Monetessori Term 1 Overview 2022

Term overview

Welcome to all our existing and new parents and carers in Prep and year 1. We have a fantastic school community so please if you can, take some time to connect with each other ahead of a busy term 1.

It is very important for students to attend school every day so they do not miss out on any of the curriculum or fall behind. It is also important for every student to have a healthy breakfast before coming to school to help their concentration and ability to learn. Please ensure your child comes with a healthy lunch and show them how to remove their lunchbox from any insulated bags in order for them to go in the fridge inside our rooms. Children should bring a healthy snack such as fruit, vegetables or yoghurt for their snack.

In Montessori we have lunch together in the room and set our tables. Please ensure your child has a small plate (bread and butter sized) and a small glass/mug. Please put water in the water bottles and try to avoid juice if possible. If names come off lunchboxes and water bottles, make sure you rename them throughout the year to avoid confusion.

Just a reminder… No hat means undercover  play. Ensure you have spare clothes in your child’s bag every day.

To build a sense of belonging, pride and respect, students are expected to wear their full school uniform - 

• No jumpers with hoods or jumpers that are not a dark blue
• No jewellery with exception to watches, medical alert bracelets or religious/ memorial references.
• No knee-high colourful socks (Black, blue, white)
• School Hats to be worn

Please be aware that the playground should not be played on BEFORE and AFTER school, due to Workplace Health and Safety regulations, even if supervised by parents. Students should not arrive at school before 8.30am unless attending OSHC. Children who arrive at 8:30 should wait on the bench seats outside the classroom until the door is opened. Please encourage your child to go to the toilet before entering the classroom.

Attendance

How to report an absence: 

• Email attendance@trinitybeachss.eq.edu.au or
• Call the school's absence line on 4057 1444, then press #1 and don't forget to leave a reason why your child/children are away, or
• Send a note to the classroom teacher on their return

Our schools attendance target is 95% 

Reading / Spelling

Our school is implementing a systematic synthetic phonics approach that has a teaching sequence for reading and spelling which goes across the entire school. Promoting Literacy Development or PLD for short, provides teachers with an innovative, evidence-based approach to literacy and advocates that children’s literacy and learning outcomes are maximized when the areas of literacy, oral language and movement & motor skills are simultaneously targeted.  With this change, we will be working with decodable texts instead of predictable texts in the teaching of reading.

Due to this change, home reading will look different as well. Students may come home with games with high frequency words or sounds instead of home readers. This is reading practice. Please be assured that students will be getting a much higher level of reading mileage at school every day.

English

This year, the entire school is focusing on the development of keys skills to enhance children’s literacy. During the first term, we will assess where all children are at and delivery lessons frequently throughout the day to support children to progress. For young children, we focus on oral language skills to build a solid foundation upon which to build. We will also systematically teach children letter sounds as well as blending and segmenting. During term 1, children will also be exposed to a variety of narrative texts and practice skills such as making predictions, recalling events, expressing likes and dislikes, making connections between the texts and their own personal experiences.

Maths

This term we are focusing on building children’s understanding of numbers. For Prep children this means ensuring they have a sound foundation in numbers to 10 including zero. For year 1 children are working with teen numbers or beyond. Both groups need this knowledge to be automated for semester 2 so that they can count forward and back from any number, identify numbers that come before or after, match quantity symbols and number names and partition numbers. Children will be working with shape this term and both Prep and year 1 have assessments related to this. Prep children will explore the properties of different shapes, sort them and practice expressing how they have sorted them. Year 1 will more closely examine 2D shapes and 3D figures using technical language and practice applying what they have learnt.

Science

Students examine familiar objects using their senses and understand that objects are made of materials that have observable properties. Through exploration, investigation and discussion, students learn how to describe the properties of the materials from which objects are made and how to pose scientific questions.  

Students describe the effects of changing a surface, an object and/or the angle of a ramp to make the object move down the ramp. Students make a prediction, participate in a guided investigation and share observations. Assessment tasks contribute to their assessment folio, providing evidence of their learning.

HASS

In History we are learning about our own past.  We will explore the nature, diversity and structure of families; investigate the ways we commemorate past events that are important; and recognise how family stories are shared and remembered.  Children will draw a picture of events they have commemorated with their families and respond to questions about those events and family members.  Children will identify, describe and sequence personal and family events and describe things that have stayed the same and things that have changed.

HPE

In PE, students in prep will be invovled in a unit that allows them to demonstrate personal and social skills when working with others in a range of activities. 

In PE, students in year one will develop the fundamental movement skills of dodging and running and test alternatives to evade others and objects in tagging games. They will explore positive ways to interact with others, including strategies to work in groups and play fairly during tagging games. In Health, students will select and apply strategies to keep themselves healthy and safe and will be able to ask for help with tasks or problems.

Music

During Term One, students will listen to and discuss a variety of musical pieces. These will develop specific music vocabulary.  Students will learn a number of songs and musical games and will express themselves through art activities.  

Drama

Stories Come to Life; ‘Journey’

Students make and respond to drama by using the picture book ‘Journey’ as a stimulus as they bring the characters to life with voice, movement, soundscapes and improvisations for performance.

Assessment schedule

Contact information

Contact your childs teacher via email:

P1/A Jacqui Williams - jwill68@eq.edu.au 

P1/B Gayle Kyle - gkyle4@eq.edu.au