Prep 

INFORMATION

🧤 Winter clothing and lost property 

As we head into the cooler months, jumpers and jackets are coming on and off throughout the day to keep up with Melbourne’s changing weather! To help us return lost items quickly, please make sure all clothing your child might remove at school - like jumpers and jackets - is clearly labelled with their name.

If you’ve recently received second-hand items, please double-check and update the labels to reflect your child’s name.

At the moment, we have a few jumpers whose owners we haven’t been able to track down. If any of the following items belong to you, please come and collect them from Prep A:

-PSW jumper, size 6 — unnamed

-PSW jumper, size 8 — labelled 'H. Evans'

-PSW jumper, size 10 / 3XS — unnamed

🗣️ Show and Share

Topic: A Community Group I Belong to ...

🎨 Specialist timetable

A note about Library Books

The library books that your child brings home each week are chosen by them to enjoy with you at home. These books are for shared reading time, with a parent, carer or family member reading to them.

There’s no expectation for students to read their library books independently - it’s all about fostering a love of stories, pictures and reading together.

Happy reading! 📚✨

CURRICULUM

📚 Phonemic awareness: reading and phonics

We’re learning about the letter K (as in kit) and H (as in hat). Students will explore the phonemes (the sounds they make), the graphemes (how they're written with correct formation), and the matching cued articulation actions.

In addition, students will practise reading and writing CVC words using all the short vowels — as by the end of this week, we’ll have learned all five short vowel sounds!

We’ll also review our Heart Words: the, and, I, a, is, as, to, do, of and see.

What can you do at home?

-Help your child read the take-home book, decodable passages, or CVC word cards from their book pocket together. **Aim for fluency by the second day of reading.

-Enjoy bedtime stories with your child to build vocabulary and a love for reading.

-If you're interested in learning about Cued Articulation, you can watch this helpful video by Jane Passey (the founder), where she explains and demonstrates each sound: Cued Articulation with Jane Passey

-Work through the optional UFLI home practice pages if you’d like some extra phonics practise at home.

📝 Literature: reading responses and writing 

Our Mentor Text is a beautiful book called Stay for Dinner by Sandhya Parappukkaran. The story invites us to think about the different ways families come together to share food and celebrate their cultures. Students will reflect on their own family dinners, the special foods they enjoy and the memories made around the table. We’ll be exploring what we see, think and wonder about the story, as well as learning about different foods from around the world. Students will also talk about foods they’ve tried and ones they’d love to taste one day.

In writing, we will be using the letters that we have learnt to write simple sentences inspired by picture prompts and our imaginations. We will practise the correct formation of the letters K and H, whilst also reviewing the letters we have learnt so far.

What can you do at home?

-Play with things that develop fine motor skills like lego, playdough, drawing and building blocks.

-Help your child develop their pencil grip.

-Encourage your child to write simple sentences about a picture in a book or something they see around them.E.g. “The cat is on the mat.”

(Letters/sounds we know: A, M, S, T , P, F, I, N, O, D, C, U, G, B, E, K and H)

-Help your child sound out simple words when writing, reminding them to use the letter sounds they’ve learned.

🔢  Maths 

We’re exploring the fun world of repeating patterns! We will look for patterns all around us using sound, colour, movement, shape and different materials. Students will create their own patterns and learn how to describe and continue them. 

What can you do at home? 

-Encourage your child to look for patterns in everyday places — like stripes on clothes, tiles on the floor or even the flowers in the garden.

-Use toys, buttons, pegs or fruit pieces to make simple repeating patterns (e.g. red, blue, red, blue…) and have your child continue or copy them.

-Create a simple pattern with actions like 'clap, clap, stomp, clap, clap' and have your child join in or make up their own.

🌏 CBL - Diversity

We will be covering our CBL content during our literacy sessions. 

💻 Cyber Safety

Students will explore ways we can use the internet for living, learning and playing online.

 💛 Wellbeing & School Wide Positive Behaviour (SWPBS)

Our SWPBS focus continues to be on the expectations of ‘Be Kind’, ‘Be Safe’, and ‘Be a Learner’. The students have been doing a wonderful job showing these positive behaviours around the school and have loved receiving tokens as recognition for their efforts. It’s been lovely to see how proud they are when they’re acknowledged for being kind friends, safe classmates, and enthusiastic learners.