English

Reading Comprehension

The focus for reading sessions has been reading comprehension. All students have been working through the fundamentals of comprehension at their point of learning need. Reading comprehension is all about students understanding what has been read to them or what they read themselves. In the early stages of comprehension the focus is on developing an understanding of the oral vocabulary and language that they are hearing in texts. As students develop decoding skills they use a range of strategies to take words apart and understand what those words mean. At this stage our students are responding to literal information which is what the text describes as happening in the story and what can be seen on the page.

This is achieved by:

using pictures in reading materials to gain meaning by identifying key objects and events
using key words to respond to questions about what is happening in a text
using pictures to retell a story in sequence
using pictures to answer simple questions
identifying connections between texts and their own personal experiences
reading simple pictorial sentences
looking for high frequency words in text
developing strategies to decode unfamiliar words- initial sounds, blends

Literal Comprehension prompts you can use when reading with your child:

Who? Where? When? What is? Which? How did? What happened? How many? How far?

Writing

Recount writing

Recount writing retells past events and for our students are based around language experiences. These experiences promote “writing skills” by focussing on personal experiences and oral language. Students need to develop their oral language skills so that in turn they have the language to develop their own writing ideas. In the early stages a recount can be as simple as an oral response or a drawing to communicate an idea responding to the orientation prompts: who was involved? what happened? where did the event take place? when and how did it happen? To assist with their oral, drawing and writing attempts students use photos and visual information such as pictures, picture words and picture word sentences to assist them. As students develop their recount skills they begin to recount the sequence of events and develop a conclusion which briefly summarises what happened.

Language experiences which have been planned to stimulate interest and oral language have included

· making objects using construction materials

· bubble play

· visits to the reptile house

· science activities

· weekend activities

Mathematics

Place value

Students are learning about Place Value focussing on numbers 1-5, 5-10, 10-20, 50-100 depending on their point of learning. They have been counting, recognising, making, and ordering numbers using a range of materials and hands on activities. These activities have given students opportunities to explore basic place value concepts.

Activities have included

rote counting forwards and backwards
one to one correspondence when counting objects up to 5, 10, 20,
matching groups of objects to numerals 5, 10,20, 50,100
making and counting models of numbers 5, 10, 20, 50 100 using bead frames, counters, tens frames and pictures.

Statistics & Probability

Students have participated in and contributed to the development of a range of data displays (graphs). Some of these graphs have recorded favourite characters, colours in a fruit loop pack, favourite desserts, favourite ice cream flavours. Food is a highly motivating topic!

Integrated Unit

This semester’s unit Stories of the Past has commenced. Classes have been focussing on “Me and My Family” and are beginning to understand that family stories that can be communicated through photographs, books and also telling stories about their family and their own childhood. Class teachers may request that you complete a family survey or send photos or information about your family to assist with developing ideas about individual family histories. These histories will include family celebrations and how family and friends celebrate past events that are important to them. Students have been involved in discussion about their family and have communicated ideas orally, by drawing and in writing. They love to share information about their families and some students have been creating their own family trees.

Social Competencies

Good social skills are critical to success at school and in everyday life. These skills enable students to know what to say, how to make good choices, and how to behave in a range of situations. Social skills are embedded in all learning within Lower Primary but are also taught explicitly by our social competencies teacher and class teachers. Sessions focus on everyday social interaction skills through educational activities, games and role plays. Our Prep students have continued to work on school routines which include whole body listening, lining up, toileting, gathering resources, packing up equipment and making appropriate play choices. The focus for the other classes is “Feelings”. Students have identified feelings such as happy, sad, angry in themselves and then matched these feelings to personal scenarios for example “It makes me happy when…… It makes me angry when….” Some students have also worked on how their actions can hurt other people’s feelings and then linked these to their personal experiences for example “ I made Peter sad when I said he could not play with me”

Lower Primary

Issue 2 · 28 Feb 2018

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