grade prep with miss Williamson
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Welcome to the wonderful world of Prep at Coimadai Primary School. I look forward to supporting your child as they explore their amazing journey into learning at school.
This term is “All About Me”. This unit is designed to help support students as find their own identity within their family and individually as a member of our school community.
I look forward to a fun and exciting term with your child.
Communication
If you need to contact me, you can do so via your child’s school diary or Class Dojo. I have meetings Wednesday mornings from 8am until 8:30am and I am regularly in the classroom from 8:30am daily. Please feel free to drop in for a quick chat, however if you require longer than a quick 5-minute discussion I am happy to organise a time that is suitable for both of us.
Class Dojo is also a great way to communicate away from your child’s diary. Communication via Dojo will only be viewed between the hours of 8am to 4pm Monday to Friday and will not be checked on the weekends. For any urgent matters please contact me at school by phone and I will respond when I am not teaching. Please remember that if you contact me via Class Dojo during teaching times I might not always see this, so a quick phone call to school is the best way to let me know if there is a change to your child’s going home routine that they might not be aware of.
Notes
All notes that are sent home will be placed inside your child’s school diary. It is important that your child’s diary comes to school each day. If you are sending notes or money to school can you please place it inside the school diary. This will assist your child with their responsibility of unpacking notes into the correct box in our classroom. Can all money be sealed in an envelope and clearly marked with your child’s name and the purpose of the money. If you wish to make a BPay payment, please put a note in your child’s diary informing us of what payment is for. Please make sure that all notes are delivered to school via our classroom, as this allows students to be responsible for their notes and students can be reminded of their responsibility if notes have not been returned.
Homework
At this stage students are encouraged to be read to or read with an adult or older sibling and this is to be noted in your child’s diary. We keep a running record of the nights your child reads at home. This count determines their eligibility to participate in our at home reading reward, each term.
Magic 100 Words – M100W students will bring home these words every night.
Assembly
Our school assembly will be held on Friday afternoon at 3:10pm. All parents and friends are welcome to attend.
Munch and Crunch
Munch and Crunch in Prep is a quick and easy snack to refuel our bodies. During this time, students are able to eat a small piece of fruit, piece of cheese or any healthy snack. It should be a small snack, which will keep students nourished and ready to learn. As we continue to work or listen to instructions during this time it is wise, not to have things like SPC fruit snack packs, as these can be messy
Water
I encourage all students to have a drink bottle filled with water at their table each day. Research indicates that students remember more and stay focused longer when they are hydrated. In fact, studies have found that that drinking water can improve brain function by 15 percent. Because the brain has no way to store water, it is important to continually drink water throughout the day. Our class challenge is to try and drink one whole drink bottle of water per day. Due to the current epidemic occurring worldwide and in line with the current health recommendations, all drink bottles need to be washed thoroughly each night before returning to school.
Fun Fridays
Each Friday will see students rotate through the teaching team for specialist classes. Although we may call this Fun Friday, the specialist classes at Coimadai Primary School are an important part of our Students learning.
This year the following specialist classes taught at Coimadai Primary School:
Art with Mrs Sundqvist – Art Develops the Whole Brain. Art strengthens focus and increases attention, develops hand-eye coordination, requires practice and strategic thinking, and involves interacting with the material world through different tools and art mediums.
P.E with Mrs Ross – Physical Education is the key learning area in curriculum that focuses explicitly on developing movement skills and concepts students require to participate in physical activities with competence and confidence. The knowledge, understanding, skill and dispositions students develop through movement in Physical Education encourage ongoing participation across their lifespan and in turn lead to positive health outcomes.
STEM with Mrs Ewings - The acronym STEM refers to these not as stand-alone subjects, rather as a way of thinking. STEM is about the skills required to learn science, technology and mathematics, and how engineering and design processes and principles are used to achieve an outcome.
Initially, students of STEM need to identify a problem. They then create possible solutions to that problem, which can be tested. The skills are inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning.
