Prep Team News

Hello Prep families,

Welcome back to Term Four! The Preps had many exciting stories about their holidays to share with us last week. We cannot believe that this is the last term of Prep for 2023. Our Preps are certainly demonstrating their readiness for Grade One by displaying kindness, maturity and teamwork since their return from the holidays.

As we are now in Term Four, students are required to wear their school hat outside at recess and lunch times. Parents, could you please support your child to ensure their hat is in their school bag each day.

Term Four Specialists

Specialist classes this term include Visual Art, Music, Library, French and Physical Education. Please see the weekly timetable below.

Parents, could you please support your child to return their library books on their given day. 

Melbourne Aquarium Excursion: Wednesday 18th October

As part of our Inquiry unit this term, 'What Do Living Things Need To Survive?', Prep students will be visiting the Melbourne Aquarium. They will learn about the different animals that live under water, how they are suited to their habitats, and what their habitats provide for them.

Students should bring a small backpack containing only their lunchbox, hat and a water bottle.  The students will be responsible for carrying their own belongings throughout the day. Permission and payment for this excursion is due on Compass by the 15th of October. We are looking forward to a fun and exciting day! 

Take Home Readers

Thank you to our families for their support this year, listening to your child read the Little Learners Books at home each night. Our decodable take home readers are such an important part of our Literacy program that reinforces the work we do each day in our classrooms. 

Reading the decodable texts at home allows students to develop their confidence as readers, build up important vocabulary, and improve their fluency. Without this important  home practice, it can be difficult for teachers to determine when to move students to a new text as reading fluently is a keen indicator. Students will be more able to read these texts automatically once they have read them at home for the week. Thank you for your continued support with this. We ask that families remember to record the title of the Little Learners text each night in the Yellow Reading Record book and of course, continue to read other material as well if there is time. 

Curriculum Focus: Weeks 1 - 2

Reading - Students will explore the features of non-fiction texts including the contents page, index and glossary. As part of our Little Learner’s program, students are now beginning to learn other common sounds including digraphs and trigraphs. Our current focus being the /ph/ and /wh/ sounds. 

Writing - Students are continuing to learn to correctly form letters and use their sound knowledge to write sentences. Further, students are using their knowledge of narrative texts from Term Three to now begin creating their own stories. 

Numeracy - Students are exploring the concept of sharing by using materials to share items equally between groups. We will also discuss and investigate what happens when we cannot equally share items between groups, resulting in leftover / remaining items. 

Inquiry - This term, our inquiry topic is What do living things need to survive? Our big topics will include: What are living things and how do we know they are living? What do different things require to stay alive? How can we help these things stay alive? Do living things need to be in the right place to stay alive?

Prep: Key Dates Term Four

Have a lovely weekend. 

Warm regards,

The Prep Team–Caitlin Sullivan (Prep S), Hayley Thibou (Prep T) & Andrea Duxson (Prep D)