Year 2 News
Maths
The Year 2 students have been learning to use the four main compass directions—north, south, east and west—to give and follow directions. Students have also been introduced to grid references through engaging activities, including games like Battleships and using a school map to locate specific buildings. It has been wonderful to see their excitement as they use coordinates to navigate their way around the school.
The students have also been learning to calculate change from $1.00. They have used hands-on materials to practise their skills and enjoyed playing a fun partner game all about giving change. They are proving to be very capable little shoppers—just in time for Christmas!
Literacy
Our Year 2 students have been enthusiastically learning how to organise their writing into paragraphs using the TiPToP acronym. This simple strategy—Time, Place, Topic, and Person—helps students understand when to start a new paragraph and how to make their ideas clearer for the reader.
Last week the students wrote three paragraphs on an aspect of Beaumaris North Primary School. Some students wrote about our school uniform, our specialist classes or one of our Units of inquiry.
This week the students wrote three paragraphs about Christmas. Some wrote about decorations, their favourite thing about Christmas or family traditions. It has been wonderful to see their confidence grow as they learn to structure their work more effectively and take pride in presenting their ideas in well-organised paragraphs.
Unit of Inquiry Update:
How We Organise Ourselves
Our new Unit of Inquiry, How We Organise Ourselves, has launched with great enthusiasm. This unit explores our central idea: “The structure and function of organisations are determined by the community.”
Students have been inquiring into the many organisations they belong to and examining how the communities we live in shape the organisations that exist. Through discussions and reflections, they are beginning to recognise the important role organisations play in meeting the needs of a community.
To make meaningful connections with our Mathematics learning on mapping, students worked in groups of three to design their own ideal community—one that would cater to all of their needs. Each group began by brainstorming the essential organisations they wanted to include, such as services, recreational spaces, and community-support systems.
Once their ideas were gathered, students organised these organisations onto a collaborative map. This activity required thoughtful planning, spatial awareness, and strong communication skills. We were delighted to see excellent collaboration as students negotiated placement, justified their choices, and applied their understanding of how real communities function. The final maps showcased creativity, critical thinking, and a deepening understanding of the relationship between communities and the organisations within them. We are excited to continue building on this inquiry in the weeks ahead!
Action
It is always wonderful to see our students taking action at home. Well done to Emily-Rose in 2B, who created some fantastic maps and grid-reference activities to share with her classmates.
Emily has also been a true Maths enthusiast, designing her own Maths PowerPoint filled with addition and subtraction problems for her classmates to solve. It is wonderful to see her continuing her learning at home, combining her recent skills in creating presentations with her love of mathematics. Amazing job, Emily!
When discussing our responsibilities at home, several students returned to school proudly sharing that they had negotiated new chores to help out more, such as emptying the dishwasher.
Well done also goes to Mia in 2C for taking action and using her persuasive writing skills she learnt in class to persuade the teachers to play a particular song at Year 2 Assembly. Well done, Mia!
