What's been happening in Foundation in 2022?
Literacy
The Foundation students have been exploring Fairytales and focusing on retelling. As a group they designed and created a puppet theatre to display the setting of their chosen fairytale and puppets. After rehearsing a retell, students performed their story in front of their peers and other grades! All students did a wonderful job and some even changed their voices for the different characters!! Well done everybody!
Numeracy
Students in Foundation have been learning more about place value. We have been making double digit numbers using unifix blocks, popsicle sticks, tens frames and MAB blocks. Students have been focusing on how many tens and how many ones make these numbers, for example, the number 23 can be represented as 2 tens and 3 ones. Below are some learning experiences we have engaged in throughout the week.
Student Voice and Agency
In Foundation, students have been strengthening their design and technology skills by designing their own wooden spoon to be a part of our ‘Foundation Spoonsville’. Students were given different materials including paper, pipe cleaners, textas and googly eyes and got to choose the materials they wanted to use. It was great to see students sharing their ideas with their peers. This is now a display in our learning community. Students have shown pride in their creations.
Inquiry Unit
In Inquiry lessons, Foundation students have been exploring fairy tales. They have created masks to retell the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs.’ Students also worked in pairs to re-create the setting from the story ‘Rapunzel’. They had lots of fun working collaboratively to make a 3D castle from paper.
Pyjama Breakfast
Last Friday, the Foundation students had the opportunity to take part in a camp experience. This was to develop their confidence and independence. Students were excited to arrive early at school dressed in their pyjamas. We started the morning by watching the movie Happy Feet. Then it was breakfast time! Students helped themselves to cereal and toast, using their knife skills to spread the Vegemite or jam themselves. Some children went back for seconds, or even thirds! The breakfast was washed down with a juice or flavoured milk. Students had the opportunity to sit with people different to their usual peers and have positive conversations. When breakfast was over, students got dressed into their school uniforms independently and brushed their teeth, ready to start the school day!
All students did a wonderful job at getting themselves ready for school. Well done everybody!
School Wide Positive Behaviour (SWPB)
In Foundation we have been focusing on our SWPBS values of being responsible, be respectful and be a learner. We discussed what types of behaviour we would show in school to show each school value and made goals for how we are going to show these values in the future. Students came up with great ideas for positive behaviour!
Numeracy highlights
The Foundation students have been learning about division and sharing equally. We have been focusing on sharing objects one at a time so we can check if it is a fair share and everyone has the same amount. We have used concrete materials to share equally as well as completing cut and paste activities. Students have thoroughly enjoyed it!!
Community Helpers
This Term, Foundation students have been learning about people who help us in our community. Over the past few weeks, the Foundation students have been visited by several community helpers including the local police and firefighters. Students were very excited to see real life police officers and firefighters. Our visitors gave a presentation about the jobs that they do and gave plenty of time for students to ask questions. Students were given an opportunity to sit in a police car and look at the sirens. They also got to explore a fire truck and have a go at using a water hose!
Book Week
During Book Week, Foundation students completed a book review with their grade 4 buddy. Students listened to a short listed book and spoke about their favourite character and part of the story. The Foundation students worked beautifully with their buddy and really enjoyed this process. Foundation students had a fantastic time at their first Book Week Parade. It was lovely to see so many families come along.
Science Week and Numeracy highlights
During Science Week, we have been encouraging the students to think about the impact that rubbish has on our environment. We have discussed litter in the oceans and ways to keep the school and our local community clean. We recorded how much waste our class created in a day, and then compared this with the waste we collected during Nude Food Day. The students are now more aware about the impact that litter can have on our environment and are enthusiastic about having Nude Food every day!
100 Days of Foundation Celebration
Inquiry Learning
The Foundation students went on a community walk around Avondale Heights. We saw places like: Coles, the Barber, cafes, restaurants, The Body Shop, the Post Office, and many more. All students loved going on our local excursion and came back to the classroom and made representations of what they saw.
