Prep News

Congratulations Preps! 

The Prep students have had a wonderful start to school! We are so proud of the confidence they have displayed by lining up outside and coming into the Prep Learning Centre independently and joining their teachers and classmates. 

It has been wonderful to see the children play happily, form new friendships and start to settle into the daily routines of school life.    

Below are some photos of the students enjoying developmental play in their classroom.  

So many big smiles and happy faces!  We are looking forward to sharing an exciting Prep year with you and your children.  

SMART Spelling

The Prep children all really enjoyed starting their SMART Spelling journey this term. SMART Spelling is a program created by Michelle Hutchison in 2015 which comprises of a 'Word of the Week' and ‘Sentence of the Week’. 

"The 'Word of the Week' inspires curiosity, excitement, hands-on shared experiences, rich oral language and most importantly…fun…and that makes learning stick! Sounds and letters are taught explicitly and systematically in a carefully structured sequence from the Words of the Week. ‘The Sentence of the Week’ places the most commonly seen words into meaningful sentences." 

We began by learning the letters and sounds in the word ‘cat.’ The Preps all had so much fun creating their own cats and listening to cat stories throughout the week such as The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss and Greedy Cat by Joy Cowley. We have moved on to the sounds /a/, /n/ and /t/ and have been thinking about how they go together to make the word ‘ant.’ 

Number Work

This week, the Preps began Maths Rotations as a means of engaging students and consolidating prior learning. Maths Rotations give the students some time each week to explore numeracy through hands on activities. 

The Preps all thoroughly enjoyed making numbers out of playdough, ordering playing cards from 0-12, rolling dice, identifying different ways numbers can be represented and practicing writing numbers 1-10. They all did a wonderful job and especially enjoyed working cooperatively during pair work.