It is almost time to return to school to begin Term Three. Thank you once again for a great start to the year in Kindy. The friendships, social interactions, language, learning and laughter have all been thriving. Our classroom is a great place be! Following is some information about the Kindy learning program this term.
Learning Focus
This term we have began looking at the learning theme; Living in Australia. This has been chosen with children’s current interests in mind and the connections with NAIDOC Week. We have an Australian Bush themed role play area, will be reading lots of high quality fiction and non fiction books related to this theme and will be drawing on prior knowledge to participate in lots of fun, hands-on learning experiences.
Name Writing
After two terms of participating in lots of fine motor and pre-writing pattern practice, many Kindy children will be ready to start focusing on writing their name. This will involve lots of tracing, morning name writing tasks, sensory writing experiences and other hands-on activities. Coming home will be a laminated name writing practice card and instructions on the verbal prompts we will be using when writing each of the letters in your child’s name. You may like to use this as a reference; however, we will be doing lots of work on this at school so lots of practice at home is not expected. Holding the writing instrument with the correct pencil grip and starting each letter in the right place is also very important. Many children will be ready to master this task, or will already be well into learning to write their name, but it must be reiterated that it is not an expectation that all children must achieve this goal this year.
Home Comprehension Packs
Some parents have expressed interest in guiding some learning activities at home with their children, therefore we will be giving families the option of using a home reading comprehension pack to complete with your child each week. These packs will include an age appropriate book with a list of suggested comprehension questions. These books lend themselves very well to rereading a number of times over the week and asking a few different questions each night. Some books contain no words so instead the child will be lead to comprehend and infer what is happening through pictures alone, which is an extremely valuable skill. Your first pack will be sent home on Monday. Please return the pack to school to be exchanged on the following Monday.
Oral Language Focus and News Telling
Oral language development is a key focus of the Early Years Learning Framework and Kindergarten Curriculum guidelines. It is encouraged and developed through planned play experiences, independent classroom learning and interest centres, games, teacher interactions and questioning, free play and a multitude of other experiences. In addition to these activities, children will be beginning telling news in front of the class. A news roster will be sent home soon listing the three times your child will be asked to share their news this term. Open ended topics have been set and a poster of picture prompts will be provided to assist your child to be able to talk in full sentences about their chosen item for news. Please try to prepare your child’s news with them in the week leading up to their set day and let your child bring in a non-precious or expensive item to school on this day. The item should also fit the the news bag which will be provided.
Protective Behaviours
As mandated for all school in WA, our school has been following the Keeping Safe protective behaviours program this year. It is a government requirement that all schools adopt and implement an appropriate research based child protection program. The Keeping Safe Child Protection Curriculum meets all the necessary requirements and is the program promoted by Catholic Education Western Australia.This term the program involves talking about privacy and the names of parts of the body, the correct names for private parts, safe touching, secrets and recognising and reporting abuse. An attachment has been provided below detailing each aspect of this curriculum that is to be covered in Kindy this year.
Health
Thank you all for being so considerate and keeping your children home when they are unwell. Most children will want to come to Kindergarten even if they are sick; however, they run the risk of infecting other children and developing secondary infections, so it is asked that you refrain from bringing them to school. If your child requires Panadol for a fever or if it have been less that 24 hours since an episode of vomiting or diarrhoea, then it is not suitable to send them to Kindy. Don’t forget if your child is away from school for any reason, a signed note or an email is required, providing a reason for the absence from school. This includes extended holiday periods.
Rosters
As per the previous terms, a parent help roster will be placed outside the classroom. If you are able to spare a few hours to come in to our class it is a great opportunity to spend some time with your child, watch them interacting with others and assist with task such as learning activities and classroom preparation. You help is greatly appreciated! A Non-Parent Pick Up roster will also been displayed. Please write your child’s name and the name of the person who will be picking them up on this roster whenever necessary.
Morning and Afternoon Routines
The classroom door is opened by the teacher at 8:30am each morning for family time. From 8:30-8:45am children should be participating in activities with their parents or family members as we prepare to begin the day. This family time is a great opportunity to get your child settled in and work with them one-on-one on some name identification and fine motor activities or shared reading or puzzles. Parents are welcome to leave their child in the care of the teachers from 8:45am onwards. On the rare occasion that you need to leave your child before the end of family time please see the teacher to ensure they are fully supervised.
Meetings
It was wonderful to meet with you all on the parent/teacher meeting day last term. If you have any concerns with regards to your child’s development, learning progress, social interactions or any other matter please do not hesitate to contact me to make an appointment time to meet. It is important that we are able to communicate and work together on any problems that may arise. Collaboration between parents and teachers is really beneficial for all involved.
Save the Date
We will be celebrating Father’s Day on the morning of Thursday the 29thof August. We would love for each child to have their dad, grandad or significant male to join us on this day if possible, so please keep this morning free from 8:45am to 10:30am.
Thank you again for all of you help and support in Kindergarten this year. I look forward to a wonderful term ahead.
Miss Jemma Davis
Acting Assistant Principal/ Kindy Teacher
[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.stdominics.wa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/securepdfs/2019/07/Keeping-Safe-Concept-Summary.pdf” title=”Keeping Safe Concept Summary”]