We would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holidays!
Just a friendly reminder that Term 4 will commence on Monday 12 October for Blue Group and Tuesday 13 October for Red Group.
We can’t wait to see you all back at school ready for dancing lessons in week one and also dressed in your faction colours on the first Wednesday, ready for the Tabloid Sports Carnival.
It’s hard to believe that we are in the middle of Week Nine. We have continued to explore our Term 3 Theme of Commotion in the Ocean. News telling, ocean crafts and science activities have been a highlight over the past week.
Literacy
This week we are learning the phonic sound Uu as in umbrella and under.
To celebrate the Uu phonic sound we have recently opened an ‘Under the Sea’ play area. Children have been using literacy and
numeracy skills to label items, count items, identify starting sounds of sea
creatures and identify how many syllables are in the sea creature’s names. 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.
We are also doing an amazing job of tidying up when it is time to change
activities.
We are now starting to learn about the
beginning, middle and end sound in words. For example, the end sound in cat is
t. This is a tricky concept, with students needing to listen carefully to all
the sounds in the word. This skill can be practised at home using short three
letter words, e.g. cat, man, log.
Our new sight word is here. We are reading and writing sentences with our sight words. For example, Here is the cat.
Please continue to revise sounds and sight words with your child each day. Regular practice supports your child to retain these concepts.
Phonics sounds learnt so far this term: Ll, Bb, Gg, Ff, Ww, Oo and Uu.
Sight words learnt so far this term: it, is, in, the, see, we, like and here.
Numeracy
This week we continue to practise the skills of counting (forwards, backwards, from a different starting point and with real life objects). We are developing the children’s understanding of a number line by playing missing number and number sequencing puzzles and games.
Study Ladder
Congratulations to all the children who are achieving amazing scores on Study Ladder. Each week in Kindy, we recognise the high scores they are achieving. Thank you for your continued support at home.
Homework Folders
Please
remember to return your child’s Homework Folder on their Kindy day, so that we
can continue to change over the readers. Any school notes or important notices
will also be sent home in these folders.
The Kindy kids spent last week ‘secretly’ preparing for Fathers Day! The children did an amazing job making cards, keyrings, drawings and retelling facts about their Dads. They even wrote their own sentence for Dad. We hope all their ‘daddies’ felt the love they put into making their gifts and that they spent a great Sunday together. What wonderful memories to cherish of their first year at school.
On Friday, the Kindy children enjoyed being a
part of the whole school, participating in the Faction March and the
running races. Many thanks to the Blue Group parents who brought
their children to school to take part in their flat race. It was an
overwhelming day for some and very exciting for others, but a fun day was had
by all!
K/PP Tabloid Afternoon – Due to a number of whole school events occurring during the
reminder of the term. This event is now scheduled for Wednesday, 14
October 2020. More details to follow.
Literacy
This week we will be focusing on the initial letter sound Oo i.e. octopus starts with Oo, Oo, Oo and octagon starts with Oo, Oo, Oo. We will have an Optometrist Play corner open for the week, with an office to get the ‘best’ advice on eye care, eye charts for testing sight, glasses, writing appointments and scripts and much more to stimulate the children’s imagination and social skills.
The children are also learning to read and write sentences using the
sight words we have learnt and sounding out other words. The sight word for
week 8 is like.
An example of a sentence could be We like the c/a/t. When
writing a sentence, we are learning to start with a capital letter, leave
spaces between words and end with a full stop. It is important to encourage
children to use the correct letter and number formations whenever they have a
go at writing.
Counting syllables is a pre-reading skill and helps the process of decoding.
The Kindies have been working on counting syllables and would enjoy showing off
their skills. Try asking how many syllables are in a word of your choice and
discover how clever they are! Below are some examples of syllables:
One syllable words: tree, fun, kite.
Two syllable words: hel/lo, run/ning,
par/ty.
Three syllable words: el/e/phant,
fan/tas/tic.
Four syllable word: hel/i/cop/ter.
Numeracy
We are continuing to reinforce our learning of numbers 1 to 15 i.e. identifying and writing numerals, making collections and counting in sequence. We are also learning how to put two numbers together by using the counting on technique i.e. 5 and 3 = put 5 in my head and count on 3 – 6, 7, 8. The answer is 8. We will also be linking ordinal numbers to our experience of participating in the races during the Sport Carnival last week.
Reminder
Class and individual photos will be taken on
Friday Sept. 11th for the Kindy Red Groups.
Finally, the teachers would like to mention how very proud they are of all their Kindergarten children. They worked very hard and participated with enthusiasm through an extremely busy week. Super effort!
This week Wattle Grove Primary School celebrated Wattle Day. Wattle Day is about everyone coming together to celebrate the unique diversity of the Australian population and recognising what it means to be Australian. We celebrated Wattle Day with a beautiful outdoor picnic and drawing/painting wattle.
Literacy
The phonic sound that we are
focusing on this week is Ww as in wattle, whale and watermelon.
We have been pegging up washing on our clothes airer to
strengthen our fine motor skills and making wattle crafts to honour Wattle Day. The children have also been very busy in our workshop
where they have been using their communication skills, fine motor skills and
creativity to build a range of things. They have been using a variety of tools
and materials for their constructions and have been wearing hard hats for
protection of course!
Numeracy
This week we are focusing on
creating and interpreting pictorial graphs. We have been practising how to
graph data and how to answer questions about data shown on a graph. We are
still reviewing numbers 1-15, practising to count on from a given number and identifying
ordinal numbers such as 1st , 2nd and 3rd.
Sports Carnival
Although the Tabloid Sports for Kindy and Pre-Primary (Wednesday 2 September) has been postponed until further notice, we still hope to see you all at the Whole School Sports Carnival on Friday 4 September. As it is not a Kindy Blue Group day, Kindy Blue Group students will need to be signed in at the front office at 8:30am and then will need to be picked up at their classrooms at 9:30am. We look forward to seeing all of the children dressed in their faction colours for a fun day ahead!
School Photos
This week the Kindy Blue Groups
will be having their school photos taken on Thursday 3 September (Week 7) and
Kindy Red Group students will be having their school photos taken next week on
Friday 11 September (Week 8).
Please ensure that your child is dressed in their full school uniform and that long hair is tied up. This should not be a problem as our Kindy students are always presented beautifully!
We hope you all have a wonderful
week and we welcome you to ask us any questions that you might have.
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.
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.
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 2nd 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.
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!
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.
