Wow, I cannot believe that we are halfway through the school year! Unfortunately, I was unable to be there today to wish everyone off for the holidays as I started running temperatures this morning. On another note, excitedly, today we got the news that the Prep classroom will be getting a fresh coat of paint over the school holidays!


This week in prep we spent time revising our learnt letters and sounds. I am blown away with the hard work that each child has put into their Simple Sentences. We have had a focus on going back over our writing to check for finger spaces, capital letters, full stops and that our sentences make sense.


In math we have continued to focus on number identification to 20. We have practised counting to and from 20 from any starting point. We have also revised our numbers that add to 10 (Friends of Ten). 


Thank you again to everyone who has helped out with literacy groups and sports days, the help does not go unnoticed. Have a lovely holiday and safe travels, see you all in Term 3!

Welcome to Week Nine!


During our literacy block this week we learnt the new letters and sounds for /u/ (Umbrella Up) and /b/ (Bessie Bilby). We also learnt the new 'Tricky Words' look and one. 

On Tuesday we also had a visit from Evolution Mine who sponsor the Books in Homes initiative. Every term we are lucky enough to be gifted three books to ensure that all children have the opportunity to read at home. 

We were lucky enough to have Mr Delaney come and join our class for prayer on Tuesday morning. During this time, we discussed the purpose of prayer, who we pray to and practiced the Glory Be. 

Welcome to Week Eight!


This week in literacy we learnt the new letter and sound of /k/ (Kelly Kitten). We also learnt the new 'Tricky Words' has and one.

In Science, we have continued our learning on Materials and their Properties. We have begun our assessment task designing a new enclosure that would ensure our chickens at the shed are secured, comfortable and dry. 

Buddies

Buddies: On Monday the Year 6 cohort joined our Prep friends to explore the iPad app Puppet Pals. This app allows students to retell the events of a familiar picture book in an interactive way.

During our Buddy session, the Year 6 students also lead us in prayer. Demonstrating the importance of meditation/reflection time.

Athletics Carnival

In health this term, Mrs McLauchlan has been exploring the URStrong Program on Thursdays. This program helps kids establish and maintain healthy relationships, manage conflict with kindness and increase their overall resilience. 

This week, our Little Leaders have also had two visits from our School Guidance Counselor, Miss Bec. During her visits, we have explored the Zones of Regulation and corresponding body clues as well as created a class Catastrophe Scale, identifying when Miss Brock needs to know about things and when it is something that the students can work out independently.

Welcome to Week Seven!


This week in literacy we will learn the new letter and sound of /l/ (Lou Lou ladybug). We will also be learning the new 'Tricky Words' he, me, she, he, were.


In Math, we will continue working on our number identification and counting to and from 20. We will also continue learning about numbers that you add up to 10 (Friends of Ten). This week we will also be consolidating our number knowledge, by recognising, naming and identifying objects within collections to 20.


A reminder that this Friday is the Sports Carnival. If you are able to help out on the day please let me know. 


Literacy Groups will be scheduled as usual. 

Athletics Carnival: At midday if you would like to take your child home you are more than welcome to. The remainder of students from Prep-Year 2 will come back to school with a staff member and remain in the Prep classroom until the end of the school day.

Welcome to Week 6!


What a busy week we have planned, this week in Prep we attended the Mary Help of Christians Mass on Tuesday afternoon as well as the Shake and Stir performance of The Twits on Friday. 


In Math, we will continue working on our number identification and counting to and from 20. We will also continue learning about numbers that you add up to 10 (Friends of Ten). 


In literacy, we continue to practice writing Simple Sentences. We will also learn the new letter and sound of /g/ (Gary Gecko). 


In science, we have started our new unit of work all about Materials. This week we will read the story of the Three Little Pigs and experiment with the materials they used to build their houses. 


In religion, we will explore why christians celebrate the Mary Help of Christians Mass. We will also revise the importance of prayer and what Amen means. 


Reminders:

- Next Friday the 31st of May we will have our annual Sports Carnival

Next week I will send home a laminated sheet with our learnt ‘Tricky Words’ on it. I will also print out and send home some sentences for students to practice reading. At the start of Term 3 we will begin to send readers home.


You may also access our Home Learning page to see more information.

On Friday, we had the opportunity of attending the Under 8's Day held at Cloncurry State School. Our Little Leaders participated in many rotations; rock painting, music with Uncle Hombre, dancing with Miss Jill, fossil finding, skipping just to name a few. We also had the opportunity to experience what it is like inside the emergency service vehicles. 

Where  the Wild Things Are

Welcome to Week 5!


In literacy this week our Little Leaders will learn the letter and sound for n. We will also begin to introduce our new Tricky Words that, they, are and said.


