Year Two

Dear Year Two Community, 

Welcome back to term 4, filled with exciting learning opportunities for the remainder of the year.

Reading

During our reading sessions, the grade 2's have been practising reading comprehension strategies to enhance their reading further.  We have focused on Synthesising.  This involves combining new ideas with existing information to enable the reader to form conclusions about the text's meaning. It is a similar comprehension micro-skill. to summarising, but is more complex. It entails connecting each aspect of their reading stages, start, middle and end.  Students then identify how their thinking may have changed to form new meaning or a new understanding by the end of their reading.

Writing

In term 4, the abstract world of 'Poetry', is explored in grade 2... with Haiku's, Limmericks and Rhyming poems to name a few!

The students also delve in 'fantasy writing', to create stories of 'make believe'. These narrative stories feature 'sizzling starts', to engage the reader, a well thought out setting, (orientation) sequence of events, and a great resolution (conclusion) Within their writing, students will also continue with correct punctuation, including; captials, fullstops, comma's, exclamation marks and talking marks. Other language features, such as paragraphs and connecting 2 compound sentences using the FANBOY acronym- For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet.

Maths

The Year Twos have spent the first two weeks of Term Four investigating analogue clocks and telling time to the half and quarter hours.Students have been able to identify and match analogue and digital times and are beginning to use clocks to recognise what time of day they do different activities, for example our school day officially begins at half past eight each morning.  

Inquiry

Through our inquiry into the central idea "properties of materials determine their uses" students have analysed the effectiveness of different materials for different uses. After reading 'The Three Little Pigs' The students have been using their knowledge of materials and their properties to design houses out of recycled materials that can withstand a strong wind (or the Big Bad Wolf!).

Important Dates: 

Wednesday 23rd October - Year Two Building Relationships Night with John Hendry

Tuesday 29th October - Three way conferences, students dismissed at 12pm

Wednesday 30th October - Year 2 Excursion to IMAX

Reminders

• Please remember all children must be wearing their school hats in term 4.
• Students are expected to bring their satchel to school every day filled with their take-home reading books, diary, and homework book.
• Students are expected to bring their fully charged iPad to school every day. 
• Late arrivals (8:40 am onwards) require a late pass from the office.
• Students should be reading a minimum of 10 minutes nightly and recording it in their reading diary. 
• If your child is absent, please ensure the reason is entered onto XUNO; if you need support with this please reach out to the office staff or your classroom teacher.