School of Foundations
It has been a wonderful term of student learning in the School of Foundations. We invited parents in for our ‘Learning in Action’ in Stage 1 and 2. Our visitors were able to observe and engage in a Mathematics lesson with their child. Parents received a snapshot of the structure and pedagogy embedded in the teaching of mathematical content and skills.
Book Week
This week we celebrated Book Week with our book parade. Thank you to our parents for providing book character costumes for our students. It was great to see our staff also immerse themselves in the celebrations with dressing up to promote the enthusiasm of reading.
On Tuesday, our students were excited to see a ‘Mystery Storyteller’ in their classrooms. The teachers in K-4 swapped classes and read their favourite book to a different class. The students enjoyed listening to their ‘mystery storyteller’.
Today, to continue the celebrations of book week our students in Kindergarten and Stage 1 viewed a performance by Meerkat Productions of the story Frank’s Red Hat, a Children’s Book Council of Australia 2023 award winning book.
Reading is of paramount importance for primary students, as it lays the foundation for their academic success and overall development.
Here are some key reasons why reading is crucial for primary students:
Language Development: Reading exposes children to a wide variety of words, sentence structures, and vocabulary. It helps them develop a rich and nuanced language foundation, which is essential for effective communication, writing, and comprehension skills.
Cognitive Development: Reading stimulates cognitive processes such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills. When children engage with stories, they learn to process information, make connections, and think abstractly.
Imagination and Creativity: Reading stories, whether fictional or non-fictional, fuels children's imagination and creativity. It allows them to visualize scenarios, characters, and settings, which in turn supports their creative thinking and storytelling abilities.
Academic Success: Reading is the cornerstone of academic achievement. Proficient readers tend to perform better in all subjects, as reading comprehension is essential for understanding textbooks, instructions, and assignments across different subjects.
Cultural Awareness: Through reading, children are introduced to diverse cultures, perspectives, and experiences. This exposure fosters empathy, understanding, and a global outlook.
Lifelong Learning: Cultivating a love for reading at an early age paves the way for a lifelong habit of learning. Children who enjoy reading are more likely to seek out knowledge independently and continue learning throughout their lives.
Social and Emotional Development: Reading stories that explore emotions and interpersonal relationships can help children develop emotional intelligence and empathy. They learn about different emotions, how characters deal with challenges, and how relationships evolve.
Parent-Child Bonding: Reading together with parents or caregivers fosters strong bonds and positive associations with learning. It creates quality time for interaction, discussion, and shared experiences.
Preparation for Future Challenges: Reading equips children with the skills needed to navigate complex texts and information sources as they progress through their education and into adulthood.
To promote the importance of reading for primary students, we provide them with a variety of age-appropriate reading materials, encourage regular reading habits, engage in discussions about stories, and create a supportive and nurturing reading environment at school.
Miss Pecnik
Head of School of Foundations
Early Stage 1
English
In English, students have been learning to read and write informative texts about animals and insects. We have continued to make links to our Science unit ‘Living World’ and the needs of living things. We have read, researched and written about earthworms, Axolotyls, frogs and many more creatures. We have also made connections and comparisons between living things and written about the habitats of creatures, their diet, appearance, and life cycles. We have also started to explore ‘Bump it Up’ walls to reflect on our writing, receive feedback and make it even better!
Mathematics
In Mathematics, we have been collecting and recording information in a meaningful way.The students have presented surveys to their peers on topics such as favourite colours, ice cream flavours, pets and sports. We have also started to record our data in a graph and interpret the most and least popular item by counting. We have also reinforced our knowledge on combining (adding) and separating (subtracting) numbers. An example of our thinking this week is shown in the pictures below.
Question; ‘There are a number of apples on the tree. Some apples fell off. How many apples fell off? How many apples are left?
Religion
In Religion, we have continued to explore our driving question, ‘What is Church?’, looking at different sacramental objects and symbols in Church, as well as the different aspects of the St Luke’s Cross. Recently, we have also celebrated Saint Mary MacKillop’s Feast Day and the Feast of the Assumption. We discussed the importance of both women in our Catholic faith. As part of Kindergarten’s learning about Australia’s first saint, Mary MacKillop, the students also had the opportunity to complete an activity with Stage 2 buddies.
