Week 7 Wrap Up!

Hello Families,

Week 7 was another busy and fun week in Prep S.

By far the highlight of the week was Friday’s Colour Run. Children had a ball as they walked and ran laps around the school groups and squeeled with excitement as they got messy and colourful!

English:

We finished our Fairy Tale unit this week with ‘Jack and The Beanstalk’. Prep children have been exploring narratives in Writing by writing both simple ‘retells’ of known stories as well as writing alternate endings to familar stories. This has been a huge hit and children have had some very creative ideas! We have begun our final unit for the year ‘Dinosaurs!’. We are beginning our learning by reading fiction stories with Dinosaur characters. We introduced some new centres to our reading centres in Week 7 aswell.

Maths:

In Week 7 we went back and consolidated our knowledge about ‘Addition’. This was a tricky concept when we first introduced it but now in Term 4 children have enjoyed adding numbers and counters and seeing our collections grow. Next week we begin our learning about Subtraction.

Religion:

We concluded our learning about God’s Creation by looking at our school environment and discussing how Creation can change overtime and how human’s can change and improve and also sometimes neglect our world. Next week we begin our time of ‘waiting’ and begin our learning on ‘Advent’.

 

REMINDERS:

Show and Tell

Children came home with the template above duing Week 7. This is the template children will be asked to share duing Week 8 Show and Tell. Children will be learning how Advent is a time of ‘waiting’ and ‘preparation’ and we speak at length at school about things we have to wait for and how we feel while we are waiting. We can begin to link these feelings with waiting for Jesus.

Hats and Sunscreen:

As the weather is getting warmer a reminder that children are required to wear school hats during both breaks. Children are also encouraged to apply or reapply sunscreen during our eating breaks. If you would like your child to reapply throughout the day, please make sure there is some easy to apply sunscreen in their bag. Teachers are unable to assist children with applying sunscreen.

Brainfood:

Fruit and vegetable snacks are eaten at around 10am. A friendly reminder that if possible could these snacks please be packed in a small, easy to hold container or packet. Brainfood is often consumed while children are listening to whole class instruction on the floor or working at tables. Lunchboxes can be a often be distraction or difficult to manouver while learning at the same time. Thank you.

Learning at Home:

Parents often ask what they can do at home to support their child’s learning. Here are few ideas!

*Reading daily at home is a wonderful way to consolidate learning from school. Take home readers are meant to be ‘easy reads’ to encourage fluency and enjoyment

*High Frequency Words- children are encouraged to learn these by ‘rote’. Words may be presented on flachcards, duplicate coloies for games such as memory etc. Children may recognise these in isolation or in only one context (at home in flashcards), so it is recommened these words are practised regularly and in different ways as well as recognised automatically in take home books

*Counting to and from 20 and beyond and writing numbers to 20

*Encourage your child to write the weekly shopping list

**The are videos on the Prep blog with ideas for simple games and activities children can play or so with things from their ‘take home learning packs’

 

 

Below are some pictures of baby Brooklyn Saad. He is growing so fast. Emily and Brooklyn are say hello to the Prep S family 🙂

The final weeks of school before Christmas holidays are by far the busiest weeks of the year. This week we continue our end of year testing and data collection and meet the 2021 Prep children, all while continuing by our amazing in class learning experiences. 

 

I wish you all a happy and safe week. 

Kind regards,

Katrina

Weekly Wrap-up!

Hello Families,

I hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend with some lovely weather. Week 6 was another busy week in the Prep S learning studio. As we begin to look ahead towards Christmas and the end of year our learning does not slow down. We have 4 and a half weeks left together as a class family and every minute is one to be enjoyed and filled with learning and kindness.

ENGLISH

We resumed our ‘Fairy Tale’ unit this week with ‘The Jolly Postman’. We read many letters sent to and from some of our favourite characters. Our Learning Centres in our Reading sessions allow for the consolidation of specific learning goals with the introduction of various differentiated learning activities and games. The children love this time and are showing wonderful independence in the completion and packing up of these activities. It is during this time that I take my reading focus groups. Below are some pictures from one of our Reading sessions this week. I hope you enjoy looking at these pictures and they give a little taste of what life in our Prep building is like.

