Prep | Pre-Kindergarten News
Unit of Inquiry
This term, our Unit of Inquiry focuses on: Stories can be shared through different forms of expression. The students had a range of different prior knowledge in regard to our Central Idea.
To provoke the students’ thinking, the Pre-Kindergarten Team put on a lively performance of ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’. We discussed the setting (where the story happens), the characters and the role of the narrator. The boys enjoyed the performance and were eager to retell the story themselves in various ways that included: acting it out in the playground, using toys to tell the story and making Billy Goat shadow puppets.
The key questions we have been focusing on are:
- What is a story?
- How do stories make us feel?
- What do you need to tell a story?
- Who are the characters?
- What is the setting?
We look forward to exploring a range of different storytelling forms, looking at the varied perspectives in different stories and forming connections between different stories.
Literacy
We continue to develop our early literacy skills as we blend three sounds together from print to make spoken words. The boys are becoming experts at stretching out simple words – sound by sound and then putting the word back together.
We have been introduced to the letter sound /h/, focusing on the /h/ sound at the beginning of words such as hat, ham and hit. When learning initial sounds, the boys are asked to identify pictures that begin with the same sound (all the pictures that start with the /h/ sound). We have also been introduced to the letter sound /u/, including the identification of /u/ as a beginning sound in words with the aid of pictures.
The boys have been identifying these sounds /g/, /d/, /t/, /m/ in the end of words such as mug, red, cut, gum. Ask your son to identify the starting sound in familiar words.
Our shared reading text has been ‘Stuck’ by Oliver Jeffers. We have enjoyed reading this story, sequencing the events that occur and making predictions during the story. The boys have been able to make connections between this story and other books written by Oliver Jeffers.
Numeracy
What is a square?
We have been investigating the concept of shapes and thinking about the different ways to identify shapes, including naming basic shapes. We looked at what shapes that we could make using a square piece of paper, using our creative thinking skills to create our own shape masterpieces.
To extend our understanding, we have been using pop sticks to form common shapes – noting how many edges and corners different shapes had.
Music
In Music this term the boys will be inquiring into the transdisciplinary unit How We Express Ourselves. They will be focusing on the Key Concepts of Form, Connection and Perspective as they learn the repertoire for the Alphabet Christmas Play. To assist the boys to memorise the words we are making connections between actions and words and investigating how this assists us to communicate meaning to an audience. They are continuing to work on their vocal skills by singing with good intonation, clear pronunciation, correct rhythm and incorporating some dynamic contrasts as well. The boys are looking forward to the presentation in Week 7.
Christian Studies
Celebrations like Christmas are a wonderful time of the year. Every family has different stories to share that bring back amazing memories. This term, the boys are exploring the Christmas story through the eyes of the different people involved. The boys will be using their thinking and communication skills to unpack the various characters involved in the Christmas story including Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men and the angels. The boys will be learning some Christmas songs that they will be sharing at the Christmas family carols night in week 8. They will be creating their own Nativity scene over the term to help them remember the message of Christmas. In Chapel, we will be investigating how we celebrate Christmas – do we have the story correct and what place do food, feasting and fellowship have? How can all these wonderful aspects enhance our experience of Christmas without taking away from the central message of Jesus’ birth.
Mandarin
Pre-Kindergarten boys continue to develop their growing understanding of greeting words and common conversational phrases in Mandarin this term. They are motivated to create their own wonders and discoveries through symbolic exploration, singing, storytelling and role playing with hand puppets.
By integrating simple Chinese characters “Hanzi” into the book illustrations of “The Pet Dragon”, the boys embark their journey into the fascinating world of Chinese culture and pictographs. Pictographs are the most basic form of “Hanzi” which were originally pictures of phenomena in the natural world. They encounter how stories are shared in different forms of expression through a variety of learning experiences during Mandarin lessons.
