Prep News

Learning Centre Three

We’re just over halfway through Term 2 already! Over the past two weeks, the Prep students have been engaged in a variety of hands-on learning experiences. They’ve been sharing their ideas with confidence and showing growing independence as they learn both inside the classroom and out on the playground.

Phonics

We have continued to read the story Milo’s Birthday Surprise and have met more of Milo’s friends – Leo the Lion and Vicky the vulture. This week, we’ve also spent time reviewing all the letters and sounds we’ve learned so far. Each week, students continue to build their letter identification, reading, and writing skills by practising CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, reading decodable phrases and sentences, and working on correct letter formation. In our reading focus groups, students are working on strengthening their reading skills using decodable books that match their individual learning needs. The books your child has read in class are also available online - just scan the QR code inside their reading journal to access a digital version. 

This week, your child will continue to bring home their reading journal and a new decodable book in their book bag. We encourage you to read with your child each night and return the decodable book, reading diary and bag every Thursday. A new book will be sent home each Friday. We are excited to see who is close to reading for 25 nights and receiving a certificate!

Literacy

Over the past two weeks in Literacy, we continued our Joy Cowley book rotations, including Hairy Bear, Mrs Wishy-Washy, and Barrel of Gold. We also explored a range of other texts, such as The Truck Cat by Deborah Frenkel for National Simultaneous Storytime, Found by Bruce Pascoe for National Sorry Day, and How the Birds Got Their Colours by Mary Albert, as part of viewing Indigenous stories in multimodal ways. For our language experience, students enjoyed painting their own bird pictures, writing descriptive sentences about their artwork, and sharing personal experiences with birds. They have also continued to practise the skill of using capital letters at the beginning of sentences, finger spaces between words, and full stops at the end of sentences.

Maths

In Maths, the students continued to develop their knowledge and understanding of part-part-whole, by partitioning numbers into 2 and 3 parts. 

This week, we started learning about shapes (circle, triangle, rectangle, square). The students have enjoyed going for walks around the school to identify different shapes in their environment and finding shapes in catalogues and magazines.

Religion

Over the past two weeks, students have shown their understanding of the Easter story by making personal connections to the feelings of the women in the story. They reflected on times in their own lives when they showed courage, stayed faithful and demonstrated trust, such as being brave, keeping a promise and being honest. This week, we’ve started exploring different celebrations and significant events in their lives, recognising what makes these moments special.

Inquiry

In Inquiry, the students have continued to look at different types of Media, with the focus of creating their own. Last week, we explored some more famous artworks, such as “The Afghan Girl” and discussed how it makes us feel and why. Students had the chance to step into the role of photographer, practising how to ask permission before taking photos of others and using their creativity to capture action shots. This week, they’ve thoroughly enjoyed making their own digital art on iPads using the Freeform app, experimenting with colours, shapes, and design.

• Some friendly reminders:
  Monday 9th June	King's Birthday Public Holiday (school closed)
  Tuesday 10th June	School Closure Day
  Friday 13th June	Whole School Mass at 9am
  Sunday 15th June	Community Mass at 10am
  Monday 30th June	Students finish early at 1pm Learning Conversations 1:30 - 5pm
  Tuesday 1st July	Learning Conversations 3:30 - 7pm
  Friday 4th July	Whole School Assembly at 12pm Students finish Term 2 at 1pm

Thank you for your continued support.

Prep Team: Dasanthi, Emma, Gillian, Jamie, Natasha, Rachael, Sarena, Teagan and Tina