What's Happening in the Junior School

Prep

What’s Happening in Prep in Weeks 7 & 8

A lot has been happening in Prep since our last update!

We recently welcomed the Fire Brigade to school. They spoke with the Preps about what to do in an emergency, including choosing a safe meeting place at home. The firefighters also brought their truck for the students to explore. We also enjoyed a special visit from Paramedics Steph and Tarryn, who generously volunteered their time to teach the Preps about the important role paramedics play in our community. Students had the opportunity to walk through the ambulance and see some of the tools and equipment used during emergencies. A big thank you to Steph and Tarryn for such an engaging and informative session. Our final community visitors were the police. We were very lucky that they brought along “Big Dog,” a drone that helps locate missing people. The Preps also had the chance to sit inside the police cars and listen to the sirens - a definite highlight! Thank you to Matt, Maddy and Chris.

Finally, we are well and truly in dance mode as we practise for our 90s-themed Prep Concert! We hope you’re dusting off your double denim and getting excited for the big performance on the 25th of November.

Wellbeing

We are learning to step outside our comfort zone and try new things at school.

Literacy

Reading and spelling words with the grapheme -tch making the /ch/ sound
Reading and spelling words with the grapheme -dge making the /j/ sound
Reviewing –tch /ch/ and –dge /j/
Writing descriptive sentences

Maths

Making tens and ones with bundling
Making tens and ones with base 10 blocks
Writing and saying 2-digit numbers
Writing and saying two-digit numbers
Representing two digit numbers with materials
Counting to 100

Knowledge Unit

Big Question: How are families the same and different around the world?

Throughout Term 4, students will be exploring the following lines of inquiry:

Who is in my family?
What people can be in other families?
How do families celebrate different traditions?
How are family routines (like meals or bedtime) the same or different?
Where do families live and how might homes look different around the world?

Homework

Students take home 3 decodable readers in their reading pouch each week as well as their green Decoding Detective book and Sound Pack. Please continue to read these with your child, the Preps love showing you how they can recognise and recall all learnt letters and sounds. Reading pouches are returned on Mondays to be changed over and checked by their teacher. Mathletics login codes are placed inside the front cover of students reading journals. This is an optional task that students may wish to complete at home.

Reminders

Events marked below with an * require consent/payment via Compass. Please ensure you respond/pay to all events:

BPS Colour Run - Friday 21st November* (just consent)
Mitch Tambo Concert – 9:30am Monday 24th November*
Prep Concert – 9.30am Tuesday 25th November (please note date change from Thursday 20th November)

Year 1

What’s Happening in Year 1 in Weeks 7 & 8

Literacy

Students have and will be working on:

Phonics:
Learning how to read and spell ew /ū/, ui /ū/, ue /ū/, au /aw/, aw /aw/, augh /aw/, ea /ĕ/, a /ŏ/, oi /oi/, oy /oi/ and kn /n/, wr /r/, mb /m/.
Reading Fluency: Reading with accuracy and at an appropriate rate
Handwriting: Correctly forming the letter X, Z, J and G both uppercase and lowercase
In Language and Literature, we will begin our unit exploring the mentor text ‘Where the Forest Meets the Sea’ by Jeannie Baker
We will also continue our work writing our short descriptions incorporating adjectives, adverbs, vivid verbs and alliteration.

Maths

Students have and will be working on:

Using a range of strategies to solve practical problems, such as highlighting key information, using concrete materials and creating diagrams
Revising place value up to 3-digit numbers
Recognise, describe, and order Australian coins according to their value

Wellbeing

During Weeks 5 and 6 in Wellbeing, students investigated the special qualities and strengths of one of their peers and write a short biographical paragraph about them. They worked on how we all have different perspectives and what this means when we are working, playing, compromising and cooperating with each other. In Weeks 7 and 8 the focus is on understanding body clues and what they tell us about how we are feeling. Students will identify safe people in their lives that they can trust.

