Argus Community Report
Congratulations on a wonderful Term 2
Congratulations, on a fantastic Term 2 to the Argus students. The Prep students have now been at school for 95 days! In 5 more school days, we will be celebrating our 100th day of Prep. This is a wonderful milestone for all students and will be celebrated with a Community party. More details to follow soon.
Thank you to our wonderful families for supporting us and your children in their learning journey. We enjoyed sharing your child's progress with you this week at our parent-teacher interviews. Please remember if at any stage you have questions or concerns, make a time with one of the Argus community teachers and we would be happy to assist you in any way possible.
Our Learning
Reading
In Reading, we have finished introducing children to the letters and sounds of the alphabet. We have learned all of our letters from A-Z. This learning has included brainstorming words beginning with each letter, learning the cued articulation for each letter, singing letter songs and making letter crafts. Our last letter craft was a zebra which you can see below. Look at our wonderful letter brainstorms.
Writing
In Writing, we have continued to learn how to break words up into sounds, we start with simple 3 letter words like cat, change the beginning letter and make new words. We could practise this at home over the holidays. Please see an example below.
We have also been writing about writing prompts such as 'What's in the box?' We found a box with the word CAUTION on it in the classroom. It was delivered to us from the zoo. We had to make predictions about what might be in the box and then we wrote about our predictions. When we finally got to open the box, it was only a toy snake. That was such a surprise, we were very happy it wasn't real.
For the letter x, we made box creations. We had to first design and label our creation and then make it with lots of different craft materials. We made dinosaurs, robots, people and even some airplanes. After we made our creations, we were able to write about them. This was such a fun writing prompt. Here are some of our crafty creations.
Maths
In Maths, we have been learning about data. Data is information we can collect. We have been collecting data to answer the questions we have posed. Questions include 'How old are you?' and 'What is your favourite animal?' We have collected data from the community to answer these questions and then graphed the data. After we graphed the data, we then interpreted it by answering simple yes/no questions and making statements about what the data tells us. See below for pictures of us collecting data and our graphs.
Inquiry
As part of the Inquiry Unit 'Light and Sound', we had an incursion at school. It was a fun, hands-on experience where we got to do lots of light and sound experiments and exploration. During the incursion, we learnt about the process of hearing and how sound travels. We also explored different types of light and discovered the importance of light. Then we had an opportunity to wear glasses allowing them us to develop our understanding of rainbows and how they are formed, this was by far our favourite part of the incursion.
We would like to thank all the families who came to visit our 'Light and Sound' expo this week. The children enjoyed sharing their Term 2 learning with you. We also appreciate the craft materials you have supplied this term for our various experiments.
Social and Emotional Learning
In SEL, over the past few weeks, we have been talking about working together as a team. When working as a team we need to share, respect each other, communicate, take turns and work together to achieve our goals. To practise our teamwork skill, we worked together in small teams to complete puzzles. Here are some photos of us working together.
We continued to learn about emotions and we read a book called Larabee. Larabee was a postman's dog. He was waiting to receive his very own letter. While he was waiting he felt many different emotions including anger, sadness, tiredness, then excitement and happiness when he finally received mail. We draw pictures of Larabee's emotion and wrote about how he was feeling.
Notes to Remember
* Please remember doors to the Argus community open at 8.45 and class begins at 8.50. If you arrive after this time a late pass is required
* Ensure your child has a change of clothes in case of accidents
* Label all belongings
* Mid-year reports are now available on Sentral, please log in and view your child's mid-year report
* Students change their take home books each day and please remember to fill out their book titles in their diary each evening
* Students have letters/sounds and/or sight words to practise each night
* Diaries are checked every Friday, however, students are expected to bring these to school each day.
Tips to support learning at home
If you would like to support your child's learning at home, here is a list of ideas:
* Read on a nightly basis with your child, talk about the books read (retell the story, identify characters/setting, favourite part, make connections with the text and their own experiences)
* Practise the letters and sounds being taught each week at school
* Practise reading and spelling the Oxford Words
* Use known letters/sounds to read and write simple three letter words eg. cat, pin, net
* Write down/take photos of letters, words and numbers they see at home, on holiday, at the shops, etc.
* Create a holiday diary of pictures, drawings, and writing
* Play games like I Spy and board games
* Count up to 20 and back again
* Practise number and letter formation.
Here are a few links to You Tube songs we sing at school to reinforce learning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BELlZKpi1Zs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0TR1qiAcnE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0dJWfQHF8Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TgLtF3PMOc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoFhVdYsmPg&t=154s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Mazc-SsG0&t=95s
Most of all have fun with learning at home, ensure it is enjoyable.
Communication
Don’t forget to check your child’s book bag and diary every day for any important notices and information.
Sentral is also another key form of communication please ensure you have registered and check in regularly for updates and notices. Feel free to pop in and see Fiona, Stacey, Rebecca or Ashley if you have any questions.
Have a safe and happy holidays, we look forward to seeing you in Term 3.