Prep

Dear Prep Families, 

thank you so much for your support throughout Term One. We are in awe of our Prep students and the incredible way they have transitioned into school.

The Prep Team are incredibly proud of our Prep cohort. The students have surpassed this term with the attributes of open-minded, reflective and balanced learners.  We welcome you to read below for some insight into the past fortnight in Prep. 

In Reading, students have continued to develop their good reader strategies. They have been able to do this through explicit teacher instruction, shared readings, as well as independent reading. As students have a developing understanding of the good reader strategies, they are confidently supporting their teacher’s reading by suggesting appropriate reading strategies to solve an unknown words or to clarify meaning. We really adore their blooming confidence and love for reading! 

As the Prep cohort continue to inquire into the transdisciplinary theme of Who We Are, it is wonderful to see students making connections through this units’ lines of inquiry. The current lines of inquiry are: 

• An inquiry into different beliefs and values within a community. 
• An inquiry into the relationships in communities. 
• An inquiry into the wellbeing of myself and other community members. 

To support student development of thinking and researching skills, educators have been reading rich mentor texts. These texts enable teachers to pose questions to their students about values, beliefs, relationships and wellbeing. We truly are very proud of our learners for their ability to approach their learning with thinking, communication and social skills. 

Here are some question examples that  you may like to ask your child to further support their inquiry into one of the lines (values/beliefs, relationships & wellbeing)  they may be interested in:

• Think about the things the character is doing in this book. What values or beliefs do you think they have? 
• Think about the way the character is acting in the book. What does that tell you about the type of relationship they have with themselves and/or others? 
• Think about the events in the book. Tell me about how the events impact the characters wellbeing.  

In Writing, students are continuing to explore the 5 Ws (Who, What, When, Where & Why) and simple sentence structures. Through writing, children have been learning about concepts such as structure, meaning and expression. Each of these concepts have a role in the focus for a particular lesson. And it is through the development of conceptual understandings that children are able to understand why an idea is important and the kind of context in which it is useful in writing. 

In Mathematics, students are continuing to develop their understanding of number and pattern. Another way to explore pattern is through dance and stduents have ben excited to start their five-week dance rotation. As students' knowledge of pattern progresses, many have been risk-takers by attempting to classify their pattern. 

During this past fortnight, each prep class met with their buddy class. It was such a wonderful experience seeing our youngest learners confidently interact with their older buddy. Since the first buddy-meet, our Prep, Year 5 and Year 6 learners have been making an effort to greet each other whilst out in the yard. We look forward to continuing and strengthening this partnership. 

Reminders: 

• All take-home readers returned to classroom teachers before the holiday break
• Handwriting practise sheet for this week/holiday period
• Holiday homework is optional, please see the document provided to students
• Log into PM Readers (through the App or on desktop) and continue reading over the holiday break 
• School hats must be worn at school each day for the month of April 
• Last day of Term One Thursday 6th April
• First day of Term Two 24th April   
• ANZAC Day holiday Tuesday 25th April.

We hope you have a wonderful term break and we look forward to seeing you refreshed in Term Two.