Prep

What’s Happening in Prep: Weeks 5 and 6

The Preps are just over two weeks into their primary school journey! The Prep teachers have loved seeing students continue to settle into the routines of school with a big smile on their face. We have been doing lots of hands-on learning to help consolidate our understanding of the letters a, s, m, p, f and t. To celebrate our learning of these letters we went on an ‘S’ hunt around our school, made masks and had a Teddy Bear’s Picnic with our Year 6 Buddies.

Wellbeing

Understanding expected & unexpected behaviours at school
Continuing to practice our class promises and expectations

Literacy

Recognising the short vowel sound /i/ itchy and consonant sounds /p/ pig, /f/ fish and /n/ nest
Continue becoming ‘Independent Readers’ by pointing to the words as we read them
Recognising and writing CVC words using learnt sounds
Recognising the number of syllables in words

Maths

Practising carefully counting groups of objects
Recognising numerals and quantities
Creating patterns with objects and drawings

Knowledge Unit

Big Question: How might we reuse and recycle products?

Over the next fortnight, students will be exploring the following lines of inquiry:

How do we recycle?
Why do people work as a team?
What is a product?
Why do we reuse and recycle?

So far, we have been discussing what different products are made of and the various ways to recycle these. We have also investigated what happens to those items once they have been recycled.

The next steps are for the Prep students to reuse and recycle products of their own for a new purpose. Over the coming weeks, we will be working on a variety of group projects using recycled materials. To do this, we will require some donations of recycled household materials such as;

Cardboard boxes (cereal/ biscuit/ toothpaste/ shoes etc.) Please not any larger than this.
Paper towel/ wrapping paper rolls
Soft drink bottles
Bottle tops
Container lids
Or anything else that may help spark students’ creativity!

When collecting recycled materials, please be aware that we have allergies within our classes, so please no egg cartons or boxes that once stored nuts. We would love for these donations to be brought into the classroom over the next fortnight. Thank you!

Homework

Students take home three decodable readers in their reading pouch each week. Please continue to read these with your child. Reading pouches are returned on Mondays to be changed over and checked by their teacher.

Reminders

The last day of Prep testing will be Wednesday 26th of February. Prep student's begin school fulltime as of Monday 3rd March
Labour Day Public Holiday 10th March

Year 1

What’s Happening in Year 1 – Term 1 Week 5 and 6

Wellbeing

Students will be working on:

Zones of Regulation
How our behaviour affects others
Expected and unexpected behaviours

Literacy

Students will be working on:

Structured, synthetics phonics programme: UFLI
Short vowel sound review, FLSZ Spelling Rule, -all, -oll, -ull and ck /k/.
Inferring (characters feelings, what the author isn’t saying)
Vivid Verbs (unpacking and applying)
Adjectives (unpacking and applying)

Maths

Students will be working on:

Reading forwards and backwards to 120
Ordering numbers to 120
Reading and making two digit numbers
Comparing and ordering two digit numbers
Partitioning one and two digit numbers in different ways using physical materials
Partitioning one and two digit numbers into tens and ones

Knowledge Unit

In our Knowledge Unit on Farm to Family, we have been looking at where our food comes from. The students will next explore foods from a range of cultures and discuss why their family eats the food that they do.

Homework

Take home readers are now being changed each Monday. Please make sure the reading pouch comes back to school so your child can select new books to read. They can only choose new readers once they returned readers from the previous week. The take home readers will provide students with a chance to practice reading connected text at their level. We encourage students to read each of their three readers at least twice during the week. Look out for the rich-text picture story, which will also be changed on Mondays.

Reminders

Swimming starts in Week 6. Students need to remember to bring their goggles, bathers, towel, underwear and thongs or slides in a separate swimming bag. Please remember to name these items. Students need to come to school wearing their bathers under their uniform and wearing their school shoes. They will only change into the thongs or slides prior to getting on the bus. A swimming equipment checklist poster will be completed by students at school in Week 5, and will go home for families to refer to.
Fruit and veggie break snack: Please ensure that students are bringing their fruit and veggie snack in a container separate to their lunch box. This supports students in transitioning during fruit and veggie break time in the classroom.

Year 2

What’s Happening in Year 2 in Weeks 5 and 6

We have had a wonderful fortnight in Year 2. The students have been doing really well learning and following the expectations of Year 2. All classes have been lining up beautifully in alphabetical order after our recess and lunch breaks. Each classroom has set up their expectations and the students have enjoyed the addition of house points! House point tokens are awarded to students who are following our school values of respect, resilience, responsibility and relationships. It has been great to see so many students bring along a small separate container for their fruit break. Students have been highly engaged in our Science knowledge unit and are welcome to bring along and share any books they have about ‘Space’ from home.

Over the next fortnight, the Year 2 students will be learning:

Wellbeing

Students will be developing their toolkits to go with each of the Zones of Regulation

Phonics

Reviewing previously learnt diagraphs - ch, ck, sh, ng
Split diagraphs – long vowel sounds with a silent e (superior e)

Literacy

Learning about proper nouns and common nouns
Editing sentences for punctuation, including full stops, question marks, exclamation marks and capital letters
Using time connectives, firstly, next and finally to write a diary entry
Improve reading fluency by reading passages with the code and heart words they are learning
Looking at the text ‘Gary’ and exploring new vocabulary

Maths

This fortnight students will be learning about- o-clock/half past/ quarter to and quarter past
Identifying and completing clockwise and anticlockwise turns

Knowledge Unit

This term, the Year 2 students will be looking at Earth Sciences. We will be exploring the big question: Where is earth within the solar system and how do changes in the Sun, Moon and stars affect our daily lives?

Students have been exploring how the planets orbit around the sun. They loved learning about how long each planet takes to orbit. Using different sized balls, the students actively acted out the planets orbiting. Students have also been learning about the phases of the moon and how the moon can affect the tide.

Over the next fortnight, students will be exploring the following lines of inquiry:

What other space objects are in space?
What can we learn from the stars?

Homework

Each week, your child will take three decodables home. We strongly encourage students to reread these texts multiple times across the week as this is an important way novice readers develop automaticity and reading fluency. In addition, each student will bring home one quality text from their classroom library each week. As novice readers, they will not necessarily be able to read these books independently. However, they will benefit a great deal from hearing these texts read out loud by an expert (you!).

Reminders:

Readers: Please make sure that your child returns their readers and text from the classroom library each FRIDAY.

* Students will not be able to take new books home until the books are returned.

* Please fill in the Reading Diary each week, so the teacher can track your child’s progress.

Swimming: The Year 2 Swimming program will run over Weeks 6 & 7. Students will need to wear their bathers under their school clothes. Girls can have their bathers on, with the straps down, as we will not be swimming until later in the day. They will need to pack a separate bag with a towel, goggles, swimming cap, underwear and thongs. Please remember to name these items. A sign up for volunteers has been sent out on Compass.

2F & 2P: Swimming time is 1:15 to 2pm

2A & 2L: Swimming time is 2 to 2:45pm

Parents & Friends