Level 2: Connect

Welcome Back to Term 4!

Hello Year 2 Families,

Welcome to Term 4, it’s hard to believe how quickly the year has flown by! It feels like only yesterday we were beginning our learning journey together, and now we’re heading into our final, fun-filled summer term.

What a wonderful year it has been! We’ve seen so much growth, confidence, and enthusiasm from all our Year 2 students. Their curiosity and hard work have shone through in every aspect of their learning.

We’re looking forward to finishing the year with plenty of exciting activities, rich learning experiences, and celebrations of all that our students have achieved.

Literacy

Core Literacy

In Week 1, students revisited and consolidated the sounds they learned in Term 3.

In Week 2, they explored a range of new sounds, including mb (as in climb), -que (as in unique), -gue (as in vague), and rh (as in rhombus). Students also began learning about homophones — words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings.

Looking ahead in Core Literacy:

• Week 3: Students will be learning about -cious / -tious and exploring homonyms. 
• Week 4: Students will be learning about -cial / -tial and investigating homographs. 

Writing

Over the next two weeks, Year 2 students will be exploring the powerful picture book Flood by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley. This beautifully written text uses rich and emotive language to capture the scenes witnessed by those in Brisbane during the devastating floods a few years ago.

Through this study, students will learn how to use descriptive and emotive language to enhance their own writing, creating vivid scenes that clearly engage the reader. They will also have opportunities to practise sustained writing, developing their ability to maintain focus and detail across longer pieces of work.

Reading

This term, students will be participating in reading groups, where they take turns reading aloud to each other. Each group will read a chapter book suited to their reading level and complete a related activity after each session to deepen their understanding.

Over the next two weeks, our focus will be on characters, exploring how their emotions and feelings change throughout a story. Students will discuss what causes these changes and how authors use language to show them, helping to build their comprehension and empathy as

 readers.

Maths

In Math we have been focusing on measurement in relation to mass and capacity. Students have developed their understanding of the use of grams, kilograms and tons to measure mass and milliliters and liters when measuring capacity. 

This term we are embedding within the math teaching sequence retrieval practice. This entails revisiting past topics briefly to refresh students' understandings so that they can transfer these understandings into long term memory.  

Our focus over the next two weeks will be to consolidate students' understandings of multiplication and division. 

Inquiry

This term, our inquiry focus is “Grow and Change.” Students will explore how we change as we get older. They will think about what makes them unique and how their identity can grow and change over time.

We will also look at how families and communities celebrate milestones, such as birthdays, special events, and achievements, to show how we are growing up. This unit helps students understand themselves and the important people and traditions that support them as they grow.

So far students have identified milestones in their growth such as learning to sit up, crawl, walk and say their first words to being able to run, play a sport and write an interesting story.

Chinese Incursion

Last week, students enjoyed a wonderful Chinese Culture Day incursion. They learned about traditional Chinese celebrations and had the opportunity to participate in a ribbon dance while wearing traditional Chinese clothing. The highlight of the day was the exciting lion dance performance, which brought colour, energy, and joy to the whole school. It was a fantastic way for students to experience and appreciate the richness of Chinese culture.

Eileen, Kym, Anthony & Kylie