Melton West Primary School

Year 2 News 

English

 

Reading

During Term 4 in Reading, the Grade 2 students will be completing an author study on texts by Nick Bland. Throughout the author study students will be learning how to analyse and critique parts of texts written by the author. When analysing, students will be looking at the types of language features, illustrations, story events and types of characters that Nick Bland includes in his writing. The students will also be critiquing parts of the texts such as their favourite part in the story, the humour in the text or the author's main message. Along with analysing and critiquing texts by Nick Bland, the Grade 2 students will also continue to consolidate some of the reading skills already focused on this year such as retelling, making connections, inferring and questioning. 

Students will also be focusing on nonfiction texts chosen to align with the topic of the fiction texts from the author study. This will allow the students to continue developing their understanding of the different types of nonfiction texts, how to read them and how to apply strategies to understand them.  

 

Writing

Term 4 in Writing, the Grade 2 students are going to begin writing persuasive texts. The students will be learning how to form opinions, give reasons and provide evidence as a support. They will be explicitly taught the structure of a persuasive text and have the opportunity to write their own based on their interests. 

Later in the term, we will move on to creating Explanation texts. During this unit we will focus on creating non-fiction texts that describe how and/or why things happen, describing a process, and giving reasons and evidence for how it works.   

Throughout the term we will also have a subset focus on word choice and spelling. We will be identifying and using interesting verbs, adjectives, and nouns, as well as finding and using different and unusual spelling patterns in these words. We will also continue to add entries to our writers notebook, a space to collect ideas and writing seeds.

 

Mathematics

This term in Mathematics, students will begin with some short focuses on probability and data. The students will learn about the chance of something occurring, the language used when determining the likelihood of events as well as collecting data and creating graphs to represent this data. We will also have short focuses on money, where students will count collections of the same coins and collections of different coins. Students will explore fractions and revise their previous learning on mass and capacity.

Later in the term, the focus will shift to revising Place Value. Students will learn to recognise large numbers up to 4 and 5 digit numbers and explore the value of numbers in each place value position. Ongoing throughout the term, we will continue to revise telling the time and counting.

 

Inquiry

In Inquiry this term, students will explore a unit titled Great Southern Land. By the end of this inquiry, students will be able to understand that Aboriginal people continue to maintain special connections to the Country/Land.

The key questions guiding our inquiry are:

  • How and why are Country / Place significant to Aboriginal people? 
  • What are the ways in which Aboriginal people maintain special connections to particular country / land / place? 
  • How did Aboriginal people care for and sustain these special places? 

The unit will focus on identifying and discussing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Country/Place on which the school is located and why Country/Place is important to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and the ways in which they maintain special connections to particular Country/Place. Students will investigate, explore, connect and deepen their understanding and feelings about special places, and the wider importance of places to people and how places can be cared for.

We are looking forward to an engaging and creative last term of the year. 

 

Science

Welcome to term 4 Science, where the Grade 2 students will be focusing on the Chemical Science strand and learning that different materials can be combined for particular purposes.

Students will focus on mixing materials and observe similarities and difference between different materials, which includes various foods. They will be learning to identify and record the properties of some everyday materials, such coco and spaghetti, and will carry out observations and experiments on how some foods can be mixed together to form different products, such as corn flower and water.  Students will identify that not everything can be mixed together, such as oil and water, and explore how the properties of a mixture, such as colour and texture, can depend on the number of substances it contains.

 

LOTE-Chinese

Welcome to term 4 Grade 2, the last term of 2022. In this term, the main topic for Grade 2 will be colour. After Grade 2 finished their colour learning, they will review the animals that we learnt in term1, and shapes in term 2. The purpose of reviewing those topics is not only to help them to remember those words individually, but connect them together and put them into sentences. For example, what are their favourite colours and animals or what is that shape’s colour. At the end of the term, students will learn some new fun facts about Chinese New Year. Students will also be asked to share some fun facts about the new year or dominant festival they celebrated at home to compare and contrast the similarities and differences. 

 

Art

In Term 4, the Year 2s will continue their learning in Art with a focus around the themes ‘Building’ and ‘Celebrating’. This will include activities that develop basic printmaking concepts, use paper manipulation to create decorations for the school library, and feature our school in observational drawings and photography. Having developed a sound understanding of collaborative practice last term, we will work together looking at First Nations Dreaming stories and crafting gifts. Some of the artists we will learn about are Margaret Rarru, Shane Pickett and Charlotte Durance.

We will also be preparing for our excursion to the National Gallery of Victoria, making predications and gathering information for our visit! It has been fantastic welcoming the students back into the art room for our final term. We look forward to sharing our creations.

 

 

 

P.E.

For this term the grade 2 students will be focusing on the sports of badminton, hockey, and tennis to assist them in their development of the fundamental motor skills which include, throwing, catching, striking, running, and dodging. Students in term 4 will work on the above sports and try to develop the relevant skills in each sport. By the end of the term the students in grade 2 will be able to showcase the skills used in each sport and be able to engage in a game-based approach. During this term the aim is to engage students in game-based learning and give each student the opportunity to showcase their skills for each sport in games and game-based learning activities. During this learning students will be asked to problem-solve and beginning to develop tactics to assist them when playing these sports. I can’t wait for a great term with the grade 2 students! We have plenty of exciting learning ahead and looking forward to all of it.