Prep | Pre-Kindergarten News

Settling In

It has been a pleasure to welcome our Pre-Kindergarten learners to Trinity. We are extremely proud of the way in which they have settled into their learning environment. They have shown curiosity as they have explored both the indoor and outdoor spaces and learning engagements, building relationships and developing connections with both their peers and educators. Throughout each day our young learners have had opportunities to develop a range of skills including self-management, social and communication skills.  We have had a wonderful start to the year and look forward to an exciting term ahead.

Developing our Independence

We have been working on developing our self management skills over the last few weeks. Our Pre-Kindergarten have been organising themselves for the day by packing and unpacking their bags, being responsible for their lunch boxes and water bottles, packing away after playtime and putting on our shoes. We are becoming risk-takers, by having a go at completing these tasks independently and communicators, asking our educators for assistance when we are having some trouble. We are beginning to understand the daily routines that take place and engage in a variety of experiences within our learning spaces.

What is happening in our outdoor environment?

Our curious learners have been carefully watching the development of our new outdoor learning environment.

Liam: “What’s this whole area going to be?”

Jude: “They’re making a new playground.”

Josiah: “I see a drill. My dad has got a drill.”

Liam: “My dad has the same boots.”

Jude: “They wear boots because they need to walk in dirt.”

They have made suggestions of what to include in the design and have documented what they can see.

George Nasser: “I think they should build a cubby house.”

Alex: “A water slide!”

Kayvus: “The digger in the garden.”

George Nasser: “This is Trinity. There is the fence and the house. The red is the Trinity triangle.”

Early Literacy

We have been developing our early literacy skills in the past two weeks. We have been singing a lot of rhymes and songs that help us to develop our language skills by helping us to explore different sounds in speech, as well as building our understanding of rhyme.

A few of the songs we have been enjoying that you could sing at home are:

• Heads, shoulders, knees and toes
• Open – shut them
• Over the ocean
• Echo Song
• Stand up, Sit Down

The Pre-Kindergarten boys have also been enjoying a range of quality literature, while they are read with as a whole class, small groups and as individuals. We are supporting the boys to develop a love of reading and an interest in books, which provides a firm foundation for later learning. When we read together, we speak about the role of the author and illustrator, what the pictures are telling us and what happens in the beginning, middle and end of the story.

We recommend that you read with your child for at least 20 minutes each day.

Music

The youngest members of the Preparatory School have been developing their listening and responding to music skills during their Music lessons with Mrs Campbell through the Collaborative Unit of Inquiry Who We Are. They have been participating in simple speech and moving activities and have discovered how to make sounds on a variety of untuned percussion instruments. They have also been developing the Music Elements of Beat and Rhythm by walking and passing the ball to the beat and discovering their balance and gross motor skills by following teacher directed dance moves.