NAIDOC Week
The Foundation students have been learning about NAIDOC week and how to celebrate Aboriginal, Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and achievements. We have been reading a selection of Dreamtime stories, including ‘Why Koala Has a Stumpy Tail, Too Many Cheeky Dogs and How the Turtle Got Its Shell.’ The students created bookmarks to be used for our home readers and decorated indigenous patterns in traditional colours.
Literacy and Numeracy Highlights
In Foundation, students have been learning about solving subtraction stories using the strategies of taking away and crossing out. We made our own subtraction story and matched it with a number sentence in our candy jar’ craft activity. Students got to pick how many lollies fell out of their jar and found out how many lollies were remaining. Foundation students loved this activity!
National Reconciliation Week and Inquiry Learning
Foundation students learnt about Reconciliation Week and why we celebrate it annually. Each class had discussions about who the traditional owners of the land we live on are and why we need to value and respect their histories and cultures.
School Wide Positive Behaviours (SWPBS)
At the beginning of the term each Foundation class reviewed the School’s Matrix of Expectations, and through this, we created a list of our classroom expectations. Students all participated in creating a class book to provide students with opportunities to revisit the values and expectations throughout the year.
Commemorating ANZAC DAY
As part of our learning to commemorate ANZAC day, Foundation students read the story ‘Anzac Ted’ and discussed what it means to be a hero. We talked about how poppies are used as a symbol and how Anzac biscuits are eaten to celebrate the day. The Foundation classes created their own poppies by tearing red paper and pasting onto a template.
Student readings at assembly
FA Amelia- “You can make Anzac biscuits to help celebrate Anzac day. Soldiers ate Anzac biscuits.”
FB Tyra- “The soldiers are heroes!”.
FC Marcus- “We made a red poppy as a symbol for Anzac day”
A Spotlight on Literacy and Numeracy
Foundation students have loved learning about the letters of the alphabet and their corresponding sounds. Students have been meeting a new character each week to assist us in learning these sounds. They have made excellent progress with their letter sound knowledge and are very proud of it. Below are some of the activities we have completed to help consolidate this knowledge.
National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence
Harmony Day
The Foundation students enjoyed celebrating both National Day against Bullying and Violence and Harmony Day. For National Day against Bullying and Violence we visited our buddy grade and made a kindness paper chain together. For Harmony Day we spoke about celebrating each other's differences and that we all belong. Students worked in pairs to make a collaborative poster with the Foundation cohort. This is displayed in our Learning Community.
Respectful Relationships: Emotional Literacy
In Foundation A, we have been learning about emotions and what they look like through body language. We spoke about what emotions we know about and made an anchor chart to display in our classroom. We also watched a sesame street video called ‘Name that Emotion’ and students loved guessing how the characters were feeling. In the photos below, we also had a go at making faces and guessing each other’s emotions.
In Foundation B, we have been learning about emotions and what they look like through facial expressions and body language. We illustrated different emotions and shared how we were feeling with our classmates through using facial expressions and body language.
In Foundation C we have been learning about emotions. We have started a daily check in where students can display what they are feeling that day. We also looked at ways to show how we are feeling, including body language and facial expressions.
Inquiry Learning: Fairness and Friendship
Foundation A: Students were asked what it means to be a good friend, and these were recorded. As a class we made a friendship chain including the words students described including ‘helpful’, ‘listening’, ‘being kind’ and ‘caring’.
Foundation C: Students were asked what it means to be a good friend and we made a class friendship chain with our ideas. We also discussed acts of fairness and sorted scenarios into ‘fair’ and ‘unfair’.
Routines for Success
In Foundation A, we have been learning about our classroom routines and are becoming independent at these. We have been getting to know our peers and have been practising how to be a good friend to others.
Foundation B have been learning about classroom routines and expectations. We are getting to know each other and the students are enthusiastic about their learning tasks.
In Foundation C, we have been settling into classroom routines and learning about expectations. We have been getting to know each other. The students are enthusiastic about making new friends and all of the things they will learn this year!