GRADE Prep - Term 4 Curriculum Newsletter

General comment

This Term Newsletter will provide you with information about your children’s upcoming teaching and learning experiences in the new term.

These Newsletters are provided to all parents across the school, so that everyone is aware of the great things happening at our school, even if you don’t have a child in this level. Of course, you may choose to read only those Newsletters affecting your children.

There is also plenty of additional information provided via Compass throughout the school year, so please make a point of touching base regularly.

Literacy

The growth in students understanding of written and read texts has skyrocketed this year. The students are reading and writing confidently and have been ignited with a love of literacy through the development of their classroom libraries and independent reading boxes. It is a pleasure to listen to them read following up with rich and authentic book conversations. Some children are even beginning to favor certain authors. We thank you for your support at home and ask that you continue to read with your child at home. We understand that this is a busy time of year but our school policy for home reading is 4 nights a week for 10 minutes per night. This dramatically impacts on the success of your child's reading fluency and comprehension. In writing, we have been working on purposeful writing tasks that link to children's interests as a means to motivate and innovate young writers. Students have been working with Writers Notebooks and moving through the Writer’s Cycle. They have been able to explore features of narrative texts and writing their narratives with a clear beginning middle and end. Students understand that narratives include characters, a setting, a problem and a solution. They have worked on revising and editing their work and publishing to share with an audience.

Numeracy

This term in numeracy the children are going to consolidate their understanding of numbers to 20, simple addition and subtraction stories, ordinal numbers, 2D and 3D shapes and location. They’re using their knowledge of language and their growing skillset to use a range of strategies to problem solve and become more efficient in their use of mathematical terms and methods. The students are applying their real world knowledge by learning through role play shopping, following maps, giving instructions to peers and working with partners and/or small groups. Students are also playing a range of games to add enjoyment to their learning whilst providing a hands on, interactive learning experience. In addition, students are also cementing their Number Sense from 0-20 and 20-0, particularly counting back. In Grade Prep, children must be able to competently count forward to 20 and back form 20 at any starting point. To support at home, you may choose to count from any starting point, ensuring your child articulates “teen” numbers correctly. They may also like to practise their skip counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.

Indonesian

This term in Indonesian, P-2 students will understand and follow instructions in Indonesian in order to participate in classroom routines, games, songs and simple activities where they will build upon their previous vocabulary related to numbers and colours. Students will also learn how to describe their family, identify different types of fruits and express their preferences in short sentences. They will apply their prior knowledge and comprehension skills, such as predicting and making connections to help them understand a story in Indonesian as well as learn about orang-utans and develop an awareness of why they are endangered.

Reminders

Encouraging Independence

As Prep teachers, we aim to foster independence in our students. Parents play a key role in this. Prep children should now be unpacking their own bags before school, putting books, notes and readers in the appropriate containers/locations and putting their own bag on the shelving.

To further increase independence, perhaps consider saying goodbye to your child at the gate or playground and meeting your child some distance away from their classroom door in the afternoon in order to decrease anxiety and congestion around the doorways of the Prep rooms.

Punctuality

Punctuality is important. Being late to school is disruptive to your child’s learning. Literacy teaching starts promptly at 9:00am every day and your child’s late arrival interrupts the teacher, the teaching, the class and often affects your child’s confidence and learning. Good habits start from early in your child’s school life, so please give your child every chance to succeed by ensuring that they are at school ready to start the school day with a smile at 9:00am. Please contact your child’s teacher if you need assistance with strategies to get your child to school on time.

Transition to Grade One
As this is the final term of Grade Prep for 2020, we are beginning to transition the students into Grade One. The students will be participating in a transition process where they learn about expectations in Grade One. They will visit the Grade One classrooms and meet some of the current Grade One teachers. All transition processes are subject to change due to Covid-19 restrictions and Government decisions but teachers will be working with students to ensure they are ready for 2021.