Foundation

On Tuesday the 21st of May we had our Wildlife Xposure incursion. The Foundation students met lots of different animals and learnt information about them. Firstly, we met Frodo the possum. We learnt that possums are nocturnal and like to climb trees. We then got a chance to feel the possums soft fur. 

We then met Alba the owl. We discovered she is also nocturnal and eats up to 5 mice a day. We talked about her feathers, talons and discovered when we clapped she moved her head like she was dancing.

Next was the stumpy tailed lizard. He was very slow moving and enjoyed eating watermelon and blueberries. His skin was scaly and cold to touch.

After that we met a frill neck lizard and compared him to the stumpy tailed lizard. We discovered that if this lizard gets scared he spreads out his neck to protect himself. We also learnt that he likes to camouflage himself in the environment to keep safe. 

We then met a short necked turtle and a frog.  We learnt all about the turtles shell and how it is made out of bone, and what a frog likes to eat. We made connections to our turtle that we have in our classroom and the frogs we can hear in the frog pond at our school.

Next we met two different pythons. One was a small python and the other a large black headed python. We learnt that both of the snakes were not venomous but practiced what we would do if we were to see a snake outside. 

Lastly we got to see a crocodile. The crocodile had a scaly back and very sharp teeth. We talked about how a crocodile gets a new set of teeth each time they fall out and what a crocodile likes to do. 

When we returned to our classrooms we wrote a recount about which animals we liked the most and interesting facts about them. 

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING - (SEL)

In week 5 we discussed personal strengths. We began our conversation talking about things we are good at like drawing, dancing and playing soccer. We started looking at some strengths from the list below and specifically discussed being kind, hard-working, brave and a good listener. We connected some of the strengths to people in our class and thought about what that person does to show that specific personal strength. 

Have a look at the list below and have a discussion with your child about what strengths they may have as well as the different members of your family.

On Monday 20/5, the Foundation teachers sent home a piece  paper with a balloon (see picture below). To support our work in our inquiry unit on families, please work on this task with your child and return to school as soon as possible. You can tell us about a religious or cultural celebration your family celebrates.

Things to remember:

• Homework goes home on Mondays and comes back to school on Fridays.
• Families are welcome to come to our cohort and school assemblies on Fridays at 2:30. Cohort assemblies are held in the large Grade 1/2 space (through the blue door), and the school assemblies will be held outside under the COLA (unless otherwise advised).
• Please ensure your child has fruit, a snack, and lunch as well as a water bottle.
• Lunch orders - Please ensure all lunch orders are placed in the lunch order basket at the beginning of the day. Occasionally, students have forgotten to place lunch orders in the basket and have had an emergency lunch provided.
• Keep up the positive after-school routines (homework, dinner conversations, bedtime).
• Don't forget - School begins at 8:35am daily. Students that attend after 8:50am will need to sign in at the offices.

Things you can work on at home:

• Letter and sound recognition (recognising upper and lowercase letters and their most common sound) with a particular focus on the letters Mm Ss Ff Aa Tt Pp Cc Ii Bb Hh Nn Oo Dd Gg Ll Vv Yy Rr Ee 
• Heart word recognition (recognising explicitly taught words) - My, my, The, the, I, Me, me, like, can, to, so, go, was, we 
• Reading a shared book every night focusing on concepts of print (identifying the front cover, a word, a letter, 1:1 finger pointing, talking about the story and using specific vocabulary)
• Fine motor activities – using playdoh, cutting, threading – to strengthen hand muscles
• Having nightly dinner conversations with the family (talk about the day)
• Have your child help out in the kitchen by measuring ingredients when you are making meals, and counting items that are going in the basket at the shops. This will assist in developing counting skills
• Look at some of the information provided under the Literacy, Numeracy and SEL/Inquiry headings and review these tasks to reinforce learning.