Classroom News - Kindergarten

English

Welcome to the fan Cody Camel and Danny Dingo! They join Ollie Otter and our latest member Hannah Hippo, they sure look like fun! When we learn our /h/ sound we ”turn our voices off”, which means we don’t feel any vibrations on our throat when we say the /h/ sound. I wonder if your child will be able to think of a sound that they turn their voices on for? It is a great way to see if we are saying our sounds correctly. We have been putting our sound knowledge into practice and using them to sound out words. It is exciting to see Kindergarten getting faster and faster at their blending and sounding out. 

We have also been learning more tricky words. These are words we cannot sound out using the sounds we have learnt, and just have to remember them off by heart. Our latest words are: was, you, a and is. They join our previous words: I, my and the. As we are still learning these words we need to practice them as much as possible. If you see one of our tricky words “in the wild” ask your child if they can have a go at reading it! Some children have also been writing notes with some of our tricky words! The possibilities are endless.

Home Readers

Buckle up parents! Home readers are here! We are thrilled to be sending home your child’s first home reader this week. Please send in your home reading folder with your child this week or next. This will ensure the books are protected and they do not go missing. 

Usually, your home reader is meant to be easy for your child to read. They should be focusing on fluency, expression and also familiarising themselves with tricky words. Of course at this stage of their reading a lot of students will not be finding home reading easy as they are starting on the first level. That’s ok! We ask that you help them by going through the book with them and looking at the pictures and looking at the high frequency words before reading the book. 

Your home reading diary (pictured below) is where you can record what books you have read, either to your child or with your child. Continue to record any books you read to them! Reading to your child is still important, especially for their comprehension of texts.

If you have any questions regarding home reading, feel free to contact the Kindergarten teachers via the office or leave a note in their home readers. Reading at home makes such an impact to children’s learning, and we don’t want families to feel left in the dark!

Maths

This fortnight in Maths, we have been learning about Multiplication and Division. It is always fun to make up lots of different sharing and grouping stories to help us learn. When we are talking about multiplication we use the words “groups of“ and “makes” (equals). When we are using division we table about “shared between”.  We have also introduced the term “rows”, which is the starting point of making arrays. We found that we can replace the word “groups” with “rows”!

In class we have been talking about how we have to make equal groups and share equally. You may like to try this when you are serving meals or sorting the laundry (“dad has 2 groups of 3 shirts”). Multiplication and Division can be used in so many situations!

Religion

We have wrapped up our Easter unit in Religion, finishing with comparing The Very Hungry Caterpillar to the Resurrection. This called for art galore with lots of caterpillars and butterflies making their way into our learning space.

This week in Religion we have been exploring our school whole thinking of the question “what shows us that we are in a Catholic School?”. We were able to see lots of symbols in our school and around our school that were special to Catholic Schools. We were even lucky enough to be invited into the Year 6 learning space to have a look at their prayer table. It was extremely insightful to see the similarities and differences in our prayer tables. Mrs Walters was so kind to explain everything on their table, and we even learnt some new things about the Liturgical Calendar!

Science

This week we have started our Science unit. This term we will be learning about the weather. We have already been learning about what activities we do, and what clothes we wear in different weather. 

Next week Kindergarten will be designing something that will protect a teddy bear from the weather (sun, rain, snow, wind). We are going to use recycled materials to create our design. We would love it if families could keep hold of any recycled items for children to use in our creating lesson next week. Please make sure these items are safe to have at school (no tins or glass) and please do not buy any items. There is also no need for teddy bears to be brought into school. 

PDHPE

In PE we have been continuing to learn about rolling balls. We have been particularly focusing on our aim and how hard we roll the ball. 

Art

The Art Show is up in the hall, and parents and carers are able to visit during Catholic Schools Week. We realised very quickly that Kindergarten was filled with talent. We were luckily enough to have 3 awards presented last week for the Art Show opening. That’s more than any other *humble brag*. Congratulations to Lily and Pippi who took away Highly Commended awards, and congratulations to Jarrah who was the Infants Winner! Well done girls, your awards were well deserved. Year 6 went through the Art Show and have given feedback on many of our art works. They were able to see the amazing compositions, colour and technique our Kindergarteners used. So clever! 

For our CAPA unit this term, we have started learning about dance. We have lucked out by having one of our teachers who doubles as an aerobics teacher! We have been using our bodies to mirror partners, represent different music, pretend to be rain and most importantly, groove. I would definitely be asking your child on a Friday afternoon to share some dance moves learnt that day. You will be all set for a groovy weekend!

Making Friends

This term, Year 6 have started their role as Peace Patrol. This is where two Year 6 members help around the infants area. They are able to help with children who are lonely, helping with games and of course the dreaded shoelaces. Our Kindergarten class really didn’t know what to make of these big kids, so Year 6 joined us for lunch to make us more comfortable to approach on the playground. One Year 6 said that our Kindergarteners were “cute but terrifying”. I guess they are always more scared of you than you are of them! The Year 6 students were so lovely and we have had Kindergarteners begging for them to eat with us again.