Classroom News Foundation

Well done to all our little Foundies and families starting their first week of school! The students have settled and are happy to be at school. Each morning begins with developmental activities to help us with a fun and engaging start to the day, as well as supporting our students with cooperative play. We then move on to our formal lessons for the day. Term 1 is such an exciting time, with so many new things to learn. We set up our school routines for Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop, as well as Maths and our Integrated Unit, Understanding Me. We are looking at developing kind and cooperative social skills to establish friendships. We get used to the school bell ringing, recess and lunch times as well as all the transitions from one lesson to the next.

In Term 1, our focus in Writing is to help students develop their ideas for writing. They use their five senses, thinking, feeling and wonderings to brainstorm ideas and descriptive language. Initially, some ideas maybe pictures and some attempts at corresponding letters and sounds. Then once their phonics knowledge grows in spelling lessons, their writing takes off and their sentence fluency develops. Our Writer’s Workshop model includes developing the Writing process and is able to challenge any student according to their skills.

Students have begun practicing spelling words with a combination of sound, sight and kinaesthetic strategies; we make letters from playdoh and other sensory objects. Students have begun to attempt to spell words using letters and sounds they know. This week we have begun looking at our focus letter “Tt” and the sound it makes. To extend some students in spelling, they will be discovering other sounds that letters make when paired or grouped with other letters. Multiple exposures in different ways is the key to learning letter sounds and spelling words.

In Reading, we select a mentor text to read and revisit throughout the week. The focus of the reading task will change each session, this allows the students to understand different aspects of the text from predicting, retelling the story, to deeper comprehension tasks.

While most of the class is reading independently, small groups are taken by the teachers to focus on developing decoding skills, fluency and comprehension skills. Regular reading at home using the take home books will be one of the best supports to develop your child’s reading. Thank you for providing some time most evenings to listen to your child read.

Library lessons have started and students have borrowed for their independent reading routine as well as using our classroom libraries. Remember to ensure your child brings back their library book in its bag in order to borrow again.

To tune students into Maths, we begin with a fluency game that is played with a partner. This develops quicker mental maths and problem solving skills. At the beginning of the year we have a huge focus on counting accuracy and efficiency, as well as understanding the place value of numbers. We have an abundance of hands on materials to make a model in maths, we encourage students to draw a diagram from the model, before writing number sentences or responses. In addition, we have many class discussions for students to share their strategies in solving Maths problems.

Reminders:

*Please ensure your child has their hat and water bottle every day.

*Wednesday is testing day for the first five weeks of term, please check with your classroom teacher if you are not sure.

*Complete the parent teacher exchange form on Compass, make an appointment if you require extra time to share information with your child’s teacher.

*Encourage your child to independently put their bag away in the morning and change their take home reader.

We thank you for all of your support for our learning programs for Foundation at Blackburn Primary School. Please keep initiating communication through emailing us on Compass, because we all want what is best for your child.

Kind Regards,

Vicky, Lou and Kirsten