foundation 2024

Hi Foundation families,

It's hard to believe that it's term 4 already!

This term our integrated studies unit is 'On the Move'. Foundation students will look at the forces of push and pull, and transport. 

There has been a slight change to our Specialist Timetable. FA will now have PE on a Tuesday and Performing Arts on a Thursday. FB will now have Performing Arts on a Tuesday and PE on a Thursday. 

We thank you for your continued support,

Catherine Churchward and Robyn Heeps

English

This term we are continuing to use SMART Foundation as a meaningful sequence to teach sounds and letters from a 'Word of the Week' and to teach common words from the 'Sentence of the Week'.

This term students will continue to build on their developing reading skills to deepen their knowledge about texts and further extend their love and enjoyment of reading. They will be guided to develop a set of problem-solving strategies to search for and use information to read with accuracy and understanding. This includes using visual information, learning about language structure, and solving unknown words by learning to analyse individual letter sounds and letter clusters.

We encourage the students to continue to 'have-a-go' at writing through weekend recounts and everyday writing experiences at home that reflect their personal interests and ideas. This term students will be creating simple informative texts consisting of pictorial representations and short statements. We continue to stress the correct formation of upper and lower case letters and the correct use of punctuation.

How to support your child at home: 

• reading daily with your child

• noticing details in the pictures and talking about these will help your child to

understand what the story is about and to anticipate words in the text

• continue to encourage your child to write for authentic purposes. They can write

cards, shopping lists, invitations, labels, and recounts of special events.

• support your child to write by assisting them with sounding out the words, rather than

spelling the words for them

• encourage them to draw pictures and then label the picture and/or write about what

they have drawn

• model writing practice. Ensure your child sees you writing for particular purposes to

show them that there is a need to learn how to write

• talking about stories that happen in your own family's life. Telling stories orally helps to

support the structure of stories in written form

• encourage their fine motor development by providing opportunities to complete

threading, coloring in, play-doh, craft, and cut and paste activities.

Mathematics

This term we will be continuing to focus on topics that cover the five strands in the new Victorian Mathematics Curriculum 2.0: Number, Algebra, Measurement, Space and and Statistics. Focus topics this term will be counting, teen numbers, addition, subtraction, measuring and simple data collection and representation.

How to support your child at home:

• including your child in everyday mathematical situations e.g. counting objects in a

shopping bag, getting the right number of cutlery to set the table etc.

• whenever your child is practising maths in a real-life scenario such as counting their

toys or helping to make a cook, encourage them to talk about the strategies and skills

they are using.

• encourage your child to represent a range of numbers in lots of different ways. They

can use toys, food items, or even outdoor materials

• when you or your child see a number in your environment, e.g. on a sign, ask your child

to identify that number would be one less or one more

• talk about the days of the week and also the months of the year. Talking about events

that you have on particular days or times of the year will help your child to begin to

understand the concept of time

• identifying simple 2D and 3D shapes around your home and the environment

Integrated Studies

This term we will be investigating farms and farm products. Through this unit there are three key facts that will be developed: Through the exploration of these three key facts, students will gain an understanding that all food comes from either a plant or animal. They will be able to identify which foods come from which source, and the particular parts of animals and plants we use or eat.

Running alongside our Farm unit, students will also be investigating the weather around them. Through this unit, the students' understandings of the weather will be developed. We will be integrating these topics into our Literacy and Numeracy learning as much as we can.