Foundation Term 3 Week 7

CONNECT WITH PREPS

Learning and Teaching

READING: We are learning to: further develop our understanding of a character in story by developing 'character profiles'. You might like to help your child further understand this concept by helping them develop their own character profile eg. Tessa - polite, caring, friendly, quick tempered, great reader, sometimes grumpy but mainly happy...what are their personality traits?

We are also continuing to focus on developing the strategies to decode unknown words and gain meaning when reading. The children are applying their knowledge of graphs (single letter, one sound) and developing their understanding of digraphs (2 letters, one sound eg. ch, sh, ed), trigraphs (3 letters. one sound eg. ght)  and split digraphs (eg. a - e, cake, make, name etc.) to decode challenging words.

However, reading is more than just 'eating' words, it has to involve comprehension. What is the story about? What are the characters like? What would happen if you changed an element of a story?

Please continue to listen to your child read on a daily basis. Discussion before, during and after reading will enhance the experience and help further develop your child's reading skills.

WRITING: We are learning to: develop our writing skills by focussing on creative writing. The students have been exposed to narrative writing and have been discussing the important features such as including characters, settings and a storyline with a beginning, middle and ending.

We have been encouraging the children to have a go at writing their own narratives. It has been exciting to see the children challenge themselves and write some interesting stories!

 

The children have also been introduced to Ollie Opener, who along with Penny Punctuation, Vinnie Vocab and Connie Connective make up the VCOP family. These characters help focus the children's thinking on particular aspects of writing. Ollie Opener helps the children use exciting openers and language in their sentences eg. Austin's 'Sizzle, pop, bang,' began his recount of watching fireworks and Thomas B's suspenseful 'suddenly... he felt something touch him'.

MATHS: We are learning to: develop a range of skills in maths. Last week we finished our 2 week unit on Addition. It was wonderful see the growth the students made. The students are using different strategies to solve addition problems such as counting all, counting on, making to 10 and applying known facts.

This week we have introduced money. The students will be 'playing shops' and learning about what money is, why we need money and what money is used for. We are also introducing the Australian currency with our initial focus on the coins. It is interesting to discuss the value and colour of the coins and how the size of each coin doesn't determine the value of the coin.

INQUIRY: This term the children have enjoyed learning about the local area and sharing their interests related to the Olympics. We have our fingers crossed for some fine weather to allow an impromptu visit to Duck Park in the last weeks. We will send out a Tiqbiz asking for parent helpers to come along when there is a suitable day (dependant on swimming, specialist programs and weather conditions). Apologies in advance for late notice!

Swimming

Just a reminder that swimming starts on Monday. We will be travelling to Don Tatnell everyday for 2 weeks. Prep S will have their lesson at 2pm and Prep B at 2.30pm each day. As mentioned in the last newsletter parents are very welcome to come and sit pool side to watch the children swim. We would also appreciate some help encouraging the children to get themselves dressed at the end of swimming. As you can imagine it can be quite challenging for 5 and 6 year olds to dry themselves (thoroughly) and to then get themselves dressed in a comparatively short space of time. But with encouragement they can do it!
If parents do volunteer, they must have a registered Working With Children Check at the office.

Helpful reminders for swimming each day:

* bag (not school bag) for clothing
* bathers, easiest if worn under school uniform (This could be impractical if girls have one piece bathers. If this is the case we will ensure they are changed into their bathers before we leave for the pool)
* towel
* spare underwear
* plastic bag for wet bathers and towel
* goggles and swimming cap (both optional)

Please remember to label all clothing and goggles.

Please be reassured that the children will be in safe hands at the pool. The instructors are experienced and the children will be observed and quickly grouped according to experience/confidence/ability.

The boys usually get changed in the 2 changing booths on the pool deck under teacher or teacher aide supervision. The girls usually get changed in the girls' change room as there are always several mums willing to help the children. If the children need to go to the toilet they are taken to the girls' toilets by the class teacher or teacher aide.

