Prep Mainstream
Celebrating Learning

Term 3, Week 6

Literacy

We continue to explore different text types, moving from fiction and non-fiction to procedural texts. Potion making in play-based learning was our starting point and our student teacher, Ella, led our lesson, with students doing a great job of creating a recipe for their potions.

Reading has officially taken off in FA with home reading playing a huge role in students' achievement – thank you families for your dedication to listening and recording your child’s efforts each day in the reader logbook.

Here are our new letter sounds:

/qu/ queen
/z/ zoo
/j/ jam

Numeracy

This week in maths we continue working with teen numbers, using ten as a trusted base to count on from and building our maths vocabulary to know that teen really means ten!

We have also been making up patterns. Students will be able to tell you what a pattern is.

We have been exploring our environment to see how many repeating patterns you can find, on clothing, furnishings, wall hangings, in artwork... You may have special family patterns that you'd like to explore. Take time to talk about the elements that are repeated in the patterns that you find.

You might like to work with your child to draw, cut out or create a pattern of your own or to copy a favourite pattern.

Enjoy finding, making, and talking about patterns with your child.

Outdoor Play-Based Learning (PBL)

We spend Tuesday morning in our farm and Thursday morning in our F/1/2 area, both offer opportunities and constraints for play that students must consider to be able to successfully play each week. For example, on Tuesday students must consider the rules of the farm such as no running, no climbing on the raised garden beds, and no picking the flowers, fruits, and veg. Students understand the context of this area and use this to look for opportunities for play, such as, building structures, shelters, and ‘fires’ for cooking or potion making or shops. It offers natural cubby spaces and unique nooks and resources for small world imaginative play.

Here are some pics and insights from our play this week in both of our play spaces:

"Guys, there’s a flower blooming. A baby one!

Don’t worry they all will open. Look, this one’s the biggest!"

– Lenny & Percy

"I can transform into a tiger but normally I’m a baby

I help them blow up things and rob things to take money because we’re poor. We’ve built a magic bridge to make my powers grow."

- Tegan

"That’s kind of a good idea to put a brick on it to hold it. Yeah, I think Dorian’s idea was actually pretty good with the brick in the middle because it doesn’t really slide."

- Dorian, Morgan & Izzy

"I managed to balance. We put two bricks underneath and next to the log cos we worked out that the plank on the top wasn’t moving but the log on the bottom was moving. "

- Morgan

"I like this patch because I like the brocollis and I planted this one and I like how it’s growing. I love the native bees. "

- Lenny

"A cheetah that can turn into a cat. Pretend we’re both cats and then we can shape shift and turn into eagles. I’m a baby eagle! I have the magic! I’m in the sky so you can’t get me."