Foundation

Foundation Newsletter: Term 3 2024

Welcome to Term 3. A term full of learning and fun!

Literacy

Students have commenced the term in a calm and prepared manner, ready to learn. In Literacy, our emphasis is on revising and reviewing to consolidate the learning from previous terms. Students are concentrating on identifying and recording the beginning, middle, and end sounds in Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) words. We are intensively engaged in our Phonics lessons revisiting letter sounds and using them accurately to spell simple words. Reviewing Heart Words remains a priority. This term, we are reviewing Heart Words Stages 1, 2, and 3. The goal is for students to recognise these Heart Words within texts and sentences.

Knowledge

At Gilgai Plains Primary School all students have been introduced to learning about the Olympics. Students gained knowledge of how Olympics were in the ancient times as well as modern times. Students differentiated between Winter and Summer Olympic sports and familiarised themselves with how Opening Ceremonies are an introduction to the Olympic Games.

Mathematics

The Foundation students have been learning about numbers up to 20. They have been concentrating on counting to 20, ordering numbers up to 20, and creating collections of up to 20. We are strengthening their number sense in this area and enhancing their understanding of the place value of teen numbers. Students are grasping that teen numbers consist of a group of ten and additional ones, thereby recognising the value of each digit.

Social and Emotional Learning

During Social and Emotional Learning we have learnt the importance of sharing through The Resilience Project. Students explored the concept of sharing and explained how sharing can help solve a problem. We used the story ‘The Rainbow Fish’ as an example of how sharing can help solve problems. Students had in depth discussions about a time when they had something and didn’t share it? Or a time when someone didn’t share with them? Furthermore they discussed how this made them feel and how they responded to this.

AUSLAN

We continue to develop our knowledge with learning new AUSLAN signs. Students have been engaged with learning new signs about ‘Weather’. We  have encouraged students to describe the weather by using AUSLAN.

During our weekly sessions, we ensure our voices are ‘off’ and we rely solely on our signing hands to learn new signs each week. We hope some of your children will continue to come home and teach you what they have learned in AUSLAN.