Dear Prep RB families,

What a year it has been, it’s defiantly one we’ll never forget. I think we have all learnt a lot and have a deeper gratitude for each other and our families. We have all worked together to ensure our precious little people had the best year given the unusual circumstances.

Our Prep Orientation Day 2019

Look how much we have grown!

Important Dates 

Tuesday 15th- Wear a Christmas shirt, hat etc… (optional)

Wednesday 16th- Wear sport uninform for a special surprise

Thursday 17th- Last day of Term! 1:45pm finish (time has changed)

Updates

• Please go to Seesaw to see a short video of Mr Said introducing himself as the Year One teacher for 2021
• All home readers to be returned
• Children’s books and work samples have already begun to be sent home. Week 11 we will send the remainder home. It’s great to look through and see the growth from the beginning of the year.

Take care.

Sian & Marcelle

Things to note:

Week 10

Monday 7th- This will be the last day for children to change take home readers

Wednesday 9th- No more take home readers. Please ensure your child brings back all books

Seesaw- Please check Seesaw for pictures of the children’s learning

Mon 7th- Fri 11th- Last week for show and tell. The topic is “My favourite memory of prep was …”. Children will talk about their favourite memory of prep

Friday 11th- Step Up Day- Meet and greet their new Year One teacher for 2021

Week 11

Thursday 17th- Last day of school. 1pm finish

With only three weeks to go, each and every week has been action packed in our wonderful Prep building. Our little preps have nearly made it and really are the heroes of this year. They are still coming in each and every day with beaming smiles and eager to learn. Some lovely friendships are being formed and it’s such an honor that we have been part of their special journey.

Literacy

We continued reading fiction texts with the theme of dinosaurs and a focus on what we know before we read then we know after we finish reading. We went on a virtual tour of the Dinosaur Walk at the Melbourne Museum and drew and wrote about all the amazing things we saw. Please visit Seesaw for pictures of our work samples.

Below is the link if you would like to take a look. https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.8031541,144.9711828,2a,75y,3.86h,95.34t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1swJ1dU3mekRj9xbdjDcGK8w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Maths

We investigated subtraction and all the mathematical language we need to help us understand. We had to create number sentences and work out that we subtract the smaller number. Many of us modelled using blocks, counters and tens frames to help understand this concept.

Week 9 we are starting a new topic of Volume and Capacity. We will investigate using water, playdough, blocks and various another materials. Volume and Capacity is always lots of fun!

Religion

This week we began Advent. We had our first Advent liturgy via google meet with our school community and this will continue every Monday, where we light the next Advent candle on our wreath. We have been learning what each candle represents and that Advent is time of  waiting. You can view Seesaw for pictures of our Advent wreaths.

Show & Tell

It was lovely to see the children share something they have had to wait for and the emotions they feel. We had waiting to see Grandparents, meeting baby sisters, holidays and Christmas. Their pictures and explanations were wonderful and heart felt.

Week 9 Show and Tell will be “My favourite dinosaur is…….”. please discuss with your child a dinosaur they like and why. If they have a model dinosaur they are welcome to bring it in to share.

Thing to note:

• Home readers: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The home readers are meant to be easy for your child to read. They should read a page more than once which helps with fluency and comprehension. Ensuring they read all the words, use the pictures and initial sounds to help work out unknown words
• If your child does not come home with their jumpers etc… we always endeavor to find them and give them to children to put into their bags. Please ensure your child’s belongs are clearly named to ensure they receive them promptly
• Please check Seesaw regularly as this is where we post the children’s work and videos
• At the end of the Term 3 holidays we posted some goals on Seesaw for each child. Please go back and take a look as these goals were set based on our observations.

Work at Home

Some families are wanting to do additional work at home. Some extra activities you can do are but not limited to:

• continue working on High Frequency Words. Children need to know their High Frequency Words out of order. They can write them, write them in a sentence, orally say them in a sentence, recognise them with in texts
• numbers: recognise numbers, count forwards and backwards from any number given, know numbers before and after
• Letter sounds
• Continue using StuddyLadder

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Warmest regards,

Sian & Marcelle

What a wonderful week we had!

