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

Tuesday 23rd June - Biggest Morning Tea & free dress (gold coin donation and a touch of yellow is encouraged)

Friday 26th June - Last Day of Term 2! (students dismissed at 2.30pm)

*Icy Poles will be sold by the Grade 6s on Monday and Tuesdays! $1 each*

STEM Room Donations Needed

We are currently collecting recycled materials for our exciting Term 3 Science Projects in the STEM room. We would greatly appreciate donations of clean items such as plastic water bottles or soft drink bottles, shoe boxes, plastic lids, and cardboard tubing or paper rolls (please no toilet rolls).

Donations can be dropped off at the STEM room at any time. Thank you for your continued support in helping provide valuable hands-on learning opportunities for our students.

Learning Reflection

📖 Literacy

Literature

Students have read a wordless picture story book called ‘The Boy and the Elephant’, which is about a lonely boy who befriends an imaginary elephant made out of trees. Students were picture detectives, telling the story through the look on the characters’ faces, body language and the illustrations’ colours and settings. This story helped students realise the importance of green spaces, especially in busy cities. Through text level writing, students looked at the purpose and features of persuasive texts. They read a text called ‘Save Our Trees’, and identified the features: rhetorical questions, emotive language, cause and effect conjunctions, inclusive language and command/ call to action. Students planned, drafted and edited their very own persuasive paragraph about protecting our green spaces. 

We have loved seeing the students making connections between their learning at school and their experiences at home through their fantastic Lorax creations. It has been wonderful to see their creativity and understanding come to life in so many unique ways. 

Word Work

Students have been learning to read and spell words with the trigraph ‘dge’, which makes a /j/ sound, like in bridge. The rule we need to follow is using this spelling pattern after the short vowels ‘a, e, i, o & u’. 

🧠 Knowledge Rich 

This fortnight, Year 2 students have been exploring the fascinating world of Ancient Greece and did a presentation about what we have learnt so far. We learnt about Alexander the Great and discovered why he earned the title "the Great" after building one of the largest empires in history through his leadership and military success.

Students were also introduced to some of the great thinkers of Ancient Greece: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. We learnt how these philosophers asked important questions, shared ideas about the world, and helped shape the way people think and learn today.

A highlight of our learning was participating in an Ancient Greece Virtual Reality Incursion. Using VR headsets, students travelled back in time to explore the world of the Ancient Greeks. They learnt about the origins of the Olympic Games, the ongoing rivalry between Athens and Sparta, important inventions such as the alphabet and the alarm clock, and the lasting influence of Greek thinkers, scientists, and philosophers. Students also explored Greek myths and legends, met famous figures such as Hippocrates and Pythagoras, and journeyed from the first Olympic Games all the way to the modern Olympics. Stay tuned next term for some photos.

It has been wonderful to see students engage so enthusiastically with this rich history and develop their understanding of how Ancient Greece continues to influence our world today.

➗ Maths 

Over the past two weeks in Maths, the Grade 2 students have been exploring measurement through hands-on learning experiences. We finished our unit on mass by investigating and identifying objects with equal mass. We then began to develop our understanding of capacity by selecting suitable informal units to measure containers. Students measured, compared, ordered, estimated, and predicted the capacities of different containers using informal units, then checked their predictions through practical investigations. They also applied their learning to solve a range of measurement problems, building their confidence in using mathematical reasoning and making accurate comparisons. 

😊 Wellbeing

Last week, the students actively engaged in Circles where the activities focused on the theme of respect. Through discussions, reflection tasks, and collaborative activities, they explored what respect looks like in everyday situations and considered ways they can show respect to themselves, their friends, and the environment. 

We have also continued our RRRR unit on Help Seeking, with a focus on supporting others when they are experiencing a problem. Students discussed the qualities of a good friend and explored how they can respond in helpful and supportive ways. Using scenario cards, students worked in small groups to analyse different situations, identify the challenges faced by the characters, and suggest appropriate ways to offer help. These activities encouraged students to develop empathy, communication skills, and confidence in seeking and providing support when needed.

This week, we also had the opportunity to head outside into the sunshine and play some games with the entire Grade 2 cohort. It was wonderful to see the students being active and demonstrating our school values.

📚 Grade 2 Homework Options

If you would like some additional homework activities - CLICK HERE

From the Grade 2 Teachers

Zoe Callanan, Bronte Darvidis, Mikayla Harvey and Amanda Remington