Grade 2 Term 2 Curriculum News 2022

This Term Newsletter will provide you with information about your child’s upcoming teaching and learning experiences in the new term. There is also plenty of additional information provided via Compass throughout the school year, so please make a point of touching base regularly.

General

WELCOME BACK EVERYONE! We hope you have all enjoyed a safe and happy Easter over the holidays! With our children engaged in new and exciting learning throughout Term One, time has simply flown by! The Grade Two team has enjoyed getting to know your children over the past eleven weeks and watching them grow! With Term Two upon us, we are ready for another fantastic term of learning!

With so many new and exciting things to learn in Term Two, it can be understandable that some children can feel a little overwhelmed at times. To counter this, the students and teachers at Lara Lake follow the six ‘Life Raft’ ideals of our Play is the Way program. In particular, when students feel overwhelmed by new learning, we ask them to “Be brave! Participate to progress.” School is about stepping bravely into the unknown. The unknown is often uncomfortable. Nobody expects you to know everything. That is why we are at school. But the braver you are, the more you learn! We also complete weekly lessons about Respectful Relationships, where students discuss emotions, getting along and role playing scenarios which require problem solving in real life.

Reading

Students have been relishing the opportunity to enjoy a range of exciting and engaging books from our classroom libraries. An ongoing focus for students in Term Two will be our development of using ‘fix-up’ and comprehension strategies to make meaning in texts. Independent Reading will occur daily and involve students engaging with texts for at least 30 minutes per day. Conferences and reading group lessons will continue across the term, allowing students to build on their knowledge and application of the strategies and their own personal goals. The homework expectation for Grade Two students is for them to read at least 10 minutes per night for at least 4 nights a week. Their reading should be recorded in their yellow reader diary. We ask that students remember to bring their reading satchels from home to school each day.

Writing

In Writing, it has been wonderful watching our students establish clear writing routines and develop into enthusiastic authors. In Term Two, students will continue to work through the ‘Writing Cycle’ which includes: generating seed ideas, choosing an idea, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. Students will continue to use their Writer’s Notebook to collect ‘Seed Ideas’ which are designed to stimulate their imaginations and inspire them to write. This term, we are working to develop more detailed picture plans to assist with adding detail to each piece we draft. We will also explore a variety of different text types as well as investigate new vocabulary and spelling strategies. Of course, students will also have daily opportunities to engage in Independent Writing. We are looking forward to celebrating the wonderful writing that will be produced throughout the term!

Maths

For Mathematics in Term Two, students will continue to recognise, model, represent and order numbers up to 1000. Students will explore the connection between addition and subtraction. They will solve simple addition and subtraction problems using a range of efficient mental and written strategies. They will tell time to the quarter-hour, using the language of 'past' and 'to', as well as use a calendar to identify the date and determine the number of days in each month. They will also learn to count and order small collections of Australian coins and notes according to their value. Students will count collections of coins or notes to make up a particular value, such as that shown on a price tag.

Inquiry and Science

This term’s Inquiry unit is called ‘Then and Now’. In order to develop their knowledge and understanding of how ‘family life’ has changed over the years, students will be comparing the past to the present. They will explore how changing social norms, technology and exposure to other cultures has influenced their everyday lives. Students will be exploring the history of Lara and its surrounding areas, and reflecting on why these histories are important to our identity. Students will also be given the opportunity to explore their personal and family histories with a focus on family structures and how these may have changed, or remained the same over time. This term we will be investigating the Physical Science involved with the Push and Pull forces. Students will complete hands-on investigations to test predictions and record observations.

Each year level team has provided their families with a detailed newsletter such as this. If you are interested in reading about all the exciting things happening across the rest of the school, these can be accessed online at our school website from early next week.