Kid's Café  for Preps during swimming program

Thank you to Liz and the Kid's Café helpers who will organise the prep lunches to be ready at 12:15. Please note that Smoothies will not be available before swimming.

 

Achievement Awards

Emily - For working hard to improve her decoding and comprehension skills when reading.
Oliver - working hard to improve his reading ability and achieving great results. Well done!

Calendar Dates

August 29th - Swimming Program commences
September 14th & 15th - School Production
September 16th - Last Day of Term

Making News

The prep children learning about money through playing shops.

 

 

 

Making to 10 and addition using dominoes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Preps spent some time last week caring for our school by doing some gardening!

 

 

Foundation Term 3 Week 5

CONNECT WITH PREPS

Learning and Teaching

READING: We are learning to: further consolidate our understanding of reading strategies that assist in decoding and comprehension of a text. Some of these strategies include initial sounds, sounding out, reading on, re-reading, looking for known digraphs within a word and when necessary using the picture. Encouraging the children to use these strategies at home rather than giving them the unfamiliar word will assist their reading skills.

WRITING: We are learning to: build on our writing skills through applying our knowledge of Connie Connectives, Vinnie Vocab and Penny Punctuation. The teachers continue to model writing skills most days and although the children have free choice writing, they are encouraged to experiment with a range of genres.

MATHS: We are learning to: develop a range of skills in maths. The children have been learning about clocks including the positioning of numbers within a clock face (not always easy!), the different purpose of the hands and how to tell an o'clock time. Some children have gained an understanding of half past. This week we are re-visiting addition. The children will  be working in groups across the 2 prep classes to cater for all needs.

INQUIRY: The children have been learning about our local area. Although we didn't make it to Yabby Park (Racecourse Reserve, Duck Park, The Flying Fox Park!), the children learnt some interesting facts about the area. Did you know that Mentone was originally called Dover Slopes or that the racecourse opened in 1888?

Moorabin Airport

What a wonderful morning at the Airport Museum! The very excited children enjoyed the 'walk and talk' as we made our way down Southern Road, across a paddock and down the grassy roadside to the Museum. We were greeted by 2 ex-aviators Fred and Jim who enjoyed sharing their knowledge with the children. The children were intrigued by many things including aeroplane wings made out of wood and material and the ejection seat that could shoot the pilot to safety. The highlights included sitting in the flight simulator, climbing up very steep steps to be 'passenger', pilot or co-pilot in an old TAA plane.
A huge thank you to the parents who joined us - we hope you all enjoyed the excursion too. It is wonderful to have so many enthusiastic helpers and it helps us having such a great parent:student ratio.

Swimming

Swimming commences on August 29th and the children are already feeling excited!

If you have not yet paid the swimming fee and completed the permission form, this needs to be done by Monday at the latest. As always, if you are having any issues with payment, please see Anne Leggett or Renee Kennedy to make an arrangement. Please be assured such issues are treated discretely and held in the strictest confidence.

If your child is not swimming, could you please advise your child's teacher as soon as possible. If your child is not swimming they will be cared for at school within another grade level or if they are swimming, but are unwell on a swimming day they will be able to sit pool side. (These children will have paid for the bus so are entitled to travel to and from the pool.)

Parents are very welcome to come and sit pool side to watch the children swim. We would also appreciate some help encouraging the children to get themselves dressed at the end of swimming. As you can imagine it can be quite challenging for 5 and 6 year olds to dry themselves (thoroughly) and to then get themselves dressed in a comparatively short space of time. But with encouragement they can do it!

Achievement Awards

Skyla - for trying hard to remember to put spaces between her words to improve her writing.
Rahul - challenging himself during maths sessions to understand and read more complex times on clocks.
Cullen - for working hard to improve his reading and writing skills.
Isla - for being a great mathematician and being able to read clocks to o'clock and half past.

Calendar Dates

August 29th - Swimming Program commences
September 14th & 15th - School Production

Making News