Prep/1 News

Harmony Day

At Bittern Primary School, Harmony Day is a special opportunity to celebrate diversity, inclusion and the message that everyone belongs. Our students explored this through a range of engaging activities, including learning to say hello in different languages, decorating rocks for our dry river bed, and performing percussion to “Hakuna Matata.” They also shared their thoughts and drawings about harmony in their own homes. The day was filled with connection and joy, as students enjoyed a special lunch together followed by a whole school disco. 🧡

Sounds Write - Prep

Our Foundation students have continued to build their reading, writing and spelling skills, learning new letters including b, c, g, h, d, e, f and v. They have been developing their letter formation and practising sounding out words to blend for reading and segment for spelling. Students are also beginning to apply these skills to write simple sentences with increasing confidence.

Text Study: The Rainbow Fish

Through the story The Rainbow Fish, students explored themes of sharing, friendship and kindness while building their vocabulary. They were introduced to rich descriptive words such as shimmering, sparkling, lonely, generous and proud, helping them to better understand characters and events in the story. Students practised using these new words in discussions, writing and oral language activities, supporting their ability to express ideas with greater detail and confidence. Some of the ambitious words included 'glistening, lustrous, iridescent, swivel, rotate, revolve, pirouette, pivot, clammy, gloomy, sombre, dingy, murky

bursting with happiness, and brimming with joy.' Here are some of the student's illustrations and sentences:

Mathematics

Students have been learning to order the days of the week and to connect them to familiar school events. We have been learning how long events last using years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds. Students illustrated our weekly school schedule.

We have also had a focus on addition and subtraction. We used counters and dominoes to solve simple addition problems and talked about a variety of strategies including adding/subtracting zero, doubling and making 10. We learnt about the addition, subtraction and equal symbols using the characters  'Gus the Plus', 'Linus the Minus' and 'Eddie the Equals'. 

Whole School Open Afternoon

Our whole school Open Afternoon was a tremendous success. It was wonderful to welcome so many current families, along with a large number of prospective families visiting our school. The school looked fantastic, with classrooms and specialist areas showcasing engaging activities and vibrant displays of learning. Thanks to all our staff for a wonderful afternoon showing off our great school. The 'Bittern Birdie' facepaint by Carrie (Education Support staff member) looked amazing.

Developmental Play

Our Foundation students have been enjoying weekly rotations in our Developmental Play area. Activities have included the LEGO train set, a role play shop, drawing, games and puzzles, LEGO construction, and iPad learning apps. Students have followed instructions to create a range of LEGO builds, explored the Teach Your Monster to Read app, and engaged in imaginative role play within the shop setting. They have also completed drawings and puzzles to support their learning. One group even created their own “assembly,” making leadership badges and writing a schedule—what a fantastic display of creativity and imagination. Well done, Preps!