Literacy

We introduced our topic of dinosaurs and there was a lot of excitement. Our new learning intention is: Synthesising. It was a brand new word and we learnt that this is where we think about what we know before we read a text then what we know afterwards.

The books we have a read are fictions texts.

Maths 

We introduced our new topic of addition where we learnt new mathematical vocabulary and worked in our groups on different addition activities. During week 8 we will investigate subtraction and begin to see if we can make connections to addition.

Religion

We are now learning about Advent and that it is a special time of waiting. Week 8 we will begin participating in whole school advent liturgies via google meets.

Colour Run

On Friday we participated in the school Colour Run. It was so much fun and we were covered in all colours of the rainbow. We could run, walk or jog as we went through the inflatable arch, the teachers squirted us with coloured powder!

Show & Tell

It was lovely to hear the children share their favouite book. Many were able to tell us about their favourite part and why it is special.

Week 8 children are asked to bring in their Advent sheet that was sent home on Thursday. Show and Tell days will remain the same. Please refer to the tab Show & Tell to find your child’s scheduled day.

Thing to note:

• Home readers: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The home readers are meant to be easy for your child to read. They should read a page more than once which helps with fluency and comprehension. Ensuring they read all the words, use the pictures and initial sounds to help work out unknown words
• If your child does not come home with their jumpers etc… we always endeavor to find them and give them to children to put into their bags. Please endure your child’s belongs are clearly named to ensure they receive them promptly
• Please check Seesaw regularly as this is where we post the children’s work and videos

Work at Home

Some families are wanting to do additional work at home. Some extra activities you can do are but not limited to:

• continue working on High Frequency Words. Children need to know their High Frequency Words out of order. They can write them, write them in a sentence, orally say them in a sentence, recognise them with in texts
• numbers: recognise numbers, count forwards and backwards from any number given, know numbers before and after
• Letter sounds

Friendships

In junior years, children are still learning how to make friends and how to play appropriately inside and outside. Often they need reminders about appropriate words and behaviour.  Preps play with a variety of children throughout the day/week and this is great as it helps them build their friendship groups.

We often discuss about being Bucket Fillers and below is a link to the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? 

Warmest regards,

Sian & Marcelle

Good afternoon families,

Literacy

This week we continued our theme of Fairy Tales and began reading The Jolly Postman or Other People’s Letters. The children were making connections to other texts they had read. It was wonderful to see the excitement as we read the letters from The Jolly Postman. If you are unfamiliar with the book, it’s interactive and each character has an envelope with a letter or postcard to read.

We then wrote a postcard from the perspective of a fairy tale character.

Religion

We have continued to look at God’s creation and the beauty around us. As it was Remembrance Day on Wednesday 11th, we wrote a special prayer to a soldier. The Prep RB video is on Seesaw to view and the prayer that the Prep teachers created for the whole teaching staff  is on the central Prep blog.

Maths

We continued investigating fractions and looking at half and quarters. There was a lot of paper folding (modelling) and drawing (representing). We also went back and looked at how we pose a question to collect data.

Week 7 we will begin a new topic of addition. We will be using lots of hands on materials to help understand and recognise how we add numbers together.

Show & Tell

It has been lovely hearing the children share their special talents this week. We’ve had dancers, magicians, artists, gymnasts and more!

Week 7 is “My favourite book .” Please ensure your child brings a long the favourite book and can explain why they love it. It might have been a special gift, they might like the characters, makes them laugh… etc.

If you can practise with your child to help them gain more confidence.

Thing to note:

• Home readers: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The home readers are meant to be easy for your child to read. They should read a page more than once which helps with fluency and comprehension. Ensuring they read all the words, use the pictures and initial sounds to help work out unknown words.
• Diaries: Children are to hand diaries in on a Friday. Please encourage your child to fill in each day independently. This will help them to think about what their favourite part was, what they understood and wonderings they may have
• School photos are Tuesday 17th November. Children are required to wear their summer uniform.

