Foundation Unit

After a few busy weeks focused around assessments for reports, the Foundation students were happy to settle back into our normal daily routine. 

In Reading, we have been practising making connections. This considers what the mentor text reminds them of, in order to make ‘text to self’ connections. We have also discussed which other books come to mind as we read, making ‘text to text’ connections. 

In Writing, we have been sharing our opinions and using the word ‘because’ to explain the reason behind our thinking. Students have worked on justifying their reasoning and giving their readers insight into their opinion on a text. We are also practising using lower case letters throughout our writing, unless it’s the beginning of a sentence, or a name. 

In our Phonics lessons, students have been impressing us with their understanding and application of digraphs (two letters making one sound) as well as our first trigraph (igh)! Some of the digraphs we have been working on include ai, ee, oa, oi, oo, or, ar and ur. Students have listened carefully to the sound that each digraph makes and have compiled lists for each one to assist them when writing and reading. We absolutely love seeing students apply this new knowledge in their writing! 

In Maths, we are working on the concept of ‘part-part-whole’. Students have been exploring different ways to make numbers up to 10 through the use of a variety of worded problems that have been based on real life situations. We have been encouraging the students to prove their thinking with a drawing as well as a matching number sentence (e.g. five and five is ten) and/or equation. There has also been a focus on neat book work and which strategies are the most efficient when recording, for example simple and neat dots, rather than detailed drawings. Students are also encouraged to show us more than one way of solving the maths problem. 

In other news, our bean shoots are well and truly growing for our Inquiry topic of ‘Living Things’. Unlike previous years, we have experienced some difficulty with the very cold weather but as always with a science project, the students' problem-solved as to why this may be happening. After a quick paper towel refresh, students have enjoyed detailing the growth of their plants in their inquiry books and discussing why some plants are growing more than others. We have linked this to our ‘Growth Mindset’ and SEL lessons, by discussing why plants (and people) grow at their own pace and are all still valuable and important. 

Finally, a big thank you to Miss Harrison, who has been completing her teaching placement in PLC with Miss Cannon. Miss Harrison has done a wonderful job at fitting in with our Foundation team and has enjoyed spending time with both PLC and PBS. We wish her all the best for the bright teaching career in front of her. 

Foundation Teachers

Libby Cannon (PLC), Bree Smith (PBS)