Ulysses Community Report

                                 What we have learnt in April/May

Dear Parents and Guardians, 

This has been an exciting month and a half in our learning journey. Students have explored many new concepts in all subject areas across the curriculum. The students have produced some phenomenal work demonstrating their understanding of the topics taught and should be proud of their efforts.

Reading: In Reading, students have explored non-fiction texts filled with fun facts and information. We've learned all about special features in these books, like the contents page that helps us find what we want to read and the glossary that helps us understand the meaning of tricky words. We've also discovered amazing diagrams that show us how things work and photographs that bring the words to life. 

Students have also used non-fiction texts to practice skills such as finding the main idea and important information in a book, and synthesise while reading which is when readers change their thinking as they read. Students use this reading strategy to help them form thoughts, opinions and conclusions. They also consolidated their skills of fact-finding, note-taking, questioning and making connections to a text.

We are now beginning our narrative unit for Literacy, so students are exploring a variety of fiction texts. Students are completing a deep dive into the structure of different texts, the characters, settings, events, problems, solutions and the endings of stories.

Writing: In Writing, students have been learning to write information reports. They were learning about the structure and language features used to write an information report. Students were given opportunities to watch videos and read texts related to their topic. They were encouraged to take notes to plan their information reports and write topic-related information in their own words. Students were able to use modelled structure and language features in their writing. They used subheadings to organise information and provide details. Students had the opportunity to plan, draft, edit, revise, and publish their information reports. They enjoyed publishing their information reports using their best handwriting. Students started working on writing narrative texts using a picture prompt. 

Maths: In term 2, students learnt about analog clocks. They made their own clocks using a paper template and paper fasteners to attach movable minute and hour hands. Students explored what transformation means. They Identified the meaning of turn, flip and slide. They also learnt to give and follow directions.

In the unit of length, students learnt to use non-standard units to measure. Students explored measuring items using feet and hands on the same object and looking for any patterns within their measuring along with being able to make predictions on how many hands or feet to measure an object before doing it. 

Students worked out Capacity. They used appropriate materials to measure capacity.

 Students found objects with capacity and recorded their measurements in their books.

SEL: In Social Emotional Learning, the Grade 2 students are exploring emotions. Students are identifying and labelling various emotions through which they are extending their vocabulary and building on their knowledge and understanding to recognise and describe emotions.  

Students are exploring strategies for managing emotions and developing emotional regulation strategies. Students are discussing the importance of emotional regulation in building resilience and positive coping skills which are the resources needed to cope and succeed when faced with challenges.

Inquiry: In Inquiry, students attended an Incursion ‘Life -Then and Now’.

Students are discussing and creating a ‘wonder wall’ based on our Inquiry unit 

Geography – Where we are.

Students are exploring the continents and Australia’s location in the world. They are learning to identify the Australian states and capitals and recognise the continent, country, state and city that they live in. They are developing their understanding that cities are part of a state, states are part of a country and countries are parts of continents. Students are also exploring different weather and climates around the world.

Students are exploring and identifying geographical landforms in their local area, such as natural, managed or manmade and discussing how they have changed over time.

Students are sharing and celebrating their connection to places. Students are discussing the connections that different people have to places in Australia and overseas, as well as the factors that can influence people’s accessibility to places.

Students are exploring local places of importance in their local area. They are discussing how these places are named and identifying their location on a map.

Victorian Curriculum

Below is the link to the Victorian Curriculum if you would like to take a look at what we cover throughout the year.

https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/level2 

Friendly Reminders

• The Ulysses community are taking donations of cardboard boxes/materials for students to use for their Inquiry projects. For example: shoe boxes, tissue boxes, smaller cereal boxes, toilet paper rolls, newspapers, popsicle sticks etc.
• Doors open at 8:50am and dismissal is at 3:20pm.
• Ensure your child’s belongings are clearly labelled. This includes clothing, drink bottles, hats and lunchboxes (lids too).
• Please ensure that your child is reading their home reader for 15 minutes every night and that their reading log is filled in and signed by a parent/guardian.
• We strongly encourage students to bring along some brain food (fruit and vegetables) that they may eat in class. It is important that this is included as an additional snack in their lunchbox.

Best wishes,

The year 2 Ulysses Community Teachers

Britt, Belinda, Scott, Amandeep, Natalia, Amanjot and Dafina.