What's Happening in the Classrooms: Junior School

Prep

The 2022 Prep students have had a fantastic start to their first school year! They began the first term by learning about classroom expectations and routines. They also learned how to play with others inside and outside the classroom.

During the Inquiry topic of "Identity and Diversity," students have been reflecting on "where they belong in the world." They have learned about people they can trust at home and school and understand what it means to be a good friend, and find ways of making everyone in our class feel welcome.  

In Social and Emotional Learning, students discovered the three major parts of our brains, including the Prefrontal-Cortex, which helps us learn new things; the Hippocampus, which assists with memory and our Amygdala, which guides us through the decision making and managing our emotions. It has been great to see students become more aware of how they learn and show resilience when something is challenging, as they know their brain helps them to do challenging and amazing things.

This mindset has prepared students for many academic experiences, such as learning the sounds that letters make and using these sounds to blend and read short words.

The children also look forward to their daily phonological awareness lessons. They have been introduced to rhyming, alliteration, segmenting sentences and syllables.

In Maths, students identify number names and their corresponding numerals and practice counting, sorting, and creating simple repeating patterns. Students love singing their counting songs and reading maths themed books such as ‘Five Little Ducks and ‘The Ants Go Marching’, which help consolidate their understanding of number sequencing, order, pattern and counting.

It has been a joy-filled term getting to know the Prep students, and I look forward to helping them grow and flourish heading into term 2!

Wishing you all a safe and restful Easter holiday break. Many blessings, 

Marnie Newbound

Prep Teacher