Year 2 News
Reading
In Reading this week, students have been looking at finding the main idea of a fiction and nonfiction text. They have been looking for clues that tell us what the whole text is about. For fiction they have identified the key characters, setting, topic and any ideas that are explored. For nonfiction they have been looking for keywords and facts that help tell us what the whole idea is about. The children have spotted bold words written in the text, diagrams and photographs that support the main idea which helps them understand the topic.
“You need to find keywords and facts in the text to work out the main idea.” - Armani, 2C
“We read Pig the Pug books to see the different ideas in each book.” - Nawaab, 2C
Writing
Year 2 students have successfully wrapped up their persuasive writing unit, where they learned to express their opinions with reasons and persuasive language. This week, they’ve begun exploring information report writing, focusing on reading nonfiction texts and writing facts about a specific topic or sub-heading from their chosen book.
“I know that nonfiction books are real life things that give you facts” - Saskia 2B
“You can read one page in a big book and get facts from it like our Earth book!”- Harry 2B
“I learnt that clouds hold rain” - Hareem 2B
Maths
Students have been busily learning about subtraction strategies for the last two weeks. They have been using known number facts like friends of ten or doubling, partitioning (breaking numbers apart) and number lines to count backwards. Students have used concrete materials such as counters and MAB blocks to help their understanding.
‘In Maths we learned about how to subtract. We subtracted 2 digit numbers.’ Mya 2A
‘I like how we are doing harder things in Maths. We are learning lots of things in Maths.’ Jamari 2A
‘Maths is fun and a little bit hard, but it’s not that easy!’ Indy 2A
Inquiry
In Inquiry, Year 2 students have been exploring our planet’s natural resources using Google Earth. They observed that much of Earth is covered in green and blue, showing forests and oceans. They were especially interested to see that large parts of Australia appear red, highlighting its dry lands and desert areas. Some students had a chance to focus on one of Earth’s natural resources such as water, air, plants or soil. Students use laptops and iPads to research facts about their topic in class. It’s been an exciting exploration so far!
‘Earth’s resources help our people.’ Georgia 2A
"In Inquiry, we went on Google Earth and we checked all the cool things about Earth. I checked our school too. It was so cool and amazing! Mya 2A
‘Google Earth was so much fun. You can see snow and churches, even your house.’ Lucas 2A
“I really liked using google Earth to look at earth”- Taha 2B
“I learnt that deserts are dry and it barely rains!” - Ahri 2B
Social and Emotional Learning
The Year 2 students have been continuing to work on their peer helping skills. They focused on helping friends when they have problems. Students continued to learn that they need to give help to their peers when their friends are in need. They worked on their strengths to be a good friend when others needed help with their problems. Students role played different scenarios that could happen at school.
‘This term we have been practising helping each other. We act it out. We read notes about them and then we act them out in groups and say what we would do if we needed to help someone. We do some other things like talking to our friends. We talk about how we help our friends and their problems.’ Amy 2A
‘This term we were talking about how to be a good friend and what we would do if our friends got hurt. We got notes, we wrote them first. I read the note about Tammy and how she lost her lunch box. So I had to draw a picture of me helping Tammy and then we gave it to the teacher.’ Mya 2A
Special Event
Mother’s Day
Last weekend, we celebrated Mother’s Day. In Year 2, we helped celebrate the important people in our lives by creating our own Mother’s Day cards. The students were super creative and enjoyed putting together their own design with their loved ones' favourite things.
They also had the opportunity to visit the Mother’s Day Stall to buy gifts to give to a special mother, grandmother, aunty and any other important person. The Year 2 Cohort hope everyone had a lovely day celebrating and a huge thanks to all the parent helpers who ran the stall and helped the children choose their gifts.
“I liked going to the stall to buy different gifts!” - Indianna, 2C
“I used all my money to buy gifts for my family” - Ayla, 2C
