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AUSTRALIAN BOYS CHOIR

The Australian Boys Choir is visiting our school on Monday morning 5th March.

They will be screening Year 2 and Year 3 boys for their music potential. A couple of people from the Australian Boys Choir will come and work with the boys for 10 to 15 minutes.

The session comprises fun sequences songs that involve all children singing together, and then simple exercises to briefly assess pitch and rhythm. Letters of audition details are given to those boys who demonstrate some musical skill. [Parents will then need to follow up if they and their son are interested.].

Thank you letters are given to all the other boys to thank them for participating. If you do not wish your son to be involved, can you please let Gayle Lofhelm know by Monday 9.00am.

If you have any queries please contact Gayle at school. Thank you, Year Two Neighbourhood

Week 5 Book Talk

What a turn out!!

Thank you to all of the Parents, Aunties, Uncles, Grandparents who joined us this morning for Book Talk (9.10am-9.50am).

Here are some photographs of the entire Year Two Neighbourhood engaged in reading, discussing books, comprehending and making connections to our lives.

Shaping Up!

Exploring Geometry in Year 2?

Absolutely!
The children have begun examining the 2D and 3D shapes in the world around us.  Working out what the difference is between 2D and 3D is the first level of our current investigation.  The students had already begun to name the shapes in year 1, and are generally very confident with 2D shapes.  Now we introduce the concept of 'three dimensions' and to help them understand, I showed them a useful little animation that you can find in the Maths Dictionary link in the side bar, under 'Three Dimensions'. 
Simone is leading the students in discovering 2D and 3D shapes in the environmnent, recording and identifying them.  Kevin is building the vocabulary for describing shapes, such as 'face', 'side', 'corner', 'vertice' (soon!), and 'edge'.  The concepts of 'parallel lines'  and 'angles' is also important in this investigation and I am introducing those ideas as we sort and draw 2D and 3D shapes, building the appropriate vocabulary into the discussion as we go.
Here are some fantastic designs that were made today by Kit, Lucas, Harry, and Mabel.  Ask the budding mathematician in your family  what they observe about these designs!

           

 

 

 Enjoy exploring!  See you on Friday....Janette.

A Couple of Notices going home tonight

Hi everyone,

A few parents have requested that we write a post when there are notices going home so that you are  aware to hunt them down in the depths of the school bag.

Tonight we will be sending home a notice about the Intensive Swimming Program which will occur over 8 sessions (14/03, 15/3, 18/3, 19/3, 21/3, 22/3, 25/3, 26/3).

This will be conducted through Klim Swin Centre at Richmond Football Club as in previous years. Have a look at http://klimswim.com/home.html.

Please indicate via the form on the notice whether your child will be participating, an indicative cost (for the program, transport etc) is $100 for the 8 sessions.


The second notice going home is regarding the Neighbourhood Contact Lists that will be coordinated by Parent Reps. While the parent reps are still being organised, we are compiling a contact list that they will use in the future for the purpose of communication between families for neighbourhood related activities and friendships.

That is all for now, Happy Monday to you all :)

The Year Two team.

Music... from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.

As one aspect of our inquiry into  the meaning of 'culture', the children listened to a piece of music from Arnhem land that was recorded live in 1953.   We also looked at a map of Australia which showed the HUGE number of different language groups of Aboriginal and Torres Strait people spread across Australia.  We are going to explore the music from a number of different areas and groups of people, and consider what is similar and what is different about the music they create. We are beginning to ask questions about the music. This is the link to the music we listened to on Friday 4th February...
Djedbang-ari
The children thought about the sounds within the music, and I asked them to try and connect a colour, a symbol and an image to the sounds they could hear.  This is a great routine for capturing responses to literature, music, dance and artwork. 
The map of Australia's indigenous language groups can be found at this site.  Some children were keen to actually count the language groups... How many can you find?

I am really excited to be back with these wonderful children again!  I am going to be in the year 2 Neighbourhood on Mondays and Fridays.
Have a lovely weekend!
Janette Allen

Thank you to our parent guest speaker

Hello,

Yesterday (Wednesday 20th February), we had Gyan's father Garrick join us to talk to the children about Anthropology. We would like to thank Garrick so much for his contribution to our understanding of culture and sharing his own knowledge and experience with us.

Anthropology is the study of people and we learnt that the word comes from the Greek words Anthropos meaning man/humanity and -logia meaning 'study'.

Garrick showed us photographs of Papau New Guinea where he has worked over the past twenty years. We saw photographs of some of the features of Papau New Guinean culture including their houses on stilts, the pigs that they keep in enclosures because they have to raise their own food, people weaving bags out of plants, and their primary form of transport which is wooden canoes to travel around the rivers. We also learnt that they suffer from a lot of bush fires so to protect their homes they burn the grass around the communities. This also keeps the dangerous animals like snakes further from their homes.

