Prep News 

Important Reminders 

 All important dates and events are on our Compass Calendar, please check the calendar regularly to stay up to date!

• Library loans and take home books have finished for the year, ready for cataloguing for 2024. If your child has library books or take home books at home, please send them to school to be returned as soon as possible. Thank you!
• The Preps' last Buddy session for 2023 will be on Thursday 14th December.
• Class Party:

Learning in Action

Literacy

Last week students continued to state their opinions about their favourite books. They revised reading fluency strategies such as ‘go back over the road’ and ‘find and fix’. Students enjoyed writing a recount about our CERES excursion and writing a narrative about a puppet they made with a wooden spoon and materials. The students chose their favourite narrative to publish where they made a front cover and completed illustrations to accompany their story. This week, students have engaged in various Christmas literacy activities including reading MANY Christmas stories, writing a letter to Santa, creating a wish list, re-writing the ending of a story and developing an elf application to work in Santa’s workshop. 

It has been a great year of learning! The Preps have come so far with their reading, writing, and speaking and listening skills. We have learnt various decoding strategies, developed our comprehension through listening to narratives and information texts, and have worked on our interaction skills through speaking in full sentences to share our ideas with others. 

Maths

Last week we finished off revising subtraction, playing subtraction games and using concrete materials to revise learnt skills. These next few weeks, students will play various maths games that are Christmas themed, such as, race to the North Pole, colour by addition and subtraction, dot to dots and roll and cover. 

This year, the Prep students have learnt and grown so much in Maths. Students have learnt to count forwards and backwards to 20, add and subtract numbers, learnt to represent numbers, find parts within a number, friends of 5 and friends of 10. They have also learnt about time (days of the week), 2D & 3D shapes, length, location and transformation, data, sharing, money, mass and capacity. Students also accepted the challenge to solve maths problems. We are so proud of everything they have achieved in Maths this year! 

Inquiry

To finish our inquiry unit and celebrate all our learning, the prep students went on an excursion to CERES, where we participated in a program called ‘Towards Zero Waste.’ The students had fun making recycled paper, cleaning the creek, checking out the litter trap and learning about composting, by holding worms and going on a scavenger hunt! We also learnt a dance with tips on how to move towards zero waste! Ask your child to show you the moves: Rethink - Refuse - Reduce - Reuse - Recycle - Rot.

Wellbeing

The past two weeks have seen Prep students begin their focus on gender-based bullying during Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships. Students listened to a story that had a playground gender-based bullying scenario, and then talked with each other about how they could help the person in the story with the problem. During the whole class discussion, teachers prompted students with questions like, ‘What might you do to help?’ and ‘Whom might you ask for help?’. 

Preps have achieved so much with their Wellbeing learning this year - completing Friendology from URStrong, moving through eight topics from Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships, and becoming acclimated to school life, values and expectations. Well done to all the Preps, and we look forward to seeing what you accomplish with your Wellbeing learning in Grade 1!

Preps Presenting…

This fortnight Prep L nominated Zoe to use her voice to share something of her choice.

Zoe decided to share her Christmas card envelope. It looks fantastic!

Zoe said, “I really wanted to present my card envelope because it’s really cool. It was just a big piece of paper and now it’s amazing, you can slip Christmas cards and other small things inside it!”

Christmas Concert

The Christmas Concert took place on Tuesday and was a roaring success. The Preps did a brilliant job performing their piece 'Happiest Christmas Tree' and 'Santa Clause is Coming' as a whole school finale. Thank you to all the families who came and supported this event.

Student Awards

We would like to congratulate the following award winners on their achievements!

Please note, you will be notified before your child receives their first award. 

Prep B

Darcie S & Annabelle H 

Hunter C & Ava L

Prep D 

Indy N

Levi H

Prep R 

Archer A

Prep L

Brooklyn P

Archie P

Values Award:

Alisa G (PL)

Birthdays

We would like to wish the following students a very Happy Birthday! 

Prep R: 

Levi - 3rd December

Prep D:

Prep L:

Hudson - 1st December

Oscar - 21st December

Prep B:

2023 has almost come to an end, along with your child’s first year of primary school! Prep staff would like to say a huge THANK YOU to all the families for all of your hard work and dedication throughout the year. This year would not have been nearly as magical without your commitment and enthusiasm. We wish you all a happy holiday season, and we will see you again in the New Year!

Bronte Darvidis, Amanda Remington, Jess Bouloukis and Renae Lansdell

Prep Teachers