Dear Foundation Families,

This term, the children have enjoyed exploring our central idea 'Products and services are created to meet the needs of a community'. It has been wonderful to see the children starting to think about roles and responsibilities, occupations, and different products and services. They have been encouraged to explore these ideas, engage in the design process, and be creative and critical in their thinking.

We love opportunities to take our learning beyond our classroom so the children can apply their understanding in meaningful, real-life contexts. The Foundation students have taken the lead to perform a service and collect goods for the local community by organising Pyjama Day on Friday 2 September. We are asking all Minimbah children from ECC to Year 6 to wear their Pyjamas to school and donate some new pj's, socks, or jocks to charity Mothers Supporting Families in Need (MSFIN) so that they can be given to local families who are vulnerable. The Foundation students have created posters, delivered collection baskets, and confidently explained the day to all the other classes in our school community. I am sure their efforts will be greatly appreciated by the volunteers at MSFIN.

We also like to connect our learning to our play and discovery at the creek each Wednesday. The children have enjoyed being inventors, engineers, and even meteorologists during our time at the creek this term. I have been very impressed by their ingenuity and resourcefulness, creating bridges for humans and frogs, clay shops, museums, bush tools, rain gauges, weaving schools, and mini animal habitats.

It has been great to make literacy connections with our current unit of inquiry so that the children can listen and respond to fiction and non-fiction texts that help them explore roles and responsibilities. The children have really enjoyed Andrea Beaty's picture story books, such as Rosie Revere, Engineer, Ada Twist, Scientist, and Iggy Peck, Architect. These books not only focus on roles and responsibilities but also encourage many of the attributes of the IB learner profile, such as being a risk-taker, an inquirer, and a thinker.

In Maths this term, we have continued to consolidate our place value understanding and moved to numbers beyond 20 and skip counting. Our 100th day of school was an excellent opportunity to practice counting by 10s and visualising what ten groups of ten looks like. We have also begun to explore patterns and will introduce money and time before the end of term.

I hope you are all having a relaxing weekend as we have a very busy, exciting week ahead. We look forward to seeing you all at The Little Mermaid on Wednesday and Thursday evening.

PJ day on Friday 2 September should be lots of fun and a great way to relax after our final show on Thursday night.

Thank you for your continued support,

JACQUI
Foundation Teacher