Prep Term 2 Curriculum News 2021
Prep Term 2 Curriculum News 2021
General
Our Term 2 Prep Curriculum Newsletter will provide you with information about your child’s upcoming teaching and learning experiences in the new term. There is also plenty of additional information provided via Compass throughout the term, so please make a point to check this regularly.
Students should be proud of the way they have conducted themselves during Term 1, and the return to school after the holidays will be no different. To continue building your child’s independence and self-management skills, we encourage you to support your child to do such things as walk to and enter their classroom by themselves of a morning, carry their own school bag and belongings, know how to tie their shoelaces if wearing lace up shoes, and take on/off their jumper.
We look forward to sharing another exciting term of learning with your child, as well as continuing to work in partnership with you to support your child’s growth and development during their Prep year.
Communication
Your child’s classroom teacher is your first port of call if you have any questions or concerns you would like to discuss.
Compass email is the most effective way to contact your child’s teacher, as the beginning and end of the school day involve preparation, organisation and meetings for all staff and your child’s teacher may not always be available at these times. Teachers will respond to emails within 3 working days, between the hours of 8:00 am and 6:00 pm. If you would like to talk privately to your child’s teacher about any issues, we welcome you to arrange a time to do so by emailing them on Compass or phoning the school office and leaving a message.
If you require support with accessing or using Compass in any way, please stop by the office and our admin team will be more than happy to help you.
Literacy
We are in for another exciting term of Reading! All students have excitedly chosen books for their individual desktop libraries, which they read during independent reading time each day. We will take this a step further in Term 2 by exploring “Just Right” books; that is, books that are at a good level for us to practise our reading skills. Students will look at the difference between Fiction and Non-Fiction books, and explore how they each have a different purpose. This will lead into discussions around what is ‘real’ and ‘imagined’ when reading. We will continue to explore our “Reader’s Toolbelt” of strategies to support us to solve unknown words, such as: using the picture, pointing to each word as we read, using the first and last sound of the word, looking through the whole word before making an attempt and continually asking ‘Does that make sense?’ and if it doesn’t, going back and re-reading.
In Writing, students will continue to be authors by creating their own texts that they will then get to share with others. We will begin to explore the Writing Cycle, and how authors develop ‘Seed Ideas’ to help them write. This will involve students decorating their own “Writer’s Notebook” which will be the place they collect and sketch their ideas before writing about them. We will continue to build on the skills we have learnt in Term 1, such as drawing detailed pictures to share a message, labelling parts of that picture, and writing words to match the picture. We will extend this learning by exploring the conventions of a sentence, such as having spaces between words, a full stop at the end and a capital letter to start, and continue reinforcing that we write from the left to the right of the page, just like when we read.
Across both Reading and Writing, students will continue to develop their knowledge and understanding of the letter names and the most common sounds they make, so that they can draw on this skill as a strategy for both reading and writing words.
Numeracy
In Term 2, students will continue to build on and consolidate their number knowledge to 12. They will engage in a range of hands on and open activities to ensure they are confident in their ‘Number Sense’ around these numbers. Students will explore different ways to make these numbers using a range of different materials, continue to develop their counting fluency from 0 to 12 from any starting point, identify ordinal numbers in a collection (E.G. first, second, third) and build confidence in knowing the numbers before and after a given number. Learning how to form numbers correctly when writing them will also be a focus.
In the area of Measurement and Geometry, students will explore the length of different objects and will compare objects to determine which is longer or shorter, as well as describe the position and movement of objects using such language as next to’, ‘under’, ‘above’ and ‘between’.
In Statistics and Probability, we will look at answering questions to gather information and organising the answers we get into an easy to read picture display. Students will then be able to look at the picture display to interpret the answers.
Inquiry
Our Term 2 Inquiry focus is “Healthy Bodies”, where students will focus on all the different ways they can stay healthy and safe, and look after their bodies. We will explore ways we can be healthy through the food we eat, the amount of sleep we get, by practising good personal hygiene, and exercising regularly. We will then move into exploring how we can stay safe in our environment, by looking at ways we can be safe when outside, near water, on the roads and online.
In addition to this, we will continue to focus on our Play Is The Way social and emotional curriculum, by engaging in weekly community circles around different Life Raft topics, learning to make strong choices and build resilience through different games and activities, and use our Play Is The Way language in everyday conversations. Students will work on “Being Their Own Boss” and making “Strong Choices” to support them in developing as a learner. They will continue to develop their resilience by “Being Brave” when trying new things, and “Pursuing Their Personal Best” when doing so.
Reminders
Home Reading: Students are expected to read for 10 minutes per night, 4 nights per week and record a short comment in their reading diary about the book they have read. Teachers will check reading diaries regularly. Students need to bring their satchel to school each day, so that they are able to swap their home readers each day.
Canteen and Food Sharing: We encourage Prep students to only bring a GOLD COIN to spend at the canteen for over the counter sales. Students are NOT permitted to buy food for other students, have other students purchase food for them, or share food of any kind.
Label Clothes and Belongings: Please ensure ALL items (jumpers, hats, lunch containers, water bottles, etc) are clearly labelled with your child’s name and grade. If these items are misplaced, they are easier to return if they are named. Any unnamed items will be taken to lost property.
Hats: Until April 30th, our SunSmart ‘No Hat, No Play’ policy is in force. As such, your child’s hat is kept safely in their classroom to ensure they are able to play outside during Term 1. If your child requires a hat for TheirCare, we encourage them to keep a second hat in their bag for this purpose, so their school hat remains safely at school for use during the day.
Classroom Donations: We would appreciate any donations of tissues, hand sanitiser, and paper towel.