Prep Community News

Dear Prep Families,

We cannot believe how fast this Term is going! We are more than halfway into our first term of school and feel incredibly proud of how our students have settled into the school year! All prep teachers have been talking about how ready our students are to be at school full time, as March begins. Our Learning to Learn program is complete and we are excited to begin teaching our content areas which follow:

English 

Our English program will be through InitiaLit, which is a literacy program that teaches children how to read and write through daily structured literacy lessons. During learning time, students will participate in whole class and independent targeted activities to practise identifying letters and sounds of the alphabet. You can help to support your child’s reading at home by reading with them every day, pointing out, explaining and discussing new words to enrich their vocabulary. Use songs and rhymes to play language games and encourage your child to apply their developing knowledge of sounds and letters to text as they read aloud to you.

In Reading, we’ve been learning to retell short texts. Students have practised identifying the character, problem, feeling, action and solution, before retelling the text in their own words. At home, you can support your child to identify the different parts of the text using the sentence stems, “The character in the story is…” “The problem in the story is…” The character is feeling…” etc. as well as discussing what happened in the book using the sentence stem “In this book…”

Maths

In Maths, we have been practising counting to 10. Students have begun to learn how to write and form numbers by using the language slide forward and curve back. 

We have also focused on identifying the time of the day by using the language daytime, nighttime, morning, afternoon and evening. 

You can support your child at home by encouraging them to notice and talk about numbers and identify the different times of day, as this is a great way to reinforce their learning! 

Other Areas

Some other areas of learning that we have been completing each week include Digital Technology and Respectful Relationships. During Digital Technology, students have been exploring the features of an iPad and most importantly, practising logging into different learning apps using QR Codes. In Respectful Relationships, students have been learning how different emotions appear and the importance of being able to recognise different emotions.

Reminders

Bravehearts Incursion

On Wednesday 12th March, the Prep students will attend the Bravehearts incursion. The Bravehearts Education team will provide a personal safety incursion for all Prep students. The focus of the preventative education program is to protect children from sexual harm. This includes a simple, fun, non-threatening incursion for the students with Ditto, the brave Lion Cub mascot who will lead the songs and actions that reinforce the important personal safety messages. 

Please provide consent and payment through Compass, the cost is $11 and is due by Wednesday 5th March. If you have any difficulties making your payment, please contact the office who will be happy to help you. 

Take Home Reading

At Tarneit Rise, we encourage reading every school night to practice and develop enjoyment in reading. Each child will be given an assigned day which is displayed on the door of your child’s classroom. On their day, please bring their reading satchel, or the red prep bag mentioned above for the books to be stored in. They will also be given a reading journal which they will bring back to school each week for the teacher to record how many nights of reading they have done. At the end of each term, certificates will be given to celebrate hitting certain milestones in the Nights of Reading!

Hats are compulsory in Term 1 and 4. Please ensure your child has a hat that is labelled clearly with their name.

Harmony Day celebrations will be on the 21st of March. Your child can dress up in their favourite cultural clothes.

Please label everything that your child brings to school with their name and their class (e.g. PA). This helps us with lost items and ensuring that your child’s items are returned to them. This includes hats and all clothing items they may remove throughout the day. We quite often end up with parents having to repurchase uniforms as the children lose them throughout the day and they cannot be found. If it has a name and class on it, it will easily be returned to the teacher within a few days.   

The first bell rings at 8.45 am signalling students to make their way into class and be ready to begin learning at 8.55 am. The school day finishes at 3.10 pm. In Term 1, parents drop off and collect their children from the classroom inside the pod. If your child will be attending Big Childcare after school, they will be collected from their classroom and walked over to the gym.    

If you have any further questions, please contact your child’s class teacher for support. We look forward to a wonderful year of growth with all the children in their first year of school!

PLC Prep