YEAR 2
INFORMATION EVENING
2014
2D Mrs Susan Maher
2R Mrs Janeane Millar
Curriculum
English – Reading
English – Writing
Mathematics
Integrated Studies
Skills for Life
Specialists
Handbook
• Overview of the curriculum
• Supported with newsletter detailing
content at beginning of each term
• Please read so you are familiar with
the Year 2 learning occurring in 2014
Communication
Please feel free to contact us with concerns
Telephone reception and leaving a message for us to call you back
Email
millarj@lowtherhall.vic.edu.au
mahers@lowtherhall.vic.edu.au
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Absence notes in envelope to reception or written in planner
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Special dates are in the planner and Bulletin
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Learning Conference dates are:
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Monday 10 February from 4.00pm to 8.00pm
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Wednesday 12 February from 4.00pm to 8.00pm
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These Learning Conferences are arranged to discuss learning goals
for 2014. Parents are asked to reflect upon the questions on the
page included.
Housekeeping
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Birthdays – cupcakes only with ingredients listed
They are given out at the end of the day
Uniform – check policy is in handbook and planner
Signs around school detailing uniform
Please check blue hat is at school every day
Daily Routine
Doors open at 8:30. Traffic considerations and
arrangements
Program begins at 8:40
3:10 dismissal - collected at the blue rubber area.
Students left at 3:45 will be taken to After Care
Please check your daughter is aware of where she
needs to go – via planner
If there is a change, contact Junior School reception
(not email to teacher as we cannot guarantee this
will be read)
Planner
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Like a diary or organiser
New in Year 2 to introduce time management skills in
preparation for middle and upper primary
Also a method of home/school communication as alternative to
email
Needs parental support to be a successful learning tool.
Sighted and signed daily by parent and teacher
Please fill in after school commitments and home reading with
your daughter
Please encourage routine of placing in bag with home book
(maybe use blue satchel)
Comes to school and goes home every day
School tasks will be written in classroom as necessary
How You Can Support Your
Daughter’s Learning
Sleep. Students of primary school age
require 10 – 11 hours of sleep.
Morning routine and being to school on time by 8:40 so your
daughter settles into learning
Healthy eating
Afternoon Home Routine: Encourage your daughter to unpack bag,
check planner, snack, homework.
A manageable amount of outside school activities
relaxation
Support homework - have a working space that is quiet,
uninterrupted, monitoring the use of electronic devices (such as
iPod, iPad, TV, NintendoDS)
Homework
Supports the students in time
management skills.
Consolidates skills in curriculum areas
Enables parents to experience current topics
Year 2 - 20 min per night.
Homework Scrapbook
If homework hasn’t been finished, a note in the
planner is fine
Homework is given weekly (Friday to Thursday)
enabling family flexibility and teacher correction time
(Private Music Practice is an extra commitment)
Homework
Home Reading 15-minutes or more depending on
endurance. Parents are asked to sign the planner of pages
read
Books selected are easy for fluency, accuracy and
comprehension practice. Enjoyment is key
Home reading is still an integral part of reading improvement.
Reading every day
Please sign planner
Spelling and Numeracy
Mathletics – sign in will be pasted in planner.
Oral Language
Weebly
Contains resources for learning
May detail events
Communication
Home practise and access at home
Students go through Weebly to complete learning activities
http://year2.lowtherhall.vic.edu.au/
Fox022014
Password to be sent home in planner
Internet agreement signed by students
Encourage sensible blogging that is pertaining to learning
Specialists & Timetable
• PE John Lyall Sports uniform on Wednesday
and Friday
• Art Pam Wood Tuesday
• PRS Simone Saunders & Pam Wood –
Mon/Wed
• Music – Anna Miller & Jo Carroll Mon/Thurs
• Library – Robyn Hirst Tuesday
Music
• Welcome to music in Year 2! This year, girls will continue to
develop the skills they worked on in Year 1. Singing
remains a strong focus, with theoretical concepts also being
introduced in an accessible and age-appropriate manner.
Students will also begin to develop their own ideas for
composition. They will have the chance to listen to a range
of music, past to present, and practice evaluating some of
the features of this music.
• Year 2 girls also take part in the weekly Songbirds singing
session, where choral skills and techniques are focused on
and developed.
• Term 1 begins with a range of singing games such as Baby
Shark and The Postman.
Art
• Welcome to Art in our portable classroom!
• In our new environment we will have an awesome opportunity to use new
skills and techniques to create amazing artworks. We will take advantage
of being on the ground level to utilize the outdoor spaces.
