Term 2 Learning

It is hard to believe that we are three weeks into the term already. We have been very busy consolidating old concepts and learning new ones. As you are probably all aware, this Term is a short one of only nine weeks. We will be very busy trying to fit all our learning in.

LITERACY

Phonemic Awareness:
We have been looking at long words and short words; learning how to identify what makes words long and short (letters, number of syllables etc) we will also be starting to blend syllables together to make words soon.

Phonics:
This term we are focusing on blends. Blends are 2 letters that come together and we hear both sounds. Examples of blends are fl like flag, sl like slip, dr like drum etc. we are learning to recognise the blend in order to identify it in words and also generating words containing the blend.

Sight words:
We have now consolidated the golden words and have taught the red words. We are about half way through the blue words. Your child’s sight word folder will have the sight words in that your child is learning. Please note that we will not give your child more until they are ready. Ready doesn’t mean they can read them in the folder. Ready means that they understand the word and can use it in context e.g a sentence, they can recognise the word within texts and read within isolation. Simply remembering its position in the sight word folder is not learning it.

Reading:
We have been working on some simple reading strategies to help your child learn to read. These are

Eagle eye: look at the picture for clues
Fish lips: look at the beginning sound of the word to try and help work out the word (using picture as support)
Stretchy snake: stretch out the sounds in the word e.g. sh-i-p

Please support your child with reading by practising at home using the readers provided and also by reading to your child to model fluency and expression.

 Oral Language:

Mystery Box: There is currently a mystery box making it's way around. Each night we are sending the box home with one student. Please support and encourage them to put an object into the box (no toys) and think about some clues to describe it. Students then return the box the following day and the class will attempt to guess what is inside.

We aren't sure yet what it is

A Batman cave

Team Building Challenge...

Make something that moves.

A Helicopter and a Jet

An Elephant

Writing:
Writing is always the last area to develop. We have looked at basic writing conventions (left to right, top to bottom) and are now focusing on the writing itself. Now that we have taught the 26 letter sounds of the alphabet, we are encouraging students to have a go at using them in their writing. Students are encouraged to spell phonetically (using sounding out) as a strategy for beginning writing. At this stage of student learning we would expect to see them have a go at writing with some evidence of letter sounds.

Spelling:
We will be beginning to introduce spelling simple sight words such as: I, it, a, to, etc to support students with their writing. We have already been practising spelling simple 3 letter CVC words like cat, Mum, bag etc. please bear in mind that with spelling any words, the general rule is that students must have learnt to recognise and use the word orally 6 months prior to being able to spell it. We will start with spelling the ‘golden words’ as these were introduced in Kindy and have been re-taught in Term 1 of Pre Primary.



MATHEMATICS

In Mathematics our main focus in number has been with the numbers 0-10. This has included the number sequence, the number before and after, number formation, making collections, and comparing collections to determine more, less and the same.

This term we have moved onto statistics and probability. We have been looking at graphing, sorting into categories, tallying and collecting data.

We are now moving onto a concept called partitioning. This concept is where we break a number into parts for example; 4 is made up of 3 and 1, or 2 and 2, or 4 and 0 etc. we will be using lots of objects to help us understand this concept as it is a tricky one. Partitioning is a very important building block in order to help students later with addition and subtraction and also place value.

Making 4

Popstick partitioning

Before, between and after

Number Bonds

SCIENCE

This term in Science we will be looking at the weather and seasons. We will be looking at the symbols for different weather conditions, how the weather changes, what we wear in different weather and how the weather affects what we do.

We will be creating a science project towards the end of term. If any parents have unwanted shoe boxes, these will be perfect for our project. Please collect them and bring them in.