Prep Term 2 Curriculum News 2022
Prep – Term 2 Curriculum News
Grade Prep Curriculum News - Term 2
This Term 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 school year, so please make a point of touching base regularly.
General
Hello Families! Welcome back to Term 2!
Students should be proud of the way they have conducted themselves during the return to school period. The teachers are so pleased to see how many routines have been remembered from Term 1, and the way all students continue to meet our school-wide high expectations.
This term we will continue to focus on helping your child build their independence and self-management skills. We encourage you to support your child in this area by giving them the opportunity to complete tasks independently, such 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.
KEY DATES:
Wednesday 25th May – Bravehearts Incursion (please provide consent for your child to attend via Compass)
Thursday 26th May – Friday 3rd June – School Nurse Visits
Wednesday 1st June – Whole School Professional Practice Day (pupil free)
Monday 13th June – Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday (pupil free)
Friday 24th June – LAST DAY of SCHOOL before holidays. Early finish time TBC
Communication:
Your child’s classroom teacher if 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 three 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
In Reading, students have begun the term by organising their classroom libraries and sorting the books into categories. This will help students with their selection of books for their individual ‘Desktop Libraries’, as they will be able to easily see different themes and find books that interest them. We will also continue to explore what makes a book a ‘Just Right’ book, so that students have a balance of instructional and intertest based books to read. Students will continue to explore our ‘Reader’s Toolbelt’ of strategies to support us to solve unknown words. We will reinforce our strategies from Term 1, such as pointing under the words as we read, looking at the first sound of a word and stretching out the sounds in the word, as well as introduce new strategies including looking through the whole word, noticing the last sound and continually monitoring our reading by thinking if the attempt looks right, sounds right, and makes sense.
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 how to add detail and description to the words we write to match our pictures 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 letter/sound relationships, 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, and explore simple addition by combing two small groups to make a whole collection.
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.
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 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. To support our learning in this area, students will engage in an incursion from Bravehearts. Consent is required for students to attend this incursion and can be given via Compass.
In addition to this, we will continue to focus on Play Is The Way and the ‘Respectful Relationships’ social and emotional curriculum, by engaging in weekly lessons 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.
During Play Is The Way, students will focus on making ‘Strong Choices’ so they can ‘Be Their Own Boss’. They will also practise ‘Being Brave’ when trying new or challenging things, by always making sure they ‘Pursue Their Personal Best’.
During Respectful Relationships, students will continue their work from Term 1 on ‘Personal Strengths’ before exploring the topic ‘Positive Coping’.
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 can swap their home readers.
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.
Classroom Donations: We would appreciate any donations of tissues, hand sanitiser, and paper towel.
Each year level team has provided their families with a detailed newsletter such as this. If you are interested in reading about all the exciting things happening across the rest of the school, these can be accessed online at our school website from early next week.