Year 2 News

Year 2 Highlights

It’s been a busy couple of weeks in Year 2. We hope you enjoy reading some of our highlights.

Year 2 Excursion - Melbourne Museum & IMAX

On Thursday 17 August the Year 2 students and staff travelled into the city to visit the Melbourne Museum and IMAX. This tied in perfectly with our current Unit of inquiry, ‘Sharing the planet’. The students were very excited to travel by bus into the city and were even more excited once we arrived.

Each class visited the Learning Lab where they participated in ‘It’s a bugs world’ lesson with one of the museum’s educators. During the lesson the students learnt some amazing facts about the various minibeasts and learnt about the importance of bees being wonderful pollinators. The students had the chance to view various minibeasts with magnifying glasses that were set in resin.

Next it was off to the Bugs Alive Exhibition. (Read the excerpt below from the museum’s website)

In Bugs Alive! you'll see, hear and smell the world of insects, spiders, snails and other invertebrates. Specimens fill the exhibition: brilliant beetles and beautiful butterflies cover the walls while naturalistic enclosures hold living, thriving insects you can't see captive anywhere else. You'll learn about what they eat, how they breed and how they contribute to ecosystems by pollinating flowers and decomposing waste. You can observe a colony of green tree ants work around their leafy nest, a mantid stalk its prey, or watch aquatic insects in their watery realm. Giant models of insect mouthparts and body systems show you just how intricate these little animals are. Or not so little: record-breakers in the Insect Hall of Fame represent the largest, heaviest and longest insects, alongside the longest-lived and most poisonous. Big Bug Theatre busts common myths and challenges the view of bugs and spiders as the stuff of nightmares and horror films.

The students love the Bugs Alive Exhibition especially as there were many specimens that were living. The giant spiders were of particular interest, but quite creepy at the same time.

Each student searched through the display to find the minibeast they were studying for their Year 2 Showcase. We could have spent the whole day just in the Bugs Alive Exhibition as it was so interesting for everyone.

We also had the opportunity to visit the 600 Million Year Exhibition, the Dinosaur Walk Exhibition and the Forest Gallery. The highlight of the day for many students was our visit to the IMAX where we watched Bugs: Mighty Micro Monsters 3D. The students were able to see the mighty micro monster magnified using 3D technology. We saw a beetle that could fire boiling chemicals at its attackers, a deadly spider with super strength and many more miniature superheroes. I think there were many students covering their eyes in certain parts as the creatures appeared to jump out of the screen. It was a wonderful chance for the students to view the minibeasts in their natural habitats.

We all had a wonderful day, and the Year 2 students were a pleasure to take out of the school representing BNPS.

Book Week 2023- READ, GROW, INSPIRE

Last week we celebrated Book Week. On Monday the students rotated through 3 activities. Each class were lucky enough to hear three of the shortlisted books. Naturopolis written by Deborah Frenkel and illustrated by Ingrid Bartkowiak, Frank’s Red Hat written and illustrated by Sean Avery and Bev and Kev written by Katrina Germein and illustrated by Mandy Foot.

The students completed three craft activities.

Naturopolis- The students made an ant to be included on an underground ant city display.
Franks Red Hat- The students designed and made their own hat.
Bev and Kev- The students all made their own giraffe.

The culmination of Book Week was our parade last Friday. The students and teachers enjoyed dressing up as one of their favourite book characters. The sun was shining for our parade and the students looked amazing parading around showing off their wonderful costumes.

Thank you to our parents for organising your child’s costume and to those who were able to attend our parade.

We hope you enjoying viewing our photos.

Year 2 Sharing The Planet Showcase

Today was our Sharing the planet Showcase. A HUGE THANK YOU to all the parents, teachers and classes that attended to celebrate the amazing work of our students. The Showcase was a culmination of the student's journey through our unit of inquiry. This was an opportunity for them to share the knowledge they have gain throughout the term.

The first part of the puzzle was to teach the students how to write an Information Report. The students were stepped through this process and wrote two practise information reports. The first was written about a student in their class and the second was written about an Australian animal.

Then it was time for the students to choose a minibeast to research. They had to research the minibeast’s appearance, diet and habitat. They also had to write some interesting facts about their chosen minibeast and draw their lifecycle and a labelled diagram. The process involved the students completing a rough draft and then a good copy. The good copy was cut up and transferred onto a coloured project sheet.

The second task was to create a PowerPoint display on their chosen minibeast. The students first had to be taught how to use PowerPoint, including how to save their work. They learnt how to add colourful headings, pictures, videos and how to record their own voices. The students also learnt how to change their background and how to add transitions and animations to their slides.

It has been a wonderful learning experience for the students and rewarding to see the development of their skills. We were also lucky enough to have some assistance from the older students who came down and supported our year 2s.

The third task was for the students to prepare an oral presentation on their chosen minibeast which was our speaking and listening learning task. The students had to prepare their cue cards containing the information they had researched about their minibeast. They were given time to practise their talks with other students before delivering their presentations to the rest of the class.

We were very proud of the students and the confidence they showed speaking in front of the class.

We hope you enjoy viewing our Year 2 Sharing the planet Showcase photos.