Grade 2

Literacy 

In Literacy, students will finish their Core Knowledge unit, 'Ancient India,' in Week 5. 

In Week 5 students will learn about Buddha and the Jataka Tales. In Week 6, students will begin the Core Knowledge Unit, 'Ancient China.' As part of this they will learn about China's great rivers and family and ancestors.

The students are being explicitly taught syntax and grammar with a focus on learning to complete sentences using the conjunctions 'because,' 'but,' and 'so.' 

An example of this is using the sentence stem: 'Amy likes animals.'

Amy likes animals because she lives on a farm.

Amy likes animals, but she doesn't like giraffes.

Amy likes animals, so she volunteers at the animal shelter.

Phonics, Handwriting and Reading Fluency

The students are currently working on learning to read and write the spellings for c/v/cc (consonant/vowel/consonant, consonant - eg. vent, raft) words and v/cc words (eg. and, ink). They are continuing to work on correct letter formation for words linked to those taught in phonics.  The students will continue to revise the sounds taught in the previous unit (/ae/) through repeated reading in Fluency each day.  The students work in pairs, with Partner A reading a decodable text for a minute, while Partner B tracks along with their own book, then Partner B reads while Partner A tracks. 

A highlight last week was when we introduced the Grade 2s to their own "Fluency Phones" which they can use to practice listening to themselves reading the sounds.

The students will also begin reading decodable books with taught sounds in class over the next two weeks. After they have read these books in class for two weeks, they will be sent home as part of our home reading program (in Week 7). We will provide more information about this in the next newsletter.

Numeracy

Students will be learning to say and write three-digit numbers and exploring informal time units. The students will continue to practice their Mathematical fluency through daily fluency practice, which involves the students being given a set of maths questions (for example, addition problems) and being asked to answer as many as they can within 2 minutes. The students will practice this routine most days to continue to develop their mathematical fluency.

SWPBS

Thank you for your support in establishing our morning routines. The students have been noticeably more settled walking independently into the building each morning which has an enormous positive impact on their ability to be prepared for learning.

Key Dates:

Tuesday 18th March - Emotions excursion to the river

Weds 2nd April - Celebration of Learning afternoon at 2:45pm