Year 2 News

From Sally, Year 2 teacher

Welcome come back what is going to be an exciting Term! We in Grade 2 have gotten straight into the swing of things.

We have started the term by reflecting on our holidays and presenting the highlights in the form of a magazine cover. Students loved designing creative layouts and sharing their favourite moments from the break. We have also begun writing persuasive book reviews of our favourite stories. Using the SRSD TREE planner, we organised our ideas into reasons and explanations and focused on using high modality words to make our arguments strong and convincing. Families can support this at home by encouraging children to talk about or write a short review of a book or movie they have enjoyed, explaining why others should read or watch it too.

Reading

We have continued building our phonics and phonemic awareness skills. Over the last two weeks, we have focused on how adding affixes such as un-, re-, -ic and -ity changes the meaning of words. Students have enjoyed applying these patterns in their reading and spelling. We have also practised our handwriting and reading fluency, working with partners to improve expression, pace and phrasing. Reading aloud at home, even for a few minutes each day, helps build confidence and fluency. Try swapping roles so your child sometimes reads to you and other times listens as you model fluent reading.

Maths

We have revised ordering numbers up to 1000 and renaming two and three digit numbers. This week, we began revisiting addition and subtraction strategies using number lines to support our understanding. As students grow more confident, we will move towards more efficient written methods. You might like to practise mental addition and subtraction when out and about, for example estimating totals while shopping or comparing prices to find the difference. These quick, real-world challenges help strengthen number sense in everyday contexts.

We have started our new Digital Technologies unit using Sketches. Students learned to take and upload a photo of themselves, make it opaque, trace the outline with a fine liner and use shading tools to bring their character to life. 

Next, we will upload these sketches to Keynote and use them as the main characters in imaginative digital stories. At home, children may enjoy exploring other simple creative tools or drawing apps to continue developing their digital artistry and confidence.