Prep Term 3 Overviews
To all our wonderful Prep families,
Welcome to term 3!
Reading
This term in reading , students are developing their reading, comprehension, and self-monitoring skills. They are learning to use high-frequency words to help them read more fluently and to self-correct when something doesn’t sound right. Students are encouraged to re-read sentences to problem-solve, confirm meaning, and notice repeated words in texts such as am, like, we, and said. They are also learning to match pictures with words in simple texts and to identify and explain the difference between letters, words, and sentences. We are exploring how punctuation works in everyday reading, including capital letters and sentence boundaries. Students are practising how to use more than one source of information—such as meaning, sentence structure, and visual cues—to monitor and correct their reading. As part of their comprehension work, students are inferring meaning from pictures, identifying character traits, and discussing how characters feel based on dialogue and images. They are also learning how to summarise a simple problem in a story and explain how it was solved. Throughout the term, we are focusing on key features of fiction (character, setting, problem, solution) and nonfiction texts (facts and topic-based information), as well as sorting and categorising books by type. Students are also recognising when characters or settings reappear across different texts. In our work with procedural texts, we are learning the importance of following steps in order, such as when cooking or planting. Phonics continues to be a part of daily literacy learning, helping students build their understanding of how letters and sounds work together in reading and writing.
Writing
In writing, students will build on their writing skills of showing evidence of letter and sound knowledge, beginning writing behaviours and experimentation with capital letters and full stops. They will practise correctly forming all upper- and lower-case letters.
In Term 3, there will be a focus on writing more detailed sentences with an emphasis on word choice by using adjectives from the description bubble, eg: Size, Colour, Texture and Feeling words. For Presentation, students will explore the different ways to present their writing through images, symbols and performance. Students will use familiar words and phrases to develop their ideas into written or drawn texts taking inspiration from dreamtime, fairy tales and poetry. They will use their letter and sound knowledge to have a go at writing unfamiliar words.
Students will continue to develop their 5-star writing, focusing on stretching sounds in words, using their DCC words, using finger spaces, including a capital letter at the start of each sentence, and ending the sentence with punctuation.
Numeracy
In Numeracy students will use mathematical language to compare objects lengths, mass and capacity. Students will expand their understanding of 3D objects by comparing their common and distinctive features to objects in their environment.
Students will deepen their understanding of numbers 0-20 by matching objects to each number, identifying more and less, placing these in order and breaking them into parts. Students will explore addition, subtraction and equal sharing through number stories and using manipulatives such as blocks to show their understanding. Students will be investigating financial math through representing practical situations, including simple financial situations, involving addition, subtraction and quantification with physical and virtual materials and use counting or subitising strategies through play.
Inquiry
In Inquiry, students will be exploring “How the World Works” through finding out the characteristics of living and non-living things, investigating what living things need to grow and thrive and connecting this to life-cycles and the interdependence of living things. This inquiry will build on the connection to our walking excursion to the wetlands.
Social and Emotional Learning (S.E.L)
In Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), students will begin to explore who they are and how they relate to others. This unit of learning supports students to identify their own likes and dislikes and wants and recognise that others may have different interests, needs, likes and experiences. Through stories, play, and collaborative learning experiences students are encouraged to express their ideas, listen to others, and begin to understand different points of wants and ideas.
During this unit of work, students will identify personal interests and things they enjoy while recognising that others may have different needs, ideas, and experiences. They also play and learn with people who have different ideas, needs or experiences. Furthermore, students will explore the likes and dislikes of boys and girls and how these are the same or different.A focus on teamwork will allow students to practice taking turns and sharing ideas respectfully in groups.
Through these learning experiences, students will learn to develop empathy, build respectful relationships, and begin to see themselves as part of a diverse community
Ways to Help Your Child At Home:
Home Reading - Please ensure that your child is reading every night at home and talking to a family member about the book. Please see your child’s homegroup teacher if you are having trouble accessing Wushka and IXL.
During nightly reading, we encourage you to practise your child’s DCC words. Before, after and during reading, we encourage you to ask your child questions about what they have read to help develop their comprehension skills. Encourage your child to look through the text again to find evidence for their answers.