Photos

 

Week Six

We are enjoying a week of books, costumes and more! The Book Week parades are a big hit for the children in Kindergarten. Please keep an eye on our blog for photos of all the fun. 

Literacy

This week we are focusing on a review of the initial sounds Ll, Bb, Gg and Ff. We are continuing to explore syllables, rhyme and sight words. 

We are really enjoying the ocean theme news that the children are sharing with our class. A note will go home a few days prior to your child's news day.

Numeracy

This week we are reviewing the numbers 1-15. We are also practising to orally ‘count on’ from a given number. We will continue to develop our knowledge of simple AB patterns. For example, blue, red, blue, red or using our body to create patterns such as touching our heads, touching our knees and repeating the pattern.  

Important Dates

Wednesday 2 September - Tabloid Sports (Kindy and Pre-primary)

1.30 - 2.30pm

Children in Blue Group and Red Group are invited to attend. This is a Blue Group Day, Kindy Red will need to be signed into our office at 1.00pm and collected from their classrooms at 2.50pm. Parents are invited to watch the event. Please ensure that you are abiding by current COVID health advice.

Friday 4 September - Whole School Sport Carnival

8.30 - 9.30am

Children in Blue Group and Red Group are invited to attend. This is a Red Group day, Kindy Blue will need to be signed into our office at 8.30am and collected from their classrooms at 9.30am (after the running races). Parents are invited to watch the event. 

The children in Kindergarten have been enjoying learning the tabloid sports and running on our school track. Parents are invited and encouraged to attend both events. On both days, please ensure your child has a water bottle, school hat, suitable running shoes and a faction shirt. 

Please don't hesitate to ask the Kindy Team if you have any questions. 

Week Five

We have already hit the middle of Term 3, and we would like to congratulate the children and families for a wonderful four weeks at school. The children have continued to amaze us with their progress. Please continue to support your child through home practice. A few minutes each day can really make a big difference in supporting your child to retain the concepts taught at school. 

Literacy 

Phonics: This week the children have been learning the phonic sound Ff as in Fish starts with Ff, Ff, Ff – Football starts with Ff, Ff, Ff – Fire starts with Ff, Ff, Ff.   

Don’t mention this to dad, but we will also be busy working on some Ff-Ff-Ff Father’s Day surprises……ssssh!! 

Our home corner has been transformed into a florist’s shop and the children will use their creativity to make flower arrangements and use the language and social skills required for customer service!  

Dramatic play is very important for children’s development and learning. They can try out roles from familiar family scenes and local community experiences. It enables children to develop their imagination and engage in experiences to make sense of the world they live in. 

Links to the Early Years Learning Framework: 

(4.4:2 Staff promote each child’s ability to develop and maintain relationships.)  

1:1 Children feel safe, secure and supported. 

2:3 Children become aware of fairness. 

3:1 Children become strong in their social and emotional well being 

4:1 Children develop dispositions for learning, such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity and commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity. 

5:1 Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes. 

Sight words 

Through the year, Kindy students have a list of 20 high frequency words, which are found in written texts and readers. Children are encouraged to recognise these words without having to ‘figure them out’. They are sometimes referred to as sight words or look and say words. 

This week’s sight word is ‘The’ e.g. Mum is at the school. The sun is hot. 

The children have enjoyed learning and reviewing these words while reading them in sentences. They have also been observing how to track words in a sentence, from left to right, when reading. The children have also been using clues from pictures to predict what some words might be. 

Numeracy 

The children are focusing on the numbers in the teens and this week the number is 15. We will be practising how to accurately count objects and identify that the last number counted answers the question “How many?”. We are also learning to place numbers in the right order, to make a number line.  

Book Week

This year the theme is ‘CURIOUS CREATURES – WILD MINDS’. In order to celebrate Book Week. Children are invited to dress in their favourite book character. This should be simple and done in consultation with your child. This year due to COVID restrictions, we will be conducting two book week parades. 

Red Group, on the bike track in front of the Kindy classrooms. The parade will be held on Tuesday 25 August. 

Blue Group, with K-1 children for the school parade. The parade will be held on Thursday 27 August. 

If possible, children could wear/hold a sign to show what the character is and what book it is from, if not immediately obvious. Parents are invited to attend, however, we ask all family members to support us in social distancing and abiding by current health and safety regulations. 

Sports practice

We have been having a great time learning and practising many new team games for our tabloid sports which will be held on Wednesday 2^nd September. Please watch this space for further information. 

 

Show and Tell

Our news telling has been going very well and we have learnt some very interesting facts about various sea creatures. 

 

National Quality Standard 

Introduction

The National Quality Standard (NQS) has been formulated by the Australian government. It is used to guide all staff working with children in the early childhood sector.  

The K-2 team at Wattle Grove Primary School have been exploring and reflecting upon the NQS throughout the year.  

If you would like to find out more information about the NQS, please have a look at the website:   

https://www.acecqa.gov.au/nqf/national-quality-standard 

 

Quality Area 2: Children’s Health and Safety    

All staff promote and implement effective hygiene practices at Wattle Grove Primary School.  

In each of the classrooms, hygiene posters are referred to by teachers and children to ensure good hygiene practices are maintained.  

 

Some of these hygiene practices include:    

Children washing hands with soap and water when hands are visibly dirty. 

Children washing hands with soap and water before and after eating. 

Children washing hands after going to the toilet.  

