Prep Report

Literacy

In literacy this month, preps have continued to immerse themselves in a variety of digital and non-digital texts to help in their reading, writing, speaking and listening. Our texts for the week provide students with opportunities to deeply explore one fiction or non-fiction text through a range of activities that focus on reading for meaning, text features and identification of words and sentences. 

Learning in our fluid MSL groups continue to help students move through their next points of learning in the MSL sequence, including the identification of long and short vowel sounds, open and closed syllable words, silent final ‘e’ words and diagraphs. We have also introduced our word pack, where we read through our learned common words and focus on one new WOW word per day. This helps students read, break down, write and accurately use common words in both their reading and writing.

Students have continued to use descriptive language to build their personal vocabularies. They are learning that the language we use to speak can also be represented as written texts. By engaging in daily discussions with their floor friends, students practice their interaction skills including active listening, turn taking and sharing ideas related to the topic being explored. 

Mathematics

The Preps have been participating in many hands on, sometimes messy, investigations to support their learning of measurement. They have used their hands, feet and selected materials such as water and sand, to measure length, width and weight of various objects. To support these investigations, the Preps have learnt vocabulary to help them explain their findings. This includes phrases like “is heavier than”, ‘is taller than’, ‘is wider than’ etc. 

Recently, the Preps have learnt about 2D and 3D shapes. They have become familiar with squares, circles, triangles and rectangles in their environment as well as cubes and spheres. Students have been challenging themselves by making a cube with playdoh and match sticks, and making a sphere using a balloon and papier mache. 

Each week the Preps engage in targeted maths learning community groups to help them develop in their area of need. These sessions are engaging, focussing on being hands on and open ended to allow all students to experience success. 

Kids' Voice

This term we have been exploring the five senses through our inquiry-based learning focus. Seeing, smelling, tasting, touching and hearing are so important to all aspects of learning, and we've enjoyed learning how our organs pick up these senses and pass a message to our brain to develop a bodily response. In developing our understanding of how our bodies react to certain sensations we can also determine what we need or do not need in order to become better learners. What better way to explore the senses and learn about our own sensory likes and dislikes than to immerse ourselves into rich, sensory based play!

Our reflections on our Discovery experiences

"I like the sound of glass breaking on the wall. It was funny." Isaac F (Prep E)

"I loved when the sound of the vacuum cleaner was so loud." Gursaanj (Prep E)

"I smelled coffee. It smelled nice. I loved the tea." Billie (Prep C)

"I saw a jacket (under a microscope). It was fluffy. I tasted sugar. It was yummy!" Mishka (Prep A)

"I liked warm. It was comfortable. I didn't like loud. It was too loud and crazy." Supreet (Prep D)

"I liked salty. It was nice. I didn't like bitter. It was bad!" Noah (Prep A)

"I didn't like loud. It was too, too loud. I like headphones. The music was good." Sidak (Prep D)

"I touched play dough. It was squishy." Archie (Prep B)

"I tasted lemon. It was sour." Elena (Prep B)

24th October Zayn B (Prep A)

29th October Eric L  (Prep D)