Term 2

Numeracy Weeks 8-9

Over the past two weeks, our Foundation students have been busy exploring lots of exciting maths concepts in class!

We’ve been learning all about the Days of the Week and how different activities happen during different parts of the day. Students enjoyed acting out morning, afternoon, and night-time routines — it was a great way to understand time in a fun and hands-on way.

In number work, we have focused on partitioning numbers and combining collections of 10 and beyond. One of our favourite activities was Shake and Spill, where students used counters to explore all the different ways to make a number. This helped them build strong number sense and confidence in understanding parts of a whole.

We also learned about positional language using words like next to, in front of, behind, above, and under. Students had a blast describing and showing where objects were placed around the classroom — lots of laughs and learning!

Another highlight was counting collections. This has become a popular part of our numeracy routine, where students worked with different materials like buttons, counters, and blocks to count accurately. It's been a wonderful way to practise counting strategies and become experts at grouping and keeping track.

students are engaging with partitioning and combining a collection of 10 to represent it in different ways

Literacy Weeks 8-9

This fortnight has seen students exploring a new genre - Procedural Texts. They were able to engage in different language experiences which allowed them to follow the steps of instructions to complete a task. Some of these included making fairy bread, decorating a biscuit, and various art activities. Students were able to explain the different action verbs that were used to complete the task and use these verbs to in their writing. They have also used the mentor text - Wombat Stew to further explore instructions. They have identified the different Australian animals in the book and explained the action verb they used when adding ingredients to the stew. These included scooping, digging, dropping, snapping up, and shaking.

In phonics, students have continued to consolidate their level 1 and level 2 sounds, and use these sounds to read and write different words. They also investigated the difference between vowels and consonants. Students know that when making a vowel sound, it's important to make sure our mouths are open wide so they can make the sound correctly.

Directed Discovery Weeks 8-9

Designing

Before students were able to create their projects, students spent time designing what they would construct and the materials they would need. They showed fantastic team work when negotiating and sharing their ideas.

Creating

The long awaited weeks are now here where students have begun creating their projects! In these pictures, you can see students constructing and of course playing with their creations.

Directed Discovery Weeks 5-7

Questioning

Students have used their interest based play to hone in on a topic of choice. They then created groups of similar interests to discuss questions for their inquiry process

Researching

With their questions locked in, students used technology to research their topics and find out answers. Check out the fighter jet group above!

Researching

Students learned safe ways of using technology to google and find videos relating to their questions. Here we see the crystal group researching away

Here is the dog shelter group. They have made a dog kennel for the toy dog including food and water bowls.

This is the space group who have created planets from our solar system around the sun.

We can't forget about the footy group! The boys are creating their own footy trading cards and writing player stats on the back.

Numeracy Week 5-7

Over the past few weeks, our Foundation students have been busy exploring lots of exciting maths topics!

We have been learning about part-part-whole—breaking numbers into parts and putting them back together again. The children enjoyed using counters and number stories to show different ways to make a number.

In data, we collected information about our favourite things and made simple graphs to show what we found. Students loved asking each other questions and sharing their results.

Our counting collection lessons were a big hit! Each week, we counted groups of objects. Students were so proud to show their thinking and explain how they counted.

We also worked on subitising, which means quickly seeing how many items are in a group without counting one by one. We played lots of fun games to practise this skill.

To finish our unit, we used all our learning to help us with building a city using subitising numbers and Unifix cubes. Students created different towers based on numbers they saw quickly, building cities full of colourful towers!

It has been wonderful to see our students enjoy maths and confidently share their learning with their peers!

Students are practising on their subitizing skills by buidling a city with unifix cubes.

students are building team work while exploring numbers and enhancing subitizing skills

Students practised part-part whole by solving a worded problem

literacy Weeks 5-7

Over the last couple of weeks, students have continued to explore information texts and recalling important information about different farm animals. They have been learning about the text features of information texts and the purpose of these to help the reader understand what they are reading. Our main focus has been on the following features: title, diagram with labels, and factual sentences. We also explored the difference between a fact and an opinion (a fact is something that can be proven and an opinion is something we think or feel.

