Prep Team News

Hello Prep families,

It has been another great fortnight in Prep full of lots of great learning, catch ups with our 5/6 buddies and the windiest Book Week parade in recent memory! 

Our Willy Kid theme this fortnight is ‘Willy Kids Bounce Back’. We read ‘The Most Magnificent Thing’ by Ashley Spires. We discussed strategies that help us to bounce back such as using a growth mindset, compromising and responding positively to setbacks. 

First Nations Incursion 

On Tuesday the 19th of August, we were so lucky to learn some more about Aboriginal Art, Artefacts and Dance. We participated in a three-hour rotation with our buddies, and got the opportunity to make a story using symbols, listen to some didgeridoo music and also do some dancing. The most interesting thing that we learnt was that the instrument that makes didgeridoo music is actually called a ‘yidaki’. According to Dreaming stories, the yidaki was used as a tool to bring together two mobs who had fought for thousands of years. 

Book Week Parade 

It was wonderful to see the Prep students participate in their first book week parade. We loved seeing the creativity and effort that was put into costumes, and it was wonderful that some students even brought in a special book to share with the whole class. Despite the windy weather, it was a fun filled day parading, reading books and writing about our book week characters.

What’s That In The Letterbox?

As part of our inquiry unit this term, the Preps are looking at the different ways stories can be told. Over the last two weeks, we have read ‘Letters to Felix’, ‘The Jolly Postman’, and discussed how we can communicate and tell stories by writing letters. The Preps have written a letter to their families about something they’ve recently done at school. This week we walked to our local letterbox to post the letters home to families. We hope you enjoy receiving these letters and reading them with your child. 

School Nursing Program

Last week your child came home with an envelope containing information about the School Nursing Program.  This digital questionnaire is distributed to all children enrolled in their first year of school across Victoria.  Completing this questionnaire enables you to raise any concerns you may have regarding your child’s health and development.

If you wish to participate in the Primary School Nursing Program, please complete the online questionnaire by Thursday 4th September.  

If you do not wish to participate in the program, we still require you to scan the QR code provided in the envelope and select the NO consent box.

If you have any questions about this program, or you require a paper copy of the questionnaire, please speak to your child’s classroom teacher.

Father’s Day / Special Person’s Afternoon

In honour of the special people in our lives we will be hosting an exciting afternoon just for them!

We would love for a special person in each child’s life (e.g. dad, uncle, grandpa, mum) to join us in your child’s classroom at 3:00pm on Friday 5th September. The Prep students will be busy in the coming weeks preparing something for the special people in their lives and they are very excited to share it with you all. We will also have a special sweet treat for our visitors, so if you have any dietary requirements please pass this information onto your child’s teacher by Monday 1st September.

Finally, our classrooms are quite small as it is and once we add an extra twenty adults it can get very squishy. We will have an activity for the students to do with their special visitor, and if we have too many people this can be hard to organise. For this reason we ask that only one special person attends per Prep student and, if possible, that all younger siblings stay at home. If you have any questions, please speak to your child’s teacher.

Reminder: Hats! Hats! Hats!

As of Monday the 18th of August, we are asking that all students wear their hats during outside play times. This is in line with the schools revised SunSmart Policy which has been changed to align with the Department of Education’s updated guidelines. We appreciate your support in sending your child to school with their school hat from this date. 

Term Three Specialists

This Term, all Preps will attend Specialist classes. These include Visual Art, Music, French  and Physical Education. Please see the weekly timetable below.

Please note, to accommodate both the Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 camps there may be some minor disruptions to students attending the Library. Moreover, in Week 6, Prep S will have had French on Monday. 

Parents, could you please support your child to return their library books on their given day. Please also ensure your child is dressed in their P.E. uniform and is wearing runners on the day that they have P.E. Students remain in their P.E. uniform for the entire day. 

Curriculum Focus: Weeks 5 - 6

Reading - Students will continue learning about appropriate reading behaviours, including pointing to the words as we read and taking a breath at full stops. They will also discuss text features such as full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks and question marks. As part of our Little Learner’s program, students are now beginning to explore digraphs. Our current focus is on the /ck/ sound. Next up, we will be looking at the /sh/ sound.

Writing - Students are continuing to develop their letter formation and sound knowledge to write sentences. In particular this term, students will be reading narrative texts as a class. Students will then summarise these stories by writing a few sentences about the characters, setting, problem and solution from each text. 

Numeracy - Students are exploring the concepts of time and measurement. For time, we have been practising the days of the week and talking about the sequence of events within a day. For measurement, students are ordering items based on their mass, length and capacity. We are also applying our knowledge and skills to problem solving activities. 

Inquiry - This term, our inquiry topic is What's My Story? What's Your Story'. The Prep students are learning about the different ways stories can be told.

Homework - Each Monday, students will be given an activity to complete at home that relates to our weekly sound or maths focus. The activity in their ‘Home Learning Book’ will be collected each Friday. Homework in Prep should take no longer than 15 minutes.  

Respectful Relationships - This term, our Respectful Relationships topic is positive coping. Through this unit, we will explore a range of different emotions. Students will discuss and further develop their self-regulation skills, and explore the different ways they can navigate strong emotions. We have also talked about ‘Wear it Purple Day’ with the students this week. We discussed that ‘Wear it Purple Day’ is when we wear purple clothes to show that we’re kind to everyone. Some kids have families that might look different to our own, and we wear purple to show all kids that they’re special and loved just the way they are. 

Prep: Key Dates Term Three

Enjoy the weekend. 

Warm regards,

The Prep Team–Caitlin Sullivan (Prep S), & Georgia Grainger (Prep G)