Prep | Pre-Kindergarten News
Unit of Inquiry
Our young learners have continued their inquiry into ‘Sharing the Planet’ by being introduced to ‘Bush Tucker’. We welcomed Ramsay, an indigenous man from Wagga Wagga, to our learning environment. He shared with us his knowledge and showed a selection of plants that indigenous people use for food, medicine, and practical activities.
We were able to use our senses to touch, feel, smell and sometimes taste the leaves of the plants.
Marcus: “Mine smells like basil.”
Andy: “It smells like forest.”
Aston: “It feels spiky and rough.”
Colin: “It’s very tickly.”
Milan: “It looks like gingerbread.”
Everyone had the opportunity to plant a native plant into the garden beds in our playground.
Noah: “First we sit down and learn what the plant’s name is. Then we dig a big hole we put the plant in and then we covered it. Then we watered it. So it can grow really really tall and we can pick the berries.”
Zion: “We plant some flowers and grow some vegetables. We need them be safe and be respectful to them.”
Ashton: “Planting the bush tucker. One of them was purple and on the top it was green. It smelled like pepper.”
We continued to develop the conceptual understandings of connection and responsibility during this learning experience.
Numeracy
We have been developing our one-to-one correspondence. One-to-one correspondence refers to the matching of one object to another (corresponding) number word that are the same elements of a collection. This is an important foundational skill for early learners.
Whilst developing one-to-one correspondence, the students have been encouraged to develop their subitizing skills (recognizing and naming the number in a group without counting).
We have been playing lots of board games and group games using dice that help to develop both of these mathematical skills. We particularly enjoy playing snakes and ladders together.
Literacy
During our intentional teaching, we have been focusing on:
- Identifying rhyming words in books (for example: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss)
- Oral blending of three sounds (for example: c – a – t = cat)
- Letter sound /o/
- Looking at the /m/ sound at the beginning and end of words (for example: mat, mop, ham, Tim)
- Letter sound /g/
- Identifying letter sound /g/ at the beginning of words (for example: ga
- Looking at the /d/ sound at the beginning and end of words (for example: dot, dip, nod, rad)
We have been practising writing our names using the correct letter formation. It is important that the students are learning to write letters correctly (starting in the correct spot and going in the correct direction).
Book Parade
The Book Parade was a highlight for our Pre-Kindergarten boys. The boys represented their favourite characters, wearing some amazingly creative costumes.
We enjoyed spending time with our Year Five Buddies during the week. Our Buddies helped us to reflect on the parade, talk about different characters and even helped us to design a book cover together.
Mandarin
This term in Mandarin the Pre-Kindergarten boys are inquiring into the traits of living things through drawing, storytelling, mini animal skit and other play-based exploratory activities. Our focus is closely related to the “Hatch and Grow” programme and the close connections between “panda-xiong mao” and its habitat/diet “bamboo-zhu zi”.
In the coming two weeks, the boys are introduced to Chinese food culture which involves some traditional cutlery and cookware made from bamboo such as chopsticks and steamers. The boys enjoyed learning about “Lan Zhou La Mian”, a special type of hand-made Chinese noodles. Their experience of using Chinese cutlery and their attempts to make noodles from dough are truly rewarding.
Christian Studies
Boys love their superheroes. They all have a favourite, or three. Over this term, we are exploring some heroes from the Bible – people who showed amazing faith to trust God. We began the term by thinking about our favourite superheroes like Superman and Batman. We asked the questions: “how do they use their power to save people” and “ can they save everyone at the same time”? After singing about “Jesus our superhero”, we saw how Jesus can save everyone at the same time. Over the last few weeks, we have investigated some famous characters such as Joshua at Jericho, Gideon and the jug, trumpet and torch as well as the famous David and Goliath story. The boys have enjoyed learning how each person was a hero because they trusted God, even when things looked bad. The boys have spent time re-creating the stories using the figurines and blocks.
In Chapel, we are thinking about “the fruit of the Spirit”. This encourages us all to think about how we share love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control with others. We have been learning a new crazy song reminding us that the fruit of the Spirit is not a coconut, or banana but the actions that come from us to serve others. It is also encouraging for them to see other staff members come to Chapel and share their wonderful joy about Jesus with the boys.
