We cannot believe that we are already halfway through the year! The amazing growth every single student has made has truly blown us away. It has been wonderful to see how much confidence and independence the children have developed since the beginning of the year. Everyone has settled beautifully into the routines of school, completing their morning jobs, changing their readers independently, and knowing what subjects are taught on different days.

In the lead-up to our very exciting excursion to the movies to see Toy Story 5, we have been incorporating toys into all areas of our learning.

In Mathematics, we have been expanding our understanding of patterns by learning that patterns are not just made up of colours, such as red, green, red, green, but can also be made up of objects. For example: doll, car, ball, doll, car, ball. We have also been learning about shadows and exploring how the sun can create shadows of different toys. We have continued revisiting our knowledge of numbers 1–10 by counting toys and linking our understanding of quantity to both numerals and number names (e.g. 1 = one).

In Phonological Awareness, we have continued learning the letters of the alphabet and their most common sounds. We learnt a tricky rule that the letter s at the end of a word can sometimes make the /z/ sound. This means that when we sound out words such as dogs, we need to remember that the s is making the /z/ sound. We have also been learning about the letters c and k. We discovered that we often use c at the beginning of a word when it is followed by the vowels a, o, or u, and k when it is followed by i or e.

In Writing, we wrote some very creative and entertaining sentences about what would happen if our toys came alive! It was lots of fun reading about toys jumping on beds, playing silly tricks, and going on exciting adventures. The students showed wonderful imagination and enthusiasm in their writing.

In Religion, we continued exploring God's Creation and discussed ways we can care for ourselves, others, and our planet. We have also been exploring Indigenous Australian Creation Stories and learning about how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples understand and connect with the land, animals, and the natural world. Additionally, we began learning about other religions and explored some of the similarities and differences between these faiths and the Catholic faith.

We are so proud of everything the students have achieved so far this year and are excited to see what they will accomplish during the second half of Prep. We are also looking forward to celebrating all of their hard work, growth, and achievements with our exciting excursion to the movies to see Toy Story 5. It will be a wonderful opportunity for the students to enjoy a special experience together and celebrate a fantastic first half of the year.

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