Week 4 Happenings!

Mother's Day Stall on Friday

Monday
Year 2 Running Club

Tuesday
Art & Italian (2JB)
Italian & PE (2AK)
PE & Art (2SK)

Thursday
Art/Italian/PE
Music with Deb
Library

Friday
Mother's Day's Stall (Children can bring money to buy gifts) 
3pm Assembly

Home Learning: Reading Journal

Our current focuses in reading are:

• Discuss texts giving reasons for my likes or dislikes
• Tell when authors are trying to make me think about something his or her way

Children can reflect in their Reading Journals after reading at home in the following ways to support our focus at school: 

- Write a review about the book
- Describe a character from the book and write what you like and/or dislike about that character
- Write what you think the 'moral' of the story is
- Record the main ideas of the story/book
- Write a letter to author discussing your thoughts about the book
- Write what you would change if you rewrote the book

Maths Home Learning

Hi Everyone,

Alongside explicit place value targets, the children are experiencing a series of workshops on the following mathematical concepts:

• Addition and Subtraction: part-part-whole and the connection between addition and subtraction
• Equal Groups: Exploring additive strategies and moving to multiplicative strategies
• Money: equivalence, giving change, identifying Australian notes and coins

A central theme occurring alongside the study of these concepts and strategies is interpreting and solving worded problems, especially ones where different parts of the problem are missing. The children are being encouraged to write their own worded problems during learning agreement for other children to solve. You could help your child write and solve worded problems at home.

The steps to solve these problems are:

1. Read the story
2. Identify what information you have and what information is missing: Is one of the parts missing or are you trying to find the whole?
3. Solve the problem and write a number sentence.

Here are some examples:

Addition and Subtraction:
1. I ate 17 carrot sticks at lunchtime and 10 more at recess. How many biscuits did I eat today?
2. I ate 27 carrot sticks today. I ate 10 at recess, how many did I eat at lunchtime?

Equal Groups: 
1. I have 4 lolly bags, each bag has 6 lollies in it. How many lollies do I have altogether? (finding out the total)
2. I have 24 lollies altogether. They are in bags and there are 6 lollies in each bag. How many bags of lollies do I have? (finding out how many groups there are)
3. I have 24 lollies altogether and they are in 4 equal groups. How many lollies are in each bag? (finding out how many in each group)
4. There are 24 lollies altogether. They are in bags with the same amount of lollies in each bag. Show the different ways they could be packaged in bags. (finding out how many different solutions of equal groups are possible with an answer of 24)

Children need to focus on drawing an accurate picture to show the problem, or modelling it with materials, especially for the equal groups problems. The children must then clearly show what counting strategy they are using. Children will move from counting by ones, to skip counting by 2s and then by higher numbers, and then moving to more efficient strategies like doubling, until they finally begin to learn the area model of multiplication and can draw arrays (equal rows) and can use known multiplication facts to solve problems.

Here is an online resource that they children will be introduced to shortly that shows how to model and solve part-part-whole problems.

http://www.mathplayground.com/thinkingblocks.html


Please speak to Simone if you have any questions about supporting your child with number stories at home.

Thanks!

Week 3 Happenings!

Circus Performance this week!

Note: Specialists timetable has changed for this week only due to circus rehearsals. 

Monday

First rehearsals

Tuesday

2S second rehearsal

Evening: 

6:30pm: 2S children to arrive at school for the Circus performance

7 - 8:30pm: Show A

Wednesday

2A & 2J second rehearsal 

Evening:

6:30pm: 2A & 2J children to arrive at school for the Circus performance

7 - 8:30pm: Show B

Thursday

PE/Italian/Art - All groups

The Anzac Spirit

Hi everyone,

This week we have been discussing The Anzac Spirit and how ANZAC soldiers showed certain characteristics during the war and if we still think these values are important in our lives today.

We have discussed:

• Sacrifice
• Courage
• Bravery
• Mateship
• Determination
• Endurance

We are reading Simpson and his Donkey to further explore these values. 

Today Zahra shared a very moving postcard that her great grandfather sent back home to his family when he was at war, and told us the very personal story of how he died just after he had sent the postcard. 

Personal stories and connections are very powerful and so we encourage you to discuss any family stories relating to war and history so that they may share these this week as we commemorate the ANZACS and all army personnel who have supported Australia in this way.

Thank you!

Reading Journal

Year 2 is well and truly back into the swing with their learning, and there is an exciting and busy buzz apparent in the Neighbourhood!

We thought it might be timely to remind everyone about our Home Reading Journals.

We do understand that many children are busy with extra-curricula activities, however we would greatly appreciate it if parents would encourage children to:

• Read every night.
• Log reading in the back of their journal.
• Do a reflection at least once a week. (Check ideas in the back of your child's journal.)

We will be checking the Reading Journals weekly, every Tuesday.

Thanks very much for your support with this.

Happy Reading!

The Year 2 Team. 

Parent Helpers this Friday

This Friday we are hoping to bake ANZAC biscuits during Learning Agreement in the Afternoon from 12pm- 2pm. For this to happen we are looking 4 - 6 parent helpers to assist with the mixing, cooking on the stove and baking. If you would like to help, please speak to Jessica. 

Action Required: Biscuit Tins Needed

Deb has asked for approximately 15 biscuit tins for the circus performance in week 3 (next week). If you have any biscuit tins at home and wouldn't mind them being used as a musical instrument could you please bring it in to the Neighbourhood. Thank you!

Term 2: Week 2

Tuesday
Art & Italian (2JB)
Italian & PE (2AK)
PE & Art (2SK)
Circus

Thursday
Art/Italian/PE
Music with Deb
Library

Friday
3pm Assembly