Foundation in focus
Welcome to Term 3
We look forward to another term of terrific student growth. Read on to find out about all the things Foundation students will be learning this term.
Literacy - Reading
We will focus on using the ‘Flippy dolphin’ reading strategy which encourages students to flip the vowel sound of a word if it does not make sense. Next we will move to ‘Predicting panda’ which involves predicting what will happen in a story based on picture cues and personal knowledge. From there, we will move to the ‘Careful caterpillar’ reading strategy which encourages students to read carefully and pay close attention to punctuation. We will finish off the term with the ‘Retelling rhino’ reading strategy which involves retelling the main points of a story in order.
Weekly focus:
Week 1: Flippy dolphin and sh, ch words
Week 2: Flippy dolphin and Hard th, Soft th words
Week 3: Predicting panda and qu, ou words
Week 4: Predicting panda and oi, ue words
Week 5: Careful caterpillar and er, ar words
Week 6: Careful caterpillar
Week 7: Retelling rhino and vowel revision, igh words
Week 8: Retelling rhino
Week 9: Revision of all reading strategies
Week 10: Revision of all reading strategies
Students are encouraged to share their reader every night and write the title in their yellow book to communicate with their teacher.
Literacy - Writing
This term in writing students are continuing to write the sounds they can hear to form sentences. We will be focusing on how to write a recount and then moving onto how to write a narrative story, writing our own poems and information reports. We are continuing to make sure that our sentences include a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence, finger spaces between words and using lower case letters and a full stop at the end. We will be adding adjectives and punctuation into our writing.
Weekly focus:
Week 1: Recount and Narrative writing
Week 2: Narrative writing
Week 3: Narrative writing
Week 4: Narrative writing
Week 5: Narrative writing
Week 6: Artistic poetry writing
Week 7: Artistic poetry writing
Week 8: Information report writing
Week 9: Information report writing
Week 10: Information report writing
Literacy - Speaking and Listening
This term we will be developing our speaking and listening skills through show and tell. Students will be encouraged to bring something to show to the class on their designated day. As the term progresses we hope to see student confidence grow as they present their items to the class. Please take time to practice with your child what they are going to say in a loud voice. We will end the term with a seasons individual oral presentation.
Mathematics
This term we will be focusing on subtraction, capacity, 2D and 3D shapes and fact families with addition and subtraction. We will continue to reinforce writing the numerals with correct formation and placing numbers in order.
Students will use lots of hands-on resources and many lessons will be outside and related to real-life experiences. We will continue to support students with open ended questions, worded problems and problem solving strategies.
Weekly focus:
Week 1: Subtraction Focus - games
Week 2: Subtraction Focus - number lines
Week 3: Subtraction Focus - Doubles/ halves
Week 4: Fact families - Addition and subtraction
Week 5 and 6 : Shape, 2D and 3D shapes in the environment
Week 7: Graphing the weather Focus - Answering yes/no questions and creating tally marks
Week 8: Subtraction Focus - Friends of ten / friends of one hundred and thousand
Week 9: Capacity Focus -Revision of place value and addition
Week 10: Capacity Focus - Revision of subtraction
Inquiry
Foundations Inquiry focus this term is Weather and Seasons, named 'A reason for the seasons'. Students will investigate the four seasons Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring. Students will explore how weather affects our lives, we will investigate the indigenous seasons and how we can look after our Earth.
Students were asked what they would like to learn about.
Here are some of the student responses which we will investigate further in class.
How do clouds make rain?
How long does a season go for?
Does everyone in the world have four seasons?
How fast does the earth spin?
Can we change the weather?
Why do the leaves change and fall?
Why are babies born in spring?
How cold does it have to be before it snows?
Why do we get sunburn?
What does evaporation means?
Why is summer really hot?
Why is it cold in winter?
Why does the sun not stop the snow?
Our excursion to Blackburn lake will be an exciting and valuable time to further our knowledge of seasons, weather and indigenous seasons.
English as an additional language (EAL)
HEPS has a dedicated EAL Leader. This program assists those students whose home or first language is not English. Our EAL leader is Mrs Rhandi Henwood and she is the contact at the school and can be reached via the email address below. rhandi.henwood@heathmonteastps.vic.edu.au
The HEPS EAL program provides individual and small group support to those students that need targeted learning for them to achieve the expected standard in Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing.
This program also works with community groups and non-government organisations to create an inclusive environment for all school families.
Specialist Teachers
Music and Performing Arts - Miss Blonik and Mrs Frigo
Japanese - Miss Pond
Visual Arts - Mrs Mountford
Health and Physical Education - Mr Hodgson
STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) - Mr Exton
Students attend either a Visual Arts session or a Japanese session each semester.
Please send your child’s library book bag on their library day.
Looking ahead
July
Wednesday 14th Forces incursion
Friday 30th 100 days of school celebration
August
7th August - Literacy and Numeracy Multi-age Day
Tuesday 31st Blackburn Lake Sanctuary Excursion
September
Monday 6th and Thursday 9th - 3 Way Conferences
Thursday 9th- R U OK? Day
End of term: Friday 17th September 2:30pm dismissal
Communication
Please use the @heathmonteastps.vic.edu.au email address to communicate with your child’s teacher.
Kim Holmes: kimberley.holmes@heathmonteastps.vic.edu.au
Sally Blain: sally.blain@heathmonteastps.vic.edu.au
Kelly Veness: kelly.veness@heathmonteastps.vic.edu.au
Kate Latu: kate.latu@heathmonteastps.vic.edu.au
Danae Maxwell-Wright:danae.maxwellwright@heathmonteastps.vic.edu.au
If you need to speak with your child’s teacher please call the school and teachers will return your call when they are not teaching students.
Please note - Anyone holding a current concession or health care card are entitled to CSEF (Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund). Application forms are on Compass or in the iNewsletter.
These forms can be printed in several different languages if required.