Year 2

Welcome back to Term 2! We have such a busy and exciting term planned for students including lots of opportunities for parent helpers. If you are interested in being a parent helper, please ensure you have a valid Working With Children’s Check (WWCC). These are free to apply for online but can take a few weeks and unfortunately, you can’t help without one.

Important Dates

6th and 7th May – Mother’s Day Stall

12th May – F-2 Assembly

19th - 23rd May – Grade 1 and 2 Swimming

26th May – Whole School Assembly

9th June – King’s Birthday Public Holiday (no school)

16th June – F-2 Assembly

16th June – 2KL + 2BM Excursion to Mont de Lancey Homestead

17th June – 2JH + 2CC Excursion to Mont de Lancey Homestead

30th June – Whole School Assembly 

Swimming

Grade 1 and 2 students will have swimming lessons in Week 5 (Monday 19th – Friday 23rd May). Swimming will run every day that week.

Please send your child to school wearing their bathers under their uniform to save time. 

Students will need to bring a separate swimming bag that is packed with:

•  a towel
• a change of underwear
• a swimming cap (optional)
• goggles 
• a plastic bag for wet gear

Please make sure everything is clearly named! Lost items can only be returned if they are labelled.

Permission is will be on Compass early next week. This swimming program is free for students - no payment required!  Students can only attend if the Compass form is completed. 

Swimming helps students with water safety, swimming skills, and independence. Students will have the best experience if they can:

• Dry and dress themselves after swimming
• Pack their own swimming bag and know their items (e.g. towel and goggle colour)
• Keep track of all their belongings

Parent Helpers Needed!

Each class needs parent helpers. If you would like to assist and hold a valid Working with Children Check (WWCC), please complete the attached online form. Parent helpers need to arrive 5–10 minutes before departure, sign in at the office, and wear a lanyard with their WWCC (available at the office).

https://forms.office.com/r/VFVm3WKD6v 

If you're not rostered on or don’t have a WWCC, you can still come separately to watch, but you cannot help at the pool or in the change rooms.

We would like to request that anyone who attends the pool to watch swimming lessons please be considerate of student privacy. If you intend to take photos, videos, or digital images, they should only be of your child. Please do not upload pictures of any other child to social media or reproduce or publish for any purpose without the permission of those children's legal guardians.

Grade 2 Timetable:

• 2JH + 2BM class: Depart VPS 11.40am, return 1.10pm
• 2KL + 2CC class: Depart VPS 12.15pm, return 1.45pm

Mother’s Day Stall

On Tuesday and Wednesday, VPS will be holding it’s Mother’s Day stall! 

2BM and 2CC will visit on Tuesday 6th May

2KL and 2JH will visit on Wednesday 7th May

Students can bring along some money (max $20) in a wallet or zip lock bag to purchase a gift. Gift bags are available to buy too but you may like to pack a small shopping bag for students to keep their gifts safe. 

Crunch and Sip

What’s On in the Classroom?

Literacy

We are learning about improving our word choices in our writing. We are doing this by focusing on:

• Strong verbs
• Specific adjectives
• Creating word banks full of interesting words 
• Using metaphors and similes

Here are some examples from our writing:

Mathematics

We have been focusing on our additive thinking and increasing our strategies to solve an addition or subtraction problem. Some strategies we have been learning about include:

• Build to the next 10
• Near Doubles
• Addition and Subtraction Fact Families

Our other mathematics topics include:

• Location and Direction: using maps to give and follow directions and creating a bird’s eye view of the classroom
• Time – reading time on analogue clocks

Inquiry

This term, our Inquiry topic is History – Past to Present. We are learning and exploring the differences between life 100 years ago and now. As part of this, we have had a mini museum and examined objects from the past. Later in the term, we will have an incursion and excursion to help us explore Past to Present. Our science topic this term is looking at Weather and Change. 

Excursion to Mont de Lancey

On Monday 16th June (2KL + 2BM) and Tuesday 17th June (2CC + 2JH) will be attending Mont de Lancey Homestead! The day is broken up into 2 parts.  The first part of the day is spent looking through the museum, homestead, chapel and artisans workshops.  The afternoon is spent doing various olden days activities – an old fashion school lesson in the schoolhouse, craft activities, rope making and old-fashioned games (billy carts, hoops etc). 

As part of this excursion, we ask for students and parent helpers to be dressed up in old fashioned clothing! It is not necessary for children to purchase clothes – just be creative with existing wardrobes (i.e., rolled up jeans, checked shirts, caps and dresses).

Girls may come in:

• a long skirt, 
• dress, 
• petticoat
• bonnet
• apron
• shawl

Boys could come dressed in: 

•  trousers
• shorts
• braces
• a shirt
• vest
• tie
• hat

The excursion will be available on Compass in a few weeks – we will let you know when – but wanted to give you advance warning due to the different clothing required. 

Here are some examples of students from past excursions to Mont de Lancey:

Show and Tell