The year 2 neighbourhood has been amazingly busy over the last few weeks! We jumped straight back into the term with our Inquiry taking the focus to the future- “What do we need to do now to make positive changes in the future?”. The students have been working hard to begin to develop general understandings about what problems we face in the world today and how we can go about making actions that have a positive effect on our neighbourhood and wider community. Look out on the blog for an in-depth post about our investigations. Below is a quick rundown of what has been taking place in the neighbourhood for the last few weeks:
Writing
We have delved deeper into writing persuasive texts, looking at their structure and language and how we can elicit responses from people. Our two focus questions have been ” Should plastic bags be banned” and “Should we plant more trees?“. Students have been attending targets and workshops that show persuasive texts modelled for them and encouraged to edit their work to show more detail. Dictionaries and word mats are being utilised to aid students in developing their spelling skills. Encouraging them to use these tools to help edit their work. Students have been given a chance to practice their persuasive writing skills through our lucky dip jar – where a variety of sentence starters have been put in and students draw one out and attempt to develop a strong argument for or against something – for example, “Students should not play video games” or “Children should cook for their parents!”.
Students are encouraged to write as much as possible, aiming to complete three independent pieces of writing a week during project and provocation time! This may include play scripts, songs, reflections, narrative stories, maths rules for a game or letters to people. Teachers conference with students regularly, providing positive feedback about their writing and tips on how to improve their work.
Word Mats
Attached is one of the various word mats we use to aid students in their writing, spelling and editing. Encouraging students to have the mat next to the when they are writing! Click on the mat to download the PDF
Maths
We have had a focus on fractions since the beginning of term. Students have been asked to recognise the whole and equal parts of objects and their names; to make, name and represent fractions including 1/2, 1/4, 1/3, 1/5 and their multiples to a complete whole; and to locate fractions on a number line. Students have been attending targets and workshops to help their develop their skills and understanding and then encouraged to work on their fluency out in the neighbourhood during project and provocation time. We have also been looking at data and statistics through our inquiry – making environmental comparisons between countries.
Guided Reading
Students participate in one guided reading session a week, where there is an at-need focus. Students work in a variety of ways, including literature circles for independence and comprehension; readers theatre for word solving and fluency; and narrative text to begin to make text connections.
Stay tuned for more information about our engaging Inquiry…….