Term 1 - Week 9

 Good afternoon parents and welcome to Week 9 - the final week of Term 1 😁🤗😏

Crazy how much time flies when you are having fun. We have had such a wonderful term settling in to life in Year Two and learning new and exciting things. 

Just a few messages for the upcoming fortnight...

Homework

On Monday, we will be sending home the Year Two fluency grid with this fortnights focus sounds and tricky words. Have a look at our blog post titled 'Week 4 Information' which shows you how you can use this at home to increase your child's reading fluency. We have also included all of the spelling lists for your information on the back of the fluency grid. The pink list 💓 is the target for Year Two from our InitiaLit program. Please feel free to use these lists at home to increase your child's spelling abilities.

Have a look at our Fluency grids and spelling lists below to see our focus sounds 🤓

Learning Intentions

English: 

This fortnight we are learning the spelling sounds 'tch' as in match and the prefix 'un' as in 'unfair' and the tricky words for this fortnight are - people, laugh, every, know.

Please have a look at the rule for using 'tch' below:

A few parents have asked what they can be doing with the spelling words which are located on the back of the children's fluency grids. Have a look below at some of the activities we complete in class and would be beneficial if you would like to complete at home:

We are continuing to focus on the text genre of narrative and have now begun focusing on our mentor text titled 'The Magical Object'. Over the next week and into Term 2, we will be looking at the structure of a narrative, completing a text reconstruction, a cloze and a brainstorm.  The brainstorm will be discussed and referred to when we are in the innovating stage. All of these activities will prepare the children in the lead up to innovating the mentor text to create their own version of 'The Magical Object' in Term 2.

Maths: 

We will be concluding our unit of skip counting this week and identifying what the rule is. In Year Two, the children are expected to skip count in 2's, 5's, 10's and 3's from any given number. The children have enjoyed making their skip counting patterns using pop sticks during our math rotations. Have a look at how we break down skip counting in the activities below...

By the end of Year Two, the children must be able to:

• - Describe a pattern created by skip counting and represent the pattern on a number line.
• - Investigate features of number patterns resulting from adding twos, fives or 10s

Stay tuned for later in the term we will be exploring the concept of length 📏

Friendology

In class, the children have been working through the Friendology lessons. We have loved learning about the 4 friendship facts, How to rate our friendships of the Friend-o-metre and how we can put out a friendship fire using the Friend-o-cycle.

We learnt that a friendship fire is a misunderstanding or disagreement between friends. We explained that, “Sometimes you both feel the Fire – you’re both in the red-zone. But, sometimes only one person feels the Fire. In some instances, maybe you’re still in the green-zone while your friend is definitely in the red-zone!”

When we are putting out a friendship fire, our body language is very important. If we are laughing or explaining how we feel with our hands on our hips with an angry face, this will only make the friendship fire bigger. We went through the steps and spoke about the importance of only speaking to some one one on one. 

We explored time that if it’s a small Fire, they might simply apologise and forgive each other. We said to the students that when someone apologizes, they don’t have to say, “That’s okay! or, “I forgive you!” Sometimes it’s not okay and sometimes they don’t forgive their friend. 

We have encouraged them to thank their friend for apologizing, but stay in the Talk-it-Out zone until the Fire is out. For instance, they say, “Thanks for apologising, but that really hurt my feelings! How about next time we…” Making a deal is another option. For example, “Okay, from now on, let’s not play that game anymore because we always end up in a Friendship Fire! Deal?”

 

Before our next Friendology session this week, we have asked all the children to practice putting out a friendship fire using one of their fuzzy toys as their 'friend' and teach their parents how to put one out too. 

Extended Leave
Please note that if you are planning on starting your holidays earlier, can you please make sure that you fill in an extended leave form, these are available from the office.

Important Dates

Thursday 28th March - Last Day of Term 1 

Friday 29th March - Good Friday

Sunday 31st March - Easter Sunday

Have a lovely week ahead!

Miss Matthews