Prep
Reading
In reading this past fortnight we have introduced an ongoing fluency activity to the beginning of each lesson. This involves students taking turns to decode words and sentences with their reading buddy. Whilst one student is reading the other is listening and following along on their fluency card and then when finished they swap. The students are loving this warm up activity and it has been a great way for students to further develop their phonemic awareness. After this 5-minute task our lesson shifts to exploring a comprehension strategy. This fortnight we have focused on inferring characters feelings and making text-self connections by discussing what books make us think of. They have been further developing their knowledge of these strategies and practising them in their reading group activities throughout each week.
Feel free to challenge your child at home by getting them to use these strategies when they are reading to help them better understand their book. This could be a specific focus if your child is finding the words too easy.
Writing
Our Preps have continued to be busy writing Information Texts this last fortnight. We have learnt about the exciting topics of ‘The Circus’ and ‘Camels’. During these sessions we have read texts and watched videos to learn about our topics before writing titles, labelling pictures and writing facts. We spend one session writing facts about what our topic - ‘is’ and session writing about what our topic - ‘does’. Some of these facts include; Circus’ have clowns and camels can store water and fat in their hump.
During each writing session, our underlying focus is for students to include ‘finger spaces’ in between their words. This is explicitly taught at the beginning of each lesson and the students are reminded throughout the session.
Why don’t you ask your child about the circus or camels - they might surprise you with how much they know!
Maths
In Maths, we have begun learning about measurement, with a focus on length and weight. Using the mathematical terms, ‘shorter’, ‘longer’, ‘lighter’ and ‘heavier’, our Preps have practiced measuring and comparing objects informally. This saw them identifying classroom items that were ‘longer’ than their greylead pencil and measuring how many blocks long different items were. Students also practiced the technique of ‘hefting’ where they had to balance an object in each hand to help them decide which object was ‘heavier’.
Have a look below at the students making use of fun manipulatives to compare the length and weight of different items.
Integrated
In Integrated, we have learnt all about resilience, how to resolve conflict and identifying fair and friendly play. Prep students loved learning about what resilience means and were able to identify many times they have been resilient, for example, “when saying bye to Mum in the morning at school”, “getting up when I fall over” and “trying hard in my writing”.
With students' resilience and self regulation skills growing, they are able to resolve conflict independently. We identified what conflict is, a time when we’ve been in conflict with someone or something and how we can resolve conflict. Often the strategies we use from our Zones of Regulation Toolbox, we can also use to resolve conflict, such as taking deep breaths and trying again, using our words to communicate, having a drink of water and apologising.
Our Preps celebrated 100 Days of School! It was a wonderful celebration of all the learning students have accomplished since beginning Prep. Students (and teachers) had a wonderful time dressing up as 100 year olds, it was amazing to see the commitment and passion from students not only dressing but acting as 100 year olds too! We celebrated the day with 100 themed activities including drawing our 100 year old selves, counting to 100, taking lots of photos with friends and making a 100 days of school crown to wear at our Assembly parade.