Science
In Science, over the past couple of weeks, Kindergarten has been learning about how living things can be used to meet our needs. Students have been discussing the importance of food and where foods come from - plants or animals. In small groups, students created visual displays to share their understanding.
Kindergarten has also been exploring how living things can meet the needs of other living things. We have looked at the relationship between honey bees and almond trees. The students have found the importance of bees very interesting!
Stage 1
It has been an exciting few weeks with the lead up to Book Week and our amazing Book Week parade! The students have been busy exploring different books that help them to read, grow, and inspire.
English
Stage One have started the term with writing to entertain others. The teachers have worked closely with the students to build up their sentence structure and assist them to plan, write and revise their writing using a range of simple and compound sentences. Throughout the process, the students have referred to our ‘Bump it up’ wall which allows them to self-reflect on their writing and view examples of how they can make their writing even better.
Mathematics
This week in Mathematics, Stage One has started a new unit; Patterns and Algebra. Students are learning about growing and shrinking patterns. By the end of this unit students will be able to recognise patterns in different forms, create a number pattern and create a pattern using different objects.
Religion
This week in Religion, students are continuing to discover the answer to the driving question: How can I show love to my neighbour? Students have been learning about the different ways we can treat others with respect, kindness and love, just like Jesus taught us.
History
This term in stage 1, we have been learning about the past in the present which is a study of the history of our local area, examining the remains of the past and why they should be preserved. We visited Hambledon Cottage and discovered what artefacts were and how they compare with the items and technology we use today. We discussed what they may have been used for and what might be used today in their place, such as kitchen utensils, games that children played, clothing and much more. We also learnt how to pose questions from the past using sources.
Stage 2
English - Cookie Unit
This term Stage 2 students are learning to write to persuade. In order to do this students have been writing to persuade each other about why their cookie is the best. Students first participated in a cookie taste testing where they analysed a range of different cookies. Students then designed their own cookie. They had to brainstorm, plan and write a text giving reasons why their cookie was the best. Students were then given the opportunity to make their cookie in our lovely Kitchen Spaces. The students thoroughly enjoyed this series of lessons.
Mathematics - Open Classrooms
Last week, Stage 2 welcomed parents to come and visit their spaces during a maths lesson. It was great to see so many parents be involved in their child’s learning. Students were able to teach their parents about our warm up game ‘Headache’ as well as share their learning of money and worded problems. Students have been connecting their learning of decimals to money and have been working on showing a range of strategies to prove their answers.
Religion - Corporal Works of Mercy
In Religion students have been learning about how they can be merciful in their everyday lives. Students have been exploring the Corporal Works of Mercy by brainstorming examples of each Corporal Work of Mercy, researching one in more detail and recognising how it impacts other people. Students presented this information in the form of a poster.
Geography Jarara Visit
In Geography, Stage 2 are learning about environmental issues. In order to understand a range of perspectives on issues affecting the environment, students were visited by Mr Langford from Jarara to discuss Aboriginal Perspectives on the land and sustainability. The students were very engaged and interested in how Aboriginal people viewed and treated the land.
Kindy Support
Being the eldest in SOF, Stage 2 have been practising how to be great role models and leaders. Last week Kindergarten asked if Stage 2 students could visit the Kindy spaces to help them with an art activity. It was lovely to see how helpful and kind the Stage 2 students were with their Kindy buddy. The kindy students were very appreciative of their Stage 2 helper. We look forward to having more opportunities to be a role model to the younger years.
Music
Kindergarten students have been learning how to play the Ukulele in music. They have been focusing on the chords C major and A minor. We have been strumming the two different chords to ‘Ho Hey’ By the Lumineers learning to switch between the two different chords and strumming in different rhythmic patterns.
All our rock stars are enjoying learning how to play the ukulele!
Diversity -
Decoding + word knowledge = reading comprehension!
Our Diversity team has been focusing on improving reading skills. We have started working with students on decoding, using those single sounds and moving on through the digraphs (sh, wh, ch etc) and even discovering some of the long vowel sound rules when we are reading - and that is just for starters! This is how we can closely link reading with spelling - what we know from reading, we can transfer into our spelling skills! Another great skill to bring to reading is our word knowledge, and what words mean. This can make a huge difference to how we comprehend what we are reading. When we put those two parts - decoding and word knowledge - together, we are reading! And the more we read, the better we become!
