Year 2 News 

English

Reading

Welcome to the start of an exciting year of learning! This term students will be developing consistent habits to support them to become successful learners in reading. During our Reading Start Up students will explore which texts interest them and why to build upon their own love for reading and be inspired by the rich texts around them. They will be learning the expectations of our classroom libraries, reading lessons, independent reading, selecting Just Right Texts, reading goals, teacher groups and conferences. Students will then move onto their first comprehension focus of summarising. During this unit students will also be learning how to activate prior knowledge, make predictions and visualise to support their understanding of texts. They will be exposed to using text structures and features and begin using these to identify different text types.

Writing

During Term One our Grade 2 students will begin by participating in a start-up program. The start-up program is designed to explicitly teach our Grade Two students the expectations and procedures we need them to follow in order to be successful writers. This term our main focus in writing will be Narratives. Students will be learning about the structure of a narrative and constructing their own stories that include characters, settings, a problem and a solution. Our Grade 2’s will be provided with and explicitly taught how to use classroom resources that will assist them to be confident independent writers.  They will use Writer's Notebooks to record things they notice, observe, and think about. Another key focus will be learning a variety of strategies to spell unfamiliar words and knowing how to use teaching tools to spell unfamiliar words. 

Mathematics

This term in Mathematics, the Grade 2 students will begin by learning how to utilise the math resources in the classroom and engaging in math warm up games to help them adapt to classroom routines. Then we will start our unit on Time, where students will be learning to tell time to the quarter hour and use a calendar to identify the date, days, weeks, months and seasons. Later we will be learning about counting patterns such as counting by 2’s beyond 20, 5’s and 10’s beyond 100 from zero and non-zero starting points. Counting will continue to be an ongoing focus throughout the term, with students working on individual counting goals. Finishing the term with our unit on Place Value students will be building numbers up to 1000.

Inquiry

During this term the Grade 2 students will be settling back into classroom routines and structures and revisiting positive behaviours. They will begin the term by focusing on our school wide Learning to Learn program to ensure school wide positive behaviours are understood and displayed. These will be regularly revisited throughout the year. Students will then move into their first Inquiry topic ‘Me and My Body’. During this unit students will be learning about different foods and substances that aren’t good for their body, as well as who they can go to for help when their body is not feeling right. 

Science

Welcome to Term 1 Science and a new and exciting year ahead! This term the Grade 2 students will be focusing on the Biological Science strand.  Students will explore the life cycle of themselves (humans)  and the five main stages they will go through as they grow – birth, child, teenager, adult, elderly; students will investigate, and discuss, some of the changes that will occur as they grow up (such as growing taller and appearances changing).  Students will look closely at the stages that some animals go through and sequence the life cycles of familiar animals, such as frogs, butterflies, and chickens; students will also learn to recognize that animals have offspring similar to themselves. During this term, students will be involved in many interesting learning activities, along with investigations and hands-on experiments. This is an exciting term in Grade 2 Science!

LOTE-Chinese

 I would like to welcome back the Grade 2 students to Chinese for this term. In term 1, students will start with a revision of what we have learnt last year. For example greetings; numbers and names. Meanwhile, students will learn some martial arts based on the Chinese Family; age and practise them throughout the whole term. There are two important topics that will be covered in this term for Grade 2 which are; how to pronounce the names of family members and how to pronounce address the person’s age. 

Art

Welcome to Term 2, Art, 2023! In Art, Grade 2’s will revise routines and follow expectations in our classroom environment, including correct use of tools and materials. The topic for this term is Colour Theory. Students will get to consolidate their understanding of Secondary colours and will use different mediums such as paint when creating artworks and mixing colours. They will further explore Colour Theory by making tints and shades which are created when adding white and black to colours. Students will create hues by adding more or less of the same colour when mixing which will lead into their learning of Tertiary Colours. Grades 2’s will also explore working with warm and cool colours and monochromatic colours to create their art pieces.  Looking forward to working with Melton West Primary School Grade 2’s 2023!

P.E.

Welcome back to a new year of Physical Education. During this term our grade 2 students will be continuing their learning and building on skills introduced last year. For this term we will focus on tennis and baseball (T-ball) and the relevant skills required to perform the sport and play in a competitive environment. Our students will be performing the linked fundamental movement skills for these sports which includes throwing, catching, running, and striking. They will also continue to develop problem solving skills and use strategy when participating in the different sports to try and achieve successful outcomes. During this term we will take a deep dive into the core skills needed for each of these sports and give the students ample opportunity to demonstrate these skills in game play. A games-based approach will be evident throughout the year in Physical Education where all students will be given time to participate and play in actual games of the chosen sport to develop an understanding of the skills, rules, and game concepts required to play. I am excited and looking forward to working with all the grade 2 students this term!