13 Sep 2019

Yr2 Curriculum Update – 13/09/19

Working together to achieve success for every child

Greetings! – It’s our 2nd edition!

We write a regular newsletter keeping you up-to-date and informed about your child’s learning. This will provide you with a good understanding of happenings in Year 2 and how you can support these learning experiences.

Let’s Inquire – Where We Are in Place & Time/How We Organise Ourselves

This week, the students continued their learning journeys, inquiring into the central idea, ‘People design shared spaces and systems to strengthen communities.’

Transdisciplinary Learning – It’s all connected!

Personal inquiry time has provided students with plentiful learning opportunities to question, explore and reflect upon the design process and how it works, supporting their curiosity as they learn about different systems around KJS. From planning a new classroom design to creating alternative playground equipment pieces for the KJS learning community, collaborative-play based activities have served as the medium through which students have developed their critical thinking skills and inquired into the different stages of the design cycle.

Within language, students are starting to write informally about their own ideas, experiences and feelings connected to forces, using simple repetitive sentence structures (e.g. I like, I can, etc) and topic-specific vocabulary to create meaning. Parallel to this, digital literacy (e.g. IPADs & interactive whiteboards) continues to support the development of students’ phonological awareness and reading skills daily, through rhyme and song. Meanwhile in Maths, a diverse range of problem solving tasks centred around place value are promoting greater creativity, conceptual understanding and imaginative approaches to students learning. Subsequently, students are now starting to recognise, model, read, write and order numbers up to three-digit numbers in sequence and apply place value to partition.

Sustainable learning practices

Learning opportunities have provided students with a deeper awareness of how their choices can positively or negatively impact the Earth. Consequently, students are accepting responsibility with regards to the 6Rs (i.e. reduce, reuse, recycle, refuse, repair & rot) through initiatives like composting and recycling, attempting to end plastic pollution at KJS.

 

Learning Buddies

For the academic year 2019/20, each Year 2 class will be paired and meet up regularly with their Year 4 buddy class. Working collaboratively, students will develop their skills and understanding across a range of different curriculum areas. Learning Buddies will provide opportunities for the students to foster friendships in different year levels, encouraging a greater sense of community. Stay tuned for further information!

 

Intrinsic Motivation in Year 2

The most powerful and long-term process to support success in each child is to enable them to love learning and be intrinsically to be the best they can be. How you can help at home to support your child’s wellbeing and develop intrinsic motivation?

 

Suggestions for supporting learning at home

  • Praise and give feedback on your child’s effort and take time to look at what they have shown you. Rather than saying “Great reading, what a clever boy!” Try “ Great effort, I noticed how you used expression / re read words/ used the punctuation” (The “What to praise” section is helpful reading here)
  • Rather than, “I love your picture, it is beautiful, you are so talented!” try, “I can see how you used your colour there / tell me about your picture / I can see how you have focused on detail”
  • Rather than stickers and rewards at home for expected behaviours just expect the behaviour and look for alternative connections! We should not reward children for doing the expected.
  • Talk with your child sharing experiences of what motivates you in your job or why you do what you do as a parent (you certainly don’t get paid for it, nor do you get stickers or certificates!)
  • Encourage your child that learning from mistakes grows their brain, try things that are hard and celebrate mistake making as a learning opportunity.

Monday 30th September

Staff Continuous Professional Development Day (no school for students)   

Tuesday 1st October

National Day (no school for students) 

Monday 7th October – Friday 11th October

Mid-term break (no school for students) 

Friday 18th October

Year 2 Assembly (further details to follow shortly)

We hope that the pictures we add to our curriculum update each week will help you to make connections to the information shared above and to give you an insight into our week in Year 2        

Collaborative play-based activities have served as the medium through which students have developed their critical and creative thinking skills and inquired into the different stages of the design cycle.

 

Please remember if you have questions or concerns, contact your child’s teacher. We welcome feedback and look forward to working with you to achieve success for every child.

Kindest regards,

The Year 2 Team