Middle Unit -2/3
How fast has this term gone? Week 7 already. The year 2/3 cohort has continued to be super busy. With Naplan happening this week the Grade 3’s have shown great resilience, attempting each test with a nervous smile on their faces. They have all made a tremendous effort and made all of their teachers proud with the superb job they have done.
In writing, we have just finished our short unit of persuasive writing, the students developed their abilities to create arguments and give reasons to convince their reader (audience) to agree with them.
For the rest of the term we will be working on our procedural writing skills, (this includes things such as cooking recipes, game instructions, building things etc.)
The students will improve their writing skills, learning how to write a procedural, with its different parts and use the correct procedural language (verbs, adjectives, nouns). This will lead into the students giving an oral presentation on a procedural example of their own. (More information will be out about this later in the term).
In reading we have been looking at how to search for and use specific information to answer comprehension questions correctly, using different strategies such as re-reading to ensure that we have read all the relevant information, that they look for keywords and how to eliminate answers that we know are definitely incorrect. We have now moved on to fluency, looking at how different punctuation such as full stops, commas, and quotation marks changes how we read a book aloud, helping us to know when to take a break and really emphasise a word or sentence.
In math we have been looking at location, directions and mapping skills. The students have enjoyed learning about how to read a map and find places using grid references. Students relished creating their own maps of familiar places such as the school or the oval, to their house and bedroom. They have learnt what features need to be on a map such as a heading, legend and compass point showing north.
They have also learnt how to create clear and easy to follow directions using directional language. A highlight for the students was when they created their own obstacle course over the playground. They wrote down their instructions and then we had a go at following the directions exactly how they were written. It was a mixed bag of success, the instructions got them where they needed to be but we also ended up a bit turned around.
The rest of the term continues to be a really exciting time for the 2/3 cohort. With the Royal Flying Doctors Services visiting the school next Tuesday (for MU1, 2 and 3) and on Wednesday (for MU4 and 5) and an incursion with the Aqua Aware on Monday and the first half of our students going to the Kyneton Swimming Pool, next Thursday for the excursion of Aqua Aware. The rest of the students will be going in week 9.
Year 2/3 Teachers
Mark Condon/Deb Thompson, Libby Tobin, Caitlin Hanks, Lyndsay Adamson,
Breanna Smith, Zoe Bronchinetti