Foundation

Dear Parents,

We hope you had relaxing family time over the long weekend and you were able to do something fun, despite the heat!

We wanted to share with you all how proud we were of the children following our first Assembly. They did a fantastic job! Assemblies are a great way to connect to the wider school community and find out what is happening in other grades. The children practised one of our school values by showing respect as they listened to the Acknowledgement of Country and the National Anthem. They sat quietly while listening to others share information and recognised those receiving their SRC badges. We will be practising the National Anthem in our classroom throughout the year so we can sing too. 

Our next Assembly (for Foundation to Grade 2) will be held on Monday 18th March at 9.10am in the Stadium. If your child is receiving a Student of the Month Award or a badge for their Library Monitor or Planet Saver position, your child's teacher has emailed you. 

Important Dates:

Week 8

Monday 18th March – Assembly (Foundation to Grade 2) at 9.10am (Stadium)

Parent/Teacher Academic Meetings (bookings can be made via Compass)

Tuesday 19th March - Bring Library Books and bags to school.

Parent/Teacher Academic Meetings (bookings can be made via Compass)

Friday 22nd March - VPS Colour Run

Week 9

Tuesday 26th March - Harmony Day (wear cultural dress or orange)

Thursday 28th March – Last day of Term 1. Early Dismissal at 2.30pm

Parent Teacher Academic Meetings

Term One online ‘Getting to Know You/Academic Meetings’ will be held Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th March. You will have a choice of meeting face to face with your child’s teacher or online over Zoom. 

To book you will need to access COMPASS. This process will be open from Tuesday 12th March through to Saturday 16th March at 5pm. The purpose of holding the meetings towards the end of term, rather than the beginning is to provide you with a more consistent timeline of feedback throughout the year to keep you informed of your child’s progress. 

At these interviews, you will have the opportunity to discuss how your child is progressing academically, socially and behaviourally. You will also have the opportunity to update the teacher on any changes or explain aspects that were outlined on the recent Getting to Know You Form that was provided on COMPASS.

 When booking, please remember: 

- to allow time to move from one classroom to the next when meeting with multiple teachers (if meeting in person). 

- you do have the ability to change the time if you choose to do so at a later date. 

If meeting online, you will also need to email your child’s classroom teacher with the date and time that you have booked on Compass and we will email you the zoom link to access when the booking window closes. Please be aware, that both ‘online’ and ‘in person’ meetings are limited to 10 minutes only, if you any pressing issues that require longer than 10 minutes, please contact your child’s teacher prior to the meeting to make alternate arrangements.

Library Bags

Library bags – bring each Tuesday WITH the book inside.  Your child will be unable to borrow a new book if they are missing either their old library book to return, or the library bag to take the new book home. Please encourage your child to keep the book and the bag together and place them in their school bag when you are finished reading it. 

Blue Folders and Reader Covers

By now, you would have seen the new Sound Blending books in your child’s reader folders. We are practising saying the sounds and blending them together. When you read with your child, ask them to:

1. Point to each letter and say the sound ('Fred' talking)
2. Sweep their finger underneath the word, from the first sound through to the last, to blend the sounds together. 
3. Say the word.

The focus is on practising this reading strategy, rather than memorising the words. Please sign the highlighted part on the sheet inside the reader cover to show that your child has read this book and put the reader cover and book in the blue folder and bring it to school each day. We understand that these books may be easy for some, however we encourage your child to continue to practise the strategy as the words in books get progressively more difficult. 

Our picture books have slowly gone missing as they have been accidentally left at home and not brought back to school. If you have any reader storybooks at home, please return them to school in the blue folder as soon as you can. 

Harmony Day

School Uniform

Hats should be the proper school hats (with the logo) that cover the children’s faces and ears. School hats are mandatory for all outside activities in Term 1 and 4 as a part of our SunSmart Policy. Please ensure that your child’s hat is clearly named and in their school bag every day.  

Children without hats stay in the shade and are unable to play on the equipment without a hat. Involve your child in packing their school bag each day so they know where to find their hat in their bag. 

Classroom Assistance

The students (and teachers!) love having grown ups come into the classrooms in the morning to help students practice their sounds and reading. Our parent helpers are welcome first thing in the morning until approx. 9.30 – whether you can stay only 10 minutes or the whole time.

