Year Two
Dear Year Two Families,
Welcome back to Term 3! The Year Two teachers would like to thank all of our wonderful students and commend them for their enthusiasm and ability to adapt back into their learning after our holiday break. With such a great start back to school, we just know that this will be our best term yet! The Year Two students have been busy getting back into our third Unit of Inquiry that we had begun in the middle of last term stemming from our Central Idea, 'People care for the places they are connected to'.
Reading
In Reading the Year Two students have been exploring the comprehension strategy of summarising. Students have been exposed to two different types of summaries based on the text genre they have been reading. For fiction texts, students have been using SWBST (Somebody, Wanted, But, So and Then). For non-fiction, they have been using the five-finger summary (main idea, key detail 1, key detail 2, key detail 3 and interesting fact).
Premier's Reading Challenge
Students in Year Two have been introduced to the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge and invited to read a total of 30 books. We think we can read even more! These books can be read aloud to the students or be read by the children independently. You can support your child with this challenge by exploring your local library and borrowing/reading books from the challenge list. You might also like to search for some texts read aloud on YouTube by the authors or illustrators themselves.
Writing
During Writing, students have been continuing to consolidate their understanding of persuasive writing. Students have explored different persuasive styles such as videos, letters and posters. Students have been writing their own persuasive text based on the topic of 'protecting a special place' using key persuasive techniques of emotive language, high modality words (words that don't show uncertainty) and reasons to persuade their audience.
Maths
This term our wonderful grade 2’s became rich with the best money can buy! They learnt to value money and count the correct change in mental maths everyday encounters - They identified Australian coins and notes by key features such as; Australian animals, Australian flora and coat of arms. They sorted coins according to shape, size, colour and value. They practised being junior shoppers and identified the variety of ways coins/notes can be represented.
Inquiry
Inquiry culminated in a breathtaking exploration of our local landmarks last term. The students had an amazing bus tour and visited many local areas ‘they connected with and cared about.’ This was an exciting opportunity to encourage responsibility in caring for these special landmarks. These included Crocodile Park, Wetlands, Werribee Park, Werribee Coastal Beach and Sprinkles. This term the students are continuing to focus on a place of interest to research about, such as the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru. They will persuade an audience why ‘their place is the best and how to best take care of this treasured place.
STAR OF THE WEEK is Miss Assaf! 20 out of 22 students in 2D moved up in their reading levels! Congratulations to all! We can't wait for more reading growth in the Year 2 Cohort.
Reminders
- School begins at 8:30 am, with continuous entry from 8:20 am. Please be on time as learning begins promptly at 8:30 am.
- Late arrivals (8:40 am onwards) require a late pass.
- Absences – If your child is away, please remember to upload your reasons on Xuno; please reach out to the office if you need support doing this.
- Students are to be completing their homework every week.
- Students should also be reading their 'take home readers' each night.
- Please remember to bring in a fully charged iPad to school each day.
- Remember to bring a waste-free lunch on Wednesdays for the school waste-free Wednesday!