     | This week has seen our current Prep students complete their transition session to their 2017 classes. The statewide Transition day occurred on Tuesday 6th December. All students in the school spent the morning with their 2017 classes and we had next year's Prep students attend until 1pm. This process is a fantastic opportunity for students to prepare themselves, their teacher, their friends and family about what to expect for the following year. The 1/2 Team will look as follows: Miss Brooke McKinley Miss Molly Murray Mrs Karen Marinelli Mr Jack Pidd Miss Maddie Ritchie and new staff member Miss Georgie Adams. **Due to building renovations, students were not able to be in their 2017 classrooms. As part of this process, our prep students were able to debrief with their current teachers when returning to their grades and shared their excitement and nerves about the reality of being a grade 1! See the photos to the left of some students delivering their letters! In addition to this process, we have structured our Writer's Workshop sessions around letter writing in the last few weeks and we have incorporated an area of work which has allowed students to write letters to their 2017 teachers. The Prep students gave these to the teachers and they were very excited to receive them! These letters included the following elements: - Who it is to... - Asking questions/Conversation... - How you are feeling about next year... - Something you feel you are good at/want to get better at... - Closing wishes - Who it is from... As the year draws to a close, it is important to ensure that each child feels safe, happy and comfortable in their new learning environment. This is important to all staff at our school and can be supported by strong preparation from home. Particularly for prep age students, the Summber break can be a very long one (not to mention for parents!). Regular conversations and 'play dates' with friends is one way to ensure that students continue the wonderful development they have made this year. Academically, please see the classroom teacher if you wish to support your students by giving tasks over the holidays. One option for this is StudyLadder, which students access with a password that has been given to them during the year. This has set tasks and is one option to ensure engagement of suitable ICT over the holidays. School reports are due home next Friday 16th December, if there is anything you wish to discuss about these after they have gone home, please make an appointment with your child's classroom teacher. And finally, the biggest THANK YOU to all of our Prep Parents and their families. We absolutely understand that your child's first year of school is one of the biggest occasions in their lives. We take our jobs very seriously, and thank you for trusting us to guide your children through this important year. We appreciate your ongoing support and conversations regarding the growth and development of your child. The positive experience of school would not be possible if we didn't have families involved. Thank you again, The Prep Team |
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This term the prep students have been investigating the human body. So far we have looked at the different systems that make up the human body:
All these amazing systems work together to enable us to function each day. Some people's bodies are extra special and amazing as we recently found out with our investigation into the Paralympics. Some people with disabilities perform tasks in the most amazing ways! Follow the link we are the real superheroes, to see what we have seen. Following this we had our own Paralympic games where we played: 'Sit Down Soccer', 'Blindfold Target Practice' & 'Superhero Relays'. We are now consolidating our learning by building our very own people! Have a look and see the students planning what they will need to build a person. I hope we don't forget anything :)
We have been learning a range of greetings, facts and specifics about the Italian language. Here are some great things we want to share with you! We look forward to sharing our understanding of Italian language with you at home and in the classroom!
As you are all aware we are in the process of redeveloping our wonderful school. This year has seen the 5/6 students move and settle in at the 'Waterfront Campus' and our amazing 3/4s shift rooms as well. Now the fun begins as it is our turn to relocate whilst our rooms get a much needed make over. Please share these images and information to your children to help us get them prepared for the move.  Some of you may recognise these door? These doors are the entrance to our temporary classroom. Can you think of where these doors are? Here's a clue - Next door is where you become super creative. Yes we will be right next door to the Art Room!  This area has been out of bounds for quite some time now. It is very exciting that our walking track will be re-opened and this area will become our line up areas! You will come to this point each morning when you arrive at school and line up here after recess and lunch time!  Mrs Holwerda, Mr Niblo and Miss Jenson will feel nice and cosy in their new office (equipped with 20+ power points!!) which will be located right in the middle of our new learning space.
As you can see there are very exciting times ahead! We will be taking the students down to the new area and discussing the move with them so they are prepared for the change. We will keep you informed to the exact date of the move.
