Foundation

Classroom Screen

We have a new tool for the classroom which both the students and the teachers love. It is called Classroom Screen and is a visual display for the students to refer to throughout the day. We have our timetable shown so students know what is planned for the day, we have a random name selector to choose people to help hand out work or answer questions and, most importantly of all, we have a noise level monitor!! Once the selected noise level is breached, a bell chimes. We are trying to keep the number of chimes below 10 per hour and have had absolutely no success with this at all- yet...

There are many other options that can be utilised with this program, but we are starting small and gradually building up to amazing things.

Literacy

The Literacy Block has settled into a very steady routine each day, with students well aware of the expectations and the structure of the morning. We now have both reading and writing groups happening daily, with everyone trying very hard to stop the noise 'alarm' from dinging from too much talk and chatter. "Learning time is for learning" is a much repeated phrase at the moment, and it is starting to pay dividends in the classroom. We have guided reading, alphabet games and decodable readers all occurring in the first hour, and then handwriting, phonemic awareness activities and guided writing in the second. I am delighted with how well the students have adapted to these routines. There is a lot of solid learning taking place, with their work showing evidence of the progress they are making.

Letter/sound relationships are becoming more familiar, with some students beginning to use this knowledge in their reading and writing. It is important to remember that learning to read and write is exactly the same as learning any other skill- everybody masters it at different times and in their own way. 

I have had a number of parents asking for recommendations about literacy apps for their child's iPad at home. Catholic Education Sandhurst Speech Therapist, Lauren Naish, visits our school fortnightly and has just recently recommended "Nessy". I don't know much about it at all, but if an experienced Speech Therapist thinks it is worthwhile, I am happy to pass on the information. I believe it may have been initially developed for children with Dyslexia, but the constant repetition of sounds and letters would not go astray at the foundation level either. 

Another app we used during Covid times was Reading Eggs, which the students seemed to really enjoy.

Numeracy

Numbers to 10 have remained our main focus during Maths lessons. Nearly all students can capably count to 10 orally, however assigning quantities to these numbers and recognising how the numbers are written is an ongoing area for development.

We have also been completing simple problem solving activities on a regular basis. Last Friday we spent an enjoyable few hours solving the problem on Farmer Freddy's farm. We knew that Farmer Freddy had 10 legs on his farm, but what animals did he have? Students used unifix blocks, play doh and paper to work out the possible answers. Open ended tasks such as this illustrate clearly to the students just how many ways there are to solve a problem, encouraging creative thinking and risk taking. 

After the holidays we are moving on to numbers to 20, measurement, shapes and patterns. 

Religion

We are looking at the events of Holy Week, in a very simple way. Students are learning about the last week of Jesus' life on earth, with the main focus on Palm Sunday and Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem. We encourage students to question and wonder during these lessons, and some excellent discussions have taken place. On the last day of Term, our Yr 6 students will lead our school community in Easter Prayer- a traditionally very moving experience for everyone involved. You are all very welcome to join us in the Mercy Centre and spend some time contemplating the true meaning of Easter, before the Easter Bunny shows up and steals the show.

The Resilience Project

We move onto Empathy as the concept for the final few weeks of the Term-the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. This is quite a tricky idea for students who are still learning to name their own feelings, but the Foundation class are managing beautifully. There has been a lot of discussion revolving around kindness, and what we can do to be kind towards others. I find that the work covered within The Resilience Project lessons compliments our Religious Education sessions really well, so students are getting constant exposure and reinforcement to ideas that will serve them well throughout their lives.

Harmony Day- upcoming event

Thursday 21st March

CELEBRATION OF LEARNING - Thursday 28th March

Join us in the Mercy Centre at 1pm  to look at our Easter display, and then for The Stations of the Cross prayer service beginning at 1:25pm. All welcome!

Timetable 

Monday

Tuesday         Art 

                         School newsletter online(odd weeks) Classroom updates (even weeks)

Wednesday 

Thursday       Specialist subjects (students to wear sports uniform and runners)

Friday             Library, Bluearth-wear sports uniform (even weeks)    Assembly (odd weeks)

Don't forget, any questions, problems or queries, please contact me. If it is during school hours, just leave a message and I will return it as soon as possible, or send me an email.

sredfern@sjeuroa.catholic.edu.au

Enjoy your week,

Sally, Damien and Grace