Prep Teaching Team

Term 2 Curriculum

Welcome to Term Two of Prep at North Melbourne PS!

Congratulations to all our families and students on a positive return into school life. The first week back has been exciting, with students re-establishing classroom friendships and continuing their enthusiasm for learning in an inclusive environment. The teachers are feeling really proud of the students’ achievements thus far and are looking forward to another successful term.

Here are some ideas to continue developing independence:

• Encourage students to pack their own bags, home readers and lunchboxes.
• Ensure your child knows how to dress themselves. Can they remove their own jumper and zip up their own jacket? Can they tie their shoelaces? We suggest velcro shoes – or lots of practice with laces! – if they have not learned this skill yet.
• Continue to read with your child every night as well as practising letter sounds or magic words.

Please find an overview of the term’s subjects below:

WORD STUDY

This term students will continue to develop their letter-sound knowledge by consolidating what they have already learned and introducing new sounds and words, including digraphs, blends, word to compound-word blending, and high frequency words.

READING

In Reading this term, Preps will continue to participate in the Guided Reading process and utilise the foundational skills required for independent reading e.g. segmenting and blending words.

Students will also experience modelled reading, where the teacher reads aloud and demonstrates skilled reading behaviours, enjoyment and interest in a range of different styles of writing and texts. Children will also participate in the shared reading of a book, following along as the teacher reads and pointing at words to develop their understanding of letters, words and sentences. 

The comprehension strategies that students will focus on this term include visualising (creating pictures from a text) and making inferences using key information from a text.

Take-home readers will be sent home daily and we encourage you to enjoy this time with your child. These texts should be used to ensure your child grows in confidence and develops a love of reading. In reading sessions at school, students will be supported by their classroom teacher to read instructional texts. The texts utilised at school will be more challenging than those brought home each afternoon, to allow your child to practise applying their decoding and comprehension skills. You are also welcome to read beyond the take-home readers. Please record any books read in the yellow home reading log for your child’s teacher to see.

WRITING

Students have built up their confidence in unpacking a seed to exhibit their ideas through drawing pictures and labelling. In Term Two, students will utilise what they have learned from Word Study last term to become more independent writers. Their writing should demonstrate some evidence of letter-sound relationships which can be read phonetically. Teachers will continue to guide students when unpacking a seed through classroom discussions, where students can share their ideas and understandings of the topic. 

To further build upon their writing skills, students will be taught to put together a series of words and phrases to form a sentence. Teachers will model how to apply the ‘magic words’ (high frequency words) that they have learned during Reading to attempt at creating their own sentence, but also to re-read their writing. Students will continue to develop their ability to become independent writers, when having a conference with the teacher once a week. 

Throughout the term, students will continue to participate in fine motor activities where they will further solidify the mechanics of writing such as correct pencil grip, good writing posture and letter formation. 

SPEAKING AND LISTENING

To support our Speaking and Listening outcomes, this term we will be focusing on developing students’ skills in responding to texts, including identifying their favourite stories, authors and illustrators. They will share their feelings and thoughts about the events and characters in a variety of texts. Students will deliver short oral presentations to peers, using appropriate voice levels, articulation, body language, gestures and eye contact.

MATHS

This term, there will be a focus on consolidating foundational number knowledge. To begin with, students will develop their sense of directionality by learning different positional terms and using these to give and follow directions.

Students will be counting forwards and backwards up to 10 initially and then eventually beyond 10. They will also use their understanding of numbers to be able to compare collections using the terms ‘more’, ‘less’ and ‘same as’. Students will be exposed to a variety of engaging learning activities that will require them to work with a partner and use their reasoning skills to justify their responses.

As they move through the term, students will explore 2D and 3D shapes in their environment, being able to recognise, name and describe the properties of the most common shapes. 

All learning will be modelled by the teacher and then students will be given time to independently explore the topic. During independent learning times, concrete materials such as counters and blocks will be available to support learning. The activities planned will have multiple entry points and will be differentiated to ensure all students are supported and challenged with their learning.

OTHER LEARNING AREAS (History, Respectful Relationships)

This term, we will be continuing our focus on Respectful Relationships and beginning to focus on History. 

In Respectful Relationships, we will continue to work on social and emotional understanding and regulation to help promote positive and respectful behaviours both in and outside of the classroom. 

In History, our Prep students will begin to understand the difference between the past and the present and how changes over time have affected our daily lives. They will sequence significant events in their lives in order to explore their personal history.

Towards the end of the term, we will have our Toys Over Time incursion. Please look on Compass for all the information about and how to pay for this incursion.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher.

Thank you, 

The Prep Team

Prep A Gladys Yun

Prep B Sarah Thwaites 

Prep C Jonny Mercer 

Prep D Breanna Chapman 

Prep E Yolanda Andrews (M-W) and Mollie McMahon (Th-F)

Prep F Hilary Guymer