Prep
Dear Prep Students and Families,
What a wonderful start to Term Two we have had in Prep! We have been so proud of our students upon their return to school as they have resettled into our daily routines seamlessly. The Prep Teaching Team are looking forward to a busy but fun filled term and we are sure the students will continue to flourish.
Reading
In Reading, students have been reviewing the decoding strategies taught throughout Term One. This fortnight we also began investigating a new strategy, ‘chunking’, which can also be referred to as looking for small words within a bigger word or breaking a word into parts. This strategy will allow students to use their growing knowledge of letter sounds, digraphs and vowel patterns to confidently solve words. It is pleasing to see students applying the decoding strategies, as well as their phonics knowledge, during reading sessions and we encourage all students to continue reading their Take Home Readers each school night.
Phonics
The students have continued to participate in daily phonics sessions and their enthusiasm is wonderful to see. Throughout these sessions we continually review all letters explicitly taught and practise using our knowledge of the sounds to read, spell and write words.
This fortnight we have explored a new set of letters b, h, l and have begun manipulating words using these sounds to demonstrate how to apply our knowledge of individual letter sounds into reading and writing.
When reading with your child/ren at home, please encourage them to use their knowledge of these sounds and to demonstrate to you how knowledgeable they are at segmenting words to read and write them.
Writing
In Writing, the students were inquirers when learning about ANZAC Day and the importance of remembering those who served our country. They learnt of the significance of the poppy and enjoyed creating their own to wear during our commemoration service. The students also explored the mentor text, ‘ANZAC Ted’, and learnt that he was courageous by supporting his friend through challenging times.
This term the students will be introduced to two sight words each week, as compared to one per week throughout Term One. It has been fantastic to see the students confidence develop when identifying these words in isolation, within sentences and also within their own writing. The focus words this fortnight were: all, to, said, says.
If you wish to support your child/ren further at home please ask them to recall these words on their key ring, to identify them in texts or to create verbal sentences using these words.
Maths
In Mathematics, students have explored the key vocabulary of numeral, amount and number name to further consolidate their understanding that a number can be represented in many ways.
The students have shown increased confidence to apply their number knowledge and have been enjoying creating their own resources for the game, ‘Snap’, as well as creating a set of subitising cards for the numbers one to six. It is fantastic to see their number sense developing as we continue to explore the concept that maths is all around us in the everyday world.
Reminders
Students are expected to bring their satchel to school EVERY DAY.
Hats are to be worn when outside from August to April. Please ensure to put sunscreen on your child before arriving at school.
Prep students will begin using iPads in Term Two. Your child’s iPad will need to be configured by our IT team to enable them to use them at school.
Snack and lunch times are 20 minutes long. Please encourage your child to eat their snack/lunch within a 20 minute period, as this will help them to follow school routine.
Please remember to pack a spare change of clothes for your child. Sometimes, little children can have toileting accidents and spills at school.
If you would like your child to practise our school song. This is the Youtube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua5RnSttwyY
Lastly, a reminder about bringing in headphones if you have not already done so. We will be using them with iPads.
Warm regards,
The Prep Team