Year 2 News
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Term Three Learning

Excellent First Semester!

It was an excellent first semester for Year 2 students and we have another exciting term ahead of us. We look forward to students performing in their concert, and participating in the swimming program!

 

Literacy

Reading

As a part of our literacy program, we study phonics – learning about the sound parts in words. Students interact in several activities which strengthen their phonemic awareness, spelling, recognition of high-frequency words, fluency, and decoding skills. The Sound Waves program is used to support these sections of literacy. 

 

We use the Sound Waves program to explicitly teach spelling, and decoding. For example, students will explore a range of graphemes and vowel digraphs (oa, o-e) and review and extend their understanding about suffixes (-ed, -ing, -er, -est). Students will also continue to explore synonyms, antonyms, and homophones as a way to assist in reading and spelling.

 

Students begin each reading session by reading or viewing a mentor text as a class. Through this shared reading, we focus on vocabulary and comprehension. Students will be introduced to subject-specific words, starting with ‘Geography’ as a topic, and will learn the definition of  words such as, ‘local,’ ‘continent,’ and ‘features’. and how to use them independently in sentences. 

 

We will also review the reading comprehension strategies of:

  • Summarising
  • Compare and contrast
  • Cause and effect
  • Making inferences
  • Text features

 

To practise fluency skills, students read a short text three times a week in partners or small groups and focus on expression, accuracy, rate and paying attention to punctuation.

 

 

To support this learning at home:

  • Encourage your child to read a book at home (both fiction and nonfiction) and remember to change the book regularly. 
  • Keep track of new vocabulary in books and look up the word’s meaning (notice if the word has a prefix, suffix, is a verb or an adjective).
  • Discuss with your child any new vocabulary words that they have been learning in class, and regularly use these in conversations to increase usage. Can they remember the definition and use it correctly in a sentence?
  • Utilise your local library for additional books.
  • Focus on suffixes such as the ‘-ing’ in running or the ‘-ed’ in hopped, to make sure that your child is reading the end of the word as well as speaking in the correct past tense. 
  • Ask your child questions about the story that they have just read (or had read to them) such as: 
    • Prior Knowledge: Before reading, ask, ‘Do you already know anything about [the topic of the book]?’
    • Summarising: ‘What was the story about?What happened first, second, third?’  
    • Connecting: ‘Did it remind you of any other stories you know? Has a similar thing happened to you? Do you have knowledge of a similar thing happening in the world?’
    • Questioning: ‘I wonder why the character…? ‘I wonder what is going to happen next?’

 

Writing

This term we are focusing on writing information reports. We will develop the students' understanding by exploring the language and structural features of these texts. Students will read a variety of non-fiction texts in class such as ‘Weird Animals’, ‘The Skeletal System’, and ‘The Digestive System’, to support this understanding.

 

Information reports are a report that includes true facts about a topic with the intention to teach the reader new information. It may include the following:

  • An introduction
  • Table of contents
  • The body of the text which includes information on different elements such as: features, history and characteristics.
  • A conclusion
  • Glossary 
  • Index

 

Syntax and Handwriting 

  • Students will examine sentence structure and types, and focus on using full stops, capital letters, and question marks consistently.
  • Students will learn about using possessive adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns, and use punctuation, such as commas, correctly. 
  • Students will continue to practise forming lowercase and uppercase letters correctly using Victorian Modern Cursive Script.

 

To support this learning at home: 

To encourage a passion for writing you can:

  • Encourage your child to read their writing aloud.
  • To inspire writing ideas, encourage your child to read a range of non-fiction topics,or view documentaries to build their general knowledge.
  • Record facts that they read in non-fiction books.
  • Practise forming lower-case letters, and using spaces between words as well as identifying words that need capital letters. Students should be using a correct pencil grip.
  • Any time that you are practising spelling or handwriting, you are also helping to build their reading skills.
  • When writing with your child, celebrate plausible attempts at spelling and give feedback on one goal at a time i.e., using the ‘ch-’ sound correctly.

 

Mathematics 

This term our focus in number is multiplication and division. Students will be exploring the connection between skip counting, making ‘groups of’, repeated addition, and using arrays, to build multiplicative thinking. They will  be shown how to link this to division. 

 

These strategies will include:

  • Doubles and base ten to solve repeated addition in multiplication problems.
  • Skip counting by 2s, 5s, 10s.
  • Sort groups by equal amounts.
  • Multiplication arrays  2x3 (see below).
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To support this learning at home:  

  • Refer to the multiplication sign as ‘groups of’ e.g., 2 X 5 is read as, 'Two groups of five’ is to consolidate student understanding of the concept.
  • Find groupings of items in the environment such as 6 petals on each flower (repeated addition).
  • Grouping items at home into equal groups and then skip count to find the total amount.
  • Practice doubles and using the term ‘__ groups of __’ when organising a group of items.
  • If there are 2 groups of 4 items, you can then enforce the concept of the ‘commutative property’ by flipping the equation to: 4 groups of 2 items. It looks different but you get the same answer.
  • Encourage your child to skip count by; 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s, to build recall of the pattern, while walking or in the car.

 

Geography

Students will be collecting data and researching information about places that are special to them. They will build on their understanding of the weather and seasons of that particular place. 

 

Specialist Subjects 

Performing Arts

Students will be working on their concert based on the book week theme, “A Symphony of Stories” 

  • Grade 2A will be using “Be Careful Xiao Xin”, by Alice Pung.
  • Grade 2B will be using “Beautiful Oops”, by Barney Saltzberg.
  • Grade 2C will be using “Tiddalik the Frog”, a Dreamtime story.
  • Grade 2D will be using “Gymnastica Fantastica”, Briony Stewart.

These stories will inspire them to arrange Orff arrangements and movements for their performances. 

 

Physical Education

Students will use elastics to continue developing their balance and jumping skills. Students will continue to practise their fundamental motor skills such as dribbling and two hand throws.

 

Science

Students are beginning to look at physical science, exploring how pushes and pulls are forces that can change an object’s movement or shape.

 

Visual Arts

For the Hero’s Gallery at Art For All, inspired by Vincent Namatjira, students will create a “Hero” work using watercolours. They will detail it with stitching. 

 

Students will also creatively work with fabric and fibres, developing their sewing, knotting, weaving, and dyeing techniques.

 

 

French 

Bonjour tout le monde! I'm Kristen, your new French specialist teacher from Canada and I’m so excited to get started with everyone this term! This term our Year 2 students are building on their listening and speaking skills through song, dance and craft, becoming more familiar with everyday French vocabulary. 

 

Here's to another greate term of learning!

 

Elise, Michele, Brendan, Emily & the Specialist Teachers