In math we will begin to look at numbers that add up to 10 using the Friends of Ten strategy and our Tens Frames.


In science we will begin our unit of work on materials and their properties.

Science: Our Chickens Have hatched!

This week we have spent time revising what living things need to survive. We named our four little chickens and discussed that they need, food, water, shelter and air to survive.

Welcome to Week Four. I cannot believe how quickly this term is flying!


This week in English we will be revising our learnt Tricky Words (I, a, you, my, the, is and was). Our Little Leaders will also learn about the new vowel letter e for Eric Elephant.


We will also introduce a Simple Sentence using the Writer's Toolbox Sentence Train, developing the understanding that a sentence starts with a capital letter, ends with a full stop and that it must make sense. We will use this train to show that a sentence starts with a subject (in the engine spot). All trains have an engine to drive the train. No train, no engine. The train also has carriages. This will be where the rest of the sentence goes. Students will also become familiar with punctuation; Capital letters and full stops. 

In math this week we are revising our familiar shapes and completing our assessment on shape attributes. We will also use this time to practice our counting to and from 20. 


In Science we are excitedly awaiting the arrival of our class chickens. Every day we have spent time watching a chicken development video and discussing what stage we are up to. We are on day 18 of 21! This week we will start to move into discussing what plants need to survive. 


To find out more about the Sentence Train and other literacy and numeracy tasks please click the button below to access the Learning at Home Page.

We will be attending the Under 8's Day celebration hosted by Cloncurry State School on Friday. 

Reminders

Please join us to celebrate the special ladies in our lives this Thursday morning at 7:45 for a Mother's Day Breakfast.

This year at St Joseph's we will be participating in the UR Strong program. UR Strong provides teachers with a friendship skills curriculum, Friendology 101, that helps kids establish and maintain healthy relationships, manage conflict with kindness and increase their overall resilience. 

Welcome to Week 3!


On Monday Prep will participate in our annual Cross Country. After marking the role, we will head to the Mary MacKillop Shed for our War Cries before moving into our age groups. In the middle session Prep will join with their Year 6 buddies to complete rotation activities in celebration of St Joseph’s the Worker Feast Day.


During literacy rotations this week  (Starting Tuesday) we will continue to explore putting our learnt sounds together to make words, practising our letter formation and revising our learnt ‘Tricky Words’ by sounding out the parts we know and identifying the tricky bits. We will also learn about the letter d and identify the sound it makes.


In maths this week Prep will continue their unit of work on shapes. We will revise shapes and their attributes and move into identifying differences between common 2D and 3D shapes.

During science this week we will continue watching and discussing the changes that occur as our chickens grow. We will also revise what the chickens will need to survive: food, air, water, shelter. Next week we will start to talk about plants as living things and begin to grow some plants with our Year 6 buddies.


In religion Prep have been discussing different celebrations in the Catholic Church. As Wednesday is St Joseph’s the Worker feast Day we will spend time learning about this celebration and why we celebrate it here at St Joseph’s Cloncurry. On Friday Prep are also going to help the Year 5 students during prayer by singing their song on assembly all about St Joseph the Worker.

St Joseph's Feast Day Celebrations


On Monday the Year 6 and 9 students joined our Preps to participate in St Joseph the Worker Feast Day celebrations. We created shrines for St Joseph and identified ways we can STRIVE to live like St Joseph.

This week in Prep, we started our literacy rotations. Thank you to the people who were able to help out.  If you are able to help out in the coming weeks  please let me know what day works best for you. Reminder that next Monday the 29th of April we will have our Cross Country. As a result, there will be no Literacy Groups on Monday morning. 


In Math, we will continue to learn about 2D shapes and their properties. 


In English, we will revise our new ‘Tricky Words’ I, the and my and continue to practice our letter formation of known letters. 


In Science this week, we will continue to discuss what living things need to survive. We will also start to explore the the life cycle of a chicken and identify facts about chickens. 


Yours in fun and learning,

Miss Brock, Mrs McLauchlan, Miss Rachel, Miss Kylie and Miss Nina

Buddies

As part of our ANZAC Day commemoration, we got together with our Year 6 Buddies to create some stained glass poppies.

Art

Over the coming weeks our Little Leaders are lucky enough to have a local artist Mrs Chaplain come in to deliver specialist Visual Art with the help of Mrs Smith our Arts teacher.

On Friday afternoon, we will excitingly be putting our eggs into the incubator!

Science

In Science this Term we are learning about living things and what they need to survive. 

Our Little Leaders have loved spending time in our Vet creative play area helping the sick animals!

