Foundation

What a wonderful first 10 days it has been in Foundation! The year has begun with an introduction to our Learning to Learn Program, setting strong foundations for curiosity, reflection and growth.

We have read our Indigenous mentor text, My Story, Our Country by Rhyia Dank, which has supported students to explore ideas about history, identity, family and community. Alongside this, we have been learning our school routines and classroom expectations, forming new friendships, getting to know our teachers and peers, and learning in two languages: English and Italian.

Students have also explored our school motto and school values. While creating our STELLA and LUNA big books, we demonstrated Mutual Responsibility by working together to create a class web. This activity required strong teamwork skills, including taking turns, being superstar listeners, holding the rope tightly, and supporting one another to stay connected.

This week, in English Phonics and Word Knowledge we have introduced the lower-case letters s and t. We have explored the sounds these letters make, and we have identified words that begin with these sounds. Next week, we will be focusing on the sounds a and p. In Italian Fonologia, we have introduced the sounds the vowels/ le vocali make in Italiano. They are a, e, i, o, u. We have written our names and identified these sounds in our names. The students have been superstars in learning our Phonics/Fonologia whiteboard routine: Write it, Chin it, Bin it, Park it. 

This week we have also begun our first Reading / Lettura unit focusing on Narrative texts. We have started the unit by reading our mentor texts Olivia (in English) and Buongiorno Pompiere (in Italian). Students have begun sharing their likes and dislikes and have made personal connections to the stories.

In Italiano, students have used the phrases “mi piace” (I like) and “non mi piace” (I don’t like) to express their opinions. While in English, they have used the sentence starter “This book reminds me of…” to connect the text to their own experiences.

We will continue practising these important skills by expressing preferences about books and making meaningful connections between the events in stories and our own lives.