Prep / 1 Mainstream 

Celebrating Learning

Preps have officially started their 5-day week and wow, what a difference we are observing since the beginning of term! Friendships are being formed, expanded, and explored. Students are noticeably settled, understanding and anticipating their daily routine, while building on their understanding of whole school expectations. 

PBL (play-based learning):

Last week we hefted and measured in PBL! Students were incredibly creative with their choice of informal units of measurement and vessels for hefting. Our PBL sessions began with students predicting and testing their theories of weight and then choosing partners and items to put their theories to the test.

This week, Harmony Day has been a great catalyst for our teaching and learning of inclusion in our PBL program. Students have been posing questions and discussing what it means to play well. Many are passionate about the importance and power of advocating for others, who may not be in a position to advocate for themselves. 

Student insights have been shared and discussed with belonging and the right to feel safe at the heart of our conversations. Students will continue to learn useful strategies shared from each other and our school-wide SWPBS strategies, including ‘Stop, Walk, Talk’, a powerful tool that is explicitly taught for students to use, both indoors or outdoors at school. 

Belonging will continue to be our focus for the rest of the term in PBL.

Maths:

In number this week, we have been looking at how to organise a collection so that it can be counted very quickly and easily. Students have been experimenting with the different ways collections can be organised and how this impacts their ability to count quickly. Part-whole thinking has been introduced with students partitioning their collection into equal groupings for ease of counting. This learning has been extended to think-boards where students make and then represent a number connecting number names, numerals and quantities using tens frames, tally marks, and representing as an organised collection.

Reading:

We had our first library visit last week! Students were introduced to the library norms and expectations, we read a story together, and then students designed their book markers. These mark where a student has taken a book from so that it can be easily returned. This week students decorated their library bags and borrowed their first book! Students can borrow one book for one week. Wednesday is library day, so please make sure books come into school each Wednesday as books must be returned before students can borrow.

In our reading groups over the past two weeks we have been focussing on the following sounds:

Juliette and Jess are reviewing:

• Vowels /a/ as in ant and /i/ as in ink
• Heart Words - the, I, my
• Games to consolidate /m/ /s/ /f/ /t/ /p/ /c/

Matt was reviewing:

• /ch/ as in chip
• /sh/ as in shell

Steph was learning:

• /ee/ as in seed
• /ea/ as in beach
• /y/ as in happy
• /igh/ high
• /ie/ pie
• /-y/ sky

Writing/ speaking and listening:

Students continue to expand their recounts with preps labelling their drawing with either single grapheme. 

For example, On the weekend I went swimming at the pool, with my mum. This recount drawing might include /s/ swimming, /p/ pool, and /m/ mum.

Grade ones continue to identify and practise using the structure of a simple sentence to include feeling. For example, On Saturday I went to the market with my family. I ate ice-cream and I felt happy.

What’s to come in the next two weeks:

• Continue to make sure your child is coming to school with a broad brimmed hat every day. 
• In writing, Grade ones will be focussing on punctuation and re-reading. Preps, continue to practise grapheme phoneme correspondence.

Juliette and Jess