Foundation Term 1 Overview 2023

Welcome to Term 1 in Foundation. Below you will find an overview of what we will be covering in the Literacy, Numeracy and Integrated subjects. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher.

Reading:

During the initial weeks of Term 1, Reading lessons will focus on building a community of engaged and positive readers. We will discuss the routines involved in setting up for Reading classes and the expectations during Independent Reading and Guided Reading groups. As term progresses, the focus will turn to encouraging students to practise early reading behaviours as they engage with the levelled books, nursery rhymes and interest books from their book tubs. These behaviours include pointing to each word as they read, getting their mouth ready to articulate the first sound of unfamiliar words, segmenting and blending simple words, using the pictures to aid their problem solving and retelling the events of simple texts. Alongside this, our explicit phonics teaching will focus on the following sequence of letters: Ss, Aa, Tt, Pp, Ii, Nn, Kk, Cc, Ee, Hh, Rr, Mm, Dd, Gg. For those students already displaying strong decoding skills, the focus will turn to reading more complex texts and improving their literal and inferential comprehension skills.

Writing:

Similarly to Reading, the initial weeks of Writing lessons will focus on the routines and expectations of Writing lessons. Students will practise selecting their paper and pencil, sitting with appropriate posture and maintaining correct pencil grip. They will follow the steps of ‘thinking, rehearsing, drawing, labelling and writing’ to communicate their ideas. Their writing may be scribble, attempts at symbols, strings of letters or invented spelling. At home, encourage your child to ‘read back’ their writing to reinforce the concept that writing carries a consistent message (even if it is not yet legible.) The main genre of writing covered in Term 1 will be recounts. This will include opportunities to write about their weekend and recounts of Language Experiences that will be completed at the beginning of Writing lessons. These may include sand or bubble play, planting seeds, paper craft or outdoor games. Talking about each of these experiences and providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively and share their work will target their speech and language skills.

Numeracy:

Many units of work will be covered in Numeracy during Term 1. The major Number focus is counting. Students will practise ‘organising their count’ when determining the quantity of collections up to 20 and beyond. This may involve organising the items into a line, groups or arrays. They will develop their number sense and fluency by practising counting to and from 20 (and beyond) from different starting points and engage in hands on activities that allow them to connect number names, numerals and quantities. Later in Term 1 we will complete a Geometry unit (recognising and naming 2D shapes), a Measurement unit (comparing and describing the length, mass and capacity of objects) and a Data unit (collecting and displaying yes/no data using simple picture graphs.)

Integrated:

The Term 1 Integrated lessons will build students’ sense of identity in the school environment. They will develop the vocabulary to identify and express their emotions, likes and dislikes and articulate how they are similar or different to those around them. They will compare and contrast their home, kinder and school environments and recognise the skills needed to live, learn and play in these spaces.