Work at Home

Some families are wanting to do additional work at home. Some extra activities you can do are but not limited to:

• continue working on High Frequency Words. Children need to know their High Frequency Words out of order. They can write them, write them in a sentence, orally say them in a sentence, recognise them with in texts
• numbers: recoginse numbers, count forwards and backwards from any number given, know numbers before and after.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. It’s quite windy today, so stay safe.

Warmest regards,

Sian & Marcelle

Hello Prep RB families,

We have completed another fabulous week. Although this week was short, it was action packed!

Literacy

This week we began reading some of the books from the Children’s Book Council of Australia that won book of the year in the category of Early Childhood. Our focus has been inferring where we go beyond the literal meaning of texts to think about what the writer means but has not stated. We focused on what the big message was within the books.

Book Week

On Friday we celebrated the wonderful world of books. The children were so excited to share their costume and completed fun activities.

We designed a new front cover for our favourite book, then participated in rotations with the different prep teachers.

Mrs Roberts: We read ‘The Magic Hat’ and designed our own magic hats.

Mrs Taylor: We read ‘The Dot’ and placed a sticky dot on paper then created a picture round it. We then had to write a sentence that explained what we turned our dot into.

Ms Torres: We read ‘The Book Week Monster’ then created our own crazy monster.

Book Week Highlights

Maths

This week we started our new mathematical topic of Fractions. We spent a lot of time discussing the important mathematical vocabulary we need in order to understand fractions. Our focus has only been on half and what it means and looks like. We did a lot of investigating using paper in different shapes. We learnt that fractions must be equal parts.

Show & Tell

It has been lovely having the children share their family photos. We have been learning a little more about each other in our class family. The pictures are on our ‘Family Wall’ and it’s a hot topic of conversation among the kids.

Week 6 Show & Tell will commence to the original timetable. See below.

Week 6 topic is ‘My special talent’. Please discuss with your child something they can share. This could range from drawing to kicking goals in footy. Show and Tell helps the children work on their speaking and listening skills.

Thing to note:

• Home readers: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The home readers are meant to be easy for your child to read. They should read a page more than once which helps with fluency and comprehension. Ensuring they read all the words, use the pictures and initial sounds to help work out unknown words.

• Diaries: Children are to hand diaries in on a Friday. Please encourage your child to fill in each day independently. This will help them to think about what their favourite part was, what they understood and wonderings they may have.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Warmest regards,

Sian & Marcelle

🙂

Good morning wonderful Prep RB families,

What a wonderful week we had. The children have settled back into the routines of school and have shown great resilience and independence. Our little troopers need to be congratulated!

English

This week we have been continuing with our Fairy Tale theme and continuing to practise the reading skills of retelling and sequencing events as well as some excellent writing opportunities. We started with The ‘Three Little Pigs’ and ended with ‘The Gingerbread Man’.

We also continued with our literacy rotations where we have the opportunity to consolidate targeted reading and spelling skills in small groups. During this time we take our focused teacher groups.

Mathematics 

We have continued to explore the properties of 2Dimentional shapes and practised our representing and visualising skills.

Show & Tell 

Week 5 Show and Tell the children are invited to bring in a family picture that they can share with the class. Show and Tell provides the children opportunities to work on their speaking and listening skills, as well as posing questions. As Monday 2nd November and Tuesday 3rd November are school closure days, please see the timetable below for your child’s day.

If you are happy for your child to leave their family photo at school, we will create a ‘Family Wall’ for children to stick their photos after they have presented.

Book Week 

During week 5 we will read books entered into The Children’s Book Council of Australia.

CBCA website: Cut and paste the link into your browser if you would like to take a look at the website.

https://www.cbca.org.au/

Friday 6th November children are invited to dress up as a character from their favourite book or as a curious creature which is this years theme.  We are very much looking forward to this day where we celebrate the wonderful world of literacy. The prep teachers have organised an action packed day full of amazing and engaging activities.

Ms Branigan is sad she will  miss this day, but I am extremely excited to be the teacher to dress up with our class family.

