Welcome to Year 2 015

Class Teachers:

Mrs Jenny Somerville 2J

Mrs Di Gretton 2G

Mrs Kellie Holt 2H

Mrs Abby Quinlan 2G / 2H

Mrs Sarah Lewis 2S

Mrs Hayley Krause 2K

Ms Kathleen Paice 2/1P

Primary School Executive Team 2015

College Director

Julie Kornmann

Primary School Principal

Sue Esposito

sespo2@eq.edu.au

Deputy Principal

Year 2 & Year 3

Lisa Cutter

lcutt1@eq.edu.au

Overview

Homework/Ed Studio

Curriculum Overview for Year 2

Numeracy block / Literacy block

Creative and Critical Thinking

Reading and Writing - focus

Assessment and Reporting

How you can help at home?

Specialist lessons

Classroom Behaviour Expectations

Meridan Core Values and Communities

Important Reminders

Parent Help

Events in Year 2

Year 2 curriculum:English – written, spoken and visual literacies - narratives, descriptions, persuasive texts.

Maths - Focus areas – Number and place value, patterns and algebra, measurement, time/length, chance & data, money and location.

Science - Investigating forces and motion, life cycles, materials and their properties and saving planet earth.

Humanities - investigate the change in technology and inventions over time. Investigate our local area and significant landmarks. In Second semester students will embark on a virtual trip around Australia and then the world. They will then look at the role of a town planner in term 4.

The Arts - Drama, visual arts, media and dance.

Technology - Students use iPads to create a multimodal presentation about lifecycles. Students will design and create a carrier bag and use their knowledge of 2D shapes to create 3D models.

Health and PE - students explore healthy and safe practices and then look further at personal safety. Further units in Health and PE explore different cultures and their beliefs and celebrations.

Curriculum Overview

Numeracy Block

3 focus areas:

1. Place Value

2. Operations

3. Working Mathematically

Begins with Warm-up and then focussed activities based on year level knowledge, children’s ability and focus teaching.

Includes problem solving and investigations.

Can be whole class, mixed ability or ability based groups.

Focus around mental strategies.

This includes:

Literacy Block

Reading/Reading responses

Handwriting

Writing

Spelling

Speaking and Listening

Creative and Critical Thinking

Creative and Critical thinking are a priority of the college this year.

Creative and Critical thinking skills are practiced and explored in the classroom and they help develop problem solving skills. There is a Curiosity Centre in the room which has a range of activities to support these thinking skills. Questioning and justifying responses are a key focus across all curriculum areas and they can be a great starter to valuable conversations at home.

Creative and Critical Thinking

I have packed my bag for my holiday. I have a towel, flashlight and raincoat packed.

Where might I be going on holidays?

Why do you think that?

Reading groups are conducted each week with a focus on:

- Reading strategies- Comprehension

•Reading is incorporated in our day in a variety of ways including… -Guided reading -Modelled and shared reading -Independent reading -Reading staminaIt is not restricted to the subject of English, but is utilised in all areas of the curriculum.

Reading …

Exposure to a variety of text types.

Sentence structure with correct use of punctuation.

Grammar: nouns/participants, adjectives and verbs/processes.

Spelling: strategies to learn words, the automation of core words (Camera words),

specific spelling rules/patterns, Unit/Term words

Phonics: letter/sound & THRASS

Handwriting:

*Semester 1 - revisit all beginner’s alphabet

correct placement on handwriting lines

* Semester 2 - entries and exits

Writing

How you can help at home?

Teaching is a partnership between home and school.

Please see your classroom teacher if there is something you are unsure of or need further clarification about. We are more than happy to assist.

READING…

We can’t emphasise enough the importance of reading at home. There are always opportunities to read and to be read to even if it’s a menu at a restaurant or a street sign. As children become more accomplished readers their understanding of a text and its key concepts are important skills. As a parent you can ask your child to tell you about the story they have read or ask questions about the characters or the story line. Children in year 2 should be using several decoding strategies while reading– we should be moving away from just sounding out words as this is not always an efficient strategy.

What is it about?

What type of text is this?

Where have you seen a text like this?

How you can help at home …

Maths:

Maths in year 2 can look very different to when we were at school. Here are some tips to help your child when it comes to numeracy at home!

