Prep News

Important Reminders

Parent helpers: Next term we have a few opportunities for parent helpers, both in the classroom and at PMP. If you would like to participate please fill in the google forms by clicking on your child's class.
Prep D Prep B Prep R Prep L (due Monday 11th)
PMP (due Thursday 14th)
Sun Smart : From Monday the 11th of September, students are required to wear hats when playing outside. If you would like further information, please check our sun smart policy.
Maths Masters: Your child has a Maths Masters goal that they are working towards in the classroom. You can support your child to achieve their Maths Masters goal by encouraging them to practise their goal at home too. All information, resources and links your child might require can be found in the Maths Masters Belts folder. Just click on the relevant coloured belt your child is working on, and find their individual goal to practise.

Learning in Action

Literacy

In Reading this part fortnight we have revised the strategy ‘looking for parts that we know’ and have worked on applying it when coming across big words. We have started learning our Stage 2 (orange) heart words. Students orthographically mapped the word by saying the sounds and learning the tricky part that is difficult to sound out. As a class, we learnt the comprehension strategy ‘retelling’. We read short picture story books and retold the stories by saying what happened in the beginning, middle and end.

In Writing, we have continued with our personal narratives. We wrote a personal narrative about Father’s Day morning and our skipping experience. We have also focused on developing ideas for writing. We used our personal placemats to pick an idea and wrote about that in detail. For example, some students wrote about a time they went to the beach, whilst others wrote about their interests such as their favourite sport. Through word work sessions, we have revised the ‘ck’ digraph and applied the spelling rule to write words with this spelling pattern. The digraph 'ck' comes after a short vowel sound.

Preview: Next week we will refine our retelling skills and publish our favourite personal narrative.

Maths

Last week, we concluded our teen number unit. We played a teen number bingo game to consolidate our knowledge of reading and writing these numbers. We revised addition concepts by practising the strategies ‘count all’ and ‘count on’ to find the total. Students enjoyed playing a collaborative ‘gumball’ game to practise the strategies. Students also worked with the teacher and were given an individual addition goal, which is provided based on their point of need. This ensures all students are engaged and challenged in their Maths learning.

We have also been exploring weight over the fortnight. Students were introduced to the words ‘light’ and ‘heavy’. We used the skill of hefting to determine items that were heavier, lighter and the same weight.

Preview: Next week we will look at the strategies ‘friends of 5’ and ‘friends of 10’. Students will continue to practise their addition goal individually as well as in a teacher group. We will introduce scales to the students so they can explore weight further.

Inquiry

Over the past fortnight the Preps have been busy wrapping up the unit, getting ready to show off their learning at celebration morning. Students have applied their knowledge past and present, life events and timelines to create their own ‘life story.’ The preps have chosen 4 significant events that have happened in their lifetime, creating a timeline by drawing and writing about each event, ensuring they are in order.

We are looking forward to sharing these with you next Tuesday morning!

Preview - Next term our inquiry unit will enhance our critical and creative thinking, whilst exploring different concepts of sustainability.

Wellbeing

Respectful Relationships has seen students wrap up their ‘Help Seeking unit, and start their ‘Gender and Identity’ unit. Gender and Identity sees students explore the ways we are different, as well as celebrate diverse identities. This week for Respectful Relationships, students voted with their hands, bodies and feet to show their likes and dislikes, and then drew a picture of themselves doing their favourite thing on the weekend, wearing their favourite outfit and with their favourite toy to highlight that boys and girls like similar things.

For Friendology, students learned about Tricky Situations, which are like Friendship Fires but not as serious. Tricky Situations explored how students can share, take turns and play fair using different scenarios and examples.

Preview: Next week, we will be wrapping up Friendology with the Kind + Strong session, where all that has been learned is celebrated. During Respectful Relationships, students will explore how girls and boys can be different and similar.

Father's Day Morning

We had a lovely morning on Friday the 1st of September, celebrating and appreciating our Dads or special people. We had a spectacular time engaging in the different activities across the four prep classrooms. There was building, badge making, maths games and drawing and writing. Thank you to the families that gave up their time to spend the morning with us, it meant a lot to our students.