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

📚 Readers are swapped every Monday.

 

🏊‍♂️ Thursday (W1-5) - Swimming program

Monday 18th August - Book Week Dress Up Day

Wednesday 27th August - Fathers Day Stall (Details to be confirmed)

Friday 22nd August - Whole School Production Rehearsal (School Gym)

Monday 1st September - Whole School Dress Rehearsal at Rowville Institution of Arts

Tuesday 2nd September - Music Production

Wednesday 3rd September - Music Production

Friday 19th September - Last Day of Term. Dismissal at 2.30pm.


🏊 Swimming Reminders

  • Students are encouraged to wear their bathers underneath their school clothes. Please discuss toileting with your child if needed, especially for girls wearing one-piece bathers.
  • Ensure all clothing and swimwear items are clearly labelled with your child’s name.
  • In addition to their regular school bag, please pack a small swimming bag with the following:
    • Towel
    • Thongs or Crocs
    • Goggles (optional)
  • Students will change into their thongs/Crocs at school before departing. Runners are not required at the pool.

Weekly Timetable

 

Learning in Action

📖 Literacy

 

Grade 2 Excursion - Cranbourne Botanical Gardens

On Monday 28th of July, the Grade 2 students went on their excursion to the Cranbourne Botanical Gardens. This excursion connected to our Connection to Country unit, that we did as one of our literature units last term. We explored Aboriginal culture and history with our guides. We learned about traditional tools like the boomerang and Mulla Mulla, felt soft possum fur, and watched how fire was made using sticks and a coolamon. In our class groups, we created handprint art using natural ochre paint and learned to paint Aboriginal symbols. We also made bush tea from lemon myrtle leaves, which some of us were brave enough to try! To top it off, we spotted a rare bandicoot and saw a double rainbow on the way home, it was an amazing day!

 

 

 

A special shout out to James D, James C and Sophie P for speaking at assembly and sharing our experience with the whole school. Well done!

✍️ Writing Focus

In sentence-level writing, this term, the Grade 2 students have begun the year by exploring the difference between common and proper nouns and have learnt to identify their place in a sentence. 

 

We have also begun learning to identify and use subject and object pronouns within a sentence. An object is the thing that receives the action in a sentence and can be a who or a what. Whereas the subject is the doer in the sentence, they are the one who does the action in the sentence and can be a who or a what.

This week the students are learning to combine 2-3 short statement sentences using what they have learnt about pronouns and conjunctions. 

 

This term, the Grade 2 students have been introduced to Text Level Writing, where our focus is on turning sentences into paragraphs. The students have been learning to make a great plan using a single paragraph outline (SPO). Our SPO’s consist of a topic sentence, supporting details, and a concluding statement. To begin, we have been using the language of first, next, then, and finally language to write our supporting details. So far, we have co-constructed our SPO’s as a class based on the experiences of making a sandwich, making popcorn, and packing a school bag. 

Preview - In the coming weeks, we will continue to look at combining sentences with conjunctions and pronouns in sentence level writing. Then in text level writing we will continue looking at our single paragraph outline structures and looking at the difference between topic sentences and supporting details. 

Word Work

 

➗ Maths

This term's maths topic is well underway, and the students are in the middle of learning about multiplication. We have practised our times tables, and students have started learning different strategies to support their understanding of this topic. Some of these strategies are: Repeated addition, this is where students recognise that multiplication can also be written as repeated addition.

Arrays:

Students were introduced to arrays and were taught how to identify how many groups there are and how many are in each group. This can then also be written as a repeated addition.

This array can be written as: 

3 groups of 6 or 6 + 6 + 6 = 18

 

Students were then introduced to the sentence science cards using the multiplication symbol.

Our next strategy we introduced was ‘how many times we see a number.’

This strategy can be solved through cherry diagrams. 

In our applied sessions, students have been learning to tell the time to the hour and half past. We have explicitly taught the difference between the hour hand and the minute hand, including how to identify their positions on the clock. Students have practised recognising o’clock times, such as when the hour hand points directly at a number and the minute hand points to 12, and half past times, when the minute hand points to 6 and the hour hand sits halfway between two numbers.

Preview - Over the next couple of weeks, we will continue focusing on multiplication and different strategies we can use, such as how many times we see a number. Students will practise these strategies through whole-class explicit instruction or in small groups in their maths goals. 

