Year 2 News
From Sally, Year 2 Teacher
Welcome back!
We hope you had a refreshing break and are ready for an exciting Term 3. This week, we’ve jumped straight into some rich learning experiences. Here's a snapshot of what we've been up to in Grade 2 and what you can talk about at home to support your child’s learning.
In Maths, we have been exploring place value with a focus on renaming three and four digit numbers. We’ve been unpacking the structure of numbers using hundreds, tens, and ones and even thousands! For example, students have been learning that:
326 can also be seen as 3 hundreds, 2 tens and 6 ones or 32 tens and 6 ones.
We’ve used base 10 blocks, number expanders and place value houses to help build flexibility with numbers and deepen understanding. To keep this going at home, you might like to ask your child: “Can you show me a three or four digit number in two different ways?”
In Reading this week, students have been building their knowledge of the natural world by diving into fascinating non-fiction texts. We’ve read about the magical colours of the aurora, the precise timing of coral spawning, and the glow-in-the-dark wonder of bioluminescence. These topics have sparked curiosity and rich conversations.
To deepen understanding, we’re learning how to use comprehension strategies like asking questions, summarising key facts, and identifying important vocabulary. These help students actively make meaning and remember what they’ve read. We’re also beginning to explore the author’s purpose to understand why a text was written. We ask: is the author trying to inform, entertain, or persuade us?
In Writing, we have been learning how to use sensory details to help readers picture what we’re writing about. Using a 5 Senses Graphic Organiser, students are beginning to describe settings, characters and moments by considering:
- What do you see?
- What do you hear?
- What can you smell?
- What does it feel like?
- What might you taste?
These tools are helping students paint vivid pictures with words. I wonder whether you could practice this the next time you find yourself in an unusual setting: can you prompt your child by asking them what they feel, see, taste, smell and hear?
As well as these rich descriptions, this week we have begun to look at the impact of language to further build a picture in the reader's head. We have discovered what a strong tool personification is in doing this. Here the students are sharing their passages:
