Reading

This term in Reading, we’re focusing on understanding and unpacking all the parts of a rich text, such as a picture story book. On the first day, we began looking at and sharing what we know about penguins. Students created a penguin of their own! It was amazing to see students use their prior knowledge about penguins throughout the week. The next session, we looked at the front cover of the story The Second Sky and predicted what might happen. Students then completed a drawing of a sentence from the story.

The Preps then looked at the beginning, middle and end of The Second Sky - unpacking the characters, the setting and the events that happened. Students practised swapping a word in a sentence for other words, reading a passage from the story and sequencing the parts of the story using pictures.

Writing

This week in Writing, the Preps have been revising their knowledge of uppercase and lowercase letters. We looked at how both forms of the letter represent the same sound and when we see and use uppercase letters. Students demonstrated the value of United by working together to sort uppercase and lowercase letters.

This term in Writing, we are building on our understanding of a rich text to develop and strengthen students' writing. Each day we have been learning about a word from the text that may be unfamiliar to students, we talk and unpack the sounds we hear in the word. Students have been encouraged to include their words in the sentences about the beginning, middle and end of the story The Second Sky.

Maths

In Maths, we have been learning all about sharing. Students have learnt what the words ‘fair’ and ‘unfair’ mean in a maths setting and have used this understanding to share objects equally between multiple groups. They have enjoyed participating in a range of hands-on activities including making their own ice-cream cones with fair amounts of ‘toppings’ and sharing ‘cookies’.

They have started to challenge each other by sharing objects across multiple groups. We have used lots of hands-on manipulatives to support us in sharing equally and fairly. Some students have had the opportunity to solve trickier number sentences, requiring them to share between up to 6 groups. What little champions!

Other

In Integrated, we have been inquiring about the parts of our body. Students enjoyed learning all about the parts of our face and constructing a face of a friend in their class, as well as working in groups to trace around the middle part of their bodies and labelling. Next we’ll be moving onto our legs and feet!

In Spelling, we have learnt about the spelling rule of ‘wh’ making the /w/ sound and ‘ck’ making the /c/ sound. Students delved into activities surrounding these spelling patterns that involved writing, reading and drawing pictures to match.

In Speaking and Listening, students were asked to bring in their favourite picture book and share the book with the class. They enjoyed showing off their stories and telling the class what they’re favourite part was and their favourite page.

Integrated

In Integrated this past fortnight, we have learned about Indigenous Australians culture, with a specific focus on their artwork and importance to Australia. Our lessons explored the meaning of the colours in their artwork and on their flags and the different symbols used to tell stories. To show our understanding of these colours and symbols, students coloured in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags and searched for meaning in Aboriginal paintings. Symbol stones and flashcards were also used to tell verbal stories to each other.

Last Friday, the 25th, we celebrated Book Week. We started the day by participating in our whole-school book parade. The students had a blast dancing around the gym, showing off their costumes, and high-fiving the audience as they walked past. Our celebration of books continued with a visit from author Nicky Johnston. Nicky shared her sensational books with us and gave us a step-by-step tutorial of how to draw the bunny in ‘Finding Bunny’, a book she illustrated. For the rest of the day, we learned about why we celebrate Book Week and participated in some different book activities. Thank you so much to the families and carers that got the students dressed up for the day. They all looked incredible!

Supporters of Grayling