, which means everyone is wearing their hats every day. High ponytails and hair buns can cause difficulty for some students in trying to get their hat to actually sit on their head properly. Just something to ponder when creating hairstyles in the morning.
Everything needs to be labelled. And this mantra will be repeated on a regular basis throughout the year. You will get sick of hearing it, we will get sick of saying it, but please make sure your child's belongings can be easily returned to them should they accidentally be misplaced.
Zooper Doopers are $1, Cake Raffle tickets are 50c. Both momentous events happen each Friday.
Lunch Orders are every Wednesday.
Library visits take place on a Friday. If last week's borrowed book is not returned, a new one cannot be borrowed.

6. Birthday invitations- Foundation is traditionally the year of Birthday Parties. We are happy to hand out invitations at school if everyone is invited, but if you choose to only invite some friends to your child's party (and we completely understand this approach) we would prefer that the invitations were shared another way. Whilst life does have the occasional disappointment, not being invited to a party is a pretty big one when you are 5 or 6 years old and we would rather the school not be the place of the upset.

If you have any questions or queries about anything, please contact us. We have Staff Meetings after school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so these times are unavailable, but can make any other time work.

sredfern@sjeuroa.catholic.edu.au

phone: 57952937

Thank you,

Sally and Lisa