Prep / 1 Mainstream
Celebrating Learning
What we have been up to:
PBL (play-based learning):
This week we have been learning about resilience - and what we can do to bounce back and be okay when things get challenging or difficult. Our discussions led to perseverance and never giving up. Students have been practising perseverance in PBL, asking their peers to help when things get challenging.
Maths:
In Number, students are working with place value, building in ones to tens and extending from tens to hundreds. We’ve introduced counters, paddle pop sticks and base ten blocks as our concrete materials to support our learning.
Writing:
Using our story grammar cards, students have been practising retelling a short narrative. We have been retelling as a class and also to a partner. We are working towards using our story grammar cards to help us rewrite familiar stories.
Reading:
An integral part of building fluency is reading out loud to a partner and receiving feedback. This gives students the chance to notice how reading words accurately impacts their own and their partners' understanding of the text. A listening partner can assist their reading partner to read a word accurately by saying:
- “That word is _____”
- “What’s that word?”
- “Good. Can you read that sentence again, please?”
We have gradually been introducing paragraph shrinking in our classrooms to assist with reading comprehension. Paragraph shrinking helps build student understanding of the text and therefore improves fluency. Students are asked to “shrink” either a very short page or paragraph of the text by identifying who the text is mostly about and what the most thing is that has happened. Students then say the main idea in a sentence that is 10 words or less.
In our reading groups over the past two weeks we have been focussing on the following sounds:
Juliette and Jess:
- /qu/ as in quail
- /z/ as in zebra
- /j/ as in jellyfish
Matt was learning:
- /igh/ as in sigh
- /_y/ as in my
- /i_e/ as in bike
Steph was learning:
- /air/ as in chair
- /ere/ as in there
- /are/ as in share
What’s to come in the next two weeks:
- Thank you for continuing to support your children to take home readers and practise at home. Over the next few weeks, we are completing reading testing, and we have noticed some excellent growth for Term 2!
- In maths we will continue measurement (time) and space (shape). In number, we will continue exploring place value of two and three digit numbers.
- Please keep sending warm spare clothes as PBL can be very messy in the colder months!
Warmly,
Juliette and Jess