Grade 2

Reading

At the end of last term our students were analysing figurative language such as alliteration, similes and metaphors within poems. ‘A gift for Amma: market day in India’ is a beautiful story about a girl searching a market for the perfect gift. The author's wonderful use of figurative language was a fantastic and authentic example for our students. We also learnt about the structure of some poems including Haiku, Cinquain and Rainbow Poems through the use of mentor texts. ‘Dogku’ is a text about a cute dog written entirely in Haiku.

In Reading, students have started studying the features and structure of non-fiction texts to support their understanding when writing information texts. They have looked at books, videos, fact files and PowerPoints to discuss the different layouts and features used in each format.

Writing

At the end of term 2 the students used their developing knowledge of how other poets use figurative language and structure to write their own poems. All the year 2 poets did extremely well in planning, drafting and publishing their poems.

The focus in Writing for the beginning of term 3 is information reports. The students will be discussing a variety of different topics such as animals, occupations, events and places. Week one saw the grade 2 students learn and write about NAIDOC week and week two’s focus was police officers. 

Maths

At the end of term 2 the students had so much fun identifying Australian money and making and counting collections of money. The MOST fun was had when they could use “money” to “purchase” items from a toy shop.

This term we have been focussing on the area of subtraction. The students have learnt different strategies to solve a variety of subtraction problems such as counting backwards, drawing pictures and using number lines. The students have enjoyed the hands-on approach to this unit and all the games that have supported their learning.

Wellbeing

This term our focus is to become a united learning community. We are having weekly cohort meetings where students will get to know other students from the different classes. So far, they have discussed things they have in common, created a team flag and played some name games. This has been a fantastic opportunity for all the students to get to know each other.  

Humanities

We think our community is the best in Australia, and we have been learning about why it is so good. Students began by listing special places within our community that they are connected to. Then we listed things that would make our community even better. At the end of last term we actually designed our own perfect neighbourhood- most of which had a Grayling Primary School in it.

Police Visit

On Tuesday our students had the opportunity to speak with Sergeant Andrew Nisbet, an officer who works in the forensics department of the police force. The students learnt about how to become a police officer, what they do, their uniform, the equipment they use and the importance of cyber safety. The students even had the chance to do some finger print testing. It was fantastic to see the grade 2s excitement and interest when asking some great questions. The students will now use the knowledge they gained from the talk to write an information report about the occupation of a police officer.