Year 2 Spotlight

The Beginning of the School Year 

Students in Year 2 have had an excellent start to the 2026 year! We had our Start-Up program during the first two weeks of school, which focused on nurturing a sense of belonging for students in the classroom and developing classroom procedures and routines.

During Start-Up, we spent some time getting to know our new teachers and classmates by doing holiday interviews, making ‘All About Me’ wall displays (pictured below), and playing games from our Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships program. 

We also introduced new classroom procedures from our SW.P.B.S (School Wide Positive Behaviour Supports) program, with the aim to develop clear and familiar classroom expectations and routines. We’ve been very impressed with how quickly students have navigated their new learning environments and procedures and their amazing enthusiasm for working in their new learning communities.

• I’ve enjoyed seeing my friends again and playing with them at recess and lunch. ~ Maggie B, 2A
• Independent reading has been one of my favourite start-up activities so far. ~ Justin WS, 2A
• Topics I have been enjoying so far at school are ‘Sound Waves’, learning about word sounds and reading ‘Voices in the Park’. ~ Edith RW, 2A
• At school I’ve enjoyed playing ‘tag’ with kids from 2B and 2D at recess and lunch. ~ Lucas O, 2A

Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships

As part of our RRRRs program and the Start-Up program the students of Grade 2 have been focussing on ‘getting to know you’ games such as the ‘Name Game’ and ‘Holiday Interviews’ to create positive relationships. 

The students have also been focusing on having a Growth Mindset where teachers foster resilience, and the view that challenges are opportunities for growth. 

In this session, students discussed and brainstormed as a class, whether the phrases belonged within a growth mindset or fixed mindset, and why?

Also, as part of the Growth Mindset program, the Grade 2 students read the book ‘Ish’ and discussed the importance of not worrying about our mistakes but to embrace them and see life in a new way. We discussed how the story validates that everyone’s point of view, and creative output are both unique and valuable.

Below is 2A’s unique ‘Ish’ gallery

 Reading

Students have settled into the formal sessions of Reading, which we started last week. They are presently exploring and reviewing the comprehension strategies of predicting and questioning through explicit teaching and exposure of mentor texts. 

Last week, students studied the text ‘Voices in the Park’ by Anthony Browne. Each class brainstormed and discussed the individual characters’, made predictions about their possible character traits based on their look and environments. We asked questions using the sentence starters “who?”, “what?”, “when?”, “where?” and “why?” to understand character traits and emotions. 

Examples of student work in 2A 

Maths 

Students have settled into Maths lessons well during our Start Up Program. Students enjoyed playing games such as Wipeout where the aim of the game was to beat your partner to opposite ends of a number line, by adding or subtracting the number they rolled. 

In the example below, students both started at ‘14’ (first photo), keeping their place using blu tac. After rolling the dice (second picture). Who will win?

This week our focus in number is counting. Students have been exploring and revising counting forwards and backwards by 2s, 5s, and 10s.They had fun using money for ‘real life’ counting.

Writing Recounts

Our first genre focus in Writing has been recounts. Students have enjoyed exploring concepts about what recounts are and what kinds of details are usually included. Students will begin to write their own extended recount of an interesting experience from their past, by including an orientation (who, what, when, where and why) and focus on retelling in the correct order. Students will focus on starting sentences with transitional words such as next, after that, finally as well as adding details, such as associated feelings.

• “I like writing what I did because I like writing, especially about going to my grandparents’ house.” ~ Alex, 2C
• “I like recounts because it jogs your memory like cheetahs on a racetrack. I like to write about all sorts of different things like going to the shops or staying home.” ~ Leo, 2C
• “I like writing and remembering something I did that was fun because things like receiving my graded Pokemon card are exciting.” ~ Harry, 2C
• “I like weekend recounts because my favourite subject is Writing. I like writing because you need to write words and be creative.” ~ Sammi, 2C

The following are recounts written about the most recent weekend. They were written as practice, before children choose the experience that they’d most like to draft and publish a recount about. 

Birthday

On Saturday I woke up. It was my birthday! I was very happy. I opened all my presents. I got a Nintendo Switch! I loved it. 

Then my brother had to go to a party. So I got to watch a movie. It was really good.

After that my dad got me Minecraft and Mario Kart. 

After a long 2 hours my brother finally came back. We played Mario Kart for a long time.

We finally went to Flour and Salt with our friends. We had a great time. 

Last we crossed the road and got some ice cream at Gelato. Then we went home. 

Written by Lachie, 2C

Grandma’s Birthday

On Sunday I went to my Grandma’s party because she turned 75. It was at a park that had lots of pretty trees. 

Me, my brother and my cousin found a tree that had a ladder that was easy to climb. 

Then I got a bit bored of it, so I played with some of my other cousins. They’re twins. We made a cake out of sticks and leaves. It was really fun. 

After we finished, we showed my grandma. Then we made a campfire. 

Then my other cousins were going so we said “bye”.

Then we packed up and went home. On the way home we delivered chocolate balls. 

Written by Izzy, 2C

Present

On Sunday I went to Card Cave with my dad because I got Lachie a present. 

When I got home my sister said, “what did you get?”

I said, “Pokémon cards for me and Lachie.” Then I said another thing. Oh, and if I didn’t mention I felt proud. 

Written by Jai, 2C

~ Year 2 Teachers (Michele, Elise, Brendan & Emily) and Students