Teaching and Learning
Lisa Heard (Head of Curriculum)
Author Visit: Dr Cameron Stelzer
This Monday, the Year 3 and Year 5 students were lucky enough to engage in writing workshops with award-winning author, Dr Cameron Stelzer. The workshops focused on writing both a narrative and a persuasive text. The purpose of these workshops was to increase student confidence and skills for the demand style of writing required in NAPLAN testing and to generally have fun with the writing process whilst being guided by a professional writer.
Cameron is becoming one of our regular visitors and has now been to our school a number of times. His stories are very engaging as are his workshops. He has a wealth of experience to draw on, having written over 20 books and presents in a very multimodal and entertaining way. If you have a student in Year 3 or Year 5, be sure to ask them all about it.
Prep – Reading and spelling
One of the most exciting moments when starting school is the challenge and thrill of learning to read and write. These complex skills require an explicit teaching approach that align the concepts of phonemic awareness (hearing sounds in words) and phonics (representing sounds with letters). Our whole-school phonics program, Sounds-Write, guides this process to ensure our youngest learners get the best start and immediately begin building confidence and motivation to read and write.
Our lessons require minimal materials, simply a whiteboard, marker and eraser and some letter tiles to build words
So far, we have been learning the sounds a, i, m, s, t, n, p, o, b, c, g, h and we are applying these sounds immediately to words like mat, nip, bag, and hog to practise segmenting the word into sounds and blending them together to read the word. If your child does not know a word tell them to, "Say the sounds and read the word." If they are unsure, model it for them.
Prep homework commenced in Week 5 and excitement levels were at an all-time high as they proudly practised their sounds and read their decodable book. At this stage of Prep, students are not expected to independently read an entire text, but repeated reading and sounding-out of the words is excellent practice.
Prep and Year 6 Big Buddies & Little Learners – A Perfect Match!
Excitement was in the air this week as our Year 6 students met their Prep Buddies for the very first time! There were big smiles, warm welcomes, and plenty of enthusiastic chatter as friendships began to form.
Each week, our buddies will come together for fun-filled activities, including arts and crafts, story time, number games, and outdoor adventures. With their Year 6 mentors by their side, the Preps will learn, play, and discover the Windsor Way in action!
We can’t wait to see these friendships grow and watch our Year 6 leaders shine as positive role models.
