Kindergarten Team
Term 1 Letter – 2024
Dear Families and Friends of Kindergarten,
Welcome to 2024! What a fantastic start to the new year. Welcome to the start of the school year, and a special welcome to our families who are new to the Turner Community! Your children have settled really well into school and are busily engaged in their Kindergarten learning. Thanks for your support in getting them started so positively.
This letter aims to provide you with a greater level of insight into what we will be covering in our classrooms during the first term. At Turner we recognise the importance of establishing strong collaborative partnerships between home and school in order to meet our children’s educational needs. Thank you to those families who have touched base to tell us more about your child. It is wonderful to learn about them and see them through your eyes. We encourage those of you who have not yet connected with us, to send either a letter via email or the student information sheet attached to this letter.
This term, Kindergarten students have opportunities to channel their learning through the following big inquiry question below;
Who am I? Who are You? Who are We Together?
We aim to assist students to make connections across subjects to layer, consolidate and transfer their learning, in addition to providing opportunities to personalise learning. For more information about Turner’s approach to learning, please follow the link below (also found on the Turner School website. Turner School - Learning From Home Hub - Beginning of Year Information (google.com)
Learner Assets
At Turner School, we have a ‘Turner Learner’ profile that is compiled of our learner assets. The learner assets align with the general capabilities in the Australian Curriculum and focus on life-long learning and collaborative skills. This term, we are focussing particularly on becoming self-managers.
Being a ‘self-manager’ in Kindergarten means that children are working on skills such as:
- building an identity of themselves as a learner, such as persisting with tasks, problem-solving or seeking help where needed
- caring for and organising their belongings
- managing the regular routines of the school day, aiming to do this independently
- working with their teacher to set goals for learning and learning how to self-monitor these
- recognising their emotions, making new friends and learning about interactions with others
Each year, Turner School holds a school-wide festival in term 3. It is an incredible week of celebrating learning, visits from experts, workshops, collaboration across the school and so much more. This year we will be holding our fifth biennial STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) Festival, with the focus being ‘Tinkering Takes Time’. To align with the disposition of being a ‘tinkerer’ we explored dispositions that help us to be creative and big thinkers. This shaped our class names for 2024 below:
Alice Winchester- KAW Discoverers
Imogen McKeon and Jane Frazer- KIM Experimenters
Young Lee (Lee) and Jane Frazer - KYL Investigators
Extracurricular Activities
In term 1, we establish many of our extracurricular opportunities to enrich student learning. More detailed information about community projects which could include activities such as Ukulele, gardening and other opportunities will be advertised in the week 3 newsletter and also communicated with students. Our regular extracurricular activities will begin in week 4.
Home Learning
There is no formal home learning for Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2. Instead, we seek the support of families to read with their child every day aligned with our Home Reading program and to look for opportunities to explore number concepts in real world contexts. We will also have weekly ‘Talk Time’ where students can share with their peers around a different topic. Details around the day your child will present and the weekly topics will be sent home.
Eating Times
We have three eating times across the day. The first being fruit break, usually at around 9:45. Please pack a small amount of fruit or vegetables for your child to have at this time. It is recommended that it is cut up to allow it to be eaten within about ten minutes. Students have eating time in the classrooms before lunch and recess play. This is usually around 15-20 minutes. Please pack items your child can manage independently.
BASE
All kindergarten students in the ACT take part in the BASE assessment. This gives us an idea of the early language and number skills of students as they begin their educational journey. The assessment process occurs twice in the kindergarten year: in the first term and again at the end of the year, and you will receive a BASE summary report for your child for both observations. This means that classroom teachers will be released off class at different times across week 3 and 4 and your child will have a relief teacher. The assessment also creates a valuable time to continue to build relationships with each student, particularly early in the year and for teachers to gain an understanding of what each child knows and develop their next steps for learning.
Kindergarten Health Checks
A large white envelope was sent home recently, about Kindergarten Health Checks. This is a system-wide initiative through ACT Health, where all Kinder students have the opportunity for hearing and vision checks. Please return your envelope to the front office ASAP, ready for the health checks next term. The due date for returning the forms and being included in this is within the envelope.
Learning Overview for Kindergarten
Please find below a Term 1 Overview, aligned with our big question, the Australian Curriculum, that will frame your child’s learning experiences.
Big Question: Who am I? Who are You? Who are we Together?
Each term we have a ‘big question’ that shapes our learning across all subjects and incorporates various learning outcomes. In term 1 we will be exploring our own identity, making connections with others and recognising our obligation to each other. Through mentor texts, rich learning opportunities and talk time, students will share their own experiences and hear those of the people around them. | ||
Curriculum Area | Concepts | Learning Experiences |
Literacy
Author Study- Mem Fox | Mentor Texts
Oral Language
Text Creation
Engaging with Texts
Phonemic Awareness
| We will be immersing ourselves in the amazing work of one of Australia’s most loved authors, Mem Fox. Through the rich language and beautiful illustrations featured in her texts, students will be making connections to themselves, each other and the world. Some of the books we will be focusing on include Possum Magic, I am Australian Too, Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge, Koala Lou and a Giraffe in the Bath.
|
Numeracy | Number Recognition
Comparing and sequencing numbers
2D Shapes
Patterns
Mathematical language |
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Health & Physical Education
| SCARFF Values
Being Safe
Fair play
Fundamental Movement Skills
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The Arts | Music
Visual Art
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Indonesian | Language and Culture
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We believe that working in partnership with you best supports your child’s learning, you are welcome to contact your child’s class teacher to discuss their progress at any time. Please email them directly or call Turner School on 6142 2430.
We are looking forward to continuing a great year of learning!
Kind regards,
The 2024 Kindergarten Team
Alice- alice.winchester@ed.act.edu.au
Imogen- imogen.mckeon@ed.act.edu.au
Jane- jane.frazer@ed.act.edu.au
Kayla (team leader)- kayla.gifford@ed.act.edu.au