Prep 2 'Seeing the Light'
Curriculum Letter for Parents and Charity news update!
Dates for the Diary
Tuesday 6th October- 7.45 am- Town Hall meeting
Friday 9th October- Children wear purple in support of pancreatic cancer
Tuesday 27th October- ESPG meeting- all welcome
Oct 12th- Oct 23rd - School Holidays
Friday 13th November- Deepavali Dress Up Day
Swimming Block resumes on the week starting 26th October and continues until Christmas.
Christmas Fair is on Saturday 21 November
Christmas Nativity Performances
MONDAY 30TH NOVEMBER Prep 2 TGa 8.15 am start
TUESDAY 1ST DECEMBER Prep 2 RDa at 8.15 am start
WEDNESDAY 2ND DECEMBER Prep 2 AMc at 8.15 am start
THURSDAY 3RD DECEMBER PREP2 CNe 8.15 am start
Monday 7th December- Exit Point 'Seeing the Light' 7.00- 8.00 pm
Dear Parents,
Next week we will begin our new unit of work called “Seeing the Light” where the children will explore the concept of light and dark. Our Enduring Learning statement is 'When objects block the pathway of light – shadows are formed!" We will begin with an Entry Point over at the High School in the Black Box Theatre to experience complete darkness and investigate light and shadows with our torches!
The Exit Point for “Seeing the Light” will be an evening incursion on Monday 7th December from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm at SJII Elementary School in the Prep 2 Classrooms. The children will be exploring the school grounds during twilight as day turns into night. Your child will need a torch for the two of you to use as you walk around in the dark, completing fun activities!
Please also bring in a hand held torch on Monday 5 October ready to use for our Entry Points happening this week.
The key learning targets that we will be focusing on for this unit are –
In Science we will be comparing what happened with what we thought would happen and recording and communicating our observations orally, in writing and through ICT.
In Mathematics, the children will be focusing on Addition & Subtraction to 20, Ordinal Numbers, Money and Capacity.
In Geography, we will be noticing the similarities and differences between different localities that experience different amounts of sunlight and know about seasonal conditions and how they affect the environment and the lives of people living there.
In Language Arts, we will build upon the children’s prior knowledge of illustrations and how pictures can help the author to tell a story. We will also continue writing recount pieces using the golden sentence rule and building writing stamina. We will continue to practice our handwriting focusing on the writing guys – fall guys, tall guys and small guys; use of capital and lower case letters.
Please bring in any books by Anthony Browne next week. Named please!
In Art, we will be linking to the classroom unit titled Seeing the Light. We will be exploring the ways artists use light and dark in their work. Children will become knowledgeable about mixing tints, tones and shades and the artwork of Vincent Van Gogh. To help with these projects, we will develop technical skills of colour mixing, varying brush strokes and working with oil pastels.
In PE, children will be following an invasion games Unit developing their throwing and catching skills and use of space.
They will:
refine their throwing and catching skills and begin to use these in a game
begin to use space in the games area to keep possession
Understand when and where attacking and defending skills are needed
begin to recognise when one team is attacking and the other is defending
Begin to use a range of defending strategies including man-to-man marking
In Chinese, we are working on Unit 7: At the Park
• Learn about activities at the park
• Learn about plants and insects at the park
• Review colours
We will also be working on Unit 6: At the Beach
• Learn about beach activities
• Learn about what we can see at the beach
• Review days of the week
In Music, we will be starting to prepare for our Christmas Nativity Play. We will be developing our singing and performance skills. We will be:
Exploring our voice; developing singing voice and speaking voice.
Learning how to present a story using words, actions and songs.
Listening to others, and developing our self-discipline and confidence.
As always we welcome any parents who would like to enhance our learning in any way! Do let us know if you would like to pop in for a little presentation or show something to our children.
Kinds regards,
The Prep 2 Team,
Did we hit our target for the fishing boat Prep 2RDa? (Drum roll...........)
As a result of everyone’s generosity, we have made a total of $1,269.77 in one hour and fifteen minutes. Our motorised fishing boat will definitely make its maiden voyage soon.
Great team effort from all the SJIIES Prep2 children who made this possible. Thanks to the other Prep2 classes that came and showed their support by buying merchandise and baked goods. Ms. Newbery, Ms. Garrity, Ms. McCloskey, thank you for sending out letters and reminding parents to bring money for the day.
Our class moms and dads have been extremely generous with their time and effort. So many of our class parents have spent a few hours the night before putting in the effort and baking. I saw parents coming out with a few cupcakes and half a dozen gifts. Thanks to SJIIES teachers, one of them bought a whole tray of cupcakes.
The highlight of sale goes to our little ones. Together, as a team, Prep 2RDa children have proven that they CAN change the life of a family forever. It was a pleasure to see little sales people practice their sales pitch. They were very enthusiastic, with big smiles and big hopes that their customers will buy from them. They were definitely very confident.
We could not have this without Ms. Renuka and Ms. Grace and to our parent volunteers that made sure that all went well. Thanks for your hard work.
Replacing fishing boats and restoring livelihood are only the beginning. Truest is developing a pipeline of projects for other critical sustainable development projects. Our first etiquette gift project is “Candles for Solar Lanterns”. This project is still at the pre-launching stage and if you are interested to know more please let me know.
We will be posting a video and some pictures about the sale. We will also be updating you about the family that gets our PREP 2 RDA boat.
Thanks so much for your support. Our children have clearly demonstrated that they can truly shape their future world!
Warm regards,
Ditas Litonjua Checchia