Mental strategies – There is a big focus on children being able to mentally recall simple number facts. This could be an activity on the way home from school where you ask your child some number facts and they call out the answer.

Horizontal number facts – We no longer write number facts vertically in the early years, but look at different strategies to solve facts horizontally.

Problem Solving – Students develop different strategies to solve mathematical problems. You may ask your child if they can solve it drawing a picture, using a number fact or using a diagram.

You can ask your child to explain their maths thinking

or justify their answer (how do you know that’s the

answer?).

How you can help at home …

Numeracy:

What’s in the box?

My box has 14 legs in it and 3 tails, can you tell me what animals might be in the box?

Literacy:

Word jumble (using spelling words)

How many words can you make using these letters:

D E N R G A I You can only use the letters once and words must be

three letters or more.

There is a challenge word that uses every letter!

Assessment and Reporting

English: Throughout year 2 children will complete various writing tasks: character descriptions, information reports, persuasive texts and narratives. Children’s reading skills including their understanding of text and their fluency is also a focus.

Maths: Various maths assessments are taken throughout each term. These include; a diagnostic test each term, end of semester tests and tasks specific to a maths concept.

Other learning areas - a collection of work for assessment purposes. For example science journals, a completed product or a project based assessment.

Formal reporting is conducted in Term 2 and Term 4. Parent-teacher interviews are undertaken in Term 1 and 3.

Supporting positive Behaviour

We promote positive behaviour choices across the college with:

The teaching of social skills (Circle time)

Developing and teaching our rules, core values and expectations

Star of the week awards

Principal awards given out at assembly.

We have in place a whole school Responsible Behaviour Plan that is built around the three values set out by the Department of Education – BE SAFE, BE RESPECTFUL and BE RESPONSIBLE.

To read our full responsible behaviour plan, see our school website https://meridansc.eq.edu.au

Behaviour in our classroom

The ‘Three Bs’ (Be Respectful, Be Safe, Be a Responsible Learner) These are displayed in the classroom and referred to regularly.

We have individual as well as whole class reward systems in place to positively reinforce and remind students of the correct behaviour.

If students make the choice to not follow our rules they are given a consequence to fit e.g. to complete uncompleted or refused work in their own play time. If a student’s behaviour becomes an issue affecting their learning or the learning of other students, parents will be contacted to discuss a plan of action.

Ongoing behaviour concerns will result in going to a buddy class or being referred to the Principal/Deputy Principal for support or possible reflection room.

HomeworkHome Reading:

Every Monday students will take home a reading folder with 2 books that should be at an ‘easy to read’ level for your child. Books should be EASY to read because home reading is ‘practice’ reading time not ‘teaching’ reading time.

We want to build success and enjoyment of reading, not frustration.

Reading books need to be returned each Friday.

Students should read every day!

Spelling: Spelling City in the Ed Studio will have a word list updated each week. Lists will be differentiated and students will be given instructions on which list to access.

There will also be Reading Eggs, Mathletics and Busy Things in the Year 2 Ed Studio available for students to use at home. Additional curriculum based links are also available, as well as a research centre for individual projects.

Login details will be supplied to each student to keep at home for easy access.

Your Child’s homework will include:

Meridan Core Values/Communities

Choice: We focus on this across the whole year as we want the students to regulate their own behaviour and choose to make the correct choices.

Courtesy: Term 1 Compassion: Term 2 Collaboration: Term 3 Courage: Term 4

These values are used to guide all of our learning and teaching.

There are 4 communities at Meridan

O’Neill Community Bradman Community Freeman Community Rafter Community

Important Reminders

Prior to 8.15am students wait with school bags near the office.

8.15am - Students will move to the undercover area until 8.35 when they will be released to classrooms.

Classrooms open at 8.35am

In afternoons please wait in undercover eating area until 2.45pm to minimise distractions in the classroom.

Please organise a suitable place to meet your child after school.

We often have after school meetings so late students will be sent to the office to wait until they are collected.

Special Events in Year 2

Term 1: Swimming lessons week 7 & 8

History "Looking Back in Time" 15/16 Feb

Term 2: Learning Celebration - Animal Expo

Term 4: Learning Celebration - Art Gallery

All information about these events will be sent out in due course through the year.