Year 2 Mainstream 

Celebrating Learning

What we have been up to: 

Last week the Year 2s went to their day camp in Toolangi. It was an amazing day full of fun and adventure. Students had to work together and persevere to complete the four activities of low ropes, hut building, possum gliding, and go cart making and racing. Students learned a lot and now feel well equipped for next year’s overnight Year 3/4 camp.

“I liked the Billy Carts because you got to make them and race them.” - Dylan N

“I loved the possum glider because I actually felt like I could fly for a bit!.”- Hazel W

“Hut building was fun because I really liked the building part, but then you also got to go inside. It was so dark.” - Milly Y

“I loved camp because we got ice cream for dessert.” - Louis R 

“It was very fun. It had really good views of the mountains and we did fun activities.” Navy C

“The bus trip there was very annoying but the day was great. My favourite activities were the low ropes and the possum glider. The bus trip back was way better.” Kitty M

Last week, your child brought home a letter explaining our take home project for T4. This project asks that students create a “flying machine” at home using recycled materials. Students will follow the design process to create their flying machine. Please read over the letter carefully with your children. We are very excited to see what they (you) come up with!

Students have also been testing recycled materials and their characteristics to determine what might be suitable for their flying machines that they are making at home! Ask your child about their discoveries!

Maths:

We have started exploring place value through worded problems and games. We have continued exploring time (analogue and digital). Students have made their own analogue clock and have started to practise reading and comparing digital and analogue clock faces and how they display time differently.

English:

Using the facts and information we collected about birds, helicopters, planes, gliders and hot air balloons students wrote an explanation text on how one of them flies. This ties into our integrated unit and will hopefully help them with their homework creating a “flying machine”. We also used the rich experience of camp as a seed to inspire any piece of writing the students might like to write. They choose information reports, procedures, stories and recounts. We hope you enjoy some of them. 

This term, year 1/2 classes are continuing learning the Little Learners Love Literacy Stage 7.4 sounds. To reinforce their learning, students could be practising their spelling at home. 

7.4 sounds that we have focussed on for weeks 4-5 are /oo/ sounds: u_e (rude), ue (true), ew (blew) and ui (fruit).

What’s to come in the next two weeks:

Students will have a “practise for next year” transition session in week 6 following a similar format to last year.

Don’t forget students’ flying machines, which they have been designing and creating at home over the past few weeks, are due in week 8 and 9! Students will bring their flying machines into class and will have the opportunity to demonstrate how high/ far they can fly or how long they stay in the air when dropped from a height. We can’t wait to see what students have come up with!

We will start to focus more heavily on the final stage of the writer’s process in the coming weeks after spending a lot of time planning, drafting, revising and editing. Students will learn about the high expectations of a published piece of writing and how they can ensure their published pieces are the best work that they can produce.

In our phonics sessions in week 7 and 8, we will continue reviewing sounds and spelling patterns we have been working on over the course of the year. All students benefit from a daily routine of reading and being read to at home. 

In Maths, we will begin our unit exploring money- learning about the physical coins and notes that we use in Australia.

As we are now in term 4 and the sun is getting stronger, please remember to pack a hat for your child every day!