 

MATHS

Last week we completed our ‘Fractions’ unit. Our focus for this unit was to introduce some language to begin to develop our understanding of fractions. We want children to understand that fractions are ‘equal parts’ of a whole or collection. Next week we revisit our ‘Addition’ unit from earlier in the year and develop on the children’s understanding that when we add numbers together we get ‘more’.

RELIGION

As we begin to wind down our learning about Creation children were invited to make their own model of something God created and share it with our class. This was a wonderful learning opportunity began some lovely reflections by the students.

WEEK 7

This coming week we begin Week 7.

SCHOOL PHOTOS

On Tuesday we are having our first ever primary school photos. Children will be having individual photos. Children are required to wear full SUMMER UNIFORM. While Tuesday is normally a sport uniform day, no runners are required as this week children have Italian only on Tuesday.

COLOUR RUN

Friday 20th November is the SGP Colour Run! Please see our newsletter for more information.

SHOW AND TELL

This week children are invited to share their favourite book.

 

I wish you all a wonderful week.

Kind Regards,

Katrina

Week 6 Update

Hello Prep S Families,

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful weekend!

Week 5 Recap

Despite the Public Holiday last week Prep S continued their very busy term of learning.

In English, we enjoyed exploring some 2020 Children’s Book Council Award shortlisted books, ‘I Need a Parrot’ and ‘When Billy Was a Dog’.  On Friday we celebrated ‘Book Week’ with a special dress up day! I have posted a video to Seesaw for us to enjoy all the amazing costumes and characters we had in Prep S.

 

Each Prep teacher shared one of their favourite books with each grade. Mrs Taylor read ‘The Dot’.

 

In Maths we began our unit on ‘Fractions’ by exploring a ‘half’. We have learned that a half is 2 equal parts. Paper folding, partitioning and exploring ‘equal parts’ is an important part of learning about Fractions.

We continued our learning about ‘God’s Creation’ in Religion and this week explored our school environment for things God made vs. things people made. This led to an interesting discussion about how we care for Creation and also what our ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ are.

Looking ahead to Week 6

This coming week in English we will continue to read some more ‘book week’ books, as well as keep going with our ‘Fairy Tale’ unit and introduce the book, ‘The Jolly Postman’.

We will continue to learn about fraction and equal parts.

This week’s theme for ‘Show and Tell’ is “My talent is …”. Children may wish to share and tell us about their talent or share a photo of them performing their talent. If your children did not bring their family photo from last week, they may also like to share that this as well. I am making a class display.

 

Take Care,

Katrina

 

Week 3 Wrap up!

Hello Families,

What a wonderful week we have had! It has been super busy in the Prep S Learning Studio this week with lots of learning and fun happening.

English:

This week we began reading Fairy Tales. We started with ‘Goldy’. The children loved this story and it gave us a wonderful text to practise the reading skills of retelling and sequencing events as well as some excellent writing opportunities. 

We commenced our ‘Reading Rotations’ where children have the opportunity to consolidate targeted reading and spelling skills in small groups. During this time I take my focused teacher groups. It has been so wonderful to get to use lots of hands on resources in our learning again!

Maths:

We began learning about 2D shapes. We explored different ways to sort shapes according to their properties and practised representing and visualising 2D shapes.

Reminders:

Take Home Readers:

Children were able to recommence their take home reading program this week. We will aim to change these each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Take home readers are an invaluable opportunity for children to consolidate their foundational reading skills. Where possible reading should take place each night. We encourage children to reread texts multiple times as this helps students reinforce their learning. We model this as teachers by rereading big books over a week or many days. Take home readers will be easy to read texts to help children build their reading fluency. Please record your child’s reading in their home reading diary. I will check these on a Friday 🙂 

Show and Tell:

Week 4 Show and Tell will be the Animal Poster children created during Remote Learning. If children are unable to bring this to school, children may read a chosen piece from their Remote Learning book.

 

Wishing you all a lovely long weekend. I will be spending this weekend trying different hairstyles on my little girl after she experimented with scissors on her hair on Thursday. Oh dear!

Enjoy the Grand Final! Go TIGES!!!

Kind regards,

Katrina

 

 

Week 2 Wrap up!

Well done to all the children of Prep S for a wonderful first week back at school! We have had an excellent week back together again, exploring our school grounds, making new friends and getting back into the school routine. I hope all parents have enjoyed seeing updates of our learning throughout the week.

Next week we commence Week 3 of Term 4.

