Year 2 Term Overview
Dear Year 2 Families,
Welcome back for Term 4! Your children and your families have managed so well with the challenges of last term and we are so excited to be back. Please see Compass for the dates of remote learning and the dates of face to face learning onsite. Seeing all our students again is so rewarding and we know how pleased they are to be with their friends again.
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
We understand that your child has spent much of this year learning and working from home, and we recognise that they may have mixed feelings about returning to school, playing with friends and collaborating with others in the classroom and in the playground. We will continue to have a strong focus around social and emotional learning, through our PATHS lessons, our Respectful Relationships sessions, as well as addressing individual, group and class needs as they arise.
Curriculum:
Literacy
Reading continues to be a major focus in Year 2. A reminder that the aim of our reading program is to develop your child as a balanced reader - being able to decode (say) the words on the page, comprehend (understand) what they are reading and to read fluently with phrasing (reading smoothly using the punctuation). Students will continue to read a variety of text types while exploring strategies such as predicting, visualising, questioning, summarising and critiquing. Students will also begin to explore reading through looking at the way the authors use ideas, sentence fluency, conventions, word choice, presentation, voice and organisation when creating texts. They will participate in guided reading sessions, reading conferences, buddy reading and independent reading.
We are exploring how to write information reports and explanation texts using the 6+1 writing traits. Students will go through the whole writing process - collecting ideas, planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing with each text type. We understand the need for all students to have a greater focus on handwriting (correct sizing and formation, as well as using the dotted thirds lines correctly), given that they have spent lots of time on iPads over the last few terms. The focus in grammar will be on using capital letters correctly, parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, verbs), adding affixes to base words, compound words, conjunctions, punctuation and exploring a variety of spelling strategies through our SMART spelling program. To culminate the year, we are planning to hold a Publishing Party to celebrate our fabulous writers.
Numeracy
This term, in our Number & Algebra work, we will be revisiting multiplication, this time how it links with area. We will also be investigating fractions of 2D shapes and collections. In our Measurement & Geometry units, we will be measuring the mass, capacity and length of different objects. These are fun, hands-on activities and experiences and we hope that your child will share with you what they have learned at school. We will finish the year off with revisiting data representation, where we will create and interpret graphs and tables. In addition, our problem solving lessons will continue where students apply their maths knowledge and skills to solve real world problems.
Inquiry
We have begun our Science and Design Technology inquiry unit for this term, unpacking our driving question: How can we use science inventions to improve our daily life? Students will identify household inventions and the problems that they solve, for example someone needed to join two papers together so they invented the stapler. We will then explore the engineering design process - Question, Brainstorm, Plan and Design, Build and Create, Test and Analyze, Reflect and Improve, Communicate and Share. Students will do this by identifying a problem that they want to fix then designing and creating a solution to their problem. We can’t wait to see what inventions they come up with.
Ways to Help Your Child At Home:
Home Reading - The expectation is for your child to read their take home book 5 nights a week, answer some comprehension questions that an older family member asks them (see the Tips sheet in the Homework book) and record the title, date and a comment in the yellow reading journal themselves. Take home books are for enjoyment and for your child to practise their reading strategies, and are not meant to be a challenging task for your child. As such, students will be taking home books that are a level below their instructional reading level.
Please make sure you have a good look at home for any home reading or library books that have had a long holiday at your house and need to come back to school.
Learning Goals - Your child’s individualised learning goals are listed on Compass (starting at the end of this week). There is a reading goal, a maths goal, a writing goal and an Inquiry or SEL (social and emotional learning) goal for your child. Please read these and support your child by going through the suggested strategies to help at home. These goals are changed every three weeks, and you will also be informed of your child’s achievement of these goals.
Spelling - Once we resume our SMART spelling program, your child will bring home a spelling list each week in their Homework book. They need to practise their 5 words by completing one task at home each night. Spelling is a big focus in grade 2 and we are really focusing this term on students transferring their spelling knowledge to their writing. Completing a different spelling activity each night will assist your child in this.
Read for Pleasure - find some time to regularly read a book to or with your child for pleasure. Make it a quiet, cosy, happy fun time so that your child sees that reading is more than just having to ‘do a task’ - it’s FUN.
Fruit Snack- a friendly reminder to make sure you pack a fruit snack for your child, this can be fresh fruit or vegetables. Food such as chocolate yogurt, fruit juices, string cheese and muesli bars are snack time foods and not fruit break foods.
We look forward to working with you and your child this term. Please come and see your child’s teacher if you have any questions or concerns. After school is best for a quick chat, otherwise send your child’s teacher an email to set up an appointment time for a longer chat.
Rachael, Skye, Crystal, Sharnie and Anne