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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