Term Two News

ENGLISH

Looking closely at narrative texts continues to be a focus throughout our reading and writing programme until week six. We will then focus on persuasive texts for the remainder of the term. Parents can support these programmes by listening to their children read daily and by reading more difficult texts to their children. By reading to children, we are able to expose them to a higher level of vocabulary and experiences that they could not ordinarily access. Rich discussions about the text and the author’s intentions greatly add to a child’s ability to comprehend and then recreate high quality texts of their own.

At this point all “Talk” homework is being completed as part of the daily English programme. Year Two teachers are carefully supporting students to collaboratively develop a wider range of topic specific vocabulary and story ideas to ensure they are able to write an exciting narrative. Parents and carers are welcome to come in before or after school to read their child's writing.

Each week our English program focuses on reading and comprehension strategies, phonics (spelling) and grammar and punctuation. We also ensure the students have opportunities to speak and listen to others with a common topic. The Super Science Challenge coming up later this term will also be an opportunity for teachers to assess each child's speaking and listening skills. Information on this will be sent home.

The students practiced using similes by writing a poem about themselves.

 

MATHS

This term we have conducted surveys, created graphs and discussed and interpreted the information these reveal. Exploring 2 and 3D shapes is our current topic and the students are being challenged to describe their features and draw 3D shapes! 

 


















Fractions and solving word problems will be the next topics for us to cover. Parents can assist by using the CUBES problem solving method to guide their children to solve the Word Problem Wednesday tasks sent home each week. One issue has been that the students are not showing the steps they have taken to solve the problem. It has been hinted that parents are doing the homework by just providing the answer! I tell the students each week, that it is the steps that I am looking to see, not so much having the correct answer.

HASS

This term we are continuing to learn about landmarks in and around Perth. This week we will be attending an excursion to the Perth Mint and The Bell Tower. Students have completed an, “I wonder…” activity in anticipation of the event. Please ask your child to share their wonderings with you. This is a great activity to activate your child’s natural curiosity about the world.

SCIENCE

This term we will be focusing on life cycles of plants and small animals. We have created a bean plant experiment which is delivering some unexpected results so far!  

We are also lucky enough to have a parent at the school, Lucy, who is an entomologist who will be visiting us on Wednesday to share her expertise with insects, especially leaf insects. We are looking forward to her visit. Thank you to Renee for facilitating this experience.

Students designed an experiment to investigate the effect of sunlight on the growth of a bean plant.

These are our fascinating mealworms. We are observing how they grow and change.

The Super Science Challenge is planned for week six and all classes from Years 1-6 will be involved. We are very keen to take part in this again and will be sending out notes soon with further details.

Health

In preparation for last week’s assembly, we have been learning how to ‘bounce back’ when things go wrong. Resilience is the school’s focus value for this term. Hopefully students are beginning to use some of their learning and not let small things turn into mountains! Allowing students to own their mistakes is a big part of developing resilience.

Later this term, the Life Education Van will visit Wattle Grove Primary School. Notes will be sent home later this term with further information.

technology and design

Hopefully all our lovely Mum’s and Nan's enjoyed their cards which were individually created following the design process. Following this week’s excursion we are hoping to create a one-off coin design reflecting our learning from the excursion. I envisage lots of tin foil!