Prep

Dear Prep families, 

Welcome to Week Four of Term Four. We’re now entering the final stretch of the school year, and it's wonderful to see the progress each student has made so far. 

Reading

Our focus in Reading has continued to be on narratives where the students have been learning about the different parts of a narrative and in particular, the  beginning, middle and end. They have continued exploring the features of a narrative (characters, setting, problem and solution) through various fictional mentor texts, like 'Room on a Broom'.

Students are encouraged to continue practising their reading at home with the use of their reading strategies, key ring words and by answering  comprehension questions. 

Writing

As students have been exploring the features of a narrative, they have been practising writing their own narrative by following the writing structure and ensuring they include a beginning, middle and end to their narrative. This last fortnight, students have experimented with writing narratives by choosing their own characters, setting, beginning, middle and end and have been encouraged to include a problem and solution.

Students have also continued to focus on using the correct sentence structure in their writing, ensuring they begin their sentence with a capital letter, use finger spaces between words and finish each sentence with appropriate punctuation.

Maths

In Maths, students continue to engage in activities to improve their number knowledge and develop a strong sense of 'trust the count'.

Students have begun to explore the concept of subtraction and are learning to use verbal action stories to model subtraction using manipulatives and drawings. Key vocabulary words we use when discussing subtraction are: takeaway, less, how many are left, total and subtraction. We encourage students to use this vocabulary when discussing subtraction at home.

Prep Swimming Program Update

This week, our Prep students have had a fantastic time in the pool! They’ve embraced the lessons with enthusiasm and it’s been wonderful to see their confidence grow with each session. The instructors have been impressed by their progress and the children are enjoying the experience.

We still have three more days of swimming to go next week, so please ensure students bring their swimming gear and a positive attitude for the remaining sessions. Let’s keep up the great effort!

No School on Cup Day and the Day Before

We’d like to remind families that students will not be attending school on the following days due to our Curriculum Day and the Melbourne Cup public holiday:

• Monday, 4th November - Curriculum Day
• Tuesday, 5th November - Melbourne Cup Holiday.

Prep Wellbeing

Over the past two weeks of Wellbeing, our Prep students have:

• Explored ways to organise sharing of play spaces and equipment.
• Discussed the impact of excluding others from play.
• Reflected on the consequences when some groups take more than their fair share.
• Proposed actions to promote fair and friendly play between boys and girls.

Additionally, our Preps have learned to recognise different forms of gender-based violence and have practised responding assertively to these situations.

REMINDERS

• If your child is absent, please ensure the reason is entered on XUNO; if you need support with this please reach out to the office staff.
• Classroom doors open at 8.20am and lessons begin at 8.30am. If by change you arrive late (8:40 am onwards) you are required to obtain a late pass from the office.
• Please remember to pack a spare change of clothes for your child. Sometimes, little children can have toileting accidents and spills at school.
• Your child’s iPad is charged and brought to school every day.
• Students are required to be sun smart and wear their school hat when outside. during Term Four.

• If your child can read their sight words, they can try writing them. Once they can write the words correctly, they can move on to using them in sentences. 

           Kind regards, 

           The Prep Team.