Grade 2 News

📅 Important Dates & Reminders

All important dates and events are available on our Compass Calendar. Please check the calendar regularly to stay up to date.

Upcoming Dates and Key Information

Monday 8th June - Kings Birthday Public Holiday

Monday 8th June -  Ancient Greece Incursion Consent Due

Thursday 18th June - End of Term Special Lunch

Friday 19th June - Ancient Greece Incursion 

Friday 26th June - Last Day of Term 2! (Students Dismissed at 2.30pm)

*Icy Poles will be sold by the Grade 6s on Monday and Tuesdays! $1 each*

Learning Reflection

📖 Literacy

Literature

Over the past fortnight, students have been exploring The Lorax while developing their sentence-level writing skills. Using events and characters from the story, students practised turning statements into questions by using question words such as who, what, when, where, and why, as well as question starters including did, could, and would. A strong focus was placed on using capital letters and correct punctuation to ensure questions were written accurately.

Students also worked on expanding their sentences by creating compound sentences using the conjunctions before, after, when, and if. To further enhance their writing, students explored how although and even though can be used to add extra detail and explain contrasting ideas. It has been wonderful to see students applying these skills to create more detailed, engaging, and sophisticated sentences inspired by the important themes and messages in The Lorax.

Before, the Once-Ler chopped down the trees,

Some questions about The Lorax!

We have also still been working hard at our handwriting!

Preview - 

In the coming weeks, students will explore the features of persuasive texts using the text ‘The Boy and the Elephant', plan and structure their own paragraphs, and move through the writing process of drafting, revising, and publishing their final pieces.

Word Work

🧠 Knowledge Rich 

We started a new unit all about Ancient Greece! Students delved into two of its city-states, Athens and Sparta, learning about what life was like and how the cities were once fierce rivals. Students were particularly curious to learn that men and women had different rights and that Spartan boys were trained to become soldiers from the young age of seven. We also explored the wars between Persia and Greece, focusing on the famous Battles of Marathon and Thermopylae. Later, students learnt about some of the Greek gods and goddesses, including Zeus, Hera, and Apollo. Students also had the opportunity to work collaboratively in groups to further investigate and explore these topics, sharing their discoveries and deepening their understanding of Ancient Greek society, culture, and history. 

Preview - Students will learn about the ancient Olympic games held in Greece and learn about some important Philosophers.

➗ Maths 

Last week students finalised their work with addition and subtraction. Students learnt how to use the jump strategy, using a number line to support their thinking. To solve addition equations with the jump strategy, students had to follow the following steps:

• Identify the larger number in the addition equation and place it on the left side of the number line.
• Partition the smaller number into tens and ones. 
• Show the jump of tens and then the ones

They learnt the same for subtraction but in reverse, placing the bigger number on the right side of the number line then jumping backwards to take-away. Once students gained confidence they practised with regrouping and being more efficient by doing all the ones in a single jump!

Students have enjoyed exploring mass, determining how heavy something is. Students used balance scales to measure how heavy an object was by choosing an informal unit such as unifix cubes to find its weight. Before measuring, students estimated the mass of the object. Later in the week, they  compared the mass of objects by ordering them lightest to heaviest. 

Preview -  Next week we will wrap up our exploration of mass, before moving on to capacity. 

😊 Wellbeing

Over the past two weeks in Wellbeing, students have been learning about friendship, inclusion, and teamwork. They wrote a letter to Wibbly, sharing helpful strategies for making new friends, such as introducing yourself, asking someone to play, and showing kindness. Students also joined in a whole-cohort “Life Raft Game”, where they worked together to make sure everyone could fit safely into the hoops, practising cooperation, communication, and including others. 

It has been wonderful to see students showing kindness, empathy, and teamwork while building positive friendships across the classes.

Preview - Next week we have another Circles session. In the last few weeks of term we will begin looking at how the students can help each other and what the qualities of a good friend are.

📚 Grade 2 Homework Options

If you would like some additional homework activities - CLICK HERE

From the Grade 2 Teachers

Zoe Callanan, Bronte Darvidis, Mikayla Harvey and Amanda Remington