Resilience with Miss Williamson - The Resilience Project delivers emotionally engaging programs to schools, providing practical, evidence-based, positive mental health strategies to build resilience and happiness to students. Through presentations, wellbeing journals, school curriculum, teacher diaries and apps, the project seeks to help all Australians become mentally healthy.
We are also very fortunate to have the following specialist classes on Monday’s
Library (MARC Van) with Ms O’Gorman (Monday) – Our school library encourages curiosity, innovation and problem solving. It is integral to the cultural and social life of the school. The school library is a central point for all kinds of reading, access to information, knowledge building, deep thinking and lively discussion. Students will be encouraged to borrow books to take home and will require a Library bag so that books are kept safe and clean. Students will be responsible for returning their borrowed books on Monday as books cannot be borrowed if there are overdue book under their name or if they are without their Library bag.
Chinese with Mrs Tan (Monday)- Learning a foreign language enriches your entire self. Knowing a foreign language can unlock cultural and geographical parts of the world, help you understand your native language better and teach you to process what's around you from a different perspective.
Drama with Ms O’Gorman - Prep Only (Monday) - Participation in Dramatic activity requires self-control and discipline that will serve students well in all aspects of life. Students in Drama will learn to work together, to cooperate, to find the best way for each member of a group to contribute, and to listen to and accept the viewpoints and contributions of others.
D.E.A.R (Drop Everything And Read)
The D.E.A.R program will run across all levels in our school, this program will run Monday to Thursday from 2:15pm till 2:30pm. During this time the teacher will read aloud a collection of storybooks. This allows the teachers to model the skills of reading for enjoyment.
Buddies
Students have been linked with a Senior student to help them navigated the start of their school journey. The Buddy program allows our senior students to develop their mentor abilities and build friendships with their younger peers and allows our younger students to build relationships within their new school community.
Please feel free to pop into the classroom and see what we have been up to at any time. All students are proud and excited to share their work achievements with you and I encourage you to look around our room as we build our classroom community.
If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to see me.
I look forward to us working together for your child’s education.
Renae Williamson (Teacher)
Kymm Madden (Education Support)
Welcome to the wonderful world of Prep at Coimadai Primary School. I look forward to supporting your child as they explore their amazing journey into learning at school.
This term is “All About Me”. This unit is designed to help support students as find their own identity within their family and individually as a member of our school community.
I look forward to a fun and exciting term with your child.
Communication
If you need to contact me, you can do so via your child’s school diary or Class Dojo. I have meetings Wednesday mornings from 8am until 8:30am and I am regularly in the classroom from 8:30am daily. Please feel free to drop in for a quick chat, however if you require longer than a quick 5-minute discussion I am happy to organise a time that is suitable for both of us.
Class Dojo is also a great way to communicate away from your child’s diary. Communication via Dojo will only be viewed between the hours of 8am to 4pm Monday to Friday and will not be checked on the weekends. For any urgent matters please contact me at school by phone and I will respond when I am not teaching. Please remember that if you contact me via Class Dojo during teaching times I might not always see this, so a quick phone call to school is the best way to let me know if there is a change to your child’s going home routine that they might not be aware of.
Notes
All notes that are sent home will be placed inside your child’s school diary. It is important that your child’s diary comes to school each day. If you are sending notes or money to school can you please place it inside the school diary. This will assist your child with their responsibility of unpacking notes into the correct box in our classroom. Can all money be sealed in an envelope and clearly marked with your child’s name and the purpose of the money. If you wish to make a BPay payment, please put a note in your child’s diary informing us of what payment is for. Please make sure that all notes are delivered to school via our classroom, as this allows students to be responsible for their notes and students can be reminded of their responsibility if notes have not been returned.
Homework
At this stage students are encouraged to be read to or read with an adult or older sibling and this is to be noted in your child’s diary. We keep a running record of the nights your child reads at home. This count determines their eligibility to participate in our at home reading reward, each term.
Magic 100 Words – M100W students will bring home these words every night.
Assembly
Our school assembly will be held on Friday afternoon at 3:10pm. All parents and friends are welcome to attend.
