Prep CurriculumNews

Reading

This term, in Reading, the Prep students will be starting an author study on Eric Carle. Throughout the author study students will learn about the author himself and also look at the different characters, illustrations, words and themes that are found throughout his texts. Students will also learn about a variety of comprehension strategies that good readers use while reading. These include, making predictions, retelling events and making text to self and text to text connections. Throughout the term students will also continue to work on identifying all the letters and sounds of the alphabet, work towards identifying their high frequency words and continue to practice beginning reading behaviours. 

Writing 

This term, in Writing, the Prep students will begin using a Writer’s Notebook. A Writer’s Notebook is a special book where students get the opportunity to write something of their choice. They may choose to write a list, letter, poem, recount, procedure, fact, opinion or anything else they are interested in. The preps will also start learning about persuasive writing. They will learn to identify and share their opinion and learn how an opinion is different from a fact. They will also learn about writing to socialise. They will learn about why we write to socialise and explore the different features found in letters, invitations and notes.  Throughout the term students will also continue daily handwriting practice where they will keep working on their beginning writing behaviours, such as, correct letter formation and writing simple sentences that make sense and include a capital letter, spaces and a full stop.

Speaking and Listening

This term, in Speaking and Listening, the Prep students will continue to explore the Investigation Stations where they will learn to use appropriate interaction and communication skills to engage with others in a variety of different environments. They will also learn to retell events and experiences to others by including who, what, when and where in their retell. Throughout the term students will also continue working towards identifying and producing rhyming word, blending and segmenting consonant-vowel-consonant words (c-a-t) and finding the initial, middle and final sounds in a word.

Art

Welcome to Term 4 Art! It is an exciting time for our students as we return back to face-to face-teaching. During this term we will be revising our colour theory, lines and patterns. Grade Preps will move onto learning about a new principle and element which is Form. This will entail exploring two dimensional and three dimensional art forms. Students will learn about the difference of how dimensions can influence how art can be presented and use different mediums to create height, length and depth. The main medium students will use will be magic modelling clay where they will explore working with these dimensions to create three dimensional art. Grade Prep students will also learn about positive and negative space where the image being the focus and the positive space and the area around it being the negative space. Looking forward to working with our artistic students this term and finishing the year with great experiences in Art! 

Music

Welcome to Term 4 Music! It is an exciting time for our students as we return back to face-to face-teaching. During this term we will be revising our musical knowledge of tempo (fast and slow), dynamics (soft and loud) and pitch (high and low).  Grade Preps will continue working on consolidating their knowledge of rhythm and beat and distinguishing the difference between these two elements through song. Students will be introduced to basic musical notation skills and the symbols that represent crochets, quavers and rests. To understand this they will learn about the Kodaly Method which includes vocalising the notes as ‘ta’ for crochet notes and ‘ti ti’ for quaver notes. Once students become confident in this concept they will explore composing their own music and performing it in front of their peers.  Looking forward to working with our young musicians this term and finishing the year with wonderful learning experiences in Music! 

Physical Education

Welcome back my mini athletes! I am so proud of everything you have achieved so far! Let’s keep going! This final term, we will start with refreshing our memories on how to play with others. From there, we will take a look at kicking a ball and catching! Students will share their knowledge on the different ways we can kick the ball and how this skill is used in various sports. Then we will finish off the term with Bike Ed. We will learn how to get on and off the bike safely and learn about the parts of a bike. 

Science

Welcome to term 4 Science, where I’m looking forward to teaching you all again at school! Grade Prep students will focus on the Chemical Science strand, learning that objects are made of materials that have observable properties.

Students will investigate and explore different materials and objects and learn to group them based on their physical features, such as big or small, hard or soft. Through observations and hands on activities, students will learn to describe the properties of materials such as shiny, fluffy, rough or smooth and identify why some materials are better suited for certain objects, such soft and fluffy materials are suited to cushions, and hard and strong materials are suited for building.  Students will participate in hands on scientific experiments by investigating the effects of water on certain materials, and through exploring, which materials are better for sunny and wet days and the reasons for this.