Foundation

Foundation October Newsletter

Our Bundoora Farm Adventure

Foundation students had the opportunity to visit Bundoora Farm. Students were excited to see all the different animals and learn some more interesting facts. Foundation students were able to feed and pat some animals, engage in some gardening (making compost and planting seeds), explore the wildlife through a tractor ride and plenty more. 

Literacy

Foundation students have been working on extending their segmenting and blending skills by reading CVCC words. CVCC words are four letter words that include a Consonant-Vowel-Consonant-Consonant. Students spend time hearing each sound in the word, chopping or clapping out the sounds then recording the correct graphemes on whiteboards. 

Furthermore, we have introduced new heart words. Students have been learning about the tricky sounds we need to identify in some of these heart words for example; the letters ‘ay’ together making the long vowel /a/ sound.

We continue to read our Little Learners Love Literacy texts by modelling pointing to each word for directionality and segmenting and blending. Students have been practising their fluency, decoding and comprehension skills with the use of our Little Learners Love Literacy Texts. We transfer our comprehension skills into writing complete sentences which allows students to include key ideas from the text.

Knowledge

In our new Knowledge Unit on Farms, Foundation students have begun exploring the essential elements of farming and the important roles of farmers. We are excited to learn about the various animals that live in a farm and the different products they provide. This unit aligns perfectly with our recent excursion to the Bundoora Park Children’s Farm, where we had the opportunity to see firsthand how the farm operates and meet all the animals that live there. 

Numeracy

Foundation students have spent some time revisiting concepts they have previously learned. During the first week of school, the focus was on addition, subtraction, and identifying the numbers that come before and after. We also introduced a new concept: sharing (division). Students now understand the meanings of "fair share" and "equal." They have also explored different methods of sharing numbers through role play. For example, "We have 4 pencils. Share them equally between 2 people."

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

In Foundation, students have been engaging in various Resilience Project activities. Taking the time to explicitly learn strategies that can support student’s emotional wellbeing is integral in providing support in student’s understanding of their emotions and wellbeing. Foundation students engaged with an activity about how music can change our mood, where they identified their mood and how music made them feel before, during and after. Additionally, students engaged in an activity about our changing emotions to support them to understand that our feelings (emotions) can change in different situations. 

Additionally, Foundation students have been introduced and are using our new School Wide Positive Behaviour System [SWPBS] in the classroom! Gilgai Getter cards have been extremely popular throughout the last few weeks and student’s are very excited for their positive behaviour to be recognised and rewarded. 

Auslan

Connecting with our excursion to Bundoora Farm, in AUSLAN students have been learning the various signs for farm animals. Students engaged in learning signs for cow, pig, farmer, farm, rooster and more. Students thoroughly enjoyed learning signs for farm animals and practicing them when we visited Bundoora Farm.