First Term in Year 2- Wow! What a Term

We are so proud of our Year 2 students and all the wonderful learning they have done this term. They are showing greater independence, learning how to be risk takers and good communicators. We have had such a busy term and our students have completed some amazing learning.

Literacy

6 + 1 Traits of Writing

We have been learning about the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing. Teachers use these Traits to help students learn the specific skills necessary to make their writing really work.

Ideas: The meaning and development of the message.
Organization: The internal structure of the piece.
Voice: The way the writer brings the topic to life.
Word Choice: The specific vocabulary the writer uses to convey meaning.
Sentence Fluency: The way the words and phrases flow throughout the text.
Conventions: The mechanical correctness of the piece.
Presentation: The overall appearance of the work.

The students have produced many excellent pieces of writing using the various traits. Next term we will dig deeper into the traits and learn the specific skills relevant to each trait.

Reading

It has been pleasing listening to the student’s improvement with their reading. Most students have moved up one or two levels this term and many of them are reading with greater fluency.

It is important that students continue to read every night. Don’t forget the students also have the option of logging in to Wushka to read a book of their choice.

Maths

In Year 2 this week, the children have made their own clocks for the Maths Kits. They also completed an activity as a whole class where they had to put labels for the clock such as 5 past, half past, numbers 1-12 in the appropriate place on a hula hoop.

The children have completed the placement test for Mathseeds and have been exploring this site. From the placement test it puts the children on the appropriate level/lesson.

We are exploring skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, 10’s from various starting points and looking at the patterns made.

We read the book “One is a snail, ten is a crab” where they count feet on various animals such as one foot on the snail (the bottom section of a snail is called the foot!), 4 feet on a dog, 8 legs on a dog. The children then had to draw the legs of various animals to make a number that they have chosen.

Inquiry

The Year 2 students have been focusing on further developing their emotional literacy as part of our current Unit of Inquiry “How we express ourselves”. Last week, the students discussed and focused on the emotion of ‘Fear’.

This week we have been discussing what ‘disgust is, events that make us feel this way and how this can impact others. We have been most impressed with the way children are identifying and expression their emotions and using strategies to manage their big feelings. We have been reading a range of books that relate to emotions, such as ‘The day my brain went CRAZY’ and ‘I am feeling macaroni and cheese”.

It was pleasing to see several of our Year 2 students speaking at Assembly last Monday. They gave an overview of our current Unit of Inquiry and shared some of their amazing work. We were so proud of all our ‘Risk Takers’. The students are excited about our dress up and movie day that we have planned for Monday 29 March.

Year 2 Garden

Over the past two weeks, the Year 2s have begun re-designing the garden space out the front of their building. Students walked around the school to find a good place to replant the native grasses that are currently in this garden.

Next the students were given a template of the garden space to redesign with a path, sweet peas, poppies and we have just received some sun flower seeds to plant as well. Students have each planted and named one sweet pea each that will be grown into seedlings before planting in this garden that receives full sun.