If you are helping, you must have a valid Working With Children Check (which can be applied for online). Then follow these steps:

• Sign in at the front office before the bell
• Come into the classroom once the class has entered
• Grab the reader folders tub and sit at one of the tables
• Choose a student to sit next to you and read through some of the book (3-4 pages).
  • Please don’t do the whole book as we want as many students to practice as possible!
  • You might like to start (or finish) with your own child
• Repeat with another student – until your time is up
• Sign out at the office

Over the first few weeks of our new books, teachers will change them throughout the day but next term, we will train the students to change their own! Once students are changing their own readers, parent helpers can also help to check that students have taken the correct colour/level book.

We love our parent helpers and know that you also have very busy lives… so please don’t stress if something comes up and you can no longer come in one morning or the opposite and suddenly you can – you are more than welcome. Finally, younger siblings are welcome to come in and visit too.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Absence Notes

If your child is away for any reason, please update this in Compass. We require this notification for legal purposes.

What's on in the Classroom? 

English

Over the next two weeks we introduce the lower case sounds ‘y, w, th, z, ch, qu, x, ng, nk ’. We have covered the sounds for m, a, s, d, t, i, n, p, g, o, c, k, u, b, f, e, l, h, sh, r, j and v’. It is very important that children attend school every day as we introduce new sounds daily to help them begin to read independently. We will be using all of these sounds to Fred Talk and blend in our readers each night! 

If you are interested in the way we teach these sounds, here are some links to some sounds on the Read Write Inc website. Previous links were emailed out or in the previous Newsletter. 

e - https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/BeBuf6l9/kvz9x1DQ 

l - https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/u1SzB7JT/3MbODHKW 

h - https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/Q94UNF0i/gQpNmppr 

sh - https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/1KxWTLjA/yyaxeh6X 

r - https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/URduLlVj/Vow8rw4A 

j - https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/hDzLgj7K/ZCg4y6dY 

v - https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/gLWgrfKa/aR7CnwtN 

y - https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/3VT8pCz6/sMjsE1hR

w -  https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/nK0eCl48/QLUrm5iL

Maths

• Counting rhymes. 
• Written formation of numerals. 
• Introduction to numbers

We are continuing to find out how we can use numbers – one more, one less, in a tens frame, making the number of objects and using other concrete objects (counters, unifix blocks etc) to show what this number looks like.

Last week we discussed days of the week and connected them to activities, as well as other concepts of time such day/night and yesterday/today/tomorrow.  Next week we are exploring measurement by looking at length. We will compare and order objects by size from smallest to largest. 

Term 2 History Unit – What’s My Story?

In Term 2, we will be discussing and sharing our own personal stories to understand our own history and that of our families, including stories from different cultures and other parts of the world. As participants in our own history, we aim to develop knowledge and understanding of how the past is different from the present.

As a part of this unit, we will be using photographs from students’ personal histories. When you can, please send us (via email or on a USB) the following photos:

1 x Baby Photo

1 x Family Photo

1 x Celebration (eg. Diwali, Christmas, Lunar New Year, Easter, Birthday, Wedding etc)

1 x Personal choice (eg. holiday, with extended family, with pets etc)

If you have any questions, please email your child’s teacher.

Buddies

We had so much fun visiting our Grade 6 Buddies on Thursday morning. We look forward to working with our buddies throughout the year. Here are some photos of the hats we made!

Fine Motor Activities

In Foundation, we love working on our fine motor skills. This means doing activities that promote hand strength such as cutting, grasping, threading, squeezing etc. Here are some photos of a recent fine motor skills session.

Show and Tell Timetable

Each week there will be different letters to base our Show and Tell on. These letters will have been taught in the previous week and will provide further opportunities for revision. 

Although it is not mandatory to complete Show and Tell every week we highly encourage children to bring it as regularly as possible as it is a vital component in the Speaking and Listening strand of the curriculum. Show and Tell is a great way for students to gain confidence speaking in front of their peers, as well as a chance for them to practise listening respectfully to others. 

Please feel free to be creative with the letter themes each week. As a guide, each child should bring in one item and aim to speak for 1-2 minutes (depending on how confident they are in front of an audience).