Prep News
English
Reading
Prep students will be practising the reading comprehension skill of ‘visualising’, where they create images in their head while reading a text. Students use words and images to describe what they can see, hear, smell, taste and feel (physically and emotionally). Students will continue to learn high-frequency and CVC words, knowing these words by sight enables students to confidently read texts then use other strategies (like looking at the picture or using the initial sound) to read more challenging words. Prep students will be starting an author study on Eric Carle. Throughout the author study students will learn about the author himself and also look at the different characters, illustrations, words and themes that are found throughout his texts.
Writing
Prep students will learn about writing to socialise. They will learn about why we write to socialise and explore the different features found in letters, invitations and notes. They will also be learning about writing procedures, a set of instructions for making or doing something. They will look at recipes and craft instructions to see how they are organised, as well as brainstorm different actions for each of the steps. Students will also be developing their writing skills by structuring sentences with a capital letter at the beginning, a full stop at the end and spaces between words. Daily handwriting practice and writing known high frequency words in sentences are other skills that will help build confidence and independence as writers.
Mathematics
Prep students will continue their work with numbers through activities based around counting to 20, recognising amounts up to 10 (without counting) and developing the sense of ‘tenness’ by making 10 in different ways using tens frames and bundles of icy-pole sticks, as well as exploring the smaller amounts that would make 10 when put together. They will also work on the idea of sharing amounts equally and develop their understanding of fair shares.
Prep students will be learning about the measurement of ‘mass’, the idea that things are heavier or lighter than others. They will compare and order a variety of objects by their mass through lifting and the use of balance scales. Students will also develop their knowledge of ‘time’ by exploring different events and how long they go for by exploring daily timetables and their own sequence of daily events. They will also be learning about ‘location’, the skills of describing the position of objects using words such as ‘between’, ‘near’, ‘next to’, ‘forwards’, ‘towards’, ‘under’ and ‘on’. They will also practise giving and following directions to get from one point to another.
Inquiry
This Term in Inquiry the Preps will be learning about Sustainability. The title of the unit is called ‘My Place’ and the learning area covered is Geography. Through creative and critical thinking, the students will discover that people care for places that are important to them. Through questioning and exploring the students will answer the following key questions: What makes a place special? And how can we look after our classroom/bedroom/home? The students will explore places that are special to them, and we will discuss how we can take care of those places and why we should take care of them.
Science
Welcome to term 4 Science, where the Grade Prep students will focus on the Chemical Science strand, learning that objects are made of materials that have observable properties.
Students will investigate and explore different materials and objects and learn to group them based on their physical features, such as big or small, hard or soft. Through observations and hands on activities, students will learn to describe the properties of materials such as shiny, fluffy, rough or smooth and identify why some materials are better suited for certain objects, such as soft and fluffy materials are suited to cushions, and hard and strong materials are suited for building. Students will participate in hands on scientific experiments by investigating the effects of water on certain materials and through exploring which materials are better suited for sunny and wet days and the reasons for that.
LOTE - Chinese
Welcome to term 4 Preps, the last term of 2022. In this term, the main topic for Preps to learn will be how to pronounce different clothes in Chinese, such as T-shirt, shorts, dress, pants, hat and sweater. There will be a big project that students will do across the whole term in which students will design each part of the clothes in each lesson and stick it on the A3 coloured paper. At the end of the term, kids will vote for their favourite cloth design in their class. Meanwhile, traditional clothes that Chinese people wear will be introduced in this term and students will also share and learn the traditional clothes that other students wear at home in their class.
Art
In Term 4, the Preps will continue their learning in Art with a focus around the themes ‘Building’ and ‘Celebrating’. This will include activities that introduce basic printmaking concepts, use beading to create decorations for the school library, and feature our school in observational drawings and photography.
Having developed a sound understanding of collaborative practice last term, we will work together designing miniature art exhibitions out of modelling materials, looking at mazes in art and crafting gifts! Some of the artists we will learn about are Richard Serra, Alice Aycock, Inyuwa Nampitjinpa, Walter Tjampitjinpa and Charlotte Durance. It has been fantastic welcoming the students back into the art room for our final term.
P.E.
This term the grade prep students will be learning about throwing, catching, and kicking as they look to continue to develop their fundamental motor skills. Students will be developing throwing and catching skills using different objects and working on correct technique when throwing underarm and catching with two hands. In conjunction with this, students will be learning how to kick a round ball, how to strike it with their foot and begin to develop accuracy when completing this skill. While we complete all this learning, we will also be continuing to play class games to help students follow rules, listen to instructions, and begin to problem-solve to achieve success in games. It has been a fantastic year so far for the grade prep students and I expect nothing less in term 4. Looking forward to a wonderful term ahead in physical education.