Discovery Centre

Curriculum 

Week 6 was a big week for our Foundation students (and teachers)! Having spent time one-on-one with all students to discuss all things Maths and English, we had our very first full five day week. What a fantastic week it was!!! The students absolutely loved visiting our Library and Mrs Smaller for the first time!

On Thursday evening we had our very first whole school event, Twilight Sports! Throughout previous weeks Foundation students practised their events during PE sessions and their practise definitely paid off on Thursday. Our Foundation students ran so quickly in our running race and tried their best in the challenging novelty event too. It was wonderful to see students dressed proudly in their house colours wearing big smiles! The students were excited to share about Twilight Sports and even had a go at drawing and writing a recount about it.

During Literacy, we introduced Literacy Rotations. Students were involved in a rotation of four different activities across the week, a highlight being Guided Reading with the teacher. This is where we focus on reading strategies relevant to the individual goals of students in each group, such as pointing to the words, making predictions, answering questions about the text and identifying capital letters and full stops. In groups students worked hard to identify the first sound in words, form their lowercase letters neatly and identify their favourite part of the story from our big book.  

Throughout Mathematics sessions, we have had a focus on building our understanding of numbers by making, naming and recording them in all different ways. We used a variety of materials including unifix blocks, icy pole sticks, counters and bears as well as a range of strategies to show our thinking on whiteboards and in our maths books. Students have enjoyed learning from one another and celebrating the different ways we can subitise and make numbers by identifying it as two parts.

As a part of our Respectful Relationships Wellbeing program, we have been further investigating the Zones of Regulations and are beginning to identify our emotions as well as tools and strategies that may help take care of our big emotions. One way that we have been doing this as a class is checking in with our senses. We spend time considering how we feel, what we see and what we can hear during mindful walks outside. This has supported our Science understanding of weather patterns and informed our Weather Graph for the month of March. We have enjoyed our regular circle times discussing a range of topics, often in response to the social and emotional needs of our students. FG spent time discussing friendships, exploring the concepts of asking others to play and taking care of others in the yard.

Have a wonderful week,

Jessica Tossell, Brooke Henwood and Ella Gasowski

Student Voice

During a circle time in FH, we shared ideas for future circle time discussions. We are excited to utilise the students ideas across Foundation. We look forward to exploring student voice more deeply to further implement the students’ engaging ideas across our teaching and learning.

Reminders

• Orange folders go home each night and need to be returned each day with the students take-home reader and take-home reading journal.
• ‘My Words’ book was sent home last week in orange folders. Please support your child to practise these each day but keep them in the orange folder for further practise at school too.
• All Foundation classes will visit the library each Wednesday. Please ensure your child has a labelled library bag so that they are able to borrow a book.

Pupil of the Week

FH: Shazil S -

For using your love of learning and teamwork to make and record lots of different ways to show the number 7. Your hard work encouraged others to explore their Magic Number with different materials. Excellent work Shazil!

FG: Min-Yi Y -

For demonstrating a love of learning as you practised new codes this week. You have worked hard to begin mastering the sounds of lots of different codes so far. Keep it up, Min-Yi!

FJ: Vaanya S -

For demonstrating kindness and teamwork when welcoming a new student to FJ. You looked out to make sure your new friend was able to follow some of classroom routines. Well done Vaanya.