Foundation 

Communicating with the Foundation Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2024, and welcome your input: 

Holly Peters  Holly.Peters@education.vic.gov.au

Lisa Dam  Lisa.Dam@education.vic.gov.au

Amy Ryde Amy.Ryde@education.vic.gov.au

ENGLISH TERM TWO

Over the past couple of weeks the Foundation students have been busy learning new letter sounds and their matching characters. So far they have learned five letter sets; msta, pifr, codh, engl and kubj. As each letter and character are introduced the students learn the Auslan sign for that letter. This helps the children to remember the sound as well as learn the signs for the Auslan alphabet. Ask them for a demonstration! 

Our InitiaLit lessons are taught in a three lesson cycle: 

1: Introducing the new sound - meeting the new letter character and sound

2: Getting ready for reading and spelling using the new letter sound

3: Text reading and writing and introduction of new tricky words. 

Through our InitiaLit lessons we have been focusing on blending three and four letter sounds to read words. Students use a variety of actions such as words stretching and counting the sounds using their fingers which helps them isolate the letter sounds in words. 

We are continuing to learn new tricky words and regularly revise the tricky words already learned. Tricky Words should be practiced until they are automatically recognised as they cannot necessarily be sounded out like other words. Each new tricky word learned is added to our tricky word garden for the students to refer to and use when they complete writing tasks. The tricky words are also located at the back of the Reading Diaries to help your child practice at home. 

We have also been learning the purpose of capital letters, when they are used and that they sometimes look different to lower case letters but still make the same phonetic sound. This supports the children subsequently using them when writing sentences and names of people and things.

During our literacy sessions, the children participate in small group activities and independent work which aligns with our InitiaLit lessons and has a focus on the letters taught. These include activities such as using the InitiaLitt sounds and words books, decodable readers, trick word activities, word and sentence grab bags and letter sound activities to consolidate their newly learned letter sound skills. 

Writing

We are continuing to practice our handwriting skills using our dotted thirds books. 

Students learn how to write each letter as they they are introduced. 

Students have been attempting to apply their knowledge of sounds and letters and are beginning to include some tricky words when completing their writing tasks. 

We have been learning about the purpose of recount writing and the important information that should be included in this genre of writing. 

The students have also started to learn all about recount writing by writing about something familiar to them - their weekend! They have been trying their best to sound out the letter sounds to write unknown words and have been trying their best and giving writing a go! We are very proud of their efforts. 

FOUNDATION SPECIALIST TIMETABLE

As Specialists classes have begun we thought it would be useful for you to know which days these occur. When students are participating in Health and Physical Education (HPE) and Perceptual Motor Program (PMP) it would be best if they were wearing sneakers or shoes that they can move around in. Please note that this timetable can change! We will keep you updated if this occurs.

We are looking forward to an exciting first term of learning! If you have any questions please contact us via email or in person. 

holly.peters@education.vic.gov.au

lisa.dam@education.vic.gov.au 

amy.ryde@education.vic.gov.au