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
📚 Readers are swapped every Monday.
Wednesday 27th August - Fathers Day Stall (Details to be confirmed)
Monday 1st September - Whole School Dress Rehearsal at Rowville Institution of Arts
Tuesday 2nd September - Music Production
Wednesday 3rd September - Music Production
Friday 19th September - Last Day of Term. Dismissal at 2.30pm.
Weekly Timetable
Learning in Action
📖 Book Week
We had an amazing week celebrating our love of all things books! On Monday the students looked spectacular in their book themed costumes, and loved showing them off in our first whole school parade!
📖 Literacy
Over the past fortnight the Grade 2s have loved diving back into our literature units, this time focusing on intertextual connections. Together we looked at well known fairy tales, mapping out the narrative hill, summarising and retelling the story in a paragraph. We then looked at similar fairy tales with a twist, comparing similarities and differences between the two. ‘The Three Little Wolves and The Big Bad Pig’ was definitely a fan favourite!
✍️ Writing Focus
We have continued developing our text level writing skills, focusing on differentiating between a topic sentence and supporting details, then ensuring the supporting details are in order.
In Sentence Level Writing, students consolidated their ability to join sentences, using conjunctions and pronouns, turning simple sentences into combined statements. We also revisited adverbs, taking it a step further by using fronted adverbial phrases. Students practised starting a sentence with either an adverbial how, when or where, followed by the subject and verb. Eg. After school, I cooked popcorn. This is a way for students to vary their sentence structure and take risks in their writing.
Preview - We will continue our intertextual connections literature unit, whilst developing our ability to order supporting details in text-level writing and fronted adverbial phrases in sentence-level writing.
Word Work
➗ Maths
In Maths, we have continued learning multiplication strategies. The students consolidated their understanding of arrays, by playing the game Land Grab, where students rolled a dice to create a multiplication equation. For example, they could roll a 5 and a 3, students then could choose for the sum to be 3x5 or 5x3. The student would then draw an array on grid paper and use skip counting to help them find the total. The student with the largest total by the end was then the winner.
This week we have moved on to our division unit, where students are learning about what division is and different strategies to solve division equations. The students learnt that division is about sharing into equal groups, to find out how many are in each group. The division symbol (÷)means shared between. E.g. 15÷5 is 15 shared between 5 groups.
In our maths applied sessions we have continued our time unit, by exploring how turning a quarter, half, or three-quarters in both clockwise and anticlockwise directions, connects to reading an analog clock (like ‘quarter past’ or ‘half past’). Our applied lessons have also built upon students' spatial reasoning by having students rotate shapes and identify how far and in which direction they've turned.
Preview - We will continue to learn different strategies to solve division problems. In applied maths, the students will consolidate their understanding of clockwise and anticlockwise turns on a clock and with shapes.
😊 Wellbeing
Over the last couple of weeks we have looked at role playing and how to respond in different scenarios. These were focused on how to help others. This week we have discussed who we can ask for help, using the 5 finger rule. The students had to think about 5 people they trust that they could go to for help and write their names on a finger/thumb. This could include:
- Parents
- Teachers
- Grandparents
- Sport coach
- Friends
The importance of this activity is that our hand is always with us and a reminder on who we can ask for help. On our other hand the students thought about who they could help in return.
Preview - In our next wellbeing session we will look at compassion and being our own BFF (best friend forever) as well as looking closely at respect!
📚 Grade 2 Homework Options
From the Grade 2 Teachers
Bronte Darvidis, Mikayla Harvey and Taryn Bailey
Updates from around the school
Garden Working Bee – Friday 12th September
We are calling on our wonderful school community to help us freshen up the gardens at the front of the school. On Friday 12th September, from 11.30am to 3.30pm, we will be holding a garden maintenance afternoon and would love your support.
The work will include:
- Removing old plants
- Weeding garden beds
- Planting new plants to brighten up the entrance to our school
If you can spare some time, whether it’s for the whole afternoon or just an hour, your help will make a big difference. Please bring along gardening gloves, tools if you have them, and plenty of energy!
To assist with planning, we kindly ask that you confirm your attendance by emailing the school office at lysterfield.ps@education.vic.gov.au.
Together, we can make the front of our school a welcoming and beautiful space for our students, families, and community.
Green Team News
Under the guidance of Mrs Stokol and Mrs Alexander, the Green Team met for the first time this week, and what a meeting it was! Across Years 3 to 5, we had nearly 50 excited and passionate students eager to do their part for the environment.
Whether it’s helping to keep the school free of rubbish, caring for and developing the gardens, or educating our community about sustainability, there was a real buzz in the air as students shared ideas and signed up for various roles.
A new initiative launched this term is the collection of 10c containers. Thanks to the special lunch day last term, we raised $21, a fantastic start! We’re now working to collect eligible containers daily to reduce landfill waste and turn recyclables into funds that will be reinvested into future Green Team projects.
Participation in the Green Team is inclusive and open to all. It’s not too late for your child to get involved; we’d love to have them on board!
Green Team Newsletter #2
The enthusiastic Green Team members from Years 3 to 6 continue to meet with Mrs Alexander and Mrs Stokol each Wednesday lunchtime. Meetings begin with a check-in on how the yard cleaning roster is going. Students report which areas are the cleanest, which need more attention, and share ideas for improvement.
Sustainability remains a key focus. Whether it’s managing waste, maintaining garden spaces, or spreading awareness, students have shown impressive initiative and creativity.
Our 10c container collection is going strong! We've raised over $30 in just a few weeks. Green Team members manage the collection bin outside the canteen on lunch order days, and also visit classrooms weekly to gather containers from specially labelled tubs. By collecting these items daily, we are preventing waste from going to landfill and turning it into cash to support our environmental efforts.
Be sure to check out the Sustainability Display in the gym over the coming weeks to see what we’ve been up to!
Did you know? You can support the Green Team by nominating Lysterfield Primary School (LPS) as your donation partner through Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme.
Download the app or visit:🔗 Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme | Learn How To Donate
It’s planting season, and what’s better than free plants?
Help the Green Team — and Earn Free Plants!
Did you know that the Knox Environment Society (KES) offers free native plants as prizes through their Nature Discovery Passport program?
By playing an interactive game and collecting stamps at local reserves, participants can earn plant prizes, and what better way to use those plants than by donating them to our school for the Green Team to grow and maintain?
Explore one of the many beautiful reserves in Knox on the weekend, learn about your local ecology, collect stamps, and claim your prize. It’s a fun way to get outside, support the environment, and contribute to our school’s sustainability efforts.
And who says the fun is just for the kids? Families are welcome to join in too!
To learn more, visit:
🔗 Nature Discovery Passport – Knox Environment Society
🔗 Knox Environment Society Home Page
Thank you — every little bit helps!
Mrs Stokol and Mrs Alexander