Prep Team News

Hello Prep families,

We hope you all had a restful break with your families and stayed warm! It has already been a busy start to Term Three with our Bastille Day celebrations. We are looking forward to many upcoming events including a visit to Williamstown Library and our 100 days of Prep celebration in Week Three.

Our Willy Kid theme this fortnight is ‘Willy Kids Manage Their Emotions’. We read ‘It’s Great to Keep Calm’ by Jordan Collins and talked about the strategies and actions we can take if we are feeling strong emotions. The Preps wrote sentences and drew some wonderful pictures highlighting the strategies they use when feeling sad or angry, such as taking a deep breath, reading a book or asking someone for help. We love seeing the Preps use these strategies in the classroom and playground. 

Bastille Day

It was wonderful to celebrate Bastille Day last Thursday. We were blown away by the amazing costumes that our Preps had put together. It was an exciting day full of French food, a costume parade, crown making and a special performance. How great to see some of our Preps participating in the performance as assistants to the magician! We are looking forward to the next Bastille Day already. Please enjoy some photos from the fabulous celebration. 

Williamstown Library Visit

As part of our Inquiry unit, 'What's My Story? What's Your Story', the Prep students are learning about the different ways stories can be told.  To support this, we will be going for a walk to the local Williamstown Library next week to learn about the different types of stories there are and the different ways they can be told. Families have been notified of this event via Compass. No additional permission form needs to be signed, as this event is covered by the local walk permission provided at the start of the year. Thank you to the parent helpers that have offered to walk with us to the library for this exciting event.  

100 Days of Prep 

The hundredth day of school is coming up next week, on Friday 2nd August. We sent a note home in Week One about this event. Students are invited to dress up for the special day. Your costume could be party clothes, dressing as someone 100 years old or making something for the theme one hundred. If you have any questions, please see your child’s teacher. 

Term Three Specialists

This Term, all Preps will attend Specialist classes. These include Visual Art, Music, French  and Physical Education. Please see the weekly timetable below.

Parents, could you please support your child to return their library books on their given day. Please also ensure your child is dressed in their P.E. uniform and is wearing runners on the day that they have P.E. Students remain in their P.E. uniform for the entire day. 

Curriculum Focus: Weeks 1 - 2

Reading - Students will continue learning about appropriate reading behaviours, including pointing to the words as we read and taking a breath at full stops. They will also discuss text features such as full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks and question marks. As part of our Little Learner’s program, students are now beginning to explore digraphs, with our current focus being the /ll/, /ss/ and /ff/ sounds and the -s suffix.

Writing - Students are continuing to develop their letter formation and sound knowledge to write sentences. In particular this term, students will be reading narrative texts as a class. Students will then summarise these stories by writing a few sentences about the characters, setting, problem and solution from each text. 

Numeracy - Students are revising the numbers 11-20 and addition and subtraction. We are revisiting a range of games and strategies to reinforce understanding of these concepts. 

Inquiry - This term, our inquiry topic is What's My Story? What's Your Story'. The Prep students are learning about the different ways stories can be told.

Homework - Each Monday, students will be given an activity to complete at home that relates to our weekly sound or maths focus. The activity in their ‘Home Learning Book’ will be collected each Friday. Homework in Prep should take no longer than 15 minutes.  

Respectful Relationships - This term, our Respectful Relationships topic is gender and identity. Activities will assist students to reflect on their gendered identity, develop an awareness of positive and negative gender norms, challenge negative gender norms and develop an appreciation of difference.

Prep: Key Dates Term Three

Enjoy the weekend and stay warm! 

Warm regards,

The Prep Team–Caitlin Sullivan (Prep S), Hayley Thibou (Prep T) & Andrea Duxson (Prep D)