Prep A - 100 Days of School

Today was our 100th Day of School!!!

As part of our celebrations, we dressed as 100 Year Olds!

Check out our amazing costumes. 

A very big thank-you to our parents for helping to make our 100th Day of school so special. 

Studyladder

Welcome back to Term Three everyone!

I have signed all students up to 'Studyladder'.
Studyladder is a K-6 web based educational program designed by teachers. The program is curriculum based and covers Mathematics, Literacy and 8 other subjects. 

It is not compulsory for your child to use Studyladder at home, however regular access will help your child to reinforce what they have been taught in school. It will also help to build confidence through practice. This week, a letter will go home where your child will be given a username and password which can be used to access Studyladder.

Here is the link you can follow to gain access to Studyladder:
http://www.studyladder.com.au/myschool/442/myclass/584542

Days of the Week & Months of the Year!

We are trying to remember the days of the week and months of the year in order.
We have been using these songs to help us!

A Tree of All Seasons

Seasons - Inquiry Immersion

On Friday, we had our "Seasons change and so do we" Inquiry Immersion day.

We participated in a variety of activities which helped us explore the four seasons.
The activities were based around using our senses to explore. Have a look at our video to see all the fun things we did!

Prep A students, what is your favourite season and why?

Italian Day

Last week, we celebrated 'Italian Week'.
We had a dress up day and even got to eat gelato!
Have a look how cute we look in our costumes!

Prep A Patterns

In Prep A, we have been learning lots about patterns! To help us explore a variety of patterns we completed a number of rotations using a variety of tools! We made: Star Patterns, Colour Patterns, Letter Patterns, Animal Patterns, Size Patterns, Shape Patterns. We then made rainbows after looking at 'Natural Patterns.' Have a look at a video with lots of us showing our learning!

Ipad Apps

I highly recommend the app Red Writing as a way of reinforcing the handwriting taught at school with the Victorian Cursive Font. This app helps learn how to write the letters of the alphabet using correct letter formation. Writing with correct formation plays an important role in children developing as writers. If they are bogged down in the mechanics of writing this will slow down their thinking process and creativity as writers. What I like about this app is that it does not let the children progress through the game if they do not start in the correct position. Red Writing also helps reinforce the letter name and sound.

Another app I have come across is called Letter Reflex. It helps students differentiate between similar looking letters like, numbers and words. Check it out!

Our Phonics Song!

This is our "Ants On the Apple" song that we listen to most days to help reinforce the sound each individual letter makes. It is very catchy and helps the students learn the sound and letter correspondence.

Writing Numbers!

We have been learning how to write numbers using the correct starting position and formation! This is a YouTube video we watched to help remind us where to start and how to form them! 

We then went outside to write numbers 0-9 lots of times using chalk! 

Our Shape People!

In Prep A, we have been learning about all sorts of 2D shapes.
To help us remember the names of shapes as well as how many sides and corners they have, we made "Shape People" using the same shape - just lots of different sizes!

Check them out and let us know what you think of our shapes!

St Mary's 4 B's!

At St Mary's we have "The 4 B's" which are our school goals for positive behaviour.
They are:
Be Friendly
Be Safe
Be Respectful
Be a Listener

We made our very own 4 B's to remind us what they are! In Prep A, we are already very good at understanding and showing what it means to follow the 4 B's. Prep A Parents, you might like to talk to your prep person about them and comment on our blog about what we have learnt!

Today we were focussing on writing numerals 0 to 5 using the correct starting point and formation.
We began by singing "5 Little Speckled Frogs" and had some students use finger puppets to join in with the song! They were so cute!

We then practiced writing numerals 0-5 on the whiteboard and went off to complete an activity sheet independently.