Year Two News

Term 3 in Year Two

We are thrilled to welcome back our Grade 2 students for Term 3! After a productive and engaging Term 2, it’s been wonderful to see the students return with enthusiasm and a readiness to take on new challenges. The Grade 2 team has been very impressed with how students consistently demonstrate our school values of Responsibility, Resilience, Respect, and Belonging, in the classroom and throughout the wider school community.

We got the ball rolling this term with swimming! Our students have shown incredible resilience and have been fantastic role models throughout the program. 

We also have some exciting events to look forward to this term:

• Week 4 (Friday): Excursion to the Royal Botanic Gardens for the Connecting to Country experience in Melbourne. This is an opportunity for students to engage with Indigenous perspectives and connection to land.
• Week 4: Science Week at FWPS!
• Week 5 (Friday): Book Week Parade! Students are encouraged to dress up as a favourite book character. We look forward to seeing their creativity and love for reading come to life.

Numeracy

In Term 3, students will strengthen their understanding of place value by learning to partition and rename 4- and 5-digit numbers. They will explore a range of strategies to solve multiplication and division problems, including creating arrays and skip counting on a number line. We will also be developing students’ conceptual understanding of division and its connection to multiplication. We will be exploring directional language, including how to read and follow maps. Another exciting focus will be independent problem solving, where students will tackle real-life, authentic maths problems using a variety of strategies. This problem-solving approach will support the application of their knowledge in meaningful ways and help them develop resilience when approaching unfamiliar challenges. 

Literacy

This term, students will continue developing their reading fluency and comprehension, working toward reading decodable texts independently and accurately. As we near the end of our Little Learners Love Literacy Stage 7.5 sequence, the focus will shift to long vowel phonemes, silent letters, and suffixes, which will support both decoding (reading) and encoding (writing). Students will also explore a range of reading strategies, including questioning, inferring, predicting, visualising, retelling, and identifying key words in a text to support deeper comprehension. Although we may not send home readers weekly, it is still important to read with your child each night. Whether it’s a library book, something from home, or using the Little Learners online readers, daily reading makes a big difference!

In writing, students will examine the structure of narrative, procedural, and persuasive texts, while working to expand sentences using conjunctions, adjectives, and adverbs. We'll continue building skills in word choice, sentence fluency, and correct punctuation. Grade 2’s will also continue to practise handwriting and spelling regularly. To support their fluency and expression in reading, students will take part in paired reading activities, here we practise fluency and expression and support each other with constructive feedback in a positive and supportive setting.

Units of Work 

Our Geography unit this term focuses on “Where We Live”, including our personal, cultural, and community connections to different places. We’ll talk about where we and our families come from, what makes us special, and the places that are important to us. We will learn about the significance of Indigenous culture, including stories from the Dreamtime, and think about what it means to be connected to Country. During our excursion to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Week 4, we will take part in the ‘Connecting to Country’ program to deepen our understanding and respect for the land. Our Geography unit will also be looking at both Indigenous and European maps of Australia, as well as the world map, to explore how places are represented in different ways. We’ll learn to identify natural features, special places in our local community (like Footscray), and places that are significant to Indigenous people. Students will also explore how people connect to places through events, traditions, and personal experiences. We’ll be thinking about how seasons and weather affect the land and our lives, and how we can help care for the environment to keep it healthy for the future. This learning will help students make connections between geography, culture, and their own lived experiences.

This term, we will also continue learning about Respectful Relationships. This includes building positive relationships, stress management strategies, promoting positive gender roles, knowing how and when to ask for help, and beginning to understand the concept of consent in an age-appropriate way. 

We’re looking forward to another fantastic term of learning, growth, and fun!

Kind regards,

The Grade Two Team