Year Two

Communicating with the Year Two Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2021, and welcome your input:

Julie Hall (Class 2A) Julie.Hall@education.vic.gov.au

Stacey Bowles (Class 2B) Stacey.Bowles@education.vic.gov.au

Julie Hall
Stacey Bowles
Julie Hall
Stacey Bowles

Welcome Back!

  Mrs Hall and Miss Bowles are so excited to be back and are looking forward to spending the year with these lovely Grade Two students. Please read on to see an overview of our learning for this term.

Overview of Learning- Term One 2021

Inquiry

During our Term 1 Inquiry Unit, Paddock to Plate, students will explore how plants and animals are grown for the purpose of food. They will be introduced to the concept of resources and their management, and begin to understand how resource use reflects community interdependence. Students will have the opportunity to investigate how resources (such as food) from other places may be transported locally to meet their needs. Students will also begin to explore how seeds can be cared for to grow foods and engage in exciting projects to further illustrate these key understandings.

 

Literacy

In Literacy this term, we have begun the InitiaLit-2 program which has allowed opportunity for increased rigour and personalised learning within Literacy. 

InitiaLit–2 has four main components which are taught during the Literacy block in our daily learning program; Spelling, Reading comprehension and fluency, Grammar and Vocabulary.

In Writing, we have begun experimenting with imaginative texts and we will continue to learn different types of writing styles including persuasive and informative texts throughout the term. 

In Speaking and Listening, we have been providing many opportunities for students to build their confidence to speak in front of an audience as we conduct regular circle time in class. We have also been continuing to build on our students' self-awareness of how and why "talk moves" promote respectful classroom dialogue.

 

As part of InitiaLit-2, students have free-choice of short and extended chapter books to take home and read, with the expectation for each student to have "five genres" in their personal book box.

 

Numeracy

During this term, in Year One and Year Two we are covering topics from the three strands, Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability. In Number and Algebra students apply their number sense and strategies for counting and representing numbers and explore the properties of numbers. They apply a range of strategies such as addition and subtraction and develop an understanding of the connections between those operations. In Measurement and Geometry students develop their understanding of size, shape and movement of two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. They learn about the features of these shapes and are able to sort and identify such shapes based on these observable features. In Statistics and Probability students build upon their ability to describe data displays. They ask questions to collect data and create simple data displays. We teach the concepts within the curriculum through investigative tasks and hands-on activities. 

This term, in the Year One and Year Two classrooms we will be mostly focused on the proficiency of Fluency. This describes the students developing skills in accurately recalling factual knowledge and concepts readily. For example, understanding and knowing automatically all the numbers that make 10 and 20.

 

Berry Street

At the commencement of 2019, our school committed to improving social-emotional learning within our students through the use of School-Wide Positive Behaviors for Learning (SWPBL), a component of which is the Berry Street Education Model. 

In Term One 2021, we have a strong focus upon building rapport and co-regulation within our classrooms. This is being actioned within our classrooms through the development of shared class expectations, which are clearly stated and reflective of both student voice, and our School Values of Respect, Responsibility, and Resilience. 

 

An important component of a co-regulated classroom is "Brain Breaks".

Building upon our students' knowledge of the brain (and it's connection to our bodies and learning) we are helping to identify the benefits and expectations of effective brain breaks. 

Brain breaks can be used to: 

- positively prime the group to be "ready to learn": helping to tune thoughts and feelings to focus upon the learning task

- de-escalate a group or individual: helping students to regulate and monitor their own emotions, utilising our school's "tap-out" Talk Move, in order to responsibly reset and refocus

- build co-regulation in the classroom: creating an environment in which empathy, awareness, and kindness for the feelings of others is explicit.

 

Take Home Readers

Take home readers will commence in Week Three. As part of InitiaLit-2, students have free-choice of short and extended chapter books to take home and read. Year Two students are able to choose two readers from school to take home and read nightly. Students in Year Two are also free to choose books from home to read each night if they wish. We urge families to read daily to help support the learning that is happening within the classroom.

 

Students who choose their readers on a Monday are required to return them on Friday the same week.

 

SPECIALIST TIMETABLE

Please note the following information regarding the days that each grade has specialist classes.  * These times are subject to change during school-wide events (eg: swimming timetables) *

 

2A

2B

Performing Arts: Tuesdays 9am

Visual Arts: Thursday 10:30am

PE: Thursdays 11:30am

Japanese: 2.30pm (even weeks)

Performing Arts: Tuesdays 10:30am

Japanese: Thursdays 9am (odd weeks)

PE: Thursdays 10:30am

Visual Arts: Thursdays 11:30am