Learning Space News

Foundation

Well done on a fantastic start to Term 2! Students have settled back into the school routine seamlessly and have been happily sharing all their exciting adventures over the school holidays with their friends and teachers. 

Maths

Students are building their knowledge in numbers to 20 and beyond. Through hands-on activities, they are develop a sense of number that links numeracy concepts to physical materials. Number sense involves much more than being able to count in sequence. This learning involves being able to recognise and order numbers and to count forwards and backwards from various starting points. They will also be identifying numbers before and after a particular number, as well as identify missing numbers. 

Students will be learning about 2D shapes and how to define shapes using their attributes. Lessons on problem solving aim to teach maths concepts as well as problem solving skills so that students can apply maths knowledge to real world scenarios. Later in the term, students will also learn to ask yes/no questions to collect data, and using ordinal language to indicate positions in a sequence. 

Literacy

In Reading, students will be using the title and front cover of a book to make predictions about the story. Students will be building on their comprehension of stories by asking and answering questions, identifying the beginning, middle and end of stories. They will also continue to use the Sounds-Write program to develop on their phonics knowledge. 

In Writing, students will be learning to construct simple sentences using punctuation, including capital letters and full stops. They will also be focusing on their oral language skills through language experience activities to build their vocabulary.

Library and Author Study

Students visit the Foundation Library every Tuesday to return, browse and borrow picture story books. They have time to read their story, sharing it with other students. During these sessions they are introduced to specific authors in our Author Study time. So far, they have listened to stories by Eric Carle, including, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Mixed up Chameleon, as well as Nick Bland who wrote Twinkle and The Very Cranky Bear.

Social and Emotional Learning

Students will be focusing on positive strategies to support friendships and wellbeing.

They will be learning how to identify and manage emotions and learn what strategies work best for them to calm themselves down and develop a positive mindset. They will learn how these emotions affect friendships and are given strategies to help resolve difficulties between friends. 

Social and Emotional Learning is delivered through two concurrent programs ‘Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships’ and ‘Friendology’. Both of these programs empower the students with terminology that they can use to better understand and navigate the ups and downs of friendships. Conflict is a natural part of learning to make friends but we want students to have the tools to be able to navigate this in a safe and healthy manner. Through learning to identify and accept differences between themselves and others, students are better equipped to negotiate conflicts and get back to being friends.  

Inquiry

In the unit ‘My Family Story’, students have been learning about cultural diversity through the exploration of different cultures and will compare the similarities and differences between them. They will be participating in sessions to develop an understanding of different cultures, such as Australian, Indigenous Australian, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Indian and Korean.  They have enjoyed learning about Islam and the Ramadan celebration and ANZAC Day. 

Students will explore their own culture and their past through learning about their family history.

Mrs Chan taught the students about traditional Cambodian clothing and dancing. 

Buddies

Every fortnight students meet up with their Year 5 buddies to participate in fun activities together, such as playing hopscotch on the basketball courts. 

Here are some of the reasons why our Foundation students love their buddies:

Sothik – "I like my buddy because he is fun, and he plays with me. We always play tag and hide and seek but he is very fast and runs away."

Rosie – "I love my buddy because they are friendly. They give me hugs and share their toys with me."

William - "I like my buddy because he plays with me all the time. We play in the sandpit and destroy sand castles."  

Juliana – "She hugs me every day. She plays Duck Duck Goose with me. "