Year Two News 

Wow! We can’t believe we have made it to the halfway mark of our final term of the school year! We have lots of exciting events in the remaining weeks. It has been wonderful to finally be at school full time.  

The Year Two Team would like to welcome the newest addition to our Year Two family...a baby! We would like to extend our congratulations to Mr Mernik and his wife who welcomed their son River Gray Mernik on Wednesday the 27 October. 2E and 2F were privileged to meet River via WebEx when he was less than a day old! The excitement and joy on the student’s faces as they met baby River and chatted to his proud Dad was priceless! 

In Reading, we have continued our author study into acclaimed author, Ahn Do. All classes have just completed reading his first book, where the students wrote book reviews, sharing their thoughts and opinions on WeirDo One. We have revisited the four comprehension strategies used in reciprocal reading – summarising, questioning, clarifying and predicting. Students read the mentor text, ‘The Little Refugee’ to gain an understanding of the background of the author, Anh Do. They brainstormed other books Anh Do has written and posed questions they would like to explore about him, his journey as a refugee and how he became a writer. Students read a non-fiction text linking to our inquiry on celebrations and commemorations about Remembrance Day. We finally were able to celebrate Book Day with a dress up day on Friday 12 November. Students participated in a range of activities including reading their class's chosen text and using their knowledge of QAR questions to pose ‘Right There’, ‘Think and Search’, ‘Author and Me’ and ‘On My Own’ questions. 

In Writing, we have continued to work on our personalised writing goals by participating in free writing sessions and highlighting where our goals have been achieved. Some goals the students are working towards include, organising their writing using paragraphs, writing detailed descriptions of characters and creating a setting to orient the reader. Each class celebrated Book Week by creating a text innovation. They began the process by planting a seed in their Writer’s Notebook to brainstorm different ways they could innovate or change the text. By changing either the characters or setting, students each then wrote their own section or page in the book and created matching illustrations. Keep your eye out for photos of the amazing costumes and text innovations in the next edition of the newsletter. 

In Mathematics, students have been busy planning birthday parties and Halloween celebrations by using supermarket websites and catalogues to find the prices of items and find the total cost. They were given a shopping budget and asked to calculate the required change, which really extended their thinking! They also wrote their ideal lunch order using the canteen menu and a budget of $15. We further explored the concept of multiplication through a range of hands-on activities and games. Students enjoyed creating their own array cities to demonstrate their understanding of multiplication.  

We also played ‘Multiplication Grid Game’ – this is a great game to play at home! 

To play, you will need some graph paper, 2 dice and 2 different coloured markers.  

Each player takes a coloured marker.  

Roll the pair of dice, multiply the two numbers, and marked out the area rolled. For example: If a 2 and a 4 are rolled, you would colour in the area of 2×4.   

Solve the problem to colour it in.  

Keep playing and multiplying until you run out of room on our paper.   

The winner is the player who covered in the most space. 

In Inquiry, we have continued to explore different celebrations and commemorations, including Diwali ‘Festival of Light’ and Remembrance Day. Students have been using the Unit of Inquiry page on Schoolbox to continue to research their chosen celebration or commemoration. They were reflective when working on their portfolios in preparation for our Three-Way Conferences, by creating videos about their highlights and challenges in Semester Two and attributes of the Learner Profile they have demonstrated. We have begun practising our singing and dance routines for our Christmas Carols and encourage the students to continue to learn these at home. The lyrics can be found on your child’s class Schoolbox page. 

Reminders  

Homework:  Studentsare to engage with reading for 20 minutes as a requirement for their home learning every day. It is an expectation that their reading log is checked and signed from a parent/guardian accordingly. Students can read their assigned books on PM readers, a book from the recent collections on Epic or a hard copy book of their choice if available at home. Students are expected to use Mathletics and Reading Eggs to strengthen their Literacy and Numeracy skills by completing assigned tasks as part of their homework.     

iPads: Every morning students’ iPads should be fully charged and ready to use for classroom learning. 

Uniform: With the start of Term Four and weather becoming warmer, hats must be worn and sunscreen is recommended to be used regularly.    

Drink Bottles/Fruit Snacks: Please send your child to school with a drink bottle full of water and pieces of fruit and veg for eating on the go! Regular food and water breaks are good for our brains!  

Wellness: To keep our community safe, please ensure if your child is unwell or showing any symptoms, to strictly stay home. If they come to school with any symptoms, they will be sent home immediately.   

Unit of Inquiry Artefacts: Students are encouraged to begin bringing in their artefacts related to our new Unit of Inquiry with the Central Idea ‘People express important events through celebrations and traditions’. Sharing their personal artefacts is a great way for students to connect with the unit concepts. The other students also love hearing their classmates share!    

Take Care and Stay Safe! 

Kind regards, 

Year Two Team