Foundation 

Communicating with the Foundation Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2020, and welcome your input: 

Holly Peters (Class FA) peters.holly.l@edumail.vic.gov.au

Lisa Dam (Class FB) dam.lisa.l@edumail.vic.gov.au

Social-Emotional Learning in the Foundation Classrooms

As we enter the second half of Term One, our Foundation students have settled into the daily school routines. We have been focussing on promoting positive "classroom norms" and have been holding meaningful discussions to look at "Big Emotions and Reactions".

Throughout these teacher-led discussions, we have been covering concepts such as: 

• Introduction to big emotions (excited, sad, frustrated, angry, etc)
• Developing an understanding of their feelings and emotions (scaling our reactions)
• Investigating personal reactions to feelings and emotions (what does your body tell you?)
• Investigating de-escalation strategies and referring to classroom posters for direction
• Discussions around the use of the "calm corner" to assist with de-escalation
• Developing an understanding of what it means to have "positive behaviours for learning" by showing respect, responsibility and resilience.

Through the use of weekly Buddy sessions with our Year Five students, we have been engaging in proactive relationships across our classrooms. Please see attached below some photos of our learning tasks. 

Berry Street Student Diaries

The use of our Foundation student diaries will be integrated into the Buddy sessions in Term Two, where Year Five students will mentor/peer teach foundation students the Berry Street concepts/strategies. The diaries will remain at school in their tubs to be used at this time.