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
Tuesday 17th, Wednesday 18th, or Thursday 19th February: Meet the Teacher
Monday 23rd February: School Photos
Friday 27th February: House Cross Country
Monday 9th March: Labour Day Public Holiday
Friday 27th March: House Athletics
Thursday 2nd April: Last day of Term 1. Dismissal at 2.30pm
*Icy Poles will be sold by the Grade 6's on Monday and Tuesdays! $1 each*
Welcome Back!!
We are so excited to welcome the new Grade 2's! We have spent lots of time getting to know each other, and get used to our new classes. On Monday, we loved having a special picnic with all the 2's, taking time to catch up and share stories from our summer break.
Learning Reflection
📖 Literacy
Literature
We are so excited to welcome the new Grade 2’s!! While the first week has been lots of setting up new routines, and getting used to how things look in Grade 2, we have started many of the students' favourite literacy activities. Students loved practising their reading fluency with new partners, continuing their goal practise in new and exciting ways and starting some new literature units.
We are starting the year off by looking at hybrid texts (a book including both narrative and informative layers), using the book ‘Under the Southern Cross,’ to do so. Students delved into the different layers, noticing and comparing different language features as well as how the illustrations support the text.
Literature Units also encompass a writing element (both text and sentence level). This week students have been focusing on converting fragments into sentences, ensuring they have both a subject/noun and verb, taking it further by adding conjunctions to expand our sentences.
Preview - This term we will complete literature units on the following books:
- The First Scientists
- The Shop Train
- The Fabulous Friend Machine
Word Work
Over the year we will put rules and word lists from our current word work focuses in the newsletter. This is an opportunity to practise further at home by either reading or writing words with the spelling pattern.
Knowledge Rich
We are looking forward to starting our first Knowledge Rich unit in a few weeks, covering learning about the ‘Geography of Australia.’ We will also cover 'Great Inventions' this term.
➗ Maths
Students have loved getting used to Grade 2 Maths, delving headfirst into daily reviews, Maths Masters and of course our number sessions. To start the year, the Grade 2s are looking at place value with 3-digit numbers. We have practised recognising and representing numbers with MAB or base 10 blocks, partitioning them into hundreds, tens and ones. Students also focused on identifying the different values of digits, knowing that if a 3 is in a tens column, it has a value of 30 not 3.
Preview - Over the term we will coverings the following topics:
- Place Value
- Measurement - Time
- Addition
- Subtraction
😊Wellbeing
The first few days were spent sharing about our holiday adventures and getting to know our new classes. Students loved filling out the ‘Student Bingo’ card, finding students in their class who might like Maths, or speak two languages or even wear glasses! We also took time creating ‘About Me’ pages and writing top tips for the teachers, ensuring that students feel seen and that teachers know how best to help them learn.
We’ve also started our Friend-ology program, focusing on harnessing your inner ninja and showing your true colours. These lessons remind students that they have their own inner strengths, such as kindness, curiosity and bravery. These inner strengths can be relied upon to tackle challenges big and small. Additionally, students learned that big emotions can be hard to manage, and it is important to know the names of our feelings so we can tame them.
Preview - Term 1 is focused on completing the Friend-ology program, where students will be learning about making friends - how do we make new friends? How do we invite someone to play? How do we find common interests? How do we ask questions to get to know someone? Additionally, students will be introduced to their brand new circles group and teacher for 2026. How exciting!
📚 Grade 2 Homework Options
A note from the Principal:
At Lysterfield Primary School our students work incredibly hard during the day. At 3.30pm when they leave, they need time to unwind and have fun. We believe that in order to live a happy and healthy life, it is important to participate in extracurricular activities outside school. We want students to join sports clubs, Scouts, do music lessons and art classes as these are important for a child’s overall growth and social connections. We also understand that homework puts a lot of stress on families.
In addition to our beliefs, there is no evidence that homework in a primary school setting has a marked impact on students' learning or success. What is proven is that reading daily has a significant impact on a child’s ability to decode and comprehend. As such mandated homework at Lysterfield Primary School is limited to reading daily, including the practising of phonics (letter/sound relationships). Level newsletters will outline the expectations around reading and how teachers will support students with having appropriate texts to read. For some students that may not be making the expected progress for their year level, it may be beneficial for the teacher and parents to work together to reinforce the learning from the classroom with follow-up work.
We also understand that some students and families would like to practise other skills at home. To support this, at the beginning of each school year, parents will be provided with a set of additional resources that can be used for students to practise other curriculum areas. This work is not mandated and it is up to parents to implement and monitor, staff will not correct this work.
Adam Wight- Principal
If you would like some additional homework activities - CLICK HERE
Please note, take home readers will be starting next week, and they will now be swapped daily!
From the Grade 2 Teachers
Zoe Callanan, Bronte Darvidis, Mikayla Harvey and Tessa Holmes