Prep - Year 2

Assistant Principal's Report

"Settled, confident and happy."

These are just some of the words that our teachers have used to describe how our junior school students have transitioned back to on-site learning.  From the moment students returned, we have noticed happy, healthy, curious learners who are very content to be back at Pakenham Springs.  And it’s such a credit to you.  Thank you, parents, for all that you have done.  You’ve helped highlight the importance of school throughout the whole remote learning phase. You’ve helped practice important routines that are so vital to school readiness. You’ve stayed positive, you’ve settled nerves, you’ve read in funny voices.  You’ve respected the changes in drop off and pick up procedures.  For everything you’ve done, we thank you. 

But as they say - it takes a village, and our teachers have continued to go above and beyond to make learning as fun and engaging as possible, whilst also focusing on our fundamental school-wide values of Respect, Responsibility and Resilience. 

In Prep, we’ve been learning about mindfulness.  Students have also focused on helping others and the importance of using manners.  Language experiences such as making giant bubbles, chalk drawings and sandpit habitats are allowing students to plan and create meaningful recounts while also having a lot of fun.  Addition has also been a focus and students have used a range of strategies - from counting on to using number lines, to find the total of 2 groups.  Our preppies have also enjoyed our specialist subjects, creating clay lizards inscribed with indigenous Australian symbols in Art and underarm throwing and side kicking in Sport.  In Media Art students are learning about character voices and actions when storytelling and revising pet animals and the sounds they make such as ‘wan wan’ (woof) through games of Animal Evolution in LOTE. 

In Year 1, students have focused on empathy, gratitude and mindfulness while also being kind to each other and using kind words.  Maintaining reading stamina has been key and students have enjoyed revising sounds and making predictions.  They have also loved working in small groups to build a bridge using straws, blocks, newspapers, cups, icy-pole sticks and sticky tape for a recount writing language experience.  In Numeracy, skip counting, addition, subtraction and capacity have been at the forefront.  Year 1 students have also been starting to learn one-stroke Hiragana, working as a film crew (director, actor/actress, camera operator) in Media Art, making Australian bunyip pinch pots in Art and developing soccer skills such as trapping and dribbling in Sport.

Finally, our Year 2 students have been identifying and describing emotions, developing an understanding of empathy and practising mindfulness. They’re currently loving participating in experiments to investigate the physical and chemical changes that can occur within solids, liquids and gases.  Although you should know creating marble paper is not always successful, unfortunately.  They’re focusing on division and using strategies such as sharing and repeated subtraction and students are working hard to use compound sentences in their recount writing.  In Art, students are making double pinch pots and turning them into kangaroos.  In LOTE they are beginning to learn two-stroke Hiragana, in Media Art, we are recording sound effects (Foley Art) to support a story (like a radio play) and in Sport, students are learning t-ball and hockey.

So rest assured it’s been a wonderful start back to school.  Numeracy, Literacy and Wellbeing are our utmost priorities and we are looking forward to a fun and amazing term together. 

Regards

Scott McKinnon

Assistant Principal (Junior School)