Prep Team Blog - June 8 2016

Prep H, Prep J & Prep N have been working hard in the lead up to the end of term! There is lots happening each day in the classrooms and these are some of the things we have been working on...

This week in Maths, we have been looking at Chance & Data. We have been learning how to collect data and the ways in which it can be presented. Last week, we looked at asking Yes/No Questions to our friends to collect information and then moved onto recording the information using tally marks. 
Building on these ideas, this week, so far, we have surveyed car colours as they pass the school, using tally marks and have then shown this data in a graph. We will be building on this knowledge and practising as the week progresses. We will also learn about Chance - discussing the likelihood of events occurring. We will be using Chance Vocabulary, such as: Certain, Possible, Unlikely, Impossible.

During our Reader's Workshop, we have been covering comprehension strategies such as Visualising and Predicting. We have been reading our Just Right Books, Shared Texts and watching short videos where we can practise Predicting before, during and after reading. We have also been learning more about the 'Animal Strategies' to help us to decode words. These are Eagle Eye, Chunky Monkey, Lips the Fish and many more to come. We have also investigated a number of words, letters and sounds. We have focused on words such as 'said' and letters that can sometimes cause us confusion; like lowercase b and d.

In Writer's Workshop, we have just about published a piece of Poetry. We have been working on a range of poems but have published either an acrostic poem or a 'colour' poem. We will share them with you all soon! We have also been aiming to lift the quality of our entries. Our entries are in our Writer's Notebook and should be an experience, a thought or a moment. We record a 'snapshot' of a particular moment and our Writer's Notebook acts as a bank of great entries where we choose our pieces that we take through the writing cycle. This week we have been focusing on a new genre of writing: Persuasive. We will be looking at how to persuade the reader with our piece and will be convincing people of our thoughts and opinions - Hopefully some great discussions at home will come of this - trying to convince of a later bed time or Lollies for dinner maybe?! :-)

During Inquiry, We have been working on our end of unit project. This is where the students need to show up to 3 scenarios of how they help their school, environment and community. To create even more success with this task, we are lucky enough to be working on this with our Buddy grades. This compliments our relationships and learning perfectly as the Buddies have just completed their own Inquiry unit on Sustainability so have been acting us teachers and mentors to their Prep Buddies. A great learning experience for both students in the Buddies program. This learning will enhance our exciting upcoming excursion to Narana Centre on Monday 20th June (last week of school). When at Narana, students will be involved in a number of sustainability activities, with a focus on how Indigenous people use their environments and how we can learn from their culture. Students will have the opportunity to taste damper and kangaroo, paint and throw boomerangs, meet Emus and will be taken on an environmental work looking at how Indigenous people use their environments sustainably and effectively.

Remember, all Prep grades use the SeeSaw app where student learning is shared regularly. If you have not accessed your child's seesaw portfolio, see the previous blog post on how to be part of this brilliant opportunity!

Parents from Prep N would have noticed that Mr Niblo has been unable to be at school. Unfortunately, Mr Niblo will be away until the end of term, due to health reasons. He is recovering well and is looking forward to returning early Term 3. We are lucky enough to have Miss Lauren Roberts and Mrs Tammy Corless fill Chris' position whilst he is away. Lauren has taught at CSPS for almost 10 years before going on Family Leave when she had her little girl, only a few years ago. Tammy is a current staff member at CSPS so all students were familiar with her prior to this current role. Miss Roberts will for 4 days a week and Mrs Corless does 1 day with Prep N. 

Reminders: 
- Narana Excursion Note and Money NOW DUE.
- Swimming permission form and payments are now accepted.
**Please note, both of these Excursions can be paid for using the CSEF allocation, if you are eligible.

Until next time, 
The Prep Team: Kellie, Sarah & Chris (Lauren/Tami).
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