Last week my little boy Austin dressed up as Humpty Dumpty for his book week theme at daycare.

Things to note:

• Home readers: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The home readers are meant to be easy for your child to read. They should read a page more than once which helps with fluency and comprehension. Ensuring they read all the words, use the pictures and initial sounds to help work out unknown words.

• Diaries: Children are to hand diaries in on a Friday. Please encourage your child to fill in each day independently. This will help them to think about what their favourite part was, what they understood and wonderings they may have.

• Show & Tell: Share a family photo. Why is it special? Who is in the photo?

Enjoy the weekend.

Warm regards,

Sian & Marcelle

Good afternoon lovely Prep RB families, 

What a fabulous week we have had. It’s wonderful to see and hear the buzz of the prep building again. Show and Tell has been another success, and the children are beginning to understand how to form questions to pose to their class mates. Yesterday we had fun dressing up in our favourite footy team colours. 

During reading and writing, we have been learning about Fairy Tales with a focus on characters and settings. Each week we will read two new Fairy Tales where we will begin to make connections  using our personal and world knowledge of other texts. We are also going to begin to infer what the writer means but has not stated within the text. 

We have introduced a Bump It Up Wall which is a visual aid that the children can independently use to improve their writing and drawings. Once they finish their writing, they are able to take their work to the wall, stand in front and decide where they think their work fits (good, great or Wow!). From this they are able to see what else they can add to their work. Some children have really taken advantage of the wall which has been wonderful to see. 

In maths we have been exploring 2 Dimensional shapes. We have been sorting and classifying shapes and identifying where we see them in our environment. We have been representing and visualising shapes then comparing our drawings. There have been some great discussions among the children.

Week 4 Show and Tell children will need to bring in their Animal poster that they created during remote learning. Please ensure your child has this and they are able to explain and read their poster. It’s a good idea to practise this skill at home. 

Things to note:

• Home readers have begun. From week 4 books can be changed on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The home readers are meant to be easy for your child to read. They should read a page more than once which helps with fluency and comprehension. Ensuring they read all the words, use the pictures and initial sounds to help work out unknown words. 

• Wushka will be updated on a Sunday. All the books will be available in your Childs Wushka book box so they can read as often as they like. We encourage children to read a book many times to help with their fluency.

• Diaries– We will begin handing diaries in every Friday. Please encourage your child to fill in each day independently. This will help them to think about what their favourite part was, what they understood and wonderings they may have. 

We hope you all have a fantastic long weekend and for those of you that support Geelong and Richmond, may the best team win! 

We look forward to another wonderful week of learning.

Warm regards,

Sian Roberts & Marcelle Branigan

Hello Prep RB families,

Ms Marcelle Branigan has thoroughly enjoyed being back with the children this week, the buzz of the prep building is what we have missed! I had some personal leave this week, but am excited to see 23 little prep faces next week. 

Show and Tell has been wonderful and the children have enjoyed sharing their ‘Me Bag’.  Week 3 children will discuss their ‘My Animal Book’ which they created during remote learning. Please ensure your child has this safely in their bag on their scheduled day. 

As Friday 23rd October is a public holiday, children who would normally share on Friday will be rescheduled throughout the week. 

Please see below the Show and Timetable for week 3.

Have a safe and restful weekend. 

With thanks,

Sian & Marcelle. 🙂

Good afternoon Prep RB families,

The specialist timetable has been published and can be found under the tab ‘Specialist Timetable’. We have also posted below and we are now in week 2. 

Things to note:

Please ensure you have read the ‘Show and Tell’ timetable as this will commence tomorrow. We look forward to listening to the children share their ‘Me Bag’! This is permanently under the tab ‘Show and Tell’. 

Please ensure your child is capable of opening and closing their lunch box. Any food that is packed, your child MUST be able to open themselves. This can be practised at home on a daily basis. If your child has a lunch box in a cooler bag, they MUST be able to take it in and out themselves. This is something that can be practised at home on a daily basis. 

Enjoy the lovely sunshine today.

Warm regards,

Sian & Marcelle