Foundation
It's hard to believe we are in the second last week of Term already! It has been said many times before, and will probably be said many times again, but time certainly does fly when you are having fun! The holidays will be very well deserved for the 31 Foundation students who have taken to school life like seasoned professionals.
St Patrick's Day
The Foundation rooms were a sea of green on Monday 17th March when we celebrated St Patrick's Day. After listening to the story of St Patrick, students rotated through three different activities designed for fun, plus some educational content.
Thomasina 'volunteered' to take on the potentially messiest activity and ice and decorate biscuits green, Damien had a revision task about the life of St Patrick and Sally was in charge of decorating shamrocks- the image St. Patrick used to explain the Holy Trinity to the people of Ireland. A great time was had by all, students and teachers
alike.
SCHOOL CLOSURE DAY
Tuesday 1st April - Students DO NOT attend school this day as staff are travelling to St Brendan's in Shepparton for Professional Learning in "The Knowledge Society".
LITERACY
We have been identifying specific sounds this Term, with M (Maggie Mouse), S (Sammy Seal), T (Tommy Tiger), A (Andy Ant) and P (Poppy Princess) all characters we have become very fond of.
Students are beginning to manipulate these sounds to read and write simple CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant words). It is an exciting time to be in the Foundation room, with the self- confidence of the group growing daily. After the holidays we will begin the daily take home reader program, with evidence showing that regular practise at home only adds to student growth.
InitiaLit decodable readers are designed to support literacy instruction for children in Foundation to Year 2. They consist of engaging texts that help build confidence in decoding skills and reading fluency, following a structured phonic sequence.
Students will keep their book for one week, with little activities to complete after reading the book each night. This is supposed to be fun and enjoyable time for both parent and student. It is not worth going to war over a child who does not want to read one night. In this situation, when you are not 100% sure you will win the battle, it would be a great opportunity to read your child a story instead. Listening to good readers read is excellent modelling for those who are still learning, plus a lovely time to share together. Whilst we are working towards literate and numerate students, we also want our students to love books.
Handwriting has taken on greater significance, with a daily handwriting session which explicitly teaches the correct starting points and formation of letters and numbers. Pencil grip remains a strong focus, with the knowledge that is so much more difficult to correct an incorrect pencil grip in later years. Best we get it right now, in the first year of school.
This is despite the recent, confident announcement by one little person that "my Mum
says I can do it like this"...
NUMERACY
This Term we have covered units of work on Patterns, Measurement-Time, Numbers to 10 and Location. There has been a lot of hands-on learning, with concrete materials used in every session. Counting forwards, backwards, from a specific point, guessing numbers using clues, filling in missing numbers, making pairs that total 10, and singing along to the amazingly catchy tune "Friends of 10" by world renowned duo 'Pevan and Sarah' have all contributed to consolidating number knowledge.
We have just begun using a new tool called a Rekenrek- a counting frame with beads that 'click clack' and make a very satisfying sound. Despite its musical appeal, it has also been used in a mathematical way to fact check combinations that total 10.
We have learned a new game called "Fishing for Tens" - details of which you can find on one of our favourite websites www.lovemaths.me, and honed our questioning skills with the class game of "Guess my Number". It has been lots of fun, and lots of learning.
Next Term we continue to work on number but are also scheduled to cover counting and shape.
RELIGION
Lent and Easter have been the topic of discussion, with Foundation students looking mainly at Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday in detail. The events of these days have been investigated in many ways, and their significance in Holy Week highlighted. We have been learning to pray the school prayer, no small feat as the prayer is quite long. Spontaneous prayer is also a work in progress, with students becoming more confident with asking, thanking and praising God. Personal intentions usually end with "Lord hear us" and the rest of the class respond with "Lord hear our prayer". It is a lovely way to start the day, and can provide an insight into any worries or concerns students have brought to school with them that day.
Did you know every time you do something kind for someone else, your brain releases oxytocin? Oxytocin leads to:
- Increased self-esteem/confidence.
- Increased energy.
- Increased levels of happiness.
- Increased levels of positivity.
It is the idea that being kind makes both yourself AND someone else feel better that we have been working on during our weekly Resilience Project lessons. Students have shared their performance skills by acting out different scenarios when they showed kindness to another person and are learning to identify different emotions.
INQUIRY
"Where does our food come from?" has been an interesting unit of work in our Inquiry lessons, which usually take place three afternoons a week. Recently students investigated their lunchboxes and identified what foods they had and where they came from. They looked at how a food (wheat) gets from the farm to them, and how it is used to make different foods. They identified what foods come from animals, and what foods come from plants. The skills and concepts addressed in this unit included: posing and responding to questions, sharing observations and ideas.
ON-GOING REMINDERS
- St John's is a "No Hat, No Play" school, which means everyone is wearing their hats every day. High ponytails and hair buns can cause difficulty for some students in trying to get their hat to actually sit on their head properly. Just something to ponder when creating hairstyles in the morning.
- Everything needs to be labelled. And this mantra will be repeated on a regular basis throughout the year. You will get sick of hearing it, we will get sick of saying it, but please make sure your child's belongings can be easily returned to them should they accidentally be misplaced.
3. Zooper Doopers are $1, Cake Raffle tickets are 50c. Both momentous events happen each Friday.
4. Lunch Orders are every Wednesday.
5. Library visits take place on a Friday. If last week's borrowed book is not returned, a new one cannot be borrowed.
6. Birthday invitations- Foundation is traditionally the year of Birthday Parties. We are happy to hand out invitations at school if everyone is invited (just classroom cohort, not necessarily all of Foundation) But if you choose to only invite some friends to your child's party (and we completely understand this approach) we would prefer that the invitations were shared another way. Whilst life does have the occasional disappointment, not being invited to a party is a pretty big one when you are 5 or 6 years old and we would rather the school not be the place of the upset.
If you have any questions or queries about anything, please contact us. We have Staff Meetings after school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so these times are unavailable, but can make any other time work.
sredfern@sjeuroa.catholic.edu.au
tramsden@sjeuroa.catholic.edu.au
phone: 57952937
Thank you,
Sally, Thom and Damien