Year 2

English

Reading

The Grade 2 students have learnt how to ask and answer questions in a text. They have learnt about ‘Right There’ in the text questions and how to use the text to find and answer the questions. They have been taught to look for the answer in both the pictures and the words. They have also learnt how not all questions can be answered using the text alone. They have had opportunities to learn how to combine  their prior knowledge and text information to give a full answer to a question such as: How is the character feeling? How do you know this? The other sort of question type they have learnt is research questions. These are questions that encourage the student to seek further information from another source. An example of this is learning the meaning of a word. They have learnt to ask and answer questions using both fiction and non fiction texts. 

Aside from this the Grade 2 students have also continued to  work on their reading strategies and use these reading strategies to decode and understand a text. They have also worked on increasing their independent reading stamina. 

Writing

The Grade 2 students began the term learning about Information Reports. During this unit the students have learnt about the structure of information reports and have enjoyed writing information reports of their own. Students have had the opportunity to plan and publish their own information report about a topic of their choice . When planning for their information reports the Grade 2 students have had the chance to research about their chosen topic and have been exposed to various avenues on technology to do this. 

For the remainder of the term the students will be learning about procedural texts. The students have learnt about the purpose and structure of procedural texts and will have the chance to follow and write procedures in the coming weeks. 

Mathematics

     To start the term in Mathematics, the Grade 2 students explored Australian money. They counted and ordered Australian coins and notes according to their value. The students practised counting money by skipping counting and making values of money, such as 10 cent coins making a total of a dollar using Australian play money. 

Our major number unit for the term was Addition and Subtraction. Students explored and practised a range of strategies; counting down/up from for subtraction, tens facts, turn around facts, doubles, near doubles, adding ten and fact families. They showed these strategies on tens frames, number lines whilst using a range of concrete materials to help them solve a range of addition and subtraction problems.

The students also explored informal units to estimate, measure and compare the length of different objects, whilst following the golden rules of measurement e.g. no gaps while measuring. They explored different 2D shapes and their transformations - when a shape is flipped, turned or slides. All of the students continued to work on their counting goals, practising with their ‘maths mate’, using materials. Well done Grade 2’s for showing resilience and challenging yourselves!

Inquiry

The Grade 2 unit this term was ‘Lean On Me’ in which the students explored and described their personal interests, skills and achievements and reflected on how these might contribute to their school or home life. They had fun recognising the importance of having a growth mindset and perseverance when faced with new and challenging tasks. 

The Grade 2’s recognised the diversity, similarities and differences of families, communities, themselves and of others. They demonstrated ways to interact with and care for others in group tasks as well as practised solving simple problems and recognised there are many ways to resolve conflict. Fantastic effort boys and girls!

Science

Over the course of Term 2, Grade 2 students have focused on the Earth and Space Science strand where they learned about the features in our environment, both land and sky, and observed the constant changes that occur.

Students looked closely at our school and local surroundings and learned the difference between man-made features, managed features and natural features that occur in our environment. Students identified natural changes that take place in the sky, focusing on the sun's changing position and the phases of the moon. Students will finish the unit by exploring how animals are affected by changes in the weather and investigating why some animals hibernate.  

LOTE - Chinese

In Term 2 of their Chinese class, second-grade students learned how to talk about names in Chinese. They also practised singing and dancing to good morning songs. Their teacher taught them a few important Chinese radicals and strokes, which they practised writing. Additionally, the students played Kahoot games called "China" and "Hello".

Art

In Art, Grade 2’s continued to explore colour theory and were introduced to the element of line and shape. Students learnt about warm and cool colours by making connections. Grade 2’s were able to associate colours such as yellow and red as being warm like the sun and blue giving the feeling and visualisation of feeling cool. Students made tints and shades by mixing white with a colour to create a tint and adding black to a colour to make a shade. Grade 2’s also learnt how to create different types of lines to increase their sketching skills and create their own art pieces. Students used different mediums such as pencils, paint and clay to consolidate their understanding of colours, lines and shapes. Well done on a wonderful term of Art, Grade 2’s!

P.E.

For this term our grade 2 students have concentrated on a range of different activities to continue their development of the fundamental movement and motor skills. The two main topics that the students in grade 2 worked on were basketball and athletics. During the basketball topic the students were able to practice their throwing and catching as it relates to the sport and develop the skill of dribbling. Students were able to show their ability to make a chest pass, a bounce pass and catch these passes using two hands. In addition to this, grade 2 students have begun to apply these skills along with shooting on a full-sized hoop. As always, the students were given the opportunity to play in mini games of basketball which included numbers basketball and were able to have fun and enjoy the sport in a game setting. Our grade 2 students have achieved the ability to pass, dribble, and shoot the basketball and have begun to apply these skills to game situations. In the second half of the term, we have worked on different athletic events that showcase running, catching, and throwing. The events that we participated in were short distance running, relay running, discuss, shot put, and hurdles. The students have shown the ability to run with correct form, work in a team, and understand the different field events that include throwing actions. Our class athletics event has been postponed to the start of term 3 which should be a lot of fun. I have had such a wonderful time teaching the grade 2 students this term and am looking forward to the second half of the year.