Middle Unit -2/3

We’ve had a very busy fortnight in the Middle Unit. Over the last two weeks, students have been busy working through many assessments in order to show their learning growth. All of the 2/3 students recently completed a PAT assessment in both reading and maths. This was a new experience for most of the students and they handled this amazingly well. They have also been working through other reading, writing and maths assessments with their teachers and were incredibly patient as we collected as much learning data as possible.

Last week, we began a new Literacy unit. During reading, we have been reading books from a selected author and then learning how to analyse and compare their different texts. We are rotating the authors through the middle unit, so your child may have been reading books by Pamela Allen, Mem Fox, Aaron Blabey, Bob Graham or Tohby Riddle. Students have been learning about writing techniques that authors use to enhance their writing, including rhyme, repetition, similes and metaphors, onomatopoeia, and alliteration. They have also explored how authors use illustrations to enhance the story. Recently, we have begun to discuss the author’s purpose and the moral of the story. Students have loved comparing the work of these authors and we have been seeing some really rich discussions within the classroom.

During our writing lessons, students have had the opportunity to put their new literacy knowledge into practice. We have been attempting to use new writing techniques in our own work and have been improving our written summaries of the text. Students have also been completing book reviews and sharing these reviews with their classmates.

We’ve had a big focus lately on addition during Maths. Students have been learning different strategies to solve addition equations, including the jump strategy, the split strategy, friendly numbers, and the compensation strategy. Students have enjoyed a variety of maths games and quizzes to help test their knowledge of addition. They have also had to explain which strategies they use when solving more difficult addition equations. This week, we have been using similar strategies, but switched for use when solving subtraction problems.

We will continue our subtraction unit until the end of Term 2.

Year 2/3 Teachers

Mark Condon/Deb Thompson, Libby Tobin, Caitlin Hanks, Lyndsay Adamson, 

Breanna Smith, Zoe Bronchinetti