Junior School

Prep

Hello everyone!

Welcome to our newsletter item!

We have been super busy establishing our routines and learning how to be at school. We are learning to line up safely, to sit on the floor to listen to stories. We are learning most of all, how to STOP and listen! We are having fun at our specialists, PE, Performing Arts, STEAM and PMP. We are loving STOMP and have even created a new move called ‘The Millie!’ Our Buddies have been a great support to our preps to have another familiar face in the school ground. Thankyou parents for your support over these few weeks helping to settle our children into a whole new world of learning. 

Planned Learning over the next few weeks.

Maths - 1-1 counting, numeral formation, counting collections of items, matching numerals to collections of items, copying, and continuing patterns

Literacy - Introducing our LITTLE LEARNERS LOVE LITERACY program. This includes learning the sounds that letters make and hearing them in words. We are also learning how to form these letters correctly. We are reading class big books and learning the difference between letters and words and how important the pictures are giving us information about stories. We are also talking about who the characters are, what the setting is and what the problem and the solution is in our storites. 

Humanities

We are learning about what a community is. We are talking about our families and our school community and how we can care and help each other.  

Specialist Days

Monday PMP

Tuesday Performing Arts, PE, STOMP

Thursday STEAM

Grade 1 and 2

Maths

In Maths, we have been learning about place value. Students have been using lots of hands-on materials such as blocks, counters and place value charts to help them build and apply their understanding of tens and ones.

Over the coming weeks, we will begin exploring patterns, as well as addition and subtraction. Students will continue using concrete materials and engaging activities to help them develop their mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Literacy

Reading 

In Reading, students have been practising a range of comprehension strategies to help them understand fiction texts. This term, students have learned how to make connections between their own lives (text-to-self) and other texts they have read (text-to-text). They have also practised sequencing events in a story in chronological order and making predictions using clues from the front cover, title and blurb. Students have explored how authors use grammar in their writing, including nouns, verbs, adjectives and rhyming words.

In the coming weeks, students will read Farmer Duck, Elmer and Giraffes Can’t Dance. These texts will help students continue to build their comprehension skills. The focus will be on sequencing and inferring. Students will also practise reading with fluency and recognising rhyming words.

Writing 

In Writing this term, students have been learning about the features of a recount. They have explored how recounts retell events in the order they happened. Students have taken part in a range of language experiences, including bubble blowing, chalk drawing and cookie decorating, to help build their vocabulary and generate ideas for writing. They have also practised sequencing their ideas using time connectives such as first, next and finally. These activities have helped students learn how to clearly describe events and share their experiences with the reader.

In the coming weeks, Grade 1 students will continue developing their writing skills through further recount writing. They will focus on adding more detail and organising their ideas clearly. Grade 2 students will begin exploring narratives through traditional fairy tales. They will learn about the structure of a story, including characters, setting and events.

Humanities

In Humanities, we have been exploring two big questions: What is my community? and How do my actions affect my community?

Students are learning about the people, places and groups that make up a community and how our choices and actions can impact those around us. We are exploring these ideas through discussions and by reading a variety of books that are part of our reading program this term.

We will continue exploring these questions throughout the term as students deepen their understanding of community and their role within it.