Year Two News

Dear Year Two Parents, Families and Carers,

We have now officially passed the halfway mark for Term 3. Oh, how quick time is flying this year! We have been busy in our classrooms doing lots of learning and also busy in other classrooms during our fluid groupings. This term our Performing Arts specialist is music, which the students are very much enjoying. Please read below to find out more.

Reading

In Reading, students have been learning about summarising, with a focus on fictional texts. They revised the definition of summarising – a shortened version of a text restating the main parts in a concise manner and began using the Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then strategy to summarise a range of stories. Throughout the week students read or listened to stories such as Jack and The Beanstalk, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks and The Three Bears and stories of their own choosing before completing a summary using the SWBST template. Students also continued critiquing books by completing a book review at the end of the week. They selected a book from the library, discussed whether they liked or disliked the story and gave reasons as to why. Some students decided to rate the book using the smiley face or star system and even gave suggestions to how they think the book could be improved. 

Writing

In Writing, students began looking at recounts. They revised the definition of a recount – writing about events that have already happened and investigated how to structure their text. At the beginning of the week, students recounted their weekend ensuring to include the 5Ws. They then explored how to use paragraphs in recount writing and were encouraged to write about shared experiences such as games, recess, lunch, an activity, or a video watched. Students also continued with inspiration writing which is a piece of writing of their own choice that does not have to relate to our current writing unit of recounts. This is to encourage students to think creatively and use their imagination when writing and helps them to work towards achieving their independent writing goals. 

Mathematics

In Mathematics, students have continued learning about time. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, students completed activities in their own classroom. They received worded problems and were tasked with solving the elapsed time – how long had passed from the start to finish of an event, the start time or the finish time. On Tuesday and Thursday, students visited their fluid group teacher and classroom and continued working towards their shared learning goal for time. It has been amazing to see the growth in confidence and understanding of students through the use of fluid groupings. This week we wrapped up our unit on time and will begin new fluid groups next week focusing on measurement.

Inquiry

We have officially started our new inquiry unit under the transdisciplinary theme ‘How We Organise Ourselves.’ Students began the week by being immersed in a provocation lesson where they completed See, Think, Wonders for a variety of pictures displaying different transportation systems.  They then were encouraged to try and solve our new Central Idea ‘Communities Make Efforts To Create Transportation Systems That Meet Their Needs’ by searching for the words in a word search and then collaboratively trying to reorder the words into a sentence that made sense. We look forward to gathering students' wonderings for Unit 5 in the coming weeks and exploring the unit further with them.

Weekly Reminders

Arrival Time

School begins at 8:30am, with continuous entry from 8:20am. Please be on time as learning begins at 8:30am.

Assembly

We have a whole-school assembly on Monday afternoons commencing at 2pm. 

Spare clothing 

Due to the rain and mud around play areas, it may be worth packing spare clothing to change into if need be. 

Ipads

 It's essential that students bring their iPad to school fully charged every day.

Homework

Students are required to read for 20 minutes each night and parents are to sign students' reading logs. They are also to complete the homework task for the week which can be found on Schoolbox and alternate between Reading Eggs and Mathletics tasks. Homework is extremely important to reinforce the learning concepts being taught during school.

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.

Reading Eggs Challenge 

Prep to Year Two students are competing in a Reading Eggs challenge where they are to read as many books as they can from the Reading Eggs library over the next month. You can find more information about this on the Year Two SchoolBox Page.

Book Day

Saltwater College is having our Book Day celebration on Wednesday 31st August. On this day your child is invited to come to school dressed as a favourite character from any book. We would love to see them bring a copy of the book to share with their class.