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.

HEPSTER HUB

Term 3 · 15 Jul 2021

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