We have been using our new information about farm animals to construct factual sentences that include a 'who' and 'what doing'. EG: Hens lay eggs. We have begun extending our sentences to include subject specific vocabulary to give the audience more information. EG: Hens lay eggs in a hatch. This week, we applied all this knowledge to create our own farm animal fact file. These will be made into class books and be put on display in the school library.

In phonics, students have continued to develop their skills by consolidating the sounds we have learnt so far this year, and using them to read and write words. We have been working on our segmenting and blending skills by stretching out the sounds and snapping them back together.

Directed Discovery Weeks 3-4

Here are some pictures of students progress in Directed Discovery. It is great seeing students embark in new interests this term.

Weeks 3-4 LITERACY

What an exciting fortnight it’s been in Foundation! One of the highlights was our farm excursion based on our literacy unit 'fact files'. Students had the opportunity to get up close with real animals and experience life on the farm firsthand. There were plenty of “wow” moments like watching cows being milked, spotting a cheeky pig rolling in the mud, and learning how farmers care for their animals. This experience brought our classroom learning to life and sparked rich discussions, curiosity, and wonder.

Back in the classroom, we continued our focus on reading comprehension, using engaging mentor texts about farm animals. The students practised recalling main ideas and key facts, building their knowledge of each animal through guided reading and class discussions. They also explored Tier 3 vocabulary and recorded their learning in Showbie by answering comprehension questions linked to each text.

In phonics, students have been consolidating their understanding of letter sound relationships and applying these to read and write more complex words. Students getting better at tapping, stretching, and snapping sounds, and are becoming more confident blending and segmenting CVC and CCVC words.

Week 3-4 Numeracy

Over the past fortnight, our Foundation students have been busy extending their number knowledge in fun and meaningful ways. We explored concepts such as identifying numbers that come before and after, ordering numbers, and understanding which numbers are bigger or smaller. Through engaging games and hands-on activities, students practised comparing and sequencing numbers confidently.

We also introduced the exciting world of data collection! Students learned what data means and how it helps us learn more about each other and the world around us. They became little researchers by asking their classmates simple questions such as "Do you like the colour pink?" or "Do you go to the beach?" and then recorded the responses. This gave them a chance to practise speaking, listening, and representing information in different ways.

It’s been a wonderful fortnight of discovery, with students actively participating and sharing their thinking. We’re so proud of their enthusiasm and growing confidence in numeracy!

Weeks 1-2 Directed Discovery

Directed Discovery has started off with a bang this term! Students have immersed themselves with new resources and materials to play and create in this initial stage of inquiry.

Students use questioning and researching to explore their interests of the world through collaborative play.

Students have been showing amazing team work and have been outstanding in our focus school value this term of responsibility when sharing materials, being safe with the toys and cleaning up the classroom.

WEEKS 1-2 NUMERACY

Over the past fortnight, our young mathematicians have been busy exploring teen numbers. The students created vibrant teen number posters, where they represented each number in different ways – including numerals, words, tens and ones, pictures, and tally marks. This helped build a deeper understanding of what makes up a teen number.

We also had fun working with missing numbers on number lines, where students used their number knowledge and clues to complete number sequences.

Another popular activity has been counting collections – it’s been wonderful to see the excitement and growth in students’ ability to group and count objects with increasing confidence.

In addition to number work, we introduced the concept of length. Through engaging, hands-on tasks such as “How long is my shoe?” and bean bag throw challenges, students measured, compared, and discussed length using everyday language and objects around them. These activities not only developed their measurement skills but also encouraged mathematical thinking and problem-solving.

It’s been an exciting fortnight of learning through fun and exploration!

WEEKS 1-2 LITERACY

The students have 'hit the ground running' as they settle back into their phonics and developing their skills to read more complicated words, including CVC (dog) and CCVC (spin) words.

The new term also saw students explore a new genre - Information Texts. They have been learning about the difference between fiction and non fiction books and explaining the different features they have. As we prepare for our excursion next week, we have been looking at living and non living things in our environment and classifying what something needs to do to be considered living:

grows
needs energy
breathes air
needs water

We have also been continuing to develop our understanding of what makes a sentence and using farm vocabulary to develop simple sentences. We are locating 'who' we might see at the farm and 'what do' - EG: cows make milk. We can not wait to learn more about farm animals and explore their purpose on the farm.

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