Foundation in focus 

Welcome to Term 2! 

We look forward to working with you to achieve a term full of fantastic growth. We can't wait to see what our youngest students achieve. 

Here is a snapshot of the main topics we are focussing on, broken down into weeks.  

Literacy

Reading

We will focus on using the ‘Stretchy Snake’ reading strategy which encourages students to stretch out the individual sounds in words and blend them back together. Next we will move to ‘Tryin Lion’ which involves rereading a sentence to make sure it makes sense. From there, we will move to the ‘Chunky Monkey’ reading strategy which encourages students to look for chunks they know in words, eg, at, ar. We will finish off the term with the ‘Skippy Frog’ reading strategy which involves skipping over a word if it is too tricky then reading the rest of the sentence to work out a word that makes sense.  We focus on decoding new words when reading and comprehension of what is being read. 

Our weekly focus:

Week 1: Stretchy snake

Week 2-3: Tryin’ lion

Week 4 -7: Chunky monkey

Week 8-10: Skippy frog

Students are encouraged to share their reader every night and write the title in their yellow book to communicate with their teacher.

Writing

This term in writing students are continuing to write the sounds they can hear to form sentences. We will be focussing on how to write a recount and then moving onto how to write an imaginative story or narrative. We are continuing to make sure that our sentences include a capital letter at the beginning, finger spaces between words and using lower case letters and a full stop at the end. 

Our weekly focus:

Week 1-5: Recount writing

Week 6-10: Narrative writing

Spelling and Grammar

We continue to use Jolly Phonics and the Magic words spelling program. 

Weekly focus:

Week 1: Gg, Oo 

Week 2: Uu, Ll 

Week 3: Ff, Bb 

Week 4: ai, Jj 

Week 5: oa, ie 

Week 6: ee, or 

Week 7: Zz, Ww,

Week 8: ng, Vv,

Week 9: oo and revision

Week 10: Yy, Xx

Speaking and Listening

This term we will be developing our speaking and listening skills through Show and Tell. Students will be encouraged to bring something to show to the class on their designated day. As the term progresses we hope to see student confidence grow as they present their items to the class. 

How you can help at home with developing Literacy skills

-Read take home readers and a variety of other books. Check for comprehension. Ask your child to retell what happened in the story.

-Practise your Show and Tell to the family. Focus on talking in a clear and loud voice.

-Write notes and letters and shopping lists. Encourage students to sound out their words. 

-Utilise your Reading Eggs passwords and log in at home.

Mathematics 

This term we will be focusing on the teen numbers, counting to 20 (and beyond) and addition. We will also be looking at patterns, time and mass. We will continue to reinforce writing the numerals with correct formation and placing the numbers in order.

Students will use lots of hands-on resources and many lessons will be outside and related to real-life experiences.

Weekly focus:

Week 1: Teen numbers 13-19 and beyond, counting to 20 and beyond, numbers before and after.

Week 2:  O’clock time, analogue and digital clocks, sequencing and ordering events in a 24 hour day.

Week 3: Addition and adding 1 digit numbers, counting on from a set number. 

Week 4: Days of the week and months of the year.

Week 5: Addition (going further) and number doubles.

Week 6: Mass, heavy and light, comparing and contrasting object weight including estimation. 

Week 7: Near doubles.

Week 8: Number patterns, shape patterns including creating, copying and continuing a pattern. 

Week 9:  Facts of ten and beyond. 

Week 10: Following a short set of instructions and following a map. 

How you can help at home with developing Numeracy skills

-Practise counting by 1's and beyond from different starting points.

-Talk about what numbers come after and before set numbers.

-Play board games.

-Go grocery shopping and look at how much items cost.

-Ask children to tell you what the time is.

Inquiry 

The Inquiry focus this term ‘Forces’ which involves learning about how things move including toys and transport. This is a physical science unit. We will explore the forces of push and pull and how these forces help us in everyday lives. We will build on the knowledge that we already know. 

Our topic is titled ‘Once upon a force’ Students will participate in weekly rotations where they will participate in science experiments based on fairy tales. 

For example - 

Goldilocks and the three bears - students will explore the fairy tale and work in teams to design and build a new chair for Goldilocks. Students will use force to see how strong the new chair is. We will look at what worked and didn't work. 

The Gingerbread Man - Students will design a build a simple boat so that the Gingerbread Man can cross the river. Students will experiment which force is used to help the Gingerbread man get across. 

The unit will conclude with students designing and creating a car instead of a carriage to take Cinderella to the ball. Students will make a working toy with a wheel and axle and explore force to allow the car to move. 

English as an additional language 

HEPS has a dedicated EAL Leader. EAL stands for English as an Additional Language. This program assists those students whose home or first language is not English. 

The EAL Leader is Ms Trish Emley and she is the contact at the school and can be reached via the email address trisha@heathmonteastps.vic.edu.au

The EAL program provides individual and small group support to those students that need targeted learning for them to achieve the expected standard in Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing. This program also works with community groups and non-government organisations to create an inclusive environments for all school families. 

Specialist classes 

Monday

Tuesday

Thursday

Students attend either a Visual Arts session or a Japanese session each semester.

STEAM will run in Semester 2 for Foundation students.

Please send your child’s library book bag on their library day.

Specialist Teachers

Have a great term!