sandringham east
TRANSCRIPT
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Term 4, 2021
Foundation
Newsletter
Foundation Team:
Claire Parsons 0A
Kate Foster and Claire Castril-
lon 0B
Carmen Leal 0C
Alana Walsh 0D
4th—15th Oct—Home
Learning
18th, 19th, 20th, 25th, 26th,
27th Oct—Onsite learning.
21st, 22nd, 28th, 29th Oct—
Home Learning
1st Nov– Curriculum Day
2nd Nov- Melbourne Cup
Holiday
19th Nov– Level 6 Market
Day
13th Dec– Level 6 Gradua-
tion Dinner and Ceremony
14th Dec– SEPS Carols Night
17th Dec- 1:30 dismissal
Important dates Welcome back to Term 4!
Welcome back all of our Foundation families to the last school term
for 2021!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every
community member for their support and dedication to the
learning of our students. While it is true that we do work in part-
nership with parents and carers, never has it been more pro-
foundly demonstrated and we give you a heartfelt thank you.
As a teaching team we are very proud of the Foundation chil-
dren and urge parents to remember that learning is develop-
mental, with children learning in different ways and at different
rates and times. It is important to celebrate your child’s learning
achievements, their own individual progress and learning
growth, as children are each on their own trajectory.
The holistic development of each child is supported through a
range of appropriate and challenging learning programs that
promote active participation. Learning areas include English,
Mathematics, Investigations, Science and Social & Emotional
Learning. Investigations continues to provide opportunities for
children to practise, learn and develop a myriad of skills. The
learning that occurs during Investigations is reinforced and revisit-
ed in English and Mathematics sessions. Explicit teaching and
continuous assessment are used to monitor and support student
learning.
Thank you for your support.
The Foundation Team
Our Vision: To build an inclusive community where our children
are active learners, critical thinkers and creative explorers.
Sandringham East
Primary School Care – Aspiration – Respect
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Investigations sessions continue three mornings a week throughout Term 4. Children will continue
to practise, learn and develop a wide range of skills through their Investigations. Some of these
skills include speaking and listening, thinking, creativity, fine motor, interpersonal skills such as co-
creation, sharing and compromising, maths, reading and writing. The learning that occurs during
Investigations is used as a lead in to literacy and numeracy sessions.
Our Science focus will be on energy and change. The children will explore and observe the
movement of different objects. Ideas and observations will be shared with the class and record-
ed through pictorial and written representations. Learning experiences will extend into investi-
gating push and pull forces in water and air. Children will apply their understandings to con-
struct different machines and objects. These opportunities will be incorporated into the Investiga-
tions stations to free space in the daily timetable for more literacy and numeracy. Explicit teach-
ing and continuous assessment are used to monitor and support student learning.
Children will need to continue to develop their fine motor skills which involves them using the
small muscles in the hand to perform precise and refined movements. They need to be able to
manipulate and gain control over a range of materials and tools. Throughout Term 4 we will set
up extra finger gym activities during Investigations to support the development of your child’s
fine motor skills, which will in turn work wonders for their handwriting.
These include:
Grasping (using a crayon, pencil, glue stick, beater, blocks, using tongs, tweezers, and squeez-
ing balls
Manipulating (play dough, kinetic sand, paper, scissors, sewing, finger plays, clothes pegs, bot-
tles and lids)
Hand-eye co-ordination (writing, cutting, bead or macaroni threading, moving a cursor on a
computer).
Health and Personal and Social Skills
In conjunction with our wellbeing programs the Foundation students will be undertaking a unit on
health with a focus on emotional and social and physical development. Students will explore
their own strengths and achievements and those of others, identifying how these contribute to
personal identity. Alongside strategies they can use when they need help with a problem or situ-
ation, students will learn to recognise situations and opportunities to promote their own health,
safety and wellbeing, with a focus on self-mastery and developing students’ ability to appreci-
ate and honour the feelings, opinions and motivations of others. As Focus Students, children will
be asked to share their thoughts and feelings and articulate strategies they have used during
Investigations.
1. Care - For self and others as well as our physical environment and learning spaces
2. Aspiration - Seek to accomplish something worthy and admirable, try hard, pursue excellence
3. Respect - Treat all others with consideration and regard, respect another person’s point of view
Always Our Best
Investigations
Our Values
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In Maths this term we will continue to explore foundational Mathematical concepts and skills.
Some of the skills we will be focussing on will be:
Recognition of number names, numerals and quantities up 100.
The base 10 system of numeration– ten 1s equals one 10.
Recognising and modelling addition and subtraction from any number up to 30.
Sorting, describing and naming 2D shapes.