Knowledge Unit

Our focus in Geography shifts from our local area to the state of Victoria. We located key places in Victoria and described natural and constructed features of the state. Next, we will explore how special places in Victoria can be cared for.

Library

Students will be attending the library on Thursday each week as a cohort. Please ensure that students have their blue library satchel in their bag to keep their borrowed book protected when transporting to and from school. This will help keep these books separate from their ‘Classroom Library’ picture story book that they take home on a Monday.

Take Home Readers

Each week, your child will take three decodables home. We strongly encourage students to reread these texts multiple times across the week as this is an important way novice readers develop automaticity and reading fluency. In addition, students are bringing home one quality text from their classroom library each week. As novice readers, they will not necessarily be able to read these books independently. However, they will benefit a great deal from hearing these texts read out loud by an expert (you!).

Mathletics

Your child has their Mathletics code pasted into their Reading Diaries. Activities have been set by the classroom teachers and students can work through assigned task at their own pace. Completing these tasks is optional. We have been really excited to see students completing Mathletics tasks at home. These help to consolidate their understandings from the classroom.

Reminders

Fruit and veggie break snack: Please ensure that students are bringing their fruit and veggie snack in a container separate to their lunch box. This supports students in transitioning during fruit and veggie break time in the classroom.
Students are to bring in their reading pouch every Monday to swap their take home readers and classroom library book. It is really important students are completing their 20 minutes of nightly reading to support their reading progress. New readers are only sent home until the previous week’s books have been returned.

Year 2

What’s Happening in Year 2 in Weeks 7 & 8

What a busy few weeks we have had! We tested our endurance and resilience at the Junior School Sports Day, where everyone gave their best effort and cheered on their teammates with wonderful sportsmanship. We also travelled back in time to explore Ancient Egypt through a fascinating virtual reality experience. The students were amazed to see the pyramids, hieroglyphics, and ancient artefacts come to life before their eyes! Another highlight was finally meeting our pen pals in person. After exchanging letters throughout the year, the students were so excited to put faces to names and share stories with their new friends. They enjoyed playing games together, chatting about their interests, and discovering how much they had in common. It was a wonderful opportunity to build confidence, practice communication skills, and strengthen connections beyond our own classroom.

Over the next fortnight, the Year 2 students will be learning:

Wellbeing

Understand and describe how working together helped the team succeed in activities.
Recognise examples of cooperative behaviour during group tasks.
Identify ways that cooperation supports problem-solving in different situations.
Practice using cooperative skills to overcome challenges and work effectively with others.

Phonics

We are learning to read and write words with final spellings:

-ment
-ible, -able

We are learning to read and write words with beginning spellings:

Tri-, bi-, uni-

Literacy

We are learning to:

edit and revise our narrative
identify the parts of a narrative – somebody, wanted, but, so, then
generate ideas for the problem in a narrative and match appropriate resolutions

Maths

We are learning to:

create column graphs
interpret column graphs
compare representations of data collection
evaluate representations of data collection
create and interpret maps of familiar places
identify and describe the position of key features on a map
to follow and give directions between locations on a map

Knowledge Unit

This term, the Year 2 students will be exploring History. We will be learning about:

The History of Ancient Egypt – Pyramids, Pharaohs, and the Past

Over the next fortnight, students will be exploring the following lines of inquiry:

Gods and Goddesses
Daily Life (living conditions) and Food
Beginning our final task for our History unit

Homework

Please continue to read the take home reading books each week, aiming for 15 – 20 minutes each evening. Changing readers will continue occur on a Friday.
Please enjoy sharing a new Classroom Library text each Friday. This book is for enjoyment and can be read by parents/carers.
Optional: Mathletics logins have been placed in the front cover of reading diaries. Students may work through these tasks at their own pace, if desired.

Reminders:

Colour Run – Friday 21st November: Please consent on Compass before Friday