Year 2 Spotlight

Despite the cold and crazy weather, the Year 2’s have done a great job being flexible with the changes to their routine, nearly every day! Today the sun is shining, but who knows what tomorrow will bring… It’s been lovely to see some students play chess, build Lego and watch ‘Odd Squad’ together during some of our cold and wet weather lunch times.

Reading

We have been mastering the art of summarising when reading. We have been using the prompts: Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then to help us create short summaries that capture all the key information from the text, without telling every detail. We have also begun to look at making inferences by using our prior knowledge and text evidence. We have loved reading the texts ‘Du iz tak?’ and ‘The Line’ and discussing what we noticed.

Writing 

The Grade 2 students are taking the writing world by storm with their imaginative narrative plans! Our young writers have been hard at work crafting captivating characters and exciting settings for their stories. Using their creativity and the character traits we have learnt in class, the students have been able to transport their readers to far away lands and introduce them to quirky and interesting characters. We are excited to read about the adventures their characters get up to! 

Numeracy

The Grade 2s have been adding up their numeracy skills with exciting addition strategies. So far we have learnt to use the jump and hop strategy and the split strategy to add 2 digit numbers. It’s important that students learn a variety of strategies, to help them become more efficient and diverse in their thinking. We have also been learning about the features of different 2D shapes. 

Try this shape problem at home. 

Look at the different shapes in the picture. Which one doesn’t belong and why? 

Does everyone in your family think the same? 

Inquiry 

This term, we are learning about science – particularly about materials. It’s amazing to see our young scientists so engaged and curious about the materials around them, such as wool, feathers, felt, pipe cleaners, metal scourers and wooden toothpicks. The students did a great job at sorting these materials based on their properties, like shiny vs dull or flexible vs rigid. The students will soon be using their creativity to come up with their own inventions using various materials… stay tuned to find out about their creations. Who knows what discoveries they will make in the future!

Bounce Back

This term we have reintroduced the Bounce Back program to Grade 2 students, as a supplement to the learning they do each week in Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships. The Bounce Back program has been designed to help students develop the tools they need to face life’s challenges with courage and determination. It’s all about ‘bouncing back’ from setbacks, and persevering through difficult times. We’ve started with the core values – those character traits and beliefs that we all need to practise each day – honesty, fairness, being responsible, kindness, cooperation, acceptance of our differences, showing respect and being friendly. Have a chat with your child, ask them what they have been learning about, and check out the movements their grade has created to help them to remember each of the values.

~ Year 2 Teachers (Mariah, Caitie, Sarah, Sophie, Nicole)