In our applied unit we will continue with the concept of time and move into ‘quarter past’ and ‘quarter to’ times.

🧠 Knowledge-Rich Units

Over the past fortnights, the Grade 2’s have loved learning all about Australia’s geography! We started by mapping the world and looking into Australia’s neighbouring countries, then delving into our own country by mapping out states, territories and capital cities. The students were so interested in the different populations of each state and territory. Did you know that even though NT is one of the largest states or territories, it has the smallest population? That’s because lots of its land is uninhabitable, unlike NSW which has the highest population and lots of livable areas.

We had fun exploring Australia’s different ecosystems, before creating our own.

Our ecosystems include:

  • Mountains 
  • Deserts
  • Rivers
  • Rainforest
  • Coral reefs
  • Grasslands

     

Preview - We will finish our unit by exploring the differences between cities, suburbs and regional towns, then delving into Australia’s cultural diversity.


😊 Wellbeing

On Wednesday the 30th of July, the whole school celebrated ‘National Friendship Day!’ This day promotes the idea that friendship between people, countries, cultures, and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities. It is a day to celebrate the people who make us smile, help us, and show us kindness. The students watched a video finding different ways to show friendship, learning the importance of:- listening to each other

- working together

- kindness and understanding

- sharing

We also started creating our pieces for the whole school friendship mural- stay tuned for the finished piece!

In RRRR’s we have started our topic on help seeking, engaging in cooperative games and role play, to hone our communication skills and learn how to ask for help.

 


📚 Grade 2 Homework Options

 

 

 

From the Grade 2 Teachers

Bronte Darvidis, Mikayla Harvey and Taryn Bailey

 

Updates from around the school

Green Team News

Under the guidance of Mrs Stokol and Mrs Alexander, the Green Team met for the first time this week, and what a meeting it was! Across Years 3 to 5, we had nearly 50 excited and passionate students eager to do their part for the environment.

Whether it’s helping to keep the school free of rubbish, caring for and developing the gardens, or educating our community about sustainability, there was a real buzz in the air as students shared ideas and signed up for various roles.

A new initiative launched this term is the collection of 10c containers. Thanks to the special lunch day last term, we raised $21, a fantastic start! We’re now working to collect eligible containers daily to reduce landfill waste and turn recyclables into funds that will be reinvested into future Green Team projects.

Participation in the Green Team is inclusive and open to all. It’s not too late for your child to get involved; we’d love to have them on board!

 

 

Green Team Newsletter #2

The enthusiastic Green Team members from Years 3 to 6 continue to meet with Mrs Alexander and Mrs Stokol each Wednesday lunchtime. Meetings begin with a check-in on how the yard cleaning roster is going. Students report which areas are the cleanest, which need more attention, and share ideas for improvement.

Sustainability remains a key focus. Whether it’s managing waste, maintaining garden spaces, or spreading awareness, students have shown impressive initiative and creativity.

Our 10c container collection is going strong! We've raised over $30 in just a few weeks. Green Team members manage the collection bin outside the canteen on lunch order days, and also visit classrooms weekly to gather containers from specially labelled tubs. By collecting these items daily, we are preventing waste from going to landfill and turning it into cash to support our environmental efforts.

Be sure to check out the Sustainability Display in the gym over the coming weeks to see what we’ve been up to!

Did you know? You can support the Green Team by nominating Lysterfield Primary School (LPS) as your donation partner through Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme.

Download the app or visit:🔗 Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme | Learn How To Donate

 

    

 

It’s planting season, and what’s better than free plants? 

 

Help the Green Team — and Earn Free Plants!

Did you know that the Knox Environment Society (KES) offers free native plants as prizes through their Nature Discovery Passport program?

By playing an interactive game and collecting stamps at local reserves, participants can earn plant prizes, and what better way to use those plants than by donating them to our school for the Green Team to grow and maintain?

Explore one of the many beautiful reserves in Knox on the weekend, learn about your local ecology, collect stamps, and claim your prize. It’s a fun way to get outside, support the environment, and contribute to our school’s sustainability efforts.

And who says the fun is just for the kids? Families are welcome to join in too!

 

To learn more, visit:

🔗 Nature Discovery Passport – Knox Environment Society

🔗 Knox Environment Society Home Page

 

Thank you — every little bit helps!

 

Mrs Stokol and Mrs Alexander