Foundation Spotlight
Busy, Busy, Busy!
Term 3 has been busy, busy, busy! It has been an exciting term, with lots of wonderful learning and special events taking place. One of the highlights has been celebrating Book Week, where students enjoyed dressing up as their favourite book characters and taking part in the Book Week Parade and some fun literacy activities. Students have also enjoyed spending time with their Year 5 Buddies and going to ART FOR ALL.
We are so proud of how much the Foundation students have continued to learn and grow this term, and we are excited to share some of the wonderful things they have been doing in the classroom!
Literacy
The Foundation students have now learnt all the characters of the alphabet, the floss letter chitter chants, and have been learning about consonant blends at the beginning and end of words! We have just started to learn about digraphs, the ones we have learnt so far are ‘ck’ in ‘black duck’, ‘sh’ in ‘shed shop’, ‘ch’ in ‘chicken and chips’ and ‘th’ in ‘thud, thump, thunk’.
The Foundation students have also been learning about the suffixes -s, -es and -ed and how they can change the meaning of words. Students have explored how -s and -es can be added to nouns to show that there is more than one, such as ‘kids in hats’ and ‘two red boxes’. They have also been learning how -s and -es can be added to verbs to show what someone or something else is doing, for example, “Pip huffs and puffs” or “Tip hisses”. Students have also explored the suffix -ed, which can be added to verbs to show that an action has already happened, such as jumped, played and lifted. Students have enjoyed exploring these spelling patterns and using them in their reading and writing.
“I taught my family that a digraph is two letters making one sound!” ~ Xyla, FB
“I really like learning heart words. I like finding the sounds that make it a heart word.” ~ Yvaine, FB
“I love learning new words so I can read more books!” ~ Ollie, FB
This term in Writing, the students have been learning about conjunctions and how they can be used to make their sentences more detailed and interesting. You may have noticed an increase in your child asking, “Why?” recently! This is because we have been encouraging students to add more information to their writing by explaining why something happened using the conjunction ‘because’. For example, “A pig ran away because it was scared.”
Students have also been exploring the conjunction ‘but’ to add contrast to their sentences. For example, “I liked the movie, but it was too long.” We have been very impressed with how students are beginning to use conjunctions to extend and improve their writing!
Another focus has been learning about adjectives and how they can be used to make our writing more interesting. Students have been identifying adjectives in sentences and using them to add extra detail when describing people, places and things. For example, instead of writing “I saw a dog,” students might write, “I saw a big, fluffy dog.” We have loved seeing the students use interesting adjectives to bring their writing to life!
“I liked learning all of the things a sentence needs.” ~ Arnie, FB
“I liked learning how to bump up sentences.” ~ Lyla, FB
“I like when we write in our writing books” ~ Maja, FA
Below you will find examples of their amazing work:
Numeracy
In Maths, the Foundation students have been learning about addition and subtraction. Students have used number tracks, ten frames and concrete materials, such as counters and unifix cubes, to solve addition and subtraction problems. They have even created their own addition and subtraction number stories for their peers to solve!
Foundation students have also been learning all about length and measurement. Students have investigated length and height by comparing objects in the classroom and playground as short/ tall or tall/ long. They have used their hands and feet to measure objects, even creating ‘foot rulers’ traced from their own feet! These rulers have been used to make informal measurements and compare common classroom objects, for example, “The table is 9 feet long.” Students have also used other classroom materials, such as icy pole sticks and Unifix cubes, to measure objects and investigate how far they could jump.
Below, you will find some photos of the different objects and things the students have been measuring as well as their addition and subtraction work!
Measuring
Measuring
Measuring
Measuring
“We learnt about location. I liked learning directions.” ~ Augie, FB
“I like learning about putting numbers together - it’s addition.” ~ Hugo, FB
“I liked learning about length and measuring - it was so fun!” ~ Maeve, FB
“I liked measuring how far we can jump” ~ Eve S, FA
Highlights of the Term
“My favourite part of Term 3 was learning to write sentences with adjectives.” ~ Viola, FC
My favourite part of Term 3 was learning about Asia because it’s the biggest. ~ Hugo S, FC
“I liked when we got to dress up for Book Week.” ~ Zara, FA
“I liked adopting a toy at Art 4 All.” ~ Wilbur, FA
“My favourite part of Term 3 was learning the ‘th’ sound because I’ve always wanted to learn it.” ~ Anna, FC
“My favourite part of Term 3 was Book Week because I liked seeing all of the characters.” ~ Archie, FC
"My favourite part of Term 3 was learning the new reading characters. My favourite was probably Catch the Witch." ~ Sonny, FC
Foundation Teachers (Lucy, Tash & Katie) and Students