Year 2 News  

What A Wonderful Start To Term 3! 

Term 3 started with excitement as the children were excited to reconnect with each other and share stories with their peers and teachers. We are looking forward to a fantastic second half of Year 2 with much fun learning still to come! 

Paragraphs 

We began the term considering paragraphs in our writing. We learnt that paragraphs are a block of writing made up of one or more sentences that focus on a single main idea or topic. We learnt that paragraphs provide a structure to a piece of text and make it easier to read, rather than a large piece of text with no spacing. We learnt the acronym TiPToP which helps the students understand that a new paragraph needs to be started when there is a change of Time, Place, Topic or Person. 

To help the children put this into practise, we asked them to consider 3 things they did on the holidays and write a paragraph about each activity. Each paragraph was written on a different coloured paper to highlight the change of paragraph and topic. It is always so wonderful to read about the students' holidays! 

Fantastic Mr Fox 

The students have been thoroughly enjoying our first novel text study after studying Bob Graham picture story books for much of last term. We have been considering the character traits in the story and how a character's actions can help us to better understand that character. 

We have also explored themes such as hope and persistence and the children had to reflect on their own lives and consider times they had felt like all hope had been lost. We have also considered how Roald Dahl built suspense in the story. The children can't wait to continue reading the story each lesson. 

Sharing the Planet 

It has been a lot of fun starting our new unit of inquiry. The transdisciplinary theme is 'Sharing the planet' and the Central Idea is 'Living things go through a process of change.' 

We are already witnessing excellent student engagement and can see the inquisitive nature of our students. We have considered what we already know about minibeasts, learnt what a minibeast is and considered the different categories of minibeast. We have also learnt about the body parts of insects. We are looking forward to our incursion and excursion later in the term. 

Maths 

Multiplication using skip counting 

The children were introduced to multiplication without using images or arrays. This involves considering 'how many groups' and 'how many are in each group'. Students are then required to skip count to find the product. For example, when presented with 5 x 3, the children draw 5 dots above the 3, representing the 5 groups. 

They then skip count by 3s as they tap each dot – 3, 6, 9, 12, 15. The final number they say in the skip counting pattern is the answer (product). Please see the image below. It is extremely important that the children can skip count to enable them to complete these maths problems accurately. We strongly encourage students to practice skip counting by 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s at home. 

          ••••• 

5  x  3  =  15 

Division with Arrays 

Last week we introduced the Year 2 students to division using arrays. Students are presented with an amount and how many equal groups this amount will be shared between. For example, 10 shared evenly between 2 groups. 

In this example, the students draw an array with 2 rows, counting to ensure they draw 10 dots to make their array. They then circle the bottom group, which gives them the answer to the problem. Please see some examples below. It would be wonderful if you could ask your child to demonstrate their understanding of this at home as any extra practice helps to consolidate their school learning.