Prep

English

Reading

This term in reading, the prep students focused on retelling and sequencing a familiar text. The students learnt to identify the main characters in the story (who), where the story happened (setting) and also learnt to retell at least two key events from the story in the correct order following the structure of the beginning, middle and end.

Students continued to learn about making predictions about a text. The students used text clues such as pictures to help assist and prompt them with making a guess about what the story may be about or what might happen next. They also began to use their prior knowledge to discuss what they already know about a topic before reading a text to encourage them with making predictions.

Furthermore, the students learnt new vocabulary and strategies they can use to help clarify unfamiliar words in a text.

Writing – In writing, students continued working on writing a recount on an experience that has already happened and utilised the elements of who, what, when and where.

The students learnt how to write an information report about a type of animal and undertook a research process and learnt how to record simple facts about a topic to inform and teach others about what they have learnt. 

Later in the term, the prep students focused on persuasive writing where students had the opportunity to express their opinions on certain topics as well as explain their reasons behind why they formed such an opinion.

Mathematics

In Maths, prep students engaged in a unit of Length which involved explaining and measuring the length of objects, ordering objects by how long something is and comparing the length of objects. 

Students continued working on number recognition and counting from zero to twenty. They learnt to identify these numbers by counting forwards and backwards, as well as, matching these numbers to quantities. 

The students also learnt to use a number of different strategies such as; count out loud, touch and count, move and count, line up count, count on and recount to solve simple worded problems and scenarios.

Science

During Term 2, the Grade Preps have been investigating the weather in our world by learning about different weather conditions, and how they might affect some of the choices we make and the activities we do. 

The Preps have been weather detectives whilst monitoring and describing the weather conditions at school, and whilst learning about weather symbols and how they help us to read weather reports. We have investigated how different weather conditions and temperatures affect our choice of clothing, and how weather conditions and temperatures change with each season. The Preps also investigated how the change of seasons affect trees and they created beautiful pictures to demonstrate their understanding.

LOTE - Chinese

Well done, Preps, you nailed your Chinese class this term. In this term, we repeated the numbers from 1 to 10 in every single Chinese class. Meanwhile, we learned greetings including: Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening, and good night.  After this, we learned how to pronounce the four seasons in Chinese, and we also made four-season trees, by colouring and decorating them. We also learned how to pronounce family members, such as dad, mum, siblings, grandmother, and grandfather in Chinese. 

Art

The Preps have had an excellent second term of learning in Art, exploring colour and line. We welcomed the cooler weather by making stamped autumn tree paintings, combining red and yellow to create a variety of rich orange hues. We also ventured outside to trace our bodies with chalk, considering their features and characteristics in varying poses. Next, we examined the portraiture work of Joy Hester, drawing distorted self-portraits that mapped the contours of our faces. Following this, the students did a marvellous job in creating paintings of characters and settings using watercolours. 

The Preps have had some wonderful discussions, analysing and comparing qualities in artworks, as well as sharing their ideas about what art is, and why we make it. We have learnt about several artists to inspire our thinking, including Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu and Mirka Mora. The Preps have begun an exciting project which they will complete next term, fashioning dolls based on their own special designs. This term will finish up with students viewing the digital paintings of David Hockney and utilising art application Brushes Redux to emulate his process. The students’ ongoing attention, enthusiasm, imagination and focus have been exceptional, and I cannot wait to return to the art room next semester!

P.E.

This term the grade prep students continued to learn about how to move their bodies and regulate these movements. Students did this through dance/music, and small class games. Students in grade prep spent the first half of the term developing and understanding their movement skills and control of their body. They worked on jumping, skipping, hopping, and running and were able to complete these movements through different obstacles. They would participate in small class games to develop these skills, and all of this led to the students partaking in a large obstacle course using these different movement skills. The students really enjoyed themselves during this task. The students then spent the second half of the term developing throwing and catching skills using different objects and being able to throw and catch with a correct technique. It was a fantastic term 2 for the grade preps where they all were successful in developing their movement skills and were able to apply them to different situations, I look forward to working with each of the student for the second half of the year and am excited for all the learning ahead. Well Done grade Preps! 

Music

During Term 2 Music, students were introduced to the music element of pitch (high and low). They practised making pitch and demonstrated their knowledge by singing and playing on different percussion instruments. Students made different pitches with their voices by singing a glissando (going from low to high) and also when they sang nursery rhymes. Grade Preps began exploring the element of beat by identifying and feeling the pulse of the music they heard. They used movement by marching and dancing to the beat and played various beats in different tempo on instruments. Grade Preps were able to consolidate their understanding of tempo (fast and slow) when listening to different types of music from a wide range of genres. Congratulations Grade Preps on your efforts this term in Music!