YEAR TWO
Grade Bulletin - Term Three, 2023
Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Primary School provides a range of holistic learning experiences to enable students to:
- Participate in the life and mission of the school.
- Deepen their knowledge and engagement with the Catholic faith and tradition.
- Build the capacity to continuously reason, reflectively, logically and critically.
- Embrace interdependence of human existence as global citizens, who are responsible to and for themselves and others.
- Engage in learning in a multitude of ways, through personalised and self-paced learning.
Religious Education
Our Religious Education units for this term are:
2.5 Reflecting God’s Goodness
This unit explores the concept of living as a follower of Jesus. It introduces Jesus’ commandment to love others as Jesus loved us. It draws on the children’s knowledge of stories about Jesus and of their experience of people who reflect God’s love. The unit introduces saints as ordinary people who reflected God’s goodness to the world and brought God’s love to others.
2.7 Caring for Creation
This unit reflects on living in a harmonious relationship with all of God’s creation. The parable of ‘The Good Samaritan’ is presented. Through it, children explore Jesus’ teaching about caring for others. Children learn about the beauty and wonder of creation and their responsibility towards it.
You can help your child by:
- Encouraging simple daily prayers with your child
- Attending Mass regularly with your child
English
This term, the students will deepen their understanding of perspective and argument through a study of fractured fairy tales. They will explore how arguments can be presented from different perspectives and use extended text features to enhance their writing. Students will innovate from familiar narratives to compose persuasive texts that present a different perspective. Texts will include The True Story of the Three Little Pigs written by John Scieszka, traditional fairytales such as The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Ridinghood and Jack and the Beanstalk.
Students will build on their understanding of how cultures and traditions can be represented in texts. They will engage with texts that depict real and imagined representations of significant people from various cultures and backgrounds. Students will explore how cultural representations can be shared through creative visual features. Texts will include Drawn Together written by Minh Le, Littlest Refugee written by Anh Doh, Out written by Angela May George
The children will also continue the Soundwaves spelling program.
You can assist your child by:
- Listening to them read nightly and asking them to retell what they have read in their own words. This is essential for comprehension. Also, ask some literal and inferential questions about the text to ensure they have understood what they have read.
- Checking their spelling words during homework and visiting Soundwaves online to play games
Mathematics
The students will be explicitly taught concepts from the NSW Mathematics K-10 Syllabus with a focus on problem-solving, communication, reasoning and understanding. All activities are differentiated in order to cater to all student needs and abilities.
The topics taught in Term 3 are: forming groups, data, 3D spatial structure and combining and separating quantities.
You can assist your child by:
- Revising counting skills (e.g. counting by 2's, 5's and 10's from any given three digit number or by 100’s from any 3 digit number)
- Rounding 2 and 3 digit numbers to the nearest 10 and 100. For e.g. 26 rounded to the nearest 10 is 30.
- Revising how to solve simple addition and subtraction problems involving one- and two-digit numbers using a range of efficient mental and written strategies including the jump strategy and split strategy.
- Go shopping - notice prices, which is more/less, how much altogether
- Play games involving money and trade money eg. coins for notes, notes for coins, coins for coins.
Science and Technology
The Science unit this term is called 'Physical World' and will focus on the identification of light, sound and heat energy, and how they are sensed and produced. The students will further develop their understanding of forces and energy and how these can be used for specific purposes in products. The Digital Technologies strand focuses on digital systems and their components.
Mandarin
This term students in Kindergarten to Year 6 will continue to participate in the Chinese language program called the Meg Language Program. The Meg Curriculum is written by the co-author of the Australian Curriculum. All students and teachers will participate in the digital learning platform via Zoom weekly sessions with educators in China.
History
The unit this term is called ‘The Past in the Present". The students will explore, recognise and appreciate the history of their local area by examining remains of the past and considering why they should be preserved. They will identify and describe significant people, events, places, sites and changes in the local community over time. They will also investigate the effects of changing technology on people’s lives.
Creative Arts
In Creative Arts this term, students will participate in 5 weeks of Music and 5 weeks of Drama. During Music lessons students will participate in musical activities focused on traditional dances from around the world including Cuba, and Spain. Students will also learn songs and stories from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
During Drama lessons, students will be focusing on mime and movement to replicate and create characters from familiar texts.
The students will engage in Creative Art lessons based on literature linked to Book Week 2023. In Year 2, students will make artworks representing both real and imagined situations exploring a range of techniques and media. They will discuss the qualities of artworks such as subject matter and technique, recognising that artists create artworks for different audiences.
Amadeus
Students will continue their participation in the Amadeus Music Education program, introduced by Sydney Catholic Schools to our school this year.
Students will participate in activities in listening, performing and organising sound (Kindergarten to Year 6), within their regular Classroom Music lessons. Within these lessons, students will:
- Sing in unison and in parts
- Play tuned and untuned percussion instruments
- Play available instruments such as Ukulele, Guitar and Keyboard (Grade appropriate)
Personal Development, Health and Physical Education
This Term, Year 2 will participate in Physical Education (PE) lessons with Miss Reid and their classroom teacher. Students will be participating in Jump Rope for Heart this term where they will be completing daily skipping routines. This program will encourage our students to build a positive attitude towards exercise, healthy eating and heart health. Students will work together in a team environment and encourage and support each other throughout the learning process. If you wish to register to raise funds use this link jumprope.org.au/parents .
Year 2 will participate in sports and fitness lessons every Tuesday.
Open Parachute will continue to be implemented K-6. Open Parachute aims to provide practical support on mental health to students. The program aims to reduce stigma and generate authentic dialogue in classrooms about the real issues students face. The psychological skills-building exercises aim to increase empathy, self-compassion, self-awareness, mental health literacy, and self-efficacy in students.
Homework
Homework will follow the same structure as Semester One. It is recommended that Year 2 students spend up to a duration of 20-30 minutes of homework per day. This includes 10 minutes of reading every night. Homework consists of daily reading, spelling and Mathematics activities. These activities are to be completed weekly. Homework is due each Thursday and will be sent home every Friday.
We look forward to continuing to work with you and your child this term. If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher via email, a written note or by appointment through the office.
Thank you for your partnership and support.
We are looking forward to a productive term!
2B - Mrs Katrina Hedges
2G - Mrs Lauren Govers
2W - Mrs Alison Bofinger
Important Dates for Year 2
Grandparents Day - Friday, 28 July
K-2 Fun and Fitness Day - Friday, 4 August
Book Week Parade - Friday 25 August
Father's Day Liturgy - Friday, 1 September
School Term - 17 July - 22 September 2023
Refer to the School Calendar for Staff Development Days