Welcome to Term 4

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to our last stimulating term of learning and celebrations in Level 2.

The Level 2 team are excited to see everyone gain as we continue connecting and learning in the classrooms and school grounds.

In Term Four, the Level 2 students will participate in stimulating learning experiences as they continue to develop their knowledge and understanding in the areas of Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Mathematics, You Can Do It, Inquiry and Personal and the Social development and growth. These learning experiences scaffold student learning to support the students to extend and challenge their current abilities in all areas of the curriculum. This term the students will participate in the organisation and production of the Toy Exhibition. 

The school foci ‘Appreciate Togetherness’, Curiosity through Challenge’ and Explore New Possibilities is integrated throughout the students’ learning journey.

Please take a moment to see what we have planned for this exciting term of learning and development for the Level 2 students.

Kind regards, 

The Level 2 Team

Mathematics

In Mathematics, students will continue to investigate key concepts through the SURF framework of Problem Solving, Understanding, Reasoning and Fluency. Specific topic foci this term will include Money, Shape, Angles and Chance. Students will also revisit the four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division at the end of term. Classes will develop personalised math’s goals for every topic, related to an area of SURF they would like to further their skills in. 

To support your child’s learning at home you could:

• Place a weekly number challenge for your child on the fridge at home. An example could be skip counting by 5s as far as you can or solving a problem such as the value of coins in a container.
• Encourage your child to find 2D and 3D shapes in their everyday environment. Can they describe these shapes using terms like vertices, faces and/or angles?
• Encourage your child to explain his/her thinking and strategies when solving a math's problem. For example, you may ask “How did you know 3 x 9 = 27? What strategy did you use? How can you prove that it’s correct?”

Reading

In Reading, Level Two students will continue to utilise the CAFE approach to further their Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Vocabulary in reading, in alignment with the Victorian curriculum. In order to connect to and build on their skills in Writing, reading and analysis of poetry and information reports will be a focus. Students will select personalised reading goals, regularly receiving feedback and feedforward on their progress from peers, teachers and themselves.

To support your child’s learning at home, you could:

• Ensure your child reads aloud to you regularly throughout the school week. 
• Ask your child what their reading goal is and provide them with feedback as to how they are progressing as you hear them read. 
• Pose questions to your child as they read to support their comprehension of texts. Particularly focus on asking questions that encourage deeper thinking such as ‘Why do you think the author wrote this text?’ or ‘Why did the character act like that?’

Speaking and Listening

Speaking and Listening is a vital skill to develop, and it will continue to be integrated across areas of the curriculum. Through our Poetry unit students will develop their skills in manipulating sound combinations and creating rhythmic sound patterns. Students will build your vocal communication skills through the opportunity to share their thinking and learning with their peers. Through sharing their learning pieces, students are able to further develop their knowledge of tone and volume.

Spelling

In Level Two we follow our school’s Inquiry approach to spelling. Students regularly undertake spelling inquiries into their personal spelling words to understand the meanings and connections more deeply. Spelling foci for Term Four will include specific spelling conventions, such as suffixes, and grammatical fundamentals including past tense. When we resume full time onsite learning, students will continue to select personalised spelling words from their writing. These words will be practiced during Home Learning and tested at school weekly.

To support your child’s learning at home you could:

• Identify words in written text or conversation based around the weekly spelling focus at home with your child, for example, excursion, combination, instruction. 
• Encourage your child to use resources, such as a dictionary, to find the meaning of a new word they have heard or read. 
• Challenge your child to find synonyms to words they use regularly in speech and writing, such as big or good. 

Writing 

In Writing, students will continue to utilise the VOICES whole school approach. They will continue to build on their skills of integrating Voice, Organisation, Ideas, Conventions, Excellent Word Choice and Sentence Fluency throughout their writing pieces. 

Students will focus on persuasive writing techniques and will practise implementing them in a range of text types, including persuasive essays, advertisements and letters. Student will revisit the Persuasive Writing structure to provide a framework for students to write clear and convincing persuasive pieces and demonstrate their use of the persuasive writing techniques. They will extend their knowledge of previously taught writing styles, including narratives, poems and procedures. 

To support your child’s learning at home you could: 

• Engage in conversations where students are required to reason and provide arguments for or against a topic, for example ‘What movie should we watch together tonight, and why?’.
• Discuss advertisements, what makes them most convincing and what persuasive techniques they have used.
• Encourage students to write letters or birthday cards for family members and friends.

Inquiry

Throughout Term Four, the Level Two students will explore ‘Forces’ allowing them to experiment and observe the effects on an object’s movement, speed and shape. They will build their knowledge and awareness of physical sciences through making observations and posing questions. Year Two learners will investigate contact and non-contact forces such as push, pull, friction and gravity. They will be given the opportunity to transfer their skills and knowledge to create a toy or arcade game that involves forces. This will be linked with the Global Goal ‘Reduced Inequalities’, with students raising funds for a charity by exhibiting their toys or arcade games to the school community.

To assist your child at home, engage in conversations around the following prompts: 

• What forces do you encounter every day? 
• What is gravity? 
• Why is there inequality in our society? 

YCDI

The Level Two team integrates the You Can Do It Program into weekly teaching and learning. YCDI is adapted to unique needs of each student and will work towards developing and strengthening their social and emotional thinking and self-regulation skills especially during these times. YCDI is a comprehensive framework that incorporates the latest research into developing the social and emotional characteristics of children and explores how social skills can affect outcomes. We will connect elements of YCDI to our Whole School Values of Global Empathy, Integrity, Respect and Initiative and allow students to reflect on how actions affect the wellbeing of themselves and others.