Hello,

Take Home Books

We are missing quite a few take home books. There are both the small decodable books and the rich literature books missing. Both kinds have a coloured sticker on the back. We are assuming that with the lockdowns some school books have got mixed up with home books and ended up on bookshelves. We would appreciate it if you could have a check and send anything that belongs to school back when we return.

It is great to see that some of the Preps are writing the title of the book they have read into their planner rather than having a parent do it for them. This is an empowering thing for them to be doing and fosters independence. If your child isn't writing the titles in, you may like to make this their role in the future.

Word Study

Prep students are currently learning two letter codes. This week they have been learning 'oa' which makes one sound, as in 'boat' and 'oo' which makes two sounds as in 'food' and 'good'. Ask your children to show you the actions that help them remember ‘oo’. Next week students will be learning about ‘or’ as in 'ordinary' and ‘ar’ as in 'car'. We call this one ‘ar’ two letter. This week students have continued boot camping the 'c and g rule', focusing this week on 'g'. The students are learning that 'g' followed by 'e, i or y' usually makes the sound /j/. Next week we are moving on to boot camping the capital letter rule. Students will be learning about the different reasons we use capital letters such as for names of days, months, people and places, at the beginning of sentences and for the titles of books.

Reading

For reading comprehension, we have been using the text ‘Window’ by Jeannie Baker to explore inferences that can be drawn from looking at pictures, to ask what is the story the pictures are telling and to ask what clues we are using to work it out. Next week we are using the book ‘Madeline’ by Ludwig Bemelmans to move into exploring inferences in the text, using what we know to help us work out what is happening.

Writing

Each week our writing lessons begin by exploring the vocabulary of our mentor text. We look at words that may be unfamiliar to the children. This grows their understanding of the text and increases their word bank for writing. This week we have been consolidating our understanding of fragments and sentences. We have been sorting them, fixing fragments to make sentences and also looking at the difference between statements and questions. Next week our focus in writing will support our boot camp during word study and look at capital letters. We will also continue to explore the difference between statements and questions and the punctuation that goes with each.

Speaking and Listening

Our focus was to be another opportunity to present a book talk about a favourite character. We will postpone these until we are back on site.

We have found that as remote learning has gone on, the Preps have gained confidence in recording themselves reading or sharing their ideas. It is pleasing to hear them automatically using a 'because' when explaining what they are thinking.

Numeracy

We are learning about addition. The students are practising using different strategies to solve addition sums, both mentally and with tools. Some of these strategies include, counting on, split strategy, friends of 10, doubles and counting to the nearest 10. The students will challenge their thinking through activities that encourage fluency and problem solving. They have been encouraged to explain how they got to their answer and determine which strategy they used.

Our substrand in Maths is looking at data. Students will explore different ways we can collect, represent and analyse sets of data. We will expose students to a variety of graphs, for example pictographs and bar graphs.

Unit of Inquiry

The Preps have extended their learning about homes to include routines that occur in homes such as, dinner time. They have discovered that dinner time is not only different around the world but different amongst their peers. One of the conclusions that they drew was that no matter where in the world people are, they come together as a family to eat. Throughout this unit of inquiry, it has been important for us to focus on similarities as well as differences.

Next week was to be the summative assessment for this unit of inquiry. The Preps have designed the home they are going to build and considered what materials they will need. Some classes had the opportunity to commence building. They have been quite engaged with this task and so we have made the decision to extend this unit by a week in the hope that we will return to school in W6 and they can continue to build the homes that they have started. Next week will instead provide opportunities for them to consider the different cultural perspectives people have about their homes.

The Prep team

0A - Kathryn Morrison

kathryn.morrison@education.vic.gov.au

0B - Isabella Maresca

isabella.maresca@education.vic.gov.au

0C - Deb Barden

deborah.barden@education.vic.gov.au

0D - Danielle Palombi

danielle.palombi@education.vic.gov.au

0E - Julie Daniel

julie.daniel@education.vic.gov.au

ToD (Teacher of the Deaf) - Krystle Horadam

krystle.horadam@education.vic.gov.au

Prep Fortnightly Snapshot

Issue 7 · 06 Aug 2021

In this issue