Junior School

PREP AA 

Hello families,

I am hoping you have all been well! We have had a busy start back to the Term. I have seen such a shift in responsibility, regulation and social play. We have started really working on our school wide positive behaviour and the Preps are now Professionals! 

Literacy:

We are officially in stage five of Little Learners Love Literacy! Where we are beginning to work on words with multiple syllables and finding strategies to stretch and blend words with four and five sounds. We have been diving into plurals and nouns/verbs. The prep students have been loving coming in and learning new ways to form sentences both outloud and during our writing sessions. 

Reading groups: 

Our bright students have joined together into "reading groups" to work on common goals in reading/writing this term. Students displayed amazing team work by discussing what animal their group should be and discussing what they would like to be called. We have three groups, the pups, crocs and triceratops! Students have loved to work in their reading groups, collaborate while learning and every week they will work on reading goals with myself during their guided reading sessions! 

Writing: 

We have introduced a writing checklist that ensures we look at all of the important elements of sentence writing. We have been checking for capital letters, finger spaces, writing sounds we can hear and ending in a full stop. Students have loved practicing writing sentences in both their books and whiteboards! 

Everyone’s an Author

This term our school has been given the opportunity to engage in a community writing project. This project allows all students to engage in developing their writing and story telling skills through writing a text about ‘Fantastical Journeys.’ Students will have the opportunity to create their own narrative text in week four and five and then we will be able to share them with their class and with you all! 

Numeracy:

Gus the plus and linus the minus! 

We have embarked on an exciting journey with addition and subtraction this term! We have begun with consolidating our knowledge of friends of ten and using both counters and tens frames to help us better understand addition. We have been using a mixture of hands on materials and strategies to work out which one best suit each learner and understanding that it can take some time to fully understand this tricky concept. I am so proud of all students for always giving it their best go and being respectful when peers need assistance! 

Students have also been practicing counting to 100+ whilst moving their bodies to help them stay focused and ready to learn. 

We are so thrilled with our progress so far and as always please feel free to reach out with any questions you may have! 

-Miss A and Jacqui. 

1/2 BD and MK. 

Reading:

This term in reading we have introduced small focus groups to allow all students to work at their level to extend their skills and understanding in reading. We have noticed that the 1/ 2 students are enjoying this and already kicking their reading goals. 

Our overall goal for reading as a cohort this term is to improve their fluency and expression. Students are incorporating movements when they see punctuation to reinforce pauses and tone in reading.  It is amazing to hear from the parents that students are coming home and reading using strategies they have learnt in the classroom. 

Writing:

Everyone’s an Author

This term our school has been given the opportunity to engage in a community writing project. This project allows all students to engage in developing their writing and story telling skills through writing a text about ‘Fantastical Journeys.’ We have already explored journeys shown through films like, Find Nemo, Zathura, Jumanji, Wizard of Oz and Aladdin. The 1/ 2 students are enthusiastic about this project and can’t wait to share their stories with the community! 

MUSIC 

This term we have introduced music into the classroom! We are extremely thrilled about the excitement that the students have shown towards engaging in this new program. We look forward to the progression of their musical skills during the OPS talent show! 

Numeracy: 

In Mathematics, we have been focusing on developing the foundational understanding and building fluency in place value and multiplication skills. Students have engaged in a variety of active, hands-on activities that make complex ideas easier to understand making it more meaningful, and memorable. Using tangible objects such as counters, matchsticks, number lines, and place value charts has allowed students to physically manipulate numbers and develop a stronger sense of number relationships.

To reinforce understanding, we have incorporated movement-based learning and collaborative tasks. For example, students worked in groups to order numbers from smallest to largest by physically positioning themselves, which added a fun and interactive element to the lesson. We have also explored skip counting through growing patterns to build stronger understanding of early multiplication knowledge. These activities encourage teamwork, communication, and problem-solving while supporting different learning styles.

- Miss D and Mrs K.