In whole-class lessons, students will be learning a series of maths games to support their number
sense/fluency and numeral recognition skills. All mathematical concepts will be explored
through practical, hands-on learning activities and during small focus group sessions.
What you can continue to do at home…
Play some of the maths games we have learned this year with your child and engage in conver-
sations while doing so, challenge your child to explain their reasoning.
We will continue to use Mathletics to support our teaching and learning. To consolidate and fur-
ther develop student’s number sense and maths fluency we will assign weekly Mathletics tasks.
We suggest that students begin each week’s tasks on Monday and only complete each unit to
the quiz section. We ask that students complete all tasks by Friday as this will enable us to then
allocate each student into differentiated groups based on ability. Every week we will adjust
learning activities / tasks to suit your child.
In Literacy this term we will continue to look at Narratives and Recounts and connect skills we
have learnt during home learning. Some of the skills we will be focusing on will be:
Letter formation and handwriting.
Creating plans.
Creating simple sentences in writing.
Reading simple sentences about characters.
Using the THRASS chart to support our spelling of unknown words.
Creating simple narratives focusing on using a plan.
Creating recounts about the activities we are doing at home.
What you can continue to do at home…
Children telling their grown ups bed time stories.
Children creating their own stories using their toys.
Using Literacy Planet—practising letters, sounds, words
Reading ‘take home books’ on Wushka
Having family time reading a book from Story Box Library.
Mathematics
Literacy
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At SEPS we use Restorative Practices as it seeks to value and support those involved in incidents
so that they feel empowered to take positive action to address the situation and move forward.
‘It’s not enough to just say sorry’. Children involved work through restoring the relationship, and
seek to prevent further harm. As with all aspects of social life, we take any issue as a learning op-
portunity, which is preferable to handing out a punishment or short-term fixes.
Please make sure you visit Adam Voigt’s Real School’s website for information http://
www.realschools.com.au/
PLAY IS THE WAY is a practical methodology for teaching social and emotional skills using guided
play, classroom activities and an empowering language.
It is a process that gives primary schools a way to develop, improve and entrench the personal
and social capabilities of students.
The PLAY IS THE WAY Complete Program uses:
a unique program of physically interactive games
key concepts to guide students through life and learning
a specific and empowering language to help attain self-mastery
a philosophy of behaviour education and student self-regulation that fosters independent,
self-motivated, empathetic, life-long learners.
We use these games regularly to develop our students into independent and democratic learn-
ers.
Restorative Practices and Play Is The Way
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Visual Art: Foundation
We look forward to art in term four as we have some fun creating with recycled materials in
‘Trash and Treasure’. Students will also be given different provocations around textures, patterns,
and inspiring words. Later we will add a focus on creating and exploring symbols in aboriginal art
and then Christmas. Our routines will be re-established, helping students to settle and we will en-
joy creating with their own ideas using inspirations from picture storybooks. Experiences develop-
ing fine motor skills and awareness of painting, constructing, and connecting correctly will be
practised and consolidated. Following on from our learning task, we will develop drawing skills
with a variety of mediums, practise cutting and pasting skills, along with creating in 3D.
Love Art! Julie Van Etten
LOTE—Chinese: Foundation
Introduce Family members, friends and pets
In Term 4, students will learn how to say some common pets in Mandarin, such as cat, dog, fish,
bird and rabbit. We will also learn the names of the zoo animals as an extension. Students will
learn how to introduce their family members, friends and pets in simple Mandarin sentences.
Carry on from Term 3, students will share information about their pet or a pet they would like to
own. They will also learn about pandas. The focus will continue to be on speaking and listening.
Looking forward to a fun term with you!
Mandarin Teacher – Yin Zhao
Physical Education: Foundation
We have an exciting term for Foundation students with a focus on increasing movement, well-
being and learning. This will take place through gymnastics-based activities as well as hand/
foot/eye coordination where students can choose from a variety of equipment and activities.
Students will be focusing on overarm throwing, catching and kicking skills through exploration,
problem solving, explicit teaching and minor games. They will participate in activities that pro-
mote team work and collaboration while increasing overall health and well-being.
Looking forward to a great term.
Dave Richardson
Performing Arts: Foundation
So much to do, so little time! Our Foundation performers’ primary focus in term 4 will be on the
basics of Movement and Music, exploring the fundamentals of rhythm and song. Through sing-
ing, dancing and percussion based lessons, the students will build their foundational dance and
musical performance skills. As soon as we return to onsite learning, there will also be a major fo-
cus on rebuilding live performance confidence and audience etiquette, as we continue our
journey through the heroic tales of ancient Greece… it’s going to be an epic term.
Excelsior!
Mr Scherpenhuizen
Specialists