Foundation

Welcome to Term 4, also known as the "business end' of the year. Although the students have been working very hard throughout the past 10 months, the last six-eight weeks of Foundation is renowned for showing a huge amount of progress and improvement. The longer we stick to programs, routines and expectations in the classroom, the better the outcomes for our students. This is also true with the take home reading program. The opportunity to practise what is learned in the classroom is a very necessary component for steady progress. Whilst life does start to get even more busy in the lead up to Christmas, we would appreciate if you could continue to hear your child read on a regular basis, so they have the chance to refine their reading skills. Thank you.

KEY DATES:

30th October - Japanese Day - dress up in red and white or anything Japanese.

31st October - Pupil Free day.

3rd November - Report Writing Day - Pupil Free Day

4th November - Melbourne Cup Day - School Closure Day.

14th November - Grandparents morning.

INLAND RAIL - NAME THE CRANE COMPETITION

In Euroa, Inland Rail are modifying the station precinct and replacing the Anderson Street bridge with a vehicle underpass to allow sufficient clearance for double-stacked freight trains. To help celebrate this important construction project, and the next major milestone, local primary school and kindergarten students are invited to join our “Name the crane” colouring competition. This friendly competition encourages Euroa students to help name the large machinery doing the heavy lifting at the Euroa site.

It was a very exciting day as the whole school walked down to see the enormous crane and to find out who won "Name the Crane" and to our delight it was one of our very own students - Paige in Year 5 won and took home a fantastic prize, a crane to build out of Lego. Congratulations Paige!

LITERACY

It has been a very solid 3 terms of work in literacy. The introduction of the "Initialit" program has been a game changer in regard to how we teach our students to read and write, and the results have been very impressive.

We are currently working our way through the last Cumulative Review of the year- and already the data gathered is indicating strong understandings of all that has been taught.

Whilst we finished all the lessons for the year in Week 3 of this Term, we now have some marvellous time to revise and consolidate any concepts that may not be fully embedded. We will begin with going back over digraphs (when 2 letters make one sound eg: sh, ch,) and then revisit a number of other literacy learnings.

We have been developing our dictation skills, recording sounds and words for simple sentences that are spoken. This has been a challenge for many students, but with perseverance and regular times to practise all students are becoming surer of the task.

Handwriting remains a strong focus with many students becoming a bit haphazard with their writing style. Each letter has been explicitly taught and modelled, and the students can achieve beautiful handwriting, in their specific Handwriting books. The expectation is that this neat and legible handwriting style will be transferred into ALL their work, not just the daily handwriting lesson. The goal is for letter formation and structure to become automatic in function, allowing students to direct all their energy towards the more difficult aspects of literacy learning.

Story writing is the highlight of the day for many students, and they can become quite annoyed if we miss the session for any reason. This enthusiasm is so lovely to witness, as is their growing confidence in their ability to write independently.

MATHS

It has been a busy start to the term with students learning about data collection, location, counting and place value. Within our data unit students' progress from basic sorting skills to more complex concepts. This includes sorting collections and developing comparing skills with terms like "more" and "less", emphasising equal spacing for accurate comparisons. The unit introduces data collection, using yes/no questions. The students really enjoyed collecting data from each other.

A key focus in our location unit is on developing students ability to follow and give verbal directions for object movement, building on prior knowledge of positional language. They are supported in this skill by using visuals, symbols, and concrete materials to enhance understanding. Students enjoyed giving instructions to each other - stand beside the table/sit under the table. The students also enjoyed making treasure maps and writing directions to find the treasure chest.

Students are introduced to ordinal numbers, numbers beyond 20 and Australian coins. A key focus of this topic is counting and the representation of two-digit numbers in tens and ones. Students use ten-frames, bundling and base-10 blocks before moving to counting to 100 on a hundred chart. Later this term students learn about Australian money, they are involved in an in-depth exploration of Australian coins, including identifying, matching and sorting. They are supported in this skill by using plastic coins and role-play items.

Religion

"We are Special" is the unit for the first half of term, a concept everyone in Foundation can relate to very easily. We have discussed what personal characteristics are unique to us, and how it is important to value the differences between people. The next, and final, unit will be focussed on Christmas, plus there will be the annual Christmas Concert nativity to prepare for as well. Our daily meditation sessions continue to be a lovely, quiet part of our day and students are becoming more and more capable of sitting quietly for longer periods of time.

THE RESILIENCE PROJECT

We are learning to:

Throughout this unit students explore the importance of respecting and celebrating differences. Through video analysis, peer interactions and reflection, students will celebrate diversity by understanding, learning about and appreciating that we all have unique qualities and backgrounds.

Success criteria:

I can compare how I am similar and different to others.
I can identify differences between two characters.
I can answer questions that show the things I like.
I can listen to others to find out the things they like.

INQUIRY

How Things Move

In this unit students will explore the way objects move, investigating the movement of differently shaped objects, such as blocks, tubes, and eggs, when rolled down a slope. Additionally, they will explore the impact of different materials on an object's movement, and observe traditional toys . Further broadening their perspective on movement, students explore how different animals move. Simple, hands-on, explorative activities allow the students to question and predict scientific ideas, plan and conduct investigations, process, analyse and then evaluate and communicate their findings.

ON-GOING REMINDERS

St John's is a "No Hat, No Play" school, which means everyone is wearing their hats every day. High ponytails and hair buns can cause difficulty for some students in trying to get their hat to actually sit on their head properly. Just something to ponder when creating hairstyles in the morning.
Everything needs to be labelled. And this mantra will be repeated on a regular basis throughout the year. You will get sick of hearing it, we will get sick of saying it, but please make sure your child's belongings can be easily returned to them should they accidentally be misplaced.
Zooper Doopers are $1, Cake Raffle tickets are 50c. Both momentous events happen each Friday.
Lunch Orders are every Wednesday.
Library visits take place on a Friday. If last week's borrowed book is not returned, a new one cannot be borrowed.

6. Birthday invitations- Foundation is traditionally the year of Birthday Parties. We are happy to hand out invitations at school if everyone is invited (just classroom cohort, not necessarily all of Foundation) But if you choose to only invite some friends to your child's party (and we completely understand this approach) we would prefer that the invitations were shared another way. Whilst life does have the occasional disappointment, not being invited to a party is a pretty big one when you are 5 or 6 years old and we would rather the school not be the place of the upset.

If you have any questions or queries about anything, please contact us. We have Staff Meetings after school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so these times are unavailable, but can make any other time work.

sredfern@sjeuroa.catholic.edu.au

tramsden@sjeuroa.catholic.edu.au

phone: 57952937

Thank you,

Sally, Thom and Damien