Prep Classroom

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Prep Curriculum Overview

Term 2 2009

Thursday 23^rd of April, 2009.

Dear Prep families,

          Well it's so hard to believe that we have completed the first term of your child's Prep year.  It has been a fabulous and extremely positive start for children, parents and teachers. 

During the first term it is always lovely to watch relationships with both peers and teachers develop.  Our unit on ‘Marvellous Me' has been effective in allowing us to explore our individual differences and what makes each child unique.

Listed below is some information relevant to Term 2.  Hopefully you will find it informative. 

BAG AND BUSINESS BELL:

• The prep teachers would like to congratulate the parents on their successful efforts in promoting independent and responsible children. It has been magical watching your youngsters come in at the ‘Bag and Business Bell' and organise themselves for their school day. On the whole, the children have done a remarkable job of organising themselves with ‘hands-free' assistance from either a parent or their teacher.

THANK-YOU PARENTS.

• At the beginning of Term 2, we would now like to take the next step in classroom organisation and independence. We ask that your child now enters their classroom alone at the beginning of the day. They have successfully established their routines to succeed them throughout the day and their teacher will be there to remind them of any forgotten organisation. Please say a warm and fuzzy goodbye at the door or at the bottom of the ramp and leave promptly. If you'd like to have a chat to a friend outside, please do it away from the door so that your child can not see you.

COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR CHILD'S TEACHER:

• It has been great to see both the children and the parents utilising the post box system. The teachers have the post ‘delivered' to them first thing in the morning by the classroom ‘Postie' and all information is read at the beginning of the day. If you need to communicate something with your child's teacher, this is the most effective way to do it. We will either write back in response or catch you personally at the end of the day.
• Whilst we ask you to not come into the classroom in the mornings, we understand that there may be occasions when you need to speak to your child's teacher rather than writing a note for the post box. Please do come in and see us for urgent matters.

HATS

• Children are not required to wear their hats until Term 4. We ask that you keep your child's hat at home and possibly give it a wash or make any necessary repairs.

TIMETABLE CHANGES:

• LIBRARY: The Library renovations are complete! The children will visit the library once a week. They will be able to borrow two books of their choice. Books are to be returned back to school before your child has their next library session.

SPECIAL EVENTS DURING TERM

• Bullying Incursion: The whole school will be participating in a Bullying Incursion. The cost of this incursion is $4.00. More information coming home soon.
• Fairy Park excursion. In term 2 our integrated topic is "Tell Me A Story." To support further learning and provide an engaging and rich experience we will be running an excursion to Fairy Park in Anakie. Our excursion to Fairy Park is on Thursday 14^th May. Payment of $20.00 is now due.
• Curriculum Day 12^th of June. On this day your child is not required at school. The teachers will use this day to carry out further learning on particular areas to benefit your child.

PARENT HELPERS TO BEGIN:

• Parent helpers will begin working alongside the classroom teacher and focusing on small groups during the literacy session. Both the children and the teachers are looking forward to working with the parents. A gentle reminder to parents: regardless of your relationship with another parent, do not ask the parent helper to comment on how your child is performing within the class as the trained parent helpers have been given very strict instructions NOT to answer any questions of the kind.
• Thank-you to all parents who have expressed interest in assisting with classroom tasks.

SHOW AND TELL: 

Here are some ideas for ‘show and tell' in term 2. To support the children when conducting their ‘show and tell' we will be utilising the Connie Confidence key to life.  We will be focusing on developing the following skills:

*Using a big confident voice, sharing information, using active listening skills and responding with appropriate questioning. 

You might like to encourage your child to think about their item and prepare relevant information to share with their peers.  

* We do ask that all items be a manageable size (Must fit into their school bag).

* Please encourage your child to bring an item that is not valuable, breakable or dangerous.

* All show and tell items will be kept inside the classrooms at all times.

* As our topic will be ‘Tell Me A Story,' your child might like to bring in a fairytale or nursery rhyme to share with the grade.

Prep Team

CURRICULUM OVERVIEW FOR TERM 2, 2009

INTEGRATED TOPIC:  Tell Me A Story

Children explore Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales as a means to focus on written and spoken language.  They discover language patterns through rhyme and repetition and they will discuss the difference between fact and fiction, what is or isn't possible, how characters portray a range of emotions and that fairy tales have underlying morals and values that we can relate to our own lives. 

ENGLISH:  The children will continue to further develop and explore the recount genre.  We will do this through; the experiences encountered from fairy tales and nursery rhymes, diary writing about previous experiences, and writing about language experience activities such as cooking. 

Early Years Literacy will be fully supported at the beginning of Term 2 with the inclusion of parent helpers.  Your child will work in small groups of children with like needs and have weekly Guided Reading sessions with their class teacher.

Home reading will continue which is designed to build confidence through home reading experiences.  The books are meant to be at an easy level and your child's teacher will move them onto more difficult books after assessments have been carried out so please do not request different levels from your teacher.

NUMERACY: 

During Term 2 your child will focus on the following Numeracy concepts.

Number:                                               Counting before and after.

                                                          Counting one-to-one correspondence.

                                                          Making whole numbers (part, part whole)

                                                          Ordinal numbers (1^st-10^th).

Space:                                                2D and 3D shapes.

                                                          Matching shapes

Measurement/ Chance/ Data:                   Probability.

                                                          Pictographs.

                                                          Understanding terms yesterday, today and tomorrow.

                                                          Using descriptive terms to describe mass, height, length

Working Mathematically:                          Interpreting diagrams and graphs.

                                                          Use draws to represent math problems and solutions.

                                                          Estimation.

 &nb