Foundation Learning Community News

What a wonderful beginning to our first year of schooling! Monique, Luke, Payton and Jacinta have been so pleased to see everyone settling in and have been astounded by the lack of tears!

Our first two weeks have had a focus of learning the routines of the classroom and yard, understanding the expectations teachers have of us and making new friends. 

We are looking forward to our very first whole school assembly in Week 4 and have even begun to practise a song to present at our first Prep Assembly in Week 8.

Literacy:

Our  phonics program, InitiaLit, has begun in earnest. We have learned about how letters make words and words make sentences, what spaces are for and a lot of rhyming fun. Rhyme can be tricky for some children, so if you would like to help at home reading rhyming books, playing rhyming games and pointing out when you notice rhymes can support the development of this skill.

We have been completing literacy rotations with a strong focus on fine motor skills such as scissor activities, using tweezers, making dough letters and practising letter formation. 

The book "How to Catch a Star" by Oliver Jeffers is our reading focus for the beginning of the year. We have paid special attention to new vocabulary in the text, such as 'wished' and 'carefully'. This week we carefully built a domino tower and completed craft related to the book. 

Numeracy:

We have spent our early weeks at school exploring patterns. Patterns made with colour, nature, sound, numbers and our body. Our students have been able to show us how amazing their mathematical thinking is and although at times it has been noisy it has been a lot of fun.

Inquiry:

We are currently investigating "Who are we and who makes up our classroom community?" in our Inquiry sessions. To support deep thinking we have created a Wondering Wall. This is where we record student wonderings about a topic. Our teachers use our Wonderings to direct our inquiry unit. So far we have drawn our families, discovered who helps us at school and even interviewed our Principal, Christine. Christine visited with a very special guest, her newest granddaughter!

Buddies:

Our Grade 5 buddy program is integral to helping our newest EPS students feel supported at school, especially during playtime. For the first two weeks our buddies met us at each playtime to make sure we were happy and to help us find out all the things we can do each play. In week 3 our teachers have helped us to buddy up with other Prep students before each play to help us make new friends of our own age. This does not mean that our Grade 5 buddies are forgotten! We have a session each week where we meet up and complete different activities. This week our buddies helped us to create our Buddy Wall display.