Week 5 Happenings!

School photos this week!

3th, 4th, 5th & 6th March

Monday

Special Guest Speaker: Kate

Tuesday
Circus
Special Guest Speaker: Ben
Art & Italian (2J)
PE & Art (2S)
Italian & PE (2A)
Sharing of Reading Journal with the teachers

Thursday
Singing with Deb
Art (2A)
Italian (2S)
PE (2J)
Library Visit

Friday
3pm  Assembly 

Music with Deb

We are very lucky to have Deb working with us for an hour each Thursday. Deb was inspired by our Wonderings Wall last week and went looking for a song about wonder. She found a brilliant song called "I Wonder Why" Click on the link below to hear the song and see the cool animation that goes with it. The children are very excited to learn the song. 

I Wonder Why. Stanley and the dinosaurs

Week 4 Happenings!

Please note: Year 2 are hosting the assembly this week!

Tuesday
Circus
Art & Italian (2J)
PE & Art (2S)
Italian & PE (2A)

Thursday
Singing with Deb
Art (2A)
Italian (2S)
PE (2J)


Friday
3pm  Assembly (Year 2 Hosting) 

Learning in the Year 2 Neighbourhood

Following our initial focus on Holiday Seeds and Wonderings, we’ve continued to explore our natural curiosity about the world, and how we make sense of it. We’ve viewed lots of fabulous student seeds and now have a Wonderings Wall, which has absolutely exploded this week! 

The year 2 students have had questions about so many different concepts, including: gravity, the body and a range of inventions. We’ve even had some very philosophical pondering. 

Inspired by the Wonder Walk, some students were motivated to write newspaper articles, prompting us to explore different parts of a newspaper. We’ve discussed noteworthy ‘news’ in the eyes of year 2 and also observed how people are drawn to different sections of the newspaper. We’ve started broadening our ideas about the media, and the variety of platforms that are utilised to share information, feelings, opinions and ideas. A big thank you to parents who have shared their news preferences, along with other mediums they utilise to source information. 

Moving forward, we hope to strengthen our understanding of:

• The kind of experiences and objects that make us wonder.
• The strategies we can use to explore our wonderings. 
• Different things we may feel inspired to do with new information/understandings. 

We hope you enjoy discussing the children’s Wonderings with them at home and trust that you’ll join us in encouraging them to investigate and explore their questions in fun and creative ways.

Circus Science

Week Two Circus!

Another fabulous time was had by all at our second circus workshop. As we learnt how to use the Devil Sticks and the fabric juggling, we noticed the children making some very interesting scientific observations.

As some children practised juggling with pieces of gauze fabric, the observation was made that if the fabric unravels in the air, it forms a sort of parachute and floats more slowly to the ground. This was compared to the faster speed that it fell if it stayed in a tighter bunch. Luis mentioned that this may have something to do with surface area catching the air.

At the Devil Stick station, we saw that the devil sticks (which are weighted on both ends) were easier to balance on one finger than the normal sticks that you hold. This got us thinking about equal spread of weight and balance.

We will be conducting some circus science experiments over the next few weeks to further investigate these phenomena.

If any parents or carers have further insight into the science behind daily life or have resources or time to volunteer to show us an experiment, please see one of the neighbourhood teachers.

Thanks!!

Learning Agreement Week 3

The children have been busy exploring the many learning experiences that have been offered this week in Learning Agreement. Our focus this week was looking at how newspapers can be used to share information and evoke further wonderings. 

In the Learning Commons the children have been writing articles for our Year 2 Newspaper and creating artworks in the Art Studio to compliment the writing. On Wednesday the children were excited to prove Anna wrong by finding many forms of maths in the Newspaper. The Kapla block challenge in the construction area has been very popular and the constructions created with a set number of blocks have been very impressive. The children have also been exploring how to interpret the weather section of a newspaper and why meteorology is important. Children have also been developing their research and interview skills which are essential to good reporting.

Reading Journal (aka Reader's and Writer's notebook)

Hi everyone,

Your child should now be bringing their Reading Journal home each night (last year we called this the Reader's and Writer's notebook) in their clear plastic zip folder.
Children can return and borrow new books from:

•  The junior library from 8.45am or after school from 3.30-3.45pm or 
• The main library in the mornings Tuesday-Friday.

We understand that some children have books from home or from community libraries that they read in the evenings and so may not borrow from school as regularly.

Your child will also have a visit to the library on Thursdays, and at times children can go across during our morning Learning Agreement when Leigh is managing the library.

In order to track what the children are reading, we ask that parents and carers support their child to fill in their reading log which is glued into the back of their journal. They can rule up their own reading log when the original is complete. Please tick whether the book was read to the child, with the child, or by the child.

The reading journal is a place for the children to reflect on what they are reading 2-3 times per week. There are many ways they can do this and they are welcome to be creative in their response. For example:

·

•  ·       Write a prediction before you read the book and reflect on it afterwards.
• ·       Write down any wonderings you have after you read.
• ·       Write about the characters in your book.
• ·       Draw the characters.
• ·       Choose your favourite part of the book and create a cartoon/comic about it.
• ·       Pretend you’re talking to one of the characters and write some questions you want to ask the character.
• ·       Write some new words you learnt from the book.
• ·       Make up your own story or a new ending for the book you read.
• ·       Write a review/recommendation about the book.
• ·       Make an entry related to our Inquiry or your own experiences (recount, map, diagram etc.)
• Record any other form of home learning that you have done

Teachers will be collecting their home group's Reading Journals on Tuesdays to check that students are recording their reading and reflecting a few times per week. 

Thank you for supporting your child with their home learning.

Wonderings!

The Year 2 Neighbourhood has started the year by ‘wondering’ about the world. The wonderings began with the children bringing in an item, photo or memory from their holiday to share. This week we started our "Wondering Wall".  Noah K was the first to record his wondering about how birds fly and this inspired other children to record and share their wonderings. Please take the time to look at the wall and if you like, add your own wondering to our wall.  

Week 3 Happenings!

Tuesday
Circus
Art & Italian (2J)
PE & Art (2S)
Italian & PE (2A)

Thursday
Art (2A)
Italian (2S)
PE (2J)

Friday
3pm Assembly & Coffee Cart

Our First Circus Experience

On Tuesday the Year 2 Neighbourhood met Sam our circus instructor for the first of ten circus experiences. In our 40 minute session we played with Hula-Hoops, Ribbons and Diabolos and Sam taught us a few tricks for each piece of equipment. Everyone had a fantastic time including the teachers, in particular Simone was very excited to learn how to hula-hoop.   

Our Wonder Walk

On Friday we walked around the school, recording what we saw, smelt, heard and felt and collected things from nature that we thought looked interesting. When we returned to the Neighbourhood we shared our findings and wonderings. We used photography, writing and drawing to document our findings. Some of our wonderings and findings have been displayed in the Neighbourhood, please come and have a look.