Welcome to week 6 and can you believe, the middle of our final school term for the year? Time really does fly when you’re having fun. It’s been a busy time in Prep with lots of learning as well as exciting things happening both in the classroom and wider community.  

So far this term we have loved having Bishop Joe come and visit us, performing our own version of Little Red Riding to share an important safety message on Day for Daniel at assembly, our visit from Andrew Chinn, and Ride to School Day. We are also excitedly preparing for our upcoming annual Starry Night performance which we cannot wait to show you.  

In English, we’ve been exploring retell and have been loving listening to stories and then being able to retell them in our own words through writing and oral expression. We have also been working so hard at consolidating all of our letters, sounds and tricky words learnt across the year and are using these in both our reading and writing.  

In Maths, we’ve been focusing on a range of topics including money, measuring in both capacity and mass, and of course consolidating our number sense to 20 and beyond. We love using hands on manipulatives to explore these topics like getting out play money, playing games, using our balance scales and water trough with a range of containers, and much more. It’s always so great seeing the children so thoroughly engaged and enjoying their learning.  

During Science with Mrs Dore, we’ve been exploring motion and again have participated in a range of hands on activities to see how things move in a range of different ways. It’s also been a fantastic area for us to practise our speaking and communicative skills as we share thoughts, ideas and explore concepts in groups.  

Geography has been lots of fun this term where we have been exploring the world around us, and taken a good look at maps and compasses. We have been learning all about the important parts of a map including the key and different symbols, and we’ve looked closely at Australia and where we sit on the map.  

Music has been a whirlwind of excitement this term as we have been exploring the tempo, volume and composition of music. We loved experimenting last week with body percussion to different styles of music. This week we get to have a close look at different instruments and how we can use our knowledge of different musical concepts to compose our own music.  

PE and Health are always a favourite of ours each week. This term sees us looking at a range of different ball games learning some of the basic rules and foundational skills to play each one. We have loved so far looking at AFL, volleyball, basketball and soccer and look forward to the games to come too. Health takes us on an exploration of respectful and positive interactions with others and how we can be respectful and mindful of the emotions of others in our own communications as well.  

Technologies has been all about data this term with Mrs Dore and we have loved learning all about collecting data, analysing it and turning it into information. We have been using a range of programs to record and communicate this data to others.  

AUSLAN this term sees us continuously building our toolkits of short phrases and words to communicate. We have loved this subject this year and are very grateful to be able to participate in life long learning skills that we can take anywhere with us.  

We are in our final unit of Religion for the year and one of our favourites. We have been learning all about special celebrations in the church and have loved taking a close look at the Nativity. We are learning all about Christmas and how we celebrate the birth of baby Jesus, as well as other special events held in the church. We have also learnt about other special events like Baptism and enjoyed going over to the church to find some of the things we have been learning about associated with this special time. These have included the Baptismal candle, font, and we event got to have a little smell of the oils used.  

Lots of exciting learning happening this term along with the weather most definitely heating up. A gentle reminder to continue sending in hats and water bottles and a nice early bedtime to help get us through the remainder of the term.  

Again, thank you for your continued support and positive partnerships throughout the year. We truly are grateful for the wonderful parent community we have in Prep and it has been a pleasure being on your child’s first year of schooling journey with you. As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me either via SeeSaw or at kbackhouse@cns.catholic.edu.au  

Many thanks, 

Miss Backhouse and Miss Rachael