Munch and Crunch
Munch and Crunch in Prep is a quick and easy snack to refuel our bodies. During this time, students are able to eat a small piece of fruit, piece of cheese or any healthy snack. It should be a small snack, which will keep students nourished and ready to learn. As we continue to work or listen to instructions during this time it is wise, not to have things like SPC fruit snack packs, as these can be messy
Water
I encourage all students to have a drink bottle filled with water at their table each day. Research indicates that students remember more and stay focused longer when they are hydrated. In fact, studies have found that that drinking water can improve brain function by 15 percent. Because the brain has no way to store water, it is important to continually drink water throughout the day. Our class challenge is to try and drink one whole drink bottle of water per day. Due to the current epidemic occurring worldwide and in line with the current health recommendations, all drink bottles need to be washed thoroughly each night before returning to school.
Fun Fridays
Each Friday will see students rotate through the teaching team for specialist classes. Although we may call this Fun Friday, the specialist classes at Coimadai Primary School are an important part of our Students learning.
This year the following specialist classes taught at Coimadai Primary School:
Art with Mrs Sundqvist – Art Develops the Whole Brain. Art strengthens focus and increases attention, develops hand-eye coordination, requires practice and strategic thinking, and involves interacting with the material world through different tools and art mediums.
P.E with Mrs Ross – Physical Education is the key learning area in curriculum that focuses explicitly on developing movement skills and concepts students require to participate in physical activities with competence and confidence. The knowledge, understanding, skill and dispositions students develop through movement in Physical Education encourage ongoing participation across their lifespan and in turn lead to positive health outcomes.
STEM with Mrs Ewings - The acronym STEM refers to these not as stand-alone subjects, rather as a way of thinking. STEM is about the skills required to learn science, technology and mathematics, and how engineering and design processes and principles are used to achieve an outcome.
Initially, students of STEM need to identify a problem. They then create possible solutions to that problem, which can be tested. The skills are inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning.
Resilience with Miss Williamson - The Resilience Project delivers emotionally engaging programs to schools, providing practical, evidence-based, positive mental health strategies to build resilience and happiness to students. Through presentations, wellbeing journals, school curriculum, teacher diaries and apps, the project seeks to help all Australians become mentally healthy.
We are also very fortunate to have the following specialist classes on Monday’s
Library (MARC Van) with Ms O’Gorman (Monday) – Our school library encourages curiosity, innovation and problem solving. It is integral to the cultural and social life of the school. The school library is a central point for all kinds of reading, access to information, knowledge building, deep thinking and lively discussion. Students will be encouraged to borrow books to take home and will require a Library bag so that books are kept safe and clean. Students will be responsible for returning their borrowed books on Monday as books cannot be borrowed if there are overdue book under their name or if they are without their Library bag.
Chinese with Mrs Tan (Monday)- Learning a foreign language enriches your entire self. Knowing a foreign language can unlock cultural and geographical parts of the world, help you understand your native language better and teach you to process what's around you from a different perspective.
Drama with Ms O’Gorman - Prep Only (Monday) - Participation in Dramatic activity requires self-control and discipline that will serve students well in all aspects of life. Students in Drama will learn to work together, to cooperate, to find the best way for each member of a group to contribute, and to listen to and accept the viewpoints and contributions of others.
D.E.A.R (Drop Everything And Read)
The D.E.A.R program will run across all levels in our school, this program will run Monday to Thursday from 2:15pm till 2:30pm. During this time the teacher will read aloud a collection of storybooks. This allows the teachers to model the skills of reading for enjoyment.
Buddies
Students have been linked with a Senior student to help them navigated the start of their school journey. The Buddy program allows our senior students to develop their mentor abilities and build friendships with their younger peers and allows our younger students to build relationships within their new school community.
Please feel free to pop into the classroom and see what we have been up to at any time. All students are proud and excited to share their work achievements with you and I encourage you to look around our room as we build our classroom community.
If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to see me.
I look forward to us working together for your child’s education.
Renae Williamson (Teacher)
Kymm Madden (Education Support)