Grade Prep

In Term 4, Prep students will be learning about the following topics and skills:

Phonics 

Students will continue to develop knowledge of Phonics by beginning Phase 4. Phase 4 will see students apply their learning of Phase 3 in a range of contexts. From reading and writing more complex words to learning decoding skills of words which feature both digraphs (2 letters making one sound) and trigraphs (3 letters making one sound). Students will continue to develop knowledge of graphemes and phonemes and be supported to write words and sentences using their decoding phonics skills. To support students throughout this process they will engage with Seesaw videos, weekly reflection sheets and daily in-school practise.  

English

This unit will introduce students to the importance of being environmentally aware individuals. Drawing upon our learning from the whole-school production, 2050, students will explore the effects of environmental pollution and how we can care for our planet. Students will learn that the best way to conserve Earth’s natural resources is to practise the three Rs of conservation—reduce, reuse, and recycle. By studying conservation, students will become familiar with the earth’s natural resources and will begin to recognise how people’s actions affect the environment in which we live. Students will learn specifically about land, water, and air pollution as well as the water cycle, the journey of trash from its creation to its burial in a landfill, and the steps in the recycling and composting processes. Students will engage in conservation activities and develop the skills to actively take care of our planet. 

Mathematics 

Students will continue to build on their numeracy skills from Term 3. An emphasis on the automatic recall of simple number facts will be taught to further support students’ growth in Number.  Preps will continue to develop their knowledge of addition and subtraction skills as well as sharing groups of objects equally. Students will be introduced into formal units of measurement such as grams and metres. They will also explore the concepts of Shape, Pattern and Position with greater complexity. Finally, students will investigate simple data sets, using yes/no surveys and demonstrate ways to represent this data using graphs.  

Science 

Changing environments  

In the unit Changing Environments students will study the changes that occur to landscapes because of the presence of living things. It will support and educate students on how to take care of the earth through sustainable solutions, bringing to life the school production 2050. Changing environments will see Prep-land’s balcony come to life as we plant and explore our learning with many practical experiences. Students will be developing knowledge and understanding to work towards answering our unit's big question, how do living things change the environment when they get what they need?  

Pushes and pulls 

In this unit, students will investigate what causes changes in motion by exploring pushes and pulls. Through a series of experiments, students will learn that pushes and pulls can have different strengths and directions and that pushing and pulling on an object can change the speed or direction of its motion and can start or stop it. Utilising their learning from these experiments, students will design a miniature golf course and demonstrate their understanding of forces and motion. 

Humanities 

This unit will introduce students to the study of geography as we explore the natural and manmade wonders of our world. Students will develop the skills to read and interpret maps and globes and use positional language to describe the location of countries and continents relative to one another. Students will visit other continents and learn about their distinct geography and culture through a series of virtual field trips and keep a travel diary to document and share their learning. 

Circle Solutions

Through two weekly sessions students will work to build deep connections within the class and develop an understanding of social and emotional skills. Students will explore a range of areas in these lessons including friendship, communication skills, emotional regulation, routines and expectations.  

As we transition toward the end of the term the focus will be on resilience and friendships to support students with the transition to Grade 1. Students will be supported with exploring elements of teamwork, sharing and games as we unpack and teach a wide range of social and emotional skills.  

Passion Projects 

After a successful Passion Project Unit in Term 3, Prep students will be extending their exploration of technology in a safe and supportive environment. This will include learning and exploring educational games, taking part in a QR code treasure hunt and programming robots, with greater challenges from our introductory sessions in Term 3. We are excited to again turn Prep Land into a Technology Lab for our Passion Project sessions this term.  

We are looking forward to a term full of learning, development and fun with our Prep students.