Prep
Reading
Over the past two weeks, Prep students have been learning all about Bossy ‘e’—the very special (and silent!) letter that sits at the end of a word and changes the vowel sound. Students explored how bossy e can make:
- a_e say /ā/ as in cake, lake, same
i_e say /ī/ as in like, bike, time
During our InitiaLit lessons, students participated in a wide range of reading, writing, and oral language activities to help them understand how this spelling pattern works. They practised:
- spotting bossy e at the end of words
- stretching out the sounds in bossy e words
- reading new words with /ā/ and /ī/
- writing words with the correct silent e
- reading sentences that include bossy e words
explaining what bossy e does and why it’s important
Across Weeks 9 and 10, students engaged in whiteboard spelling, decodable text reading, “Roll and Read” games, Think-Pair-Share discussions, small-group reading, and independent literacy tasks. They showed fantastic enthusiasm as they applied their learning to both reading and writing activities, even using bossy e words in their own sentences such as I like to bake.
We are incredibly proud of the progress Prep students have made over these two weeks. Their confidence, curiosity, and willingness to take on new reading challenges is wonderful to see!
Writing
Over the past fortnight in Writing, our Prep students have been busy building their confidence and skills as early writers. We have been focusing on writing CVC (consonant–vowel–consonant) and CVCC words, supporting students to carefully listen for sounds and represent them accurately in their writing. Through a range of hands-on and engaging activities, students practised stretching out words, identifying each sound, and recording them in the correct order.
We have also been working on writing simple sentences using Colourful Semantics to help students structure their ideas clearly. By identifying who is in the sentence, what they are doing, and what they are doing it with or to, students are learning how sentences work and how to make their writing more meaningful. A key focus has been integrating describing words to add detail, helping students expand their sentences and paint a clearer picture for the reader.
It has been wonderful to see students growing in confidence as they apply their phonics knowledge and experiment with richer language in their writing. Their enthusiasm for sharing their sentences and ideas continues to grow, and we look forward to further developing their writing skills when they progress to grade 1.
Maths
In Mathematics this week, students have been exploring measurement through hands-on investigations. They have been learning to solve problems involving length, mass, and capacity, as well as making direct comparisons between different objects. Students have practised identifying strategies to solve length problems, predicting and comparing the mass of objects using balance scales, and describing containers as empty, full, or half full. They have also compared which items hold more or less and explained their thinking using mathematical language. Through these activities, students have strengthened their understanding of long vs short, tall vs short, heavy vs light, and empty vs full.
Students have also been developing their place value knowledge by learning how to partition two-digit numbers into tens and ones. Using tens frames, counters, bundles, and base-ten blocks, they have identified how many tens and ones are in a number and matched these representations to written numerals. Students have practised grouping objects into bundles of ten, writing the correct numeral for multiples of ten, and recognising the structure of two-digit numbers. These experiences are helping them build strong foundations in number sense as they confidently describe, represent, and record tens and ones in different ways.
As we reach the end of the year, it has been wonderful to see how much growth students have made in their mathematical thinking. Their confidence in solving problems, explaining their strategies, and using hands-on materials has noticeably strengthened. Students have shown enthusiasm and enjoyment during maths lessons, approaching new challenges with curiosity and persistence. We are incredibly proud of the skills they have developed throughout the year and look forward to celebrating their continued learning.
SEL and other
During Integrated, students learned about animals and how they could be grouped by their external features, such as legs, wings, and body parts. Through discussions and hands-on activities, children named different animals, talked about how animals used their body parts to move and live, and created their own ideas for a new animal.
In Respectful Relationships, students learned about kindness and respect through the idea of bucket filling. They explored how kind words and helpful actions made others feel happy and safe, while unkind actions could make people feel sad. After listening to “Have You Filled a Bucket Today? Students discussed real-life situations and identified whether actions were bucket filling or bucket dipping. To finish the week, students decorated their own buckets, which were displayed in the classroom. The class talked about how showing kindness, helping others, and including classmates filled buckets and helped create a positive classroom environment. This activity supported children to practise respectful relationships and caring behaviour.