Foundation (Prep)

We are so proud of how hard the prep students are working this term. Many students have battled through illness this past month and have shown resilience when they weren't feeling 100%. We are excited to see growth in student learning and have enjoyed celebrating the children reaching their personal goals.

English

The most recent sounds we've introduced are qu, ee, ch, v, x and y. Students have practised articulating the sounds correctly and writing them during handwriting lessons. We've used these new sounds to read and spell words and to create simple sentences.

Some students are consolidating their understanding of blending sounds to make words with three and four sounds (chop, queen, vet, box, yes, etc), while others are working at writing complete sentences. Students who are ready, are being introduced to different types of punctuation such as question marks and exclamation marks. They are identifying these types of punctuation in books and attempting to use them when writing sentences of their own.

Students are practising their tricky words daily and are encouraged to refer to them on our word trees in the classrooms when writing. The children have the opportunity to write a recount of a familiar event and a free choice writing piece every week. These opportunities for writing are increasing the automatic recall of these high frequency words.

Mathematics

Over the past month in mathematics, we have focused on equal sharing, collecting information (data/graphs) and counting strategies. Equal sharing is the foundation of understanding division. Students were introduced to the concept of a fair share and how to share a number equally into groups. Through exploration, they were able to solve simple number stories and determine if a collection could be shared equally or not.

We also did a topic on collecting information and discussing what we could tell from this information. Students had fun choosing two options and surveying their classmates to find out which of their choices was more popular. Throughout the topic, students developed the confidence to collect information and present their findings in a simple picture graph. We then looked at our graphs and discussed which options were more/less popular.

Using effective counting strategies and trusting that our counting is accurate, is an important skill taught in prep. It is not uncommon for some students to forget where they started when counting or count too quickly resulting in their answer being incorrect by just one. Strategies such as lining objects up or moving as you count, are taught to improve accuracy.

BOOK WEEK

This week we celebrated the magic of reading! This year's Children's Book Week theme is "Symphony of Stories", recognising the way stories bring people together, spark imaginations and create lasting memories.

We commenced the day with a parade of Book Week costumes. Students dressed as their favourite book characters and it was wonderful to see the creativity and imagination on display as beloved characters came to life! Thank you very much to all families for your support with preparing the costumes.

Following the parade, students enjoyed a fun-filled day of activities inspired by picture story books, celebrating the joy of reading, storytelling and creativity.