Thank you, from all of us in the Prep Team.  What a terrific start to Term 4! The Foundation students and teachers have hit the ground running and jumped straight into their learning after a well deserved two week break. We are excited to be in our last term and it is so nice to see so many smiling faces even after Geelong were bundled out in the Preliminary Finals over the break. Writing This week we have been immersing ourselves in procedural writing texts in our endeavour to eventually publish our very own procedural text. Using our upcoming Teddy Bear Breakfast this Friday the Foundation team are looking into all types of pancake recipes. Using this text genre is an effective way to communicate to others, how to do something. Reading In our first week back, the Foundation students were using their animal comprehension strategies as they were reading. Perhaps you heard you child talk about a ‘tryin lion’, ‘stretchy snake’, ‘chunky monkey’ or ‘flippy dolphin’? No we do not have new and dangerous school pets, these are different animal cards that teach the students about the different reading strategies they can use. 1. Chunky Monkey – break the word into smaller chunks 2. Stretchy Snake – identify the sounds in the words 3. Elephant Ears – listen to hear if it makes sense 4. Eagle Eye – Look at the words and the pictures carefully 5. Skippy Frog – skip a word you are unsure of and then come back to it 6. Flippy Dolphin – try using short and long vowel sounds to see which one sounds right 7. Lips the Fish – make the initial sound with your mouth Maths Skip counting has been the main focus this week. We have been skip counting by 2’s, 5’s & even 10’s. We have made some awesome skip counting ice-cream cones, matching pictures and have challenged ourselves by choosing a challenging number to skip count on from.  Great start to the term Prep H, Prep J & Prep N!
Keep up the hard work!
Monday, 5th September students from Prep were lucky enough to be joined by special visitors at school - their Grandparents/Grandfriends. Our Grandparents arrived at 2pm and were given tours of the classroom, the DIP garden and eventually, the whole school. Students had developed a LONG list of questions that they were wondering about the past, and were able to share these answers in small groups, full of rich discussion - and even some great objects and items from home! The students and their grandparents enjoyed the 'Photo Booth Fun' and each were able to dress the other up and complete a fun photo. Students worked in classrooms and the DIP garden, sharing work that they are proud of and learning about 'how the Past is different from the Present'. The biggest Thank You to all of our EXTRA special visitors today - we are so happy to be able to offer this experience to our students and appreciate you all taking the time to join us at school.
 One of the most valuable components to student learning is the understanding and use of new vocabulary. The prep team have incorporated into their lessons the use of a Maths Vocabulary Wall, where students are able to refer to key words we learn each week and use them in their maths investigations. As a class, we use the Maths Vocabulary Wall during our explicit teaching and particularly during our active reflections. Each Foundation classroom has one of these and the words change each week depending on the topic being taught. Last week we were learning about capacity and the students enjoyed using our wall to help them write these new words and to celebrate their successful learning.
"If students do not have the vocabulary to talk about maths concepts and skills, they can not make progress in understanding these areas of mathematical knowledge." - Michele S Weiner For further information about Mathematics Word Walls, please follow the link to: Maths Word Walls.  This week at CSPS the whole school has completed a form of assessment, known as 'The Big Write'. The Big Write sees the whole school completing a narrative piece, unassisted, from a prompt (see left). The prompt was sent home in the school diary, posted in the school newsletter and then discussed the 'day before' and 'day of' the Big Write. These assessments are completed once a term and allow for teachers to monitor their class progress, whole cohort (year level) and the whole school. Whilst these tasks highlight student outcomes, they also provide rich information about the teaching and learning required for students to be successful and proficient in each area. Students complete their narrative after a planning session, where students have the opportunity to discuss and unpack their ideas and how this might look, when writing. From there, students write their narrative independently, including drawing an accompanying picture to enhance understanding and ideas. Students then share their idea to the teacher where it is written on a post-it note to ensure meaning is made when assessing. As a school, CSPS prides itself on the consistent approach that teams have to both teaching and learning. Part of this process is moderating an assessment task, where we are able to find exemplar pieces that demonstrated each level of learning and understanding and to clarify how and why students might be placed there. This allows for consistency across teams and whole school, and aids the transition process from year to year. If you would like to know more about assessment, see this link to the Department's website. We are so proud of all of our students completing this task. Each student has been able to celebrate growth with their writing and we look forward to working with our students to progress further and become great authors! Here are some examples of students from Prep H, Prep J and Prep N's completed Big Writes! Firstly, a big welcome back from all of us. We hope you had a relaxing and safe break and are ready to go for an exciting semester 2!  The Magic 100 Words (M100W) and More Magic Words feature the 100 and 101-200 most frequently used words in reading and writing. Did you know that: The first 12 most frequently occurring words appear so often they make up on average, one quarter or one in every four words. The next 20 most commonly used words, together with the first 12 words, make up on average one third of all words in reading and writing. The remaining 68 most frequently occurring words, make up the 100 most important words in learning to read. They account for one half of the words that we use in reading and writing.
Please Note We assess students on their magic words at school regularly and often use them for tasks, so it is important that students keep their magic words in their take home folder and bring them to school everyday. Once students can recall their magic word set they will move onto the next colour set of words.  |
AuthorKellie Holwerda 
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