Home learning - Term 2 Week 4

Welcome to W4. Please continue to remind yourself that we are so grateful for what you are doing to support home learning. Apart from the learning that is taking place the children are looking happy which is more important than anything at this time.

Reminders for this week:

Wednesday - has been renamed 'Wacky Wednesday' and the Preps are invited to be dressed in a wacky way. They will be able to join the whole class on Google Meet after the morning's teaching session to share their outfits. Hopefully, this will assist with their engagement this week.

Friday - the children will need an egg carton for their Numeracy activity. If you could hold off sending them into the recycling that would be great.

Literacy

Reading

We will continue to work with the Write2Read cards this week, adding in the codes Uu, Ww and Vv. Learning the code Uu means students will now know all the vowels. This week we will focus on knowing that letters are divided into vowels and consonants and which letters are vowels. Traditionally vowels have been described as having a short and a long sound (long sound being their name), therefore most resources describe them this way. At BPS we are using the Write2Read program, therefore we describe the codes as having 1st sound, 2nd sound, 3rd sound etc, especially when we start looking at codes made from more than one letter. With vowels we teach students three sounds for Aa. Oo and Uu.

This week we are going to introduce the reading strategy 'Flexible Sounds'. Students will still use the 'Cover and Slide' reading strategy to sound out the letters and 'Take the Word Apart and Put it Back Together' strategy which allows students to sound out chunks of the word. This weeks strategy is called 'Flexible Sounds'. When students sound out a word and the sound they use doesn't make sense they then try the other sound/s a code makes to see if it fits better and therefore the word then makes sense.

If possible, could you please film/record your child reading a book independently and preferably on their first attempt on Thursday. Being able to see their progress will assist us with our planning.

The consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words and high frequency words will remain a focus on different days this week.

Writing

We understand that for some of our Preps, writing is the learning area that they are finding the most challenging at home. Many were just beginning to write and everything changed. This week our writing focus will be on ideas/content rather than the technical aspects like spelling or punctuation. We are going to be practising using 'because' to provide a reason for an opinion. As always, it will benefit most Preps to say their sentence out loud first before they attempt writing it.

Please emphasise to your child that we don't expect them to be writing the whole word yet and that it is perfectly fine for them to just write the initial sound or a couple of the sounds. Some of them are setting unrealistically high expectations of themselves. Let them write what they can and if you could tick the sounds they have correct and then write the word underneath it, that would be great.

Numeracy

Our focus in numeracy this week is on measuring capacity and addition.

Students have already explored how length and weight are forms of measurement, now they will endeavor to investigate and learn about capacity. When measuring capacity in Prep, students look at how much a container can hold. They will identify the differences between full, half full and empty and explore how many cups can fit into a container.

In addition students will begin to understand the concept through language such as ‘and’ and ‘altogether’. They will use concrete materials to represent addition equations, initially up to 10. For those students who already have a basic understanding of addition, they will be challenged through larger numbers and be introduced to addition strategies.

Unit of Inquiry

This week we are beginning a new unit of inquiry looking into "People have different roles in the community". This unit looks at the importance of community and the interconnectedness of people within our community.

We will begin the unit by looking into the family community and the roles and responsibilities within the family unit. We will then take a hypothetical look at what would happen if a major contributor to the family was "on strike". Later in the week we are asking you to go for a walk or a drive around your local community looking at people and places and observing what you see.

Optional activities

In the last column of the weekly learning plan you will find some optional activities. There is no expectation that they are completed. They are there to support the 'I'm bored' children.

Wellbeing

Preps often get tired as the day and week progresses (so do we!). As teachers we know we get the most out of our students first thing in the morning and at the start of the week, so we plan our lessons with this in mind. You may be finding that your child's motivation goes up and down while doing home learning too. We are also planning for this. You may have noticed we are planning more hands on activities on a Friday in the hope this helps the motivation and therefore helps with the harmony in your family. We also suggest lots of breaks as a Prep's concentration span isn't as long as students in other year levels. They are learning so many new things from having to hold the pencil correctly, follow instructions, developing their IT skills on top of all the content of the lessons. If your child doesn't want to do a task give them a break such as a run, dance, bike ride or even a snack and then tackle the task again. Often that is all they need.

As a Prep team we have discussed that the Preps have become more confident in home learning however the novelty may be fading, especially because they are missing their friends. We are therefore planning fun theme days to help with this and allow them to connect as a whole class during the Google Meet sessions - such as pyjama day last week. This Wednesday we are learning the code Ww and are having a 'Wacky Wednesday'. So we encourage everyone to wear something unusual, have a crazy hair style or wear a silly hat - anything that you think is a bit of fun and will give everyone a giggle. You might even see some of the teachers doing something 'wacky' too!

The Prep team

0A - Kathryn Morrison

morrison.kathryn.j@edumail.vic.gov.au

0B - Deb Barden

barden.deborah.j@edumail.vic.gov.au

0C - Danielle Palombi

palombi.danielle.d@edumail.vic.gov.au

0D - Julie Daniel

daniel.julie.e@edumail.vic.gov.au

HU - Krystle Horadam

horadam.krystle.k@edumail.vic.gov.au

Prep Fortnightly Snapshot

Issue 5 · 03 May 2020

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