Term 2 Week 10

Since we have returned the Preps have been completing assessments so we can determine what skills and knowledge are established for each child and which need further consolidation.

The formal reading assessment we do is called a running record and is completed one-on-one with the child. It has the following components:

Independent reading. The child reads the text independently. If they ask for help or need the teacher to prompt them then it is marked as an error.

Retell. The child talks about the events/information that were in the text. We listen to hear whether they are telling them in chronological order and also if they are being specific or providing vague answers.

Questions. We ask the child questions about what they have read with a particular focus on inferential understanding. That is understanding the parts of the text that have not been directly stated by the author but that are inferred through putting information pieces together. Our readers will not be able to move to the next reading level until they have an inferential understanding.

Through these assessments we have made some observations which are outlined below.

Finger pointing. The Preps who are at the beginning stages of reading would be supported through pointing to the words as they read. This helps them to increase their focus on the particular word that they are trying to read. It also helps to ensure that they are reading using one-to-one correspondence. That is, they are saying one word for every word that is on the page.

Self-correcting. We are finding that some of the Preps are getting to the end of a sentence and looking at their teacher waiting to be told if they have read the sentence correctly or not. What they need to be doing is paying attention to the sentence as they read it and then determining for themselves when they get to the end of the sentence whether it made sense of not. If it does not, then they need to self-correct the sentence which is go back and fix the error without being prompted to. You can support your child by not telling them whether they read the sentence correctly but asking them 'Did that make sense?' If they aren't sure then they could read the sentence again to find out.

Upcoming Events

Italian Day is this Thursday.

Due to the current circumstances it is taking a different format this year to usual. Signora Nunzia Esposito has put all the information on Compass for you.

Literacy

Reading

During word study this week, students will be introduced to the two-letter code ‘ar’ (as in star). They will be identifying this sound in words through both reading and writing. Through continually expanding student’s knowledge of various letter codes, it will support them to chunk sounds in unfamiliar words rather than sounding out every letter.

As a grammar focus, we will be beginning to explore nouns. Students will learn that every word belongs to a group. They will understand that a noun is a person, place, animal or thing. We will be identifying nouns within a simple sentence, in order to support students understanding of sentence structure.

Throughout the week students will participate in daily guided reading with their teacher, where they will work on differentiated learning goals as their focus.

Writing

Last week in writing the Prep students reflected on their achievements this semester. It is amazing how much they have learnt! They have been writing what learning they are proud of, what the next step for their learning will be and focusing on what they will need to do to reach their next learning goal.

This week we are recapping Information Reports with a focus on writing complete sentences independently. It is important for students to 'have a go' at sounding out and spelling words on their own. The spelling and reading tools that go with the Write 2 Read codes help scaffold the students learning to break a word apart to hear all the sounds and then check the word by blending the sounds together to make sure they have not missed any out.

Later in the week students will be introduced to poetry writing. We will use the senses and colour as the inspiration for our poems and will talk about how poems can help us visualise a picture in our head and involve our emotions.

Numeracy

Our Preps have been finding out about Australian money. They have been exploring what the different coins look like and sorting them according to different features. We are working on them becoming familiar with the values of the coins. This can be quite challenging because the $2 is worth the most but is one of the smallest coins. Their assumption often is that the larger coins are worth more.

The Preps have also been considering maps drawn from the perspective of bird's eye view. If you have architectural plans of your home or renovations you may like to share them with your child.

This week we are focusing on assessment of Maths. Students will be completing assessment tasks and revision tasks. Some of the things that your child might be assessed on are:

Number recognition to 20 and beyond

Reciting the days of the week in order and the months of the year if they are ready

Counting forwards and backwards from different starting points

Skip counting

Addition

Their understanding of the language used in measurement eg. long, short, tall, wide

2D shapes

Place value which is knowing about ones, tens and hundreds and which numbers are bigger or smaller than others

A reminder that even though home learning has finished, Mathletics is still available to you. Some children like to use the Live Mathletics to practise their automatic response and others like to complete the tasks that reinforce what we have been doing in the classroom.

Unit of Inquiry

We are continuing on with our unit of inquiry with the central idea 'People have different roles in the community'. The Preps are loving role playing being different community helpers in the inquiry hall. Along with needing to work collaboratively with their peer, this role play also helps develop their vocabulary.

On Wednesday 24th of June the Preps will be completing their summative assessment task for this unit. For this assessment the Preps are asked to come to school dressed as a community helper of their choice for the day. They will be sharing with the class which community helper they are and how they help the community. They may also like to include information about the things they need to do their job and what they wear.

Wellbeing

As we head into the last two weeks of term two, the Preps have been reflecting on semester one and what they have learnt so far as a school student. It is important that we all acknowledge how much learning and personal growth they have achieved this semester. The Preps chose what they were most proud of in literacy, numeracy and in the units of inquiry and wrote sentences about these during last week writing sessions. These self assessments will be attached to their reports in week 11. They also wrote goals for themselves for next semester in each of their learning areas and how they might achieve these goals.

At the end of every term throughout the school we find many more wellbeing issues arise. Students are tired and their resilience drops due to this. You may find they have a few friendship issues. If you find this is happening with your child we suggest that you talk through what happened and help them come up with a plan as to how they can tackle this if it happens again. Often we help work through these issues and give them words to use and have them practise these with us e.g. 'excuse me, did you know you bumped me when you walked past me?' or 'I don't like it when you sit too close to me, can you please move over a little.'

Going to bed early and getting lots of sleep is even more important during these times. Finally if the issue continues please let us know so we can also support your child through this.

The Prep team

0A - Kathryn Morrison

morrison.kathryn.j@edumail.vic.gov.au

0B - Deb Barden

barden.deborah.j@edumail.vic.gov.au

0C - Danielle Palombi

palombi.danielle.d@edumail.vic.gov.au

0D - Julie Daniel

daniel.julie.e@edumail.vic.gov.au

HU - Krystle Horadam

horadam.krystle.k@edumail.vic.gov.au

Prep Fortnightly Snapshot

Issue 9 · 14 Jun 2020

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