Prep | Kindergarten News

Time to Play!

Our Kindergarten boys are enjoying coming to school between 8:00-8:30am ready to play. We encourage you to drop your son at school between these times to give them the opportunity to play with their friends. All boys need to be at school by 8:30am

Mathematics

During mathematics we have been exploring different ways to explore the concepts of addition and subtraction in play. We have been playing games such as snakes and ladders, domino bingo and roll the dice. We have been exploring numbers using number charts, ten frames, counters, unifix blocks, tens and ones cubes to name a few.

We know that there are lots of different ways to represent and use addition and subtraction. Some examples include in our pretend kitchen, when finding a car park, in finger play songs (like 5 Cheeky Monkeys) and when marking the roll each morning.

Literacy

We are progressing through our Initial Lit Program and are now able to make more connections to our real world. We are continuing to consolidate our knowledge of the following sounds and tricky words:

Single sounds: m, s, r, a, o, f, i, c, t, d, h, n, e, g

Tricky words: I, the, my, as, is, they, that, was, said, are, was, and

The boys are now able to use their knowledge of the above sounds and tricky words to write more interesting sentences like:

The dot was flat.

They are fit.

I was at the hot red mat.

It is a delight to observe the boys’ excitement as they are beginning to read and write with more confidence.

How the World Works 

The students have been actively engaged in a range of different learning experiences that encouraged them to take on the role of a scientist, exploring the properties of different materials and how these properties determine the function of an item (through the lens of conceptual connections).

Thus far, we have explored:

• The form of different materials
• The properties of waterproof materials and absorbent materials
• The properties of flexible materials and rigid materials
• The properties of hard materials and soft materials
• How to combine our knowledge of form and function to design and create a library bag.

Students have been asked to justify, explain and evaluate their designs. Stay tuned as we test our designs next week.

Supporting Your Son as an Inquirer at Home

A key goal of the Kindergarten program is to develop students’ ability to inquire and be meaningful participants and drivers in their learning journey.

You can support your son to develop his ability as an inquirer at home through the following activities:

• Continuing conversations about our current Unit of Inquiry that is being explored in class, at home.
• Talking about the value of being an inquirer in different contexts
• Asking your son about his learning goals
• Encourage your son to follow his interests and curiosities at home
• Encourage and model a range of different communication skills
• Support your son to develop research skills by visiting the Library, museums, cultural events etc.
• Ask your son if he would like to share and celebrate his inquiries with his extended family or friends
• Start a family inquiry project where you learn alongside your son to find out answers, research, think deeply and come to conclusions that allow him to put his knowledge into action.

Mandarin

Boys continued with the UOI unit “How the World Works” by exploring various material words in Mandarin, with the focus on the materials used frequently in Asia such as bamboo and stone.

We have been looking at a wide range of images (e.g. the animal fur/feather used for the calligraphy brushes and the shuttlecocks) and discussing the materials, function of the materials and the reasons why they are used in certain ways.

The skill of recognising spoken and written Chinese material words has been a focus these weeks. Beginning learners chose the matching images after listening to the teacher’s pronunciation and the heritage learners read the Pinyin words with the visual support.

Boys also continued to practice their writing skills by labelling the given images the correct words in Pinyin and Hanzi forms.