Children coughing and sneezing with a tissue or bent elbow, disposing of used tissues immediately and washing hands. 

 

Here is a Handwashing Song by the Wiggles that reinforces the importance of handwashing for children.   

Have a lovely week.

Week Four

We had such a wonderful end to last week at the Scitech incursion. We were eager to explore our scientific world using our science 'tools' (sight, touch, smell, hearing and talking). Our little ‘scientists’ found great enjoyment in constructing their own learning through discovery, play and experimentation. It was a fun day for all!

Literacy

Phonics – This week we introduced the phonic sound Gg as in girl, guitar and gorilla. 

To celebrate the Gg phonic sound we have recently opened a Garage in Room 1. We are very proud of the children for displaying excellent social skills in the sociodramatic play area such as sharing, cooperation and good communication skills.

Story retelling – We have recently been focusing on retelling a story in three sequential parts (beginning, middle, end). This skill assists children with their reading comprehension of a text and enables them to practise the important skill of sequencing. We would encourage you to read simple narratives with your child and practise sequencing the events of the story into beginning, middle and end. This could be done through oral retell, drawing pictures, acting it out or using puppets to retell the story.

Numeracy

Our number of the week is the number 14. To reinforce the sound of the week and the number of the week, we have been stamping 14 bubbles into a fishbowl. This helps the children to practise their counting and one-to-one correspondence. We have been practising on stopping once they have counted to the given number, as it can be very tempting for children to demonstrate their fantastic counting skills by continuing to count past the given number. To further practise this skill at home, you could give your child a specific number of actions to complete such as 10 star jumps, 5 hops, 14 stomps and see if they can stop once they have reached the specified number.

Songs

In Kindy, we often teach concepts through music and movement to make learning fun and enjoyable for the children. We also notice that learning is optimised when concepts are taught through music and movement, as children are engaging with the curriculum through a multi-sensory medium. Below we have attached a link to all of the songs and actions that we use across all Kindy classes for letter sounds, letter formation and number formation. We would love for you to sing these songs with your child at home to reinforce what they are learning at school. They would love to teach you all of the songs they know – just ask them! Keep in mind that we have covered the following sounds (SATPINMRCKHEDLBG) and numbers (1-14).

Phonic Songs & Cues, Letter & Number Formation Songs

Thank you for all that you do to support your child at home with their learning, it is amazing to see all that the children have achieved in such a short space of time. We are very excited for another great week ahead!

 

 

 

Scitech Incursion

We had such a wonderful end to the week, exploring our scientific world and using our science 'tools' (sight, touch, hearing, talking and smell). We hope you enjoy the photos of our incursion. 

Week Three

NAIDOC week celebrations at Wattle Grove have been informative and entertaining. The teachers and children have really enjoyed the incursion, class activities and buddy class activities. Please enjoy the photos that are posted over the next few weeks of all the exciting activities, including making music with tapping sticks and making a woolen rainbow serpent. 

Literacy

Phonics

This week, our phonic sound is Bb as in bat, balloon and ballerina. We will be extending our laundry play area, to include a bathroom for our Bb phonic sound. The children in kindy have really been enjoying 'washing', 'ironing' and hanging up the clothes. We hope they are helping you at home also!

News Telling

The topic is 'Commotion in the Ocean'. A week before your child’s news day, a note will be sent home. Please help your child to choose an item associated with our theme. For example, ocean creatures, seaweed, shells, books or photos of a place you have visited near the ocean. 

Reading

We have started Guided Reading at school. The children have loved holding their own book and following the text with their finger as we read together. Children will begin to have these books sent home on a rotation. Please spend some time with your child reading the book together. There are questions on the right side of each page that can be used to support your child’s reading and comprehension skills. Please remember that children are not expected to read the book themselves yet, but encourage them to track the words with their pointer finger as you read aloud and encourage them to join in as they are able. Talking about what is happening in the pictures and what might happen next are great ways of building your child’s understandings of what is being read. It is important that books are returned promptly on the due date to ensure they can be sent home to other children. We will send home a reading record (in their homework folder) and children will receive stickers as the books are returned. 

Library
The children are enjoying going to the library and choosing a new book to take home. Blue group have missed their library day due to the pupil free day and NAIDOC incursion, however, they will commence this week. 

Blue Group - Monday (unfortunately it was too wet today)
Red Group - Tuesday

Please ensure your child returns their book on these days and brings it in their library bag. 

Numeracy

Our number of the week is the number 13. We are learning to identify numbers on a numberline and we have also been learning to identify the number that comes before and after. We have introduced the concept of counting on. We are doing activities in class, such as counting objects into a bucket. For example, 5 shells, and then counted on 6, 7, as we added two more items.

Upcoming Events

Term 3 is a busy term with many events taking place. Please make sure you continue to read school newsletters and the class blog to keep up to date.

Over the coming weeks, we will be learning a range of team games such as the egg and spoon race, flag race, beanbag toss and circle ball in preparation for our tabloid sport carnival! We will also run on our oval to prepare for our running races. The children really look forward to these fun days!

As well as the sports carnival, we will prepare for Father's Day and Book Week. More information will follow before these special dates. 

Last but not least, the kindy team have organised a Scitech incursion for this week. If you would like your child to attend, please return the permission slip and $6.00 prior to the incursion on Thursday (Blue Group) and Friday (Red Group). We look forward to another fun week in Kindy!