Prep Wonga Weekly

Welcome to the Wonga Weekly! The Wonga Weekly provides you with upcoming dates, messages from the classrooms and provides an outline of what your child will be learning about at school for the week. We encourage you to read this weekly newsletter so that you can talk to your child about their learning at home.

INFORMATION

🗓️ Upcoming Dates for week 3:

Wednesday 12th Feb: Assessment #2 - only students who have signed up for their assessment session need to attend school

Friday 14th Feb: Pop Up Canteen

🎒 Start to school

We have been amazed by the confident start that the Preps have made to their school life. Thank you for supporting your child to enter the classroom with courage - we are delighted by the way the students have calmly settled into routines.

👯Buddies

The Grade 6s have been wonderful buddies to our Preps. They have taken them outside at recess and lunch play times and shown them where, and how, to play safely in the school grounds.

This week, the Grade 6 students will focus on helping the Preps make new friends. They will spend half of recess and lunch playing together, after which the Preps will be encouraged to play with their new friends. We will closely monitor the situation to ensure that the Preps feel safe and supported as they begin exploring the playground with their peers.

👩🏻‍💻 iPads

We know many students are excited to bring their iPads to school, but we’re not quite ready for them yet! There are a few steps to go through before iPads can be used, and we’ll share all the details with you in the coming weeks. Our goal is to start using iPads at the beginning of Term 2 - 22nd April.

🍎🥪 Food

We've observed that some students are finishing their snacks and lunch quickly. A full tummy helps keep the brain energised throughout the day! Please check in with your child and consider packing a little extra for them.

*A quick note on snacks - whilst lollypops are delicious, they can take a long time to eat and can be dangerous when taken outside, so please consider packing an alternative treat.

🎨 Specialist timetable

Each week, Prep students have lessons in Visual Art, Performing Arts, P.E, Sensory Gym and Auslan. They will also visit the library with their classroom teacher. For your reference, we’ve attached the specialist timetable for each class. 

*This timetable is current as of this week, but it can be subject to change.

**We will add Library to the timetable soon!

Wednesday - Assessment day

Preps have the first five Wednesdays at home, so that teachers can complete literacy and numeracy assessments with each child.

We have attached the schedule for each class below, for your reference.

CURRICULUM

📚 Phonemic awareness: reading and phonics

UFLI lessons (the Systematic Synthetic Phonics program that we implement to explicitly teach phonics) will begin next week. Stay tuned!

What can you do at home?

-Read bedtime stories to your child

📝 Literature: reading responses and writing 

The mentor texts will be In My Heart by Jo Witek and The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas. Students will explore the different feelings and emotions in these books and make personal connections. They’ll reflect on the emotions they've experienced about starting school and express their thoughts through activities like drawing, collaging and participating in class discussions.

Students will build the fine motor skills needed for writing by strengthening their hand muscles through activities like playdough, tracing and cutting. They will also focus on developing a functional pencil grip (see pictures below)

They will participate in fine motor activities that work on identifying and ordering the letters of their name.

What can you do at home?

-Play with things that develop fine motor skills like lego, playdough, drawing and building blocks

-Help your child develop their pencil grip, using the guides below. Bonus ... ask your child if they remember how to sing the 'Pencil Grip' song!

🔢  Maths 

Students will work on counting principles by counting collections using 1-1 counting (ie. 1 point, 1 number) and matching numbers to quantities. They will look at the language of ordering and counting forward by using words like 'forwards, bigger, higher, more'. 

Students will participate in hands on, engaging activities that involve active counting. 

What can you do at home? 

-Read numbers in your environment 

-Play dice games that involve counting spaces and moving forwards 

-Count collections with 1-1 counting

🌏 CBL - Connections

The Big Idea is Connections. In our classrooms, we are focusing on building positive relationships with others and creating a strong learning culture through clear routines and expectations. This approach helps to establish a safe, structured and supportive environment where all students can thrive. Strong connections at school foster a sense of belonging, which is essential for students' wellbeing.

Throughout the term, we will explore the idea of Connections in greater depth using the below questions to guide us:

Guiding Questions

- How do I understand emotions of myself and others? 

-What makes me special? 

-How do I notice the special qualities of others? 

-How do I make positive relationships with others? 

Essential Question

Why is it important to make positive connections? 

Challenge:

Make positive and inclusive Connections  - 'It feels good when people like us just the way we are’