• Semester 1
• Drawing and painting skills
• Exploring and responding to Van Gogh’s artwork
• Printmaking
• Arts language and terms
• Textiles
• Semester 2
• Sculpture
• Indigenous art studies
• Designing ideas through to creating and making
Junior LRC
Student learning is supported by tools & resources for digital, visual & information literacy
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Literacy Strategies:
– Prediction, Visualising, Questioning, Summarising, Thinking
– Choosing a book that’s right for me?
– Finding information in a non-fiction book?
– Making text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world connections?
– Examining, responding to & creating literature
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Digital Citizenship:
– Appropriate & responsible use of equipment
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Library Classes are Tuesday
– Please have a named Library Bag
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Opening Hours:
– Before school : must be supervised by their parent.
– Lunchtime: Tuesday - Friday
– After school: Years 3-6 students only
PE
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Week 1-7
*Organisational games and activities
*Large ball skills: Tunnel Ball/ Cross Ball
*Small ball skills: Catch, Fielding and Throw,
Modified game rounders
• *Athletics Day preparation: Running, Relays,
Throw, Jump
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• Week 7-9
• Large ball: Soccer type skill, modified game
PRS
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During PRS this year we hope to help the girls to make connections between their new learning and
their own personal experiences. The girls will be encouraged to reflect about God, themselves and
the world by responding to their wonderings, feelings and ideas through prayer and a variety of
other media. To support us in our endeavour please share your daughter’s faith journey by talking
with her, answering her questions and by providing her with opportunities to experiment with her
learning at home.
During the year the girls will look at four areas of faith development:
Talking to God; Listening to God
There are many ways to communicate with God. In prayer and worship we gather, listen and
respond to God’s word. Prayer involves rituals, symbols, celebrations and silence.
Living God’s Way with Family and Friends
Jesus told us many stories to help us live how God would want us to. With the help of the Holy
Spirit, the messages sent to us by God live in the lives of all Christians today.
God made us all different; but we all belong to the Church
The Church is a caring and welcoming community that gathers to celebrate their relationship with
God. The Church is made up of different people who all share a special relationship with God and
each other.
Awaiting the Arrival
Advent is a season observed by the Christian Church as a time of waiting and preparation for the
celebrations of the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas.
English
Whole class
Part Small teaching group and independent work
Whole class – reflection
Groups are fluid and change depending on needs and
strategies
Designed to meet the needs of students
Our aim is to promote readers who have
comprehension, accuracy and fluency as appropriate
for age.
IPICK - think about: what’s your purpose, are you
interested, do you understand and know most of the
words?
Reading
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Whole class
Part Small teaching group and independent work
Whole class – reflection
Groups are fluid and change depending on needs and
strategies
• Designed to meet the needs of students
• Our aim is to promote readers who have
comprehension, accuracy and fluency as appropriate
for age.
• IPICK - think about: what’s your purpose, are you
interested, do you understand and know most of the
words?
Writing
• Introducing and consolidating range of writing
genre throughout the year
• Need to think about the purpose and
audience for writing
• What we want to learn about:
• organisation and structure
• ideas and planning
• sentence fluency, rhythm, variety
• word choice, vocabulary
• conventions, spelling, punctuation
Spelling
• Explicit teaching of strategies
to help students spell unknown words
• Usually a weekly focus
• Spelling words sourced from visual, sound or
meaning pattern, also personal errors and
integrated topic words
• Spelling also forms part of the girls weekly
homework tasks
• High frequency words are particularly vital.
These will be revised through the year.
Mathematics
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Whole class
Small teaching group and independent work
Whole class – reflection
Groups are fluid and change depending on needs and
strategies
Designed to meet the needs of students, based on
assessment
Girls grasp concepts when they use them regularly and when
they are practised in context
‘real life’ approach preparing children for real life situations
Content – Number & algebra, Statistics and Probability,
Measurement and Shape
Proficiencies – Problem solving, understanding, reasoning
and fluency
Supporting Your Daughter in
Mathematics
• involving your daughter in real experiences -buying, supermarket
comparisons, discounts, using money, planning for a party,
measuring, reading scales, calendars, weighing, cooking,
calculating mentally – look for opportunities
• Encouraging reading analogue time - needs constant reinforcing.
An analogue watch is a useful device. Digital too. ¼ past and to.
• Practical money skills - counting, giving change
• Play board games, puzzles – monopoly, Sudoku, chess etc… also
good for learning skills of winning or losing gracefully, persistence
• Mental Fluency – memorising number facts, addition, subtraction
• Skip Counting, repeated addition basis for X tables later (2, 3, 5 and
10 )
• Encouraging persistence, stamina, flexibility, use of strategies
independently when challenged
Integrated Studies
• New topic each term
• Incorporates Australian Curriculum areas of
Science, Health and History.
• Four topics are…
• Fuel Our Minds, Fuel Our Bodies – health
• What’s the Matter- Chemical Science
• Physical Science – Light/Sound
• History of Lowther Hall