Year 2 Spotlight

What a successful start to the year we have had!

The Year 2 students have enjoyed meeting new friends, as well as reconnecting with old ones. We have been learning about our school values and establishing routines for our classroom communities. Students have worked hard to establish their roles and responsibilities in their new learning spaces and have enjoyed getting to know their new peers and teachers. A big focus for this year is developing a growth mindset, knowing that it is okay to make mistakes as they help us to learn and grow!

Reading

During the Reader’s Workshop we have been practising comprehension strategies such as questioning, visualising, text-connections, and predictions. Students are building their independent reading stamina and using their reading journals to record and display their thinking.

Writing

Students have been working on recount writing and started the year with a recount about their weekends. It was great to hear about the students’ weekends and for their classmates to learn a bit about each other. We are also excited to begin learning about poetry next week.

Numeracy

Numeracy has begun with learning about the things that great maths learners do, such as using concrete materials, trying different strategies, and learning from mistakes.

We have been developing and refining our counting skills and our place value knowledge. Students have been using their counting skills in a variety of meaningful situations and extending their abilities by counting forwards and backwards from any given number, using any given counting pattern. We have also been practising how to represent a number in many different ways.

We have also learnt about the months and seasons in the year and how they connect to the Wurundjeri seasons.

We have been learning lots of new and exciting maths games like Greedy Pig, Buzz, Get out of my House, Mastermind, Beat my Score, The Price is Right and Wishball. Our favourite maths games are:

Wishball, it's really fun because when it's close to the end and you're close to getting the right number it's really exciting. ~ George M, 2D
Wishball because you don't know what number you’re going to and it's so exciting. ~ Lewis C, 2D
I like playing Beat My Score, because it’s fun when you beat your last score. ~ Willow G, 2A
I like playing 21 because it’s fun getting Jayde out! ~ Evie L, 2A
The Price is Right is my favourite because you get to say higher and lower over and over again! ~ Benjamin M, 2B
I like Get out of my House because I like counting numbers to figure out what they are. ~ Evie P, 2B

Inquiry

Our topic, ‘Healthy Me’, has begun with a focus on emotional wellbeing. Students have explored emotional literacy and revisited the Zones of Regulation. Students have identified strategies they could use to get them into their ‘green zone’. They have been enjoying practising the art of mindfulness and will soon be moving on to healthy food choices and water and sun safety.

Students were excited to participate in the Aboriginal Dreamtime story-telling Drama Toolbox incursion: Tidalick the Frog, held on Monday 21 March, where they retold indigenous stories, through drama and performance.

~ Year 2 Teachers (Jade, Caitie, Naomi, Faye & Sophie) and Students