Prep News
PREP CURRICULUM NEWSLETTER TERM 4 2026
ENGLISH
Phonics
During Term 4, Prep students will continue developing their early literacy skills through a focus on phonics, phonological awareness, and phonemic awareness. Students will learn to recognise and generate rhyming words, syllables, alliteration patterns, and individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.
They will practise listening carefully to sounds in words and develop their ability to orally blend, segment, and manipulate one-syllable words. Students will explore how spoken words are made up of individual sounds and learn how these sounds work together to form words.
Through explicit phonics instruction, students will strengthen their knowledge of letter-sound relationships, recognise and use single-letter and common letter-sound patterns, and apply this knowledge when reading and writing simple words. They will engage in a variety of games, songs, shared reading, hands-on activities, and interactive learning experiences designed to build confidence and fluency.
Reading
During Term 4, Prep students will continue to build their reading skills by developing their phonics knowledge and applying it when reading a range of decodable and authentic texts. Students will practise using letter-sound relationships, high-frequency words, and familiar words to read with increasing confidence and independence.
As they read, students will learn to make meaning from texts by using a range of comprehension strategies, including predicting, visualising, connecting, questioning, and summarising. They will be encouraged to think about what they are reading, discuss their ideas, and share their understanding with others.
Students will engage with a variety of literary texts and learn to identify important story features such as characters, settings, events, and beginnings and endings. They will respond to stories by sharing their thoughts, feelings, and opinions about characters and events, helping them to develop a deeper understanding of texts.
Writing
During Term 4, Prep students will continue developing their writing skills through a focus on phonics, spelling, handwriting, and creating simple texts. Students will use their knowledge of letters and sounds to read and spell consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words and apply this understanding when writing familiar words and simple sentences.
Students will create short texts to explore, record, and share their ideas, experiences, and learning. They will be encouraged to use familiar words, draw on their phonics knowledge, and include details through pictures and writing. As their confidence grows, students will practise reading and writing high-frequency words and other familiar words independently.
Throughout the term, students will continue to develop correct letter formation, forming most lower-case and upper-case letters accurately and with increasing fluency. They will also participate in shared editing sessions, learning to check their writing for meaning, spelling, capital letters, and full stops.
Students will explore how images, words, and sounds work together to create meaning in stories and informative texts and use these understandings to support their own writing. Through a range of engaging and purposeful writing activities, students will build the foundational skills needed to become confident and successful writers.
MATHEMATICS
During Term 4, Prep students will continue developing their understanding of number, patterns, measurement, and data through hands-on learning experiences. Students will practise naming, representing, ordering, and comparing numbers from 0 to 20 and apply their understanding in everyday mathematical situations.
They will explore addition, subtraction, sharing, and grouping using concrete materials and counting strategies. Students will also identify, continue, and create repeating patterns, collect and sort data, and answer simple questions about their findings.
Students will compare the length, mass, capacity, and duration of objects and events, using mathematical language to explain their thinking. Through games, investigations, and practical activities, students will build confidence and develop a strong foundation in mathematics.
INQUIRY
During Term 4, Prep students will explore how life has changed over time and how some things have stayed the same. Through stories, photographs, objects, and discussions, students will compare aspects of their daily lives with those of people in the past, including how they lived, worked, travelled, and communicated.
Students will ask questions about the past and present, sequence events in chronological order, and investigate historical sources to learn about changes in technology and everyday life. They will identify similarities and differences between the past and present and explore the reasons why changes have occurred.
Throughout the unit, students will share their ideas, discuss different perspectives, and recognise the significance of people, places, and events. They will use historical language, information from sources, and their own observations to create simple accounts of events and demonstrate their understanding of continuity and change over time.
SCIENCE
In Science this term, students will be focusing on Physical Science. The topic we will be covering is called ‘Make You Move’. Students will learn that the way objects move depends on a variety of factors including their size, shape and material
Throughout this term, students will:
investigate rolling, spinning, bouncing, and swinging objects
experiment to find objects that slide and which surface is best for sliding
learn about the skeleton and how it helps us move
determine how movements can vary depending on the size and shape of the object
observe different animals and how they move around.
LOTE
The focus in Term 4 will be on the following topics: People, Sports, Mealtimes, Time, Occupations, Seasons, Handshapes #2, Storytelling and Celebrations. In the final lesson we will see interviews with Deaf people discussing their deafness, family, early life (Deaf Culture) and we will also revisit games and lessons that the students enjoyed through the term.
Other core elements of Auslan, such as Constructed Action (mime) and Depicting Signs (representing people, animals and vehicles), Handshapes, Fingerspelling and Facial Expression, will be taught and modelled, showing how they are essential parts of Auslan communication.
This final term for the year will build on previous skills and extend student communication in Auslan. Learning a language requires immersion, repetition, sequential learning where topics build on each other to expand the learner’s knowledge, confidence, and comfort with the new language.
With young Primary School students, fun activities practising new learning is a priority, as their interest in the Auslan language develops. Songs and poems support the activities and learning.
ART
This term, our Foundation students will explore playdough through rolling balls and coils, squeezing, flattening and pressing patterns with simple tools. They will use these skills to make shapes, flowers and imaginative creatures, strengthening their fine motor skills while enjoying creative play. Using playdough, students will create different 3D objects.
Students will discover watercolours, exploring how water and paint work together to create different colours and effects. They will practise holding brushes, mixing colours and making marks while learning to care for their art materials.
With pastels, students will explore lines, shapes and colour through drawing and colouring. They will experiment with blending and layering, building confidence in expressing their ideas and creating colourful artworks.
Students will also create cardboard sculptures, exploring how flat pieces can become three-dimensional artworks. They will practise arranging, folding and joining cardboard, developing creativity and problem-solving skills while learning to share materials and work safely. Students will finish the year by creating festive cards and ornaments to celebrate the end of the year.
MUSIC
This term the Grade Prep Students will learn about pitch and melody in music. Students will learn do re mi fa so la Students also learnt to sing various songs as a class such as Mr Clicketty Cane, Best day Of My Life and Count on Me by Bruno Mars.
Students will use their iPads to explore sounds and music using Chrome Music Lab. Students will also use Garage Band to experiment with sounds and write their own music both as a class and individually. Students will create simple music and sounds in response to pictures and their own drawings. Students explore and play various instruments such as the keyboard and xylophone. Students will play games where they sing simple melodies and dance such as ‘We are dancing in the Forest’ and ‘Doggie where is your bone?’ Students will develop their listening skill as they respond to music from different places and people such as Australian Aboriginal music played on the digeridoo or yidaki and popular music by Australian Aboriginal artists such as Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
This term, our Prep students will focus on teamwork, fair play and working positively with others. Through a range of fun games, tag activities and partner challenges, students will practise taking turns, sharing equipment, encouraging others and playing safely together. As we finish the year, students will also revisit the fundamental movement skills they have developed throughout the year, including running, jumping, throwing, catching, kicking and striking. We will finish the term by bringing back some favourite games and activities from across the year, giving students the chance to show how much they have learned and celebrate all the progress they have made in PE.