Some end of week messages:

Sport Uniform Days

A reminder that our sport uniform days are Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Nightly Reading

Take home reading books will be ready to send home next week. Thank you to those children that have continued their  Wushka reading.

Hats and Lost Property

In Term 4 children are required to their school hat. During break times children often get very excited about their games and activities and hats or jumpers often get left behind on the school yard. Sometimes children notice after the bell has gone when no teachers are supervising yards so students will be unable to go back to retrieve them. When teachers see these items left, they are often returned to the class quickly if named. If not named, items are sent to lost property.

Handwriting Books

We are still awaiting the return of a handful of handwriting books. Please return these ASAP if your child’s is still at home.

Show and Tell

Please see the Show and Roster of the class blog for your child’s Show and Tell day. It will remain the same each week. As next Friday is a Public Holiday, Friday children can present theirs on Thursday for next week. The topic for Week 3 is our ‘Animal Books’ made during remote learning. I have some children’s books already with me at school.

 

Next week we are commencing a Maths unit on 2D shapes. We will also be exploring Fairy Tales in English.

 

I wish you all a lovely weekend.

Kind regards,

Katrina Taylor

 

End of week message

Dear Prep S Families,

I hope all the children enjoyed their week back of Term 4 and most importantnly, their final week of remote learning. Thank you and well done to all our little learners and families on what has been a tremendous effort by all!

I am beyond excited to see all the children in person on Monday. This week my focus has been to prepare the children for their return to onsite learning and begin to orientate them to the new school environment and classroom. This will be a continued focus across the school in the coming weeks and term.

We have enjoyed some virtual tours this week of our learning studio and school grounds. I have included some pictures of our room below for families to see.

Also below I have included a roster for ‘Show and Tell’. Throughout term 4, Prep children will be invited to share something from a given topic with their class each week. Please see the timetable below for weekly topics and your child’s allocated day. As we are heading into a very busy term, if your child’s given day falls on a public holiday or student free day they will be able to share on another day that week. Likewise, sometimes unexpected things happen throughout our day at school and we might run out of time. On these occasions children will also be able to share on another day. A hard copy of this roster will be sent home with Prep S children o Monday 🙂

Specialist timetables are still being finalised and when these become available to us we will share them with you as soon as possible.

Having been onsite this week preparing our learning space I have been struck by how quiet our Prep building is. Having taught for many years I can appreciate how busy and noisy Prep rooms are meant to be. It is with great excitement that I look forward to Monday when our room is once again filled with learning and exploration!

I wish you all a wonderful weekend.

Kindest regards,

Katrina Taylor

Welcome Back!

Hello Prep S families and welcome back to our final term!

This year has certainly been a roller coaster but the Prep children have been troopers and soon we will finally be altogether, learning and exploring!

Below I have included the timetable for Week 1. Please note the amended English and Maths groups. A reminder that Tuesday (6th October), will be an onsite planning and meeting day for all Prep- Two teachers. No Google Meets will be scheduled for that day. Learning will be provided on the Prep Blog as usual however.

Kind Regards,

Katrina 🙂

Footy Colours Day

Hello Families,

The day has arrived! The last day of term.

I wanted to thank you all for the magnificent effort and support you have given both your children and us as Prep teachers throughout the term. From logging our little learners on their very ‘grown up’ google meetings, your patience when technology hasn’t been our friend and your lovely feedback, emails and phone calls- we appreciate it all more than we can say. It has been a very different term but a hugely successful one.

To celebrate the end of term, a reminder that tomorrow is Footy Colours Day! Children may wear a football, soccer or NRL themed top or scarf or casual clothes in the colour of their favourite team.

Kind regards,
Katrina Taylor

End of Week update and Week 10 Timetable

Hello Prep S Families,

Once again a big thank you for efforts and support this week. We are nearing the end of term and I think the school holidays will be a much needed break for both children and families.

I have really enjoyed meeting 1:1 with children this week. The children all had a lot to say and many stories to tell.  It was so lovely to get the time to chat. Next week I will again meet with children, with a focus on Reading.

Below is the Week 10 timetable that includes some minor changes from last week.

To celebrate the end of Term 3, next Friday will be Prep Footy Colours Day! Children may wear the colours from their chosen football, soccer, NRL team, scarves or jumpers.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend,

Katrina.