Prep Team News

Hello Prep families,

It has been a very exciting fortnight in Prep, with our excursion to the Melbourne Aquarium last Wednesday. We have spent time in our classrooms reflecting on the day and recording some of our highlights and favourite animals. 

Our Willy Kid theme this fortnight is ‘Willy Kids are Accountable’. We read ‘David Gets in Trouble’ by David Shannon, and discussed the ways that Willy Kids can be accountable with their learning, and when they interact with others. 

As we are now in Term Four, students are required to wear their school hat outside at recess and lunch times. Parents, if you wish to do so, could you please support your child to apply sunscreen each morning before school. This helps to make our transitions outside each day easier. 

Melbourne Aquarium Excursion

Last week, as part of our Inquiry unit, 'What Do Living Things Need To Survive?', Prep students visited the Melbourne Aquarium. They learnt about the different animals that live under water, how they are suited to their habitats, and what their habitats provide for them.

It was a wonderful day, with many happy faces and excited students! We saw a range of animals including sharks, turtles, fish and penguins. The highlight was getting to see the Melbourne Aquarium’s newest penguin chick, Pesto. Please enjoy some photos from the day.

Fluency Pairs

As part of our Literacy sessions, students participate in fluency pairs. This activity pairs students up, providing them with the opportunity to practise reading aloud to a partner, in order to improve their fluency and expression. Their partner also supports them as needed, when sounding out words or recognising heart words. It has been wonderful to watch the students progress with their reading during these sessions, as they become increasingly confident readers. Please keep up all the wonderful nightly reading of the Little Learners texts at home, as it makes such a difference to a student’s confidence during these sessions.

Term Four Specialists

This term, all Preps will attend Specialist classes. These include Visual Art, Music, 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. Please also ensure your child is dressed in their P.E. uniform and is wearing runners on the day that they have P.E. Students remain in their P.E. uniform for the entire day. 

Curriculum Focus: Weeks 3 - 4

Reading - Students will continue learning about appropriate reading behaviours, including pointing to the words as we read and taking a breath at full stops. They will also discuss text features such as full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks and question marks. As part of our Little Learner’s program, students are continuing to explore digraphs, with our current focus being the long a sound (represented by the digraphs ‘ai’ and ‘ay’) and the long e sound (represented by the digraphs ‘ee’, ‘ea’ and ‘y’). 

Writing - Students are continuing to develop their letter formation and sound knowledge to write sentences. In particular this term, students will be reading narrative texts as a class. Students will then summarise these stories by writing a few sentences about the characters, setting, problem and solution from each text. We will also explore non-fiction texts as part of our Inquiry Unit, and use these texts to record information. 

Numeracy - Students are revising addition and subtraction. We are revisiting a range of games and strategies to reinforce understanding of these concepts.

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?

Homework - Each Monday, students will be given an activity to complete at home that relates to our weekly sound or maths focus. The activity in their ‘Home Learning Book’ will be collected each Friday. Homework in Prep should take no longer than 15 minutes.  

Respectful Relationships - This term, our Respectful Relationships topic is stress management. Activities will assist students to  identify their own emotions and express them constructively.

Prep: Key Dates Term Four

Enjoy the weekend!

Warm regards,

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