Year 2 News

By Team Leader 2009: Sarah Pasalskyj

Return to the previous page to click on the useful web sites for this year level

Term 3 is off to a busy start! Thank you for your attendance and participation in our recent Parent-Teacher interviews. This term we have swimming lessons for some students on Fridays and the full range of specialist classes.

Our topic for this term is Shopping and Packaging which involves students learning about goods and services, how shopping has changed over time and different materials used in packaging. We are planning a number of excursions so students experience shopping in real life contexts and gain understandings. In a few weeks, we will be walking to Wellington Village shops and undertaking a mapping activity.  

Our focus for Reading is to continue improving fluency when reading, focussing on different punctuation and developing comprehension strategies. There will be continued explicit instruction on predicting texts, developing strategies for decoding tricky words and visualising parts of texts. Term 3 reading will also focus on questioning before, during and after reading both fiction and non fiction texts. We encourage the students to continue changing their take home readers and borrowing from the library regularly.

Our focus for writing is to continue developing structure (beginning, middle and end) in narrative pieces and increase description. We are also focussing on developing editing strategies to improve our pieces, for example different story starts. Students are expected to spell many common words accurately at this stage of the year. Punctuation, specifically full stops and capital letters will also be emphasised. Handwriting is regularly being taught with an emphasis on correct starting points and uniform size and shape of letters.

This semester the students will have opportunities to extend their oral communication skills through short oral presentations and Reader’s Theatre.

In Maths, our focus is to continue developing counting patterns, place value knowledge and mental arithmetic strategies. Money and problem solving skills will also be taught. Your child will be introduced to some times tables this semester. Please continue to help your child by allowing time for them to regularly practise number facts and counting patterns.  

Thank you to the parents who are helping in our classrooms. We do appreciate your assistance. Please contact your classroom teacher if you have any questions or concerns.

Sarah Pasalskyj and the Grade 2 team.