1/2 A Mainstream 

Integrated- What we have been up to: 

Welcome back families and friends! Wow- what grown up people I suddenly have waltzing into our room every day! Year 1/2s? More like Year 2/3s!

We’ve introduced our new integrated unit, “Mixing It Up”, last week and have started brainstorming and thinking about everything we know about mixtures. It turns out there are mixtures all around us! This week, your child will bring home a worksheet that encourages them to look for mixtures around home. Please encourage your child to have a go at this activity. Students can present their findings through drawings, writing, pictures (or a different creative way). 

Maths: 

Students have started a new unit on fractions. They have been exploring the meaning of a half by partitioning rectangles and other shapes, and then extending their thinking to include fourths and half of a half. Students then got the opportunity to play with halves and fourths by exploring the relationships between tangram pieces. We then investigated the use of equal parts in flags from around the world, and explored the different ways halves, thirds, and fourths can look. Classes  have also started investigating ‘time’ starting with calendars and the organisation of days, weeks, months and years.  You may want to use this school unit on fractions, measuring, time and mixtures as an opportunity to do cooking at home and link all the concepts together.

Literacy:

I loved reading the students’ school holiday recounts at the beginning of this term. This gave the students the opportunity to re-familiarise themselves with the writing process - seed, plan, draft, edit and revise, and publish. Children love to write about what they know, and it sounds like some of you had some fun times during the holidays.

This week, we have begun a new literacy focus on persuasive writing. We begin this unit during Term 4 to prepare our Grade 2 students in particular for NAPLAN, which takes place early in Grade 3 and can feature a persuasive writing task. To introduce the idea of making choices, persuasion, and persuasive language, this week we have been trying to convince the world to adopt pets from shelters across the country. We apologise in advance for any arguments you might hear for getting a new pet! To support your child with persuasive writing, you can prompt them to give reasons for their choices or requests, such as ‘tell me why we should get pizza for dinner this weekend’!

I have been blown away by how the students' reading fluency has improved! This helps both reader and listener understand what is being read. Students are reading accurately, at an appropriate pace and with expression, this was reflected in the excellent job they did performing their shadow puppet shows last term. 

As part of our phonics program, classes have begun Little Learners Love Literacy Stage 7.4 sounds. We have been reviewing o_e as in cone, and o as in no and then starting u-e on the /yoo/ sound  as in new, and u as in music. We will then move on to the /oo/ as in blue and rude in the following weeks.

What’s to come in the next two weeks:

• Continue reading at home. Record any books that you read from the library or your own collection. If your child is choosing a text that is ‘too easy’, work on other skills like fluency (see above) and comprehension strategies. 

• Each student needs to bring one jar each (about the size of a jam jar) into school for our mixture experiments this term. Teachers will collect the jars from the end of next week (week 3). It would be good to move into our new space before we bring the jars in:) We will update you on what kind of mixtures we are making in our classrooms!

• Important dates:

- ARTS FESTIVAL Sat 17th October

- MOVING WEEK Week 3 19th - 23rd October

- Year 2 Day Camp Thur 5th Nov