PREP!	What’s on in Term 1?
Important Dates   Monday 14th March Labour Day long weekend   Tuesday 15th March Curriculum Day Wednesday 16th March       Preps start on Wednesdays Take home readers   Thursday 17th March Reading for Life workshop 7pm   Wednesday 23rd March Supreme Incursions- Brickworks   Wednesday 30th March        School Photo Day   Friday 1st April Term 2 Parent Helper workshop 9am                                                       Wednesday 6th April Feeling Safe   Friday 8th April Last day of term     As always we will give you all the important details for these events closer to the date. Please keep an eye on the newsletter for any other dates that may come up throughout the term.	Term 1 is a very exciting time for the preps and parents. This excitement might also be mirrored with some nervousness too, which is totally normal. However, as the students settle into the school routine and begin to learn how to write, build their knowledge of reading strategies and make new friends this nervousness falls away and they begin to thrive. It is always astounding how quickly the children learn and grow. We are so excited to be a part of the first step of their school journey.   Inquiry   This term our inquiry focus is learning about social responsibility and living with other people – learning about myself and my family. We will answer questions like how are we different? How are we similar? Who is in our family? How do our differences make us stronger as a whole? Through our inquiry unit students learn how to interact successfully with others and contribute to their communities.  Literacy   Term 1 is where significant steps to establishing foundational literacy skills are made. In writing we begin with writing recounts about the students’ weekends, drawing a picture to help them visualise the information. As the student’s letter knowledge and writing stamina grows, they will begin writing sentences on their own and trying to write newer, more unfamiliar words.   Our spelling program teaches students both phonics (letter sounds) and whole word, and learning how to apply learned sounds to new words. We will begin building the students’ reading strategy toolbox. For some, it will be giving names to strategies they already use. For others, it will be completely new skills that they can use to help them start their reading journey. Each area of literacy helps support learning in the others.     Maths   Our focus in maths for term 1 is exploring numbers 1-10 and assigning value to these numbers. We are highly aware of the range of abilities and knowledge the students bring to the classroom, and as such we ensure our maths lessons and tasks are open-ended to tailor for all students. This open-endedness allows for us to support students who are still developing their knowledge, and extend those who already have a grasp of these concepts. We also build fine-motor skills, and look at shape and measurement once the number concepts have been consolidated.