Year 2 Term 2 Newsletter

Meet the teaching team

2A - Amanda Price 

2B - Penelope Silva 

Welcome to Term 2

The Year 2 students have made a great start to the Term! We are enjoying hearing about their wonderful holidays and connecting with each student. We are looking forward to our excursion to the Aquarium.

 Specialist Timetable

Important Dates

08/05: Mothers' Day,Open Classrooms 2.15pm

18/05: Curriculum Day 

18/05: Learning Progress meetings 

21/05: Learning Progress meetings 

05/06: Cross Country (F-2)

08/06: King's Birthday Public Holiday

19/06: Semester reports avaiable to families

25/06: Excursion to the Melbourne Aquarium

26/06: Last Day of Term - 2:30 dismissal

Parent Helpers

At CEPS, we highly value working as a whole community and encourage the participation and involvement of our families. 

When helping with the children at CEPS, it is required that you wear a Working With Children’s Check (WWCC) displayed on a lanyard at all times. 

If you have not got a WWCC and wish to volunteer, application forms can be found online at: www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au

Remember to sign in each day you volunteer at CEPS via the computer at the office. This is a mandatory requirement. You will also be required to sign out. 

Teaching and Learning

English

Speaking & Listening 

Students will develop their speaking and listening skills during circle time activities and group and individual presentations. They will practise expressing their ideas in appropriate ways and using suitable vocabulary to make their understanding clear. 

Writing

This term, we are focusing on writing fairy tales (narratives) and texts to persuade. Students will explore the text structure and language features of each text type. They will practise using the strategy “Show, don’t Tell”, using their five senses to add detail and description to their stories to help create a mental picture in the readers’ minds. Students will continue to focus on using punctuation correctly, including proper nouns and words in lists, and apply their phonological knowledge to spell unfamiliar words. Proper letter formation and positioning will be a focus. 

Reading

Students continue to participate in daily phonics sessions. This term, our phonics program will reinforce and build upon students’ previous knowledge and will introduce them to letter (grapheme) representations that are less common, e.g. wr, ph. During reading sessions, the teacher will work with your child to become proficient in comprehension strategies. Our lessons will focus on asking questions, finding facts, identifying the main idea and stopping, thinking and rereading for meaning.

Mathematics

This Term, students will continue to build on their knowledge of Place Value. We will also be looking at addition, subtraction, and Measurement. 

Students will participate in weekly problem-solving investigations. They will learn how to interpret worded problems and use a range of strategies to solve them. Students will explain how they solved the problem using mathematical language. 

Humanities

Our unit this term links closely with our science unit. Students will explore the Earth’s resource of water and how important it is to our lives at school and at home, and to local businesses. They will compare the uses of water in the past and present, and how it was important to the survival of Indigenous Australians. Students will investigate different water sources and where they are located. They will research the ways that they can conserve water and keep it clean and healthy to care for species living in these environments.  Students will visit the Aquarium to reinforce this message. 

Wellbeing

CEPS VALUES

COURTESY    RESPECT    CO-OPERATION    RESPONSIBILITY 

Each week all classes will engage in 'The Respectful Relationships Sessions' as well as discuss our CEPS Skill of the Week. These lessons will encourage the development of skills that promote our school values and the positive and personal growth of all students. GROWTH MINDSET: This term, the students will explore ways that they can change their thinking from ‘I can’t do it yet, but I can get there'. We will be looking closely at the power of ‘Yet’, and we will develop strategies to overcome difficulties in their learning and build on their resilience and positive outlook.

In Year 2, we continue to give out awards on a Friday afternoon assembly for students who have displayed the CEPS values.

Supporting learning from home

Please ensure that you are reading with your child every night. Students can read books of their own choice or an unlevelled reader from school. Take time to ask your child questions about the text to ensure that they are reading for meaning. Students will practise their weekly poem each night and complete any Mathletics tasks set for them by their teacher. 

Communication

You are welcome to contact your classroom teacher via email through Compass. Whilst families are navigating the transition to Compass, we are also still using Dojo for messages between parents and teachers at this stage. This is likely to be phased out at some stage this year. We are also still currently using Dojo to share learning updates from our classrooms.

With that said, you are always more than welcome to pop into the classroom before or after school if you have any queries or concerns. 

Whilst we endeavour to get back to you promptly, please understand that we are often unable to check these messages until after 3:30pm. If you need an important message to be passed on to your child, we ask that you communicate this via the office (e.g. to advise that your child will be collected early or by another family member). The office will then pass the message on to your child's classroom teacher.

Compass: Compass is the formal tool for communication regarding attendance, payments, excursions, camps, permission forms, school reports, etc.

Please use Compass to advise the school in a timely manner of all student absences.

Early Pick Up: If you need to pick up your child early, please collect them from the office area and be sure to sign them out. You will require an Early Leaver's Pass, provided by the office staff, before we are able to dismiss students. 

You can also keep up-to-date by using the school website and weekly newsletters:  http://www.cheltenhameast.vic.edu.au