Over the last week we have spent time looking at living and non living things, identifying the differences and categorising them. We have also spent time looking briefly at the life cycle of a chicken and talking about the incubator. 

And just like that day one is done! 

This morning our Little Leaders spent time singing our days of the week song and prayer, looking around the new environment and revising our learnt letters and sounds in InitiaLit. We then went outside for Brain Break and Outside play. As a class we discussed what a Fact is and identified some facts about insects. 

After first lunch, we went over some of our math songs and revised our numbers to 20 and briefly introduced shapes. Our Little Leaders finished the middle session with some Purposeful Play. 

After second lunch Prep participated in Visual Art with Mrs Smith. 

What a wonderful first day of Term 2!

Welcome to Term 2!

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Mae-Louise Brock and this is my 5th of year of teaching at St Joseph's. 

With a background in the Early Years and Foundation stage, I am looking forward to working in collaboration with you to continue the excellent start your child has made to their learning. 

There will still be several posts on Facebook throughout the year, however, to stay up to date a website will be a one stop shop for information on what is happening in the Prep space.

I'm also delighted to share with you that on Thursday each week, Sharon McLauchlan will continue taking the prep class. Although she is unable to remain in the Prep class full-time, for reasons previously disclosed, Sharon will take our wonderful cohort each Thursday.  

This week in Prep both Mrs McLauchlan and myself will be in the classroom to help with the transition.

In Numeracy our Little Leaders will be introduced to shapes. We will begin to sort, name and create familiar shapes.

During our Literacy sessions, we are very excitingly learning our first 'Tricky Words'. Tricky words are words that occur most frequently in written material. We also will learn the letter name and sound for O.

In Religion this term of Little Leaders will listen to and respond to stories of and about Jesus. They will learn about what life was like when Jesus lived.

Please feel free to contact me at mbrock3@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au 

Overview

Literacy: 

This term in Prep we will learn the letter names and sounds of o, c, d, h, e, n, g, l. We will also start to learn our first 'Tricky Words'. 'Tricky Words' are words that occur most frequently in written material. We will begin to learn the words I, the, my, a, is, was, you and to. 

Our Little Learners will listen to/for and identify rhymes, letter patterns and sounds in words. They will orally blend and segment phonemes in single syllable words.

Religion:

Students will listen and respond to stories of and about Jesus in the Gospels that tell of Jesus’ life as a Jew. They will also describe ways in which believers pray together during special celebrations and rituals that mark important times in the life of believers and in the Church Year. 

Numeracy:

We will start Term 2 learning about shapes. Our Little Learners will sort, name and create familiar shapes; recognise and describe familiar shapes within objects in the environment, giving reasons.

Science: 

In Science this term our Little Learners will explore, what living things need to stay alive and healthy. 

As part of this learning, we will be hatching chickens in an incubator. We hope to incubate about 10 eggs. I would like to put these in the incubator in the first week after the holidays. Please let me know if you have any suitable eggs.

IMPORTANT DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Week Two: 

Week Three: Monday

Week Four:

Week Seven: 

Week Nine: 

SPECIALIST LESSONS

CLASSROOM EXPECTATIONS

We operate a positive rewards system in Prep - acknowledging and rewarding the positives. Every day is a fresh start, stickers are distributed for displaying positive attitudes to learning, having a good Work Ethic and for Being a Bucket Filler.

From time to time, reminders may be necessary before consequences are applied. Learners may be given time out reflection in a Buddy Classroom, Library Detention (usually for not completing work) and communication with families if persistent poor behaviour is not improved during the school day.

When Lunchtime or Classroom issues arise between peers, restorative discussions are planned about how we can move forwards - forgiveness and move on, some time apart or restricted play areas at lunchtimes for a set period of time. Often learners keep issues to themselves and only let their families know (usually just before bedtime), if this is the case encourage your child to speak with their class teacher the next morning as this keeps us in the loop and develops effective relationships and responsibility. 

If once the class teacher has problem solved and discovered greater background information, families may be required to visit the office for consultation with our leadership team - Mrs Good, Mr Kelley, Mrs Curley or Mrs Schneekloth. It is vitally important for good dialogue between families and school and that we all promote and encourage children to take responsibility for their actions and also challenges.

Recap of Term 1:

Literacy: 

During our literacy block in Term 1 our little learners explored the letter and sounds of m, s, t, a, p, i, f.


Thank you to all our wonderful helpers this term! Literacy/numeracy groups will not begin again until week 2 of next term.


Home Learning:

It is important to continue to practice identifying these sounds in words. The students who practice their letter sounds at home definitely find it easier to identify the sounds that are needed to make words.



Buddies: 

In Term 1 Year 6 and Prep learners met weekly to participate in a range of activities. This will continue into Term 2.