We found it facinating to learn about the Papau New Guinean culture and make some connections and identify the differences between their culture and ours in Australia.

If there is someone in your family who can share their expertise with us in some of the areas below we would love to have them come and speak in our Neighbourhood.

Our Inquiry is unfolding in three different directions with regard to how we can have a positive impact on our Culture. These will become the three projects for our Inquiry and the children will be writing persuasive letters to us this week in order to be selected into one of the projects. Children with strengths in other forms of literacy may have the opportunity to also provide an oral recording of their persuasive text or a drawing etc. A third party will assist in reading the letters and selecting the three groups.

1. Sustainability and gardening (knowing how to care for our environment and grow our own food can make a very large difference to our global culture).
2. Me and My World (rights and responsibilities). Knowing myself and accepting myself allows me to accept others and positively contribute to my culture. Where do I fit in to the various cultures I belong to?
3. Where do we come from (family histories and stories, appreciating other cultures through stories and history). 

We are very excited to be embarking on this Inquiry and seeing where the children take it. We welcome ideas from everyone.

Thank you,
Simone and the Year Two Team.

One culture of learning.

The children have voted this symmetrical design made of pattern blocks as the puzzle which symbolises all the children in the neighbourhood coming together as one.
Well done to all the children as we work towards creating a culture of learning.

Seeking Parent Reps

Good Morning Parents,

We are currently seeking Parent Reps for our Year Two Neighbourhood. If you are interested could you please speak to your child's homegroup teacher.

Parent Reps are involved in networking with other parents of the neighbourhood to strengthen the connection between home and school. We encourage family involvement in our neighbourhood wholeheartedly so Parent Reps act as an additional support for us alongside our blog to communicate more widely to the families of our neighbourhood.

If you are interested let us know and we would greatly appreciate your contribution to the school community.

Warm Regards,
Year Two Team

Excursion to Ceres Community Environment Park

Exciting news everyone,

The whole Year Two Neighbourhood will be visiting Ceres Community Environment Park on Wednesday 13th March for a full day program.

Our Culture Inquiry has a focus on how we can have a positive impact on our culture. While the children will be taking this Inquiry in different directions as the term unfolds, so far we have been learning about how we can have a positive impact on our Year Two Neighbourhood learning culture by caring for our physical learning space and making it more inviting. We have been planting succulents for this purpose and we are starting to learn about sustainability which will allow us to have a positive impact on our wider and global culture.  

Ceres has created a program for us that will extend our current understandings and teach us much more about gardening, native wildlife, and other sustainability concepts.

The activities that we will be participating in are:

• Where Our Food Comes From (with a focus on bush foods/Aboriginal culture)
• Plant a Seed
• Worms and Minibeasts
• Animal Shelters (the importance of habitat for native animals)

We will be leaving from school at 9.30am and taking the bus to Ceres (Crn Roberts and Steward Streets, Brunswick East). We will be leaving Ceres at 2.10pm to return to school by bus and pick up time from school will be normal (3.30pm).

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

• Please wear appropriate clothing (shoulders covered, hats essential, covered shoes suitable for outdoor activities in varied weather conditions).
• Waste-free lunch: As per our normal school expectations with regard to lunch rubbish, please try to send your child to school with as much nude food as possible as Ceres is a waste-free park. Children will have their lunchboxes with them on the excursion.
• PARENT HELPERS: We invite any parents who wish to join us on this excursion to speak with one of the neighbourhood teachers as you are MOST WELCOME! We can give you parking/tram information in case we do not have enough seats on the bus.

If you would like more information, please visit the CERES Eduction website:
http://www.ceres.org.au/Education/excursion-program/excursions.html

See you all soon,
The Year Two Neighbourhood Team

PHOTOS WEEK 1-3

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful sunny weekend. If you have time, take a look at these photos which capture some of the learning that has taken place in the first three weeks of 2013 term 1.

Many more to come!

Simone :)

Reader's and Writer's Notebook Tips

Hi everyone,

If you have writer's block when trying to use your Reader's and Writer's notebook you may like to take an idea from the list below.

• Draw the characters in your book
 
• List the connections you can find between the story and your own life or other stories you have read.
 
• Give your book a rating
 
• List some of the new words you have learnt from your book
 
• List some of the really juicy descriptive words that you might be able to use in your own writing
 
• List some of the words with the letter patterns you have been learning in class (like double letters)
 
• Do a Colour, Symbol, Image like you did with Janette for the Aboriginal music - write a colour that your book makes you think of, create a symbol that represents the book and draw an image. You could do this for a piece of music that you hear at home too or a poem that you read.
 
• Write a review of the book you have read. A Review involves a summary of the story, and some of the positives and negatives of the book and perhaps how it could be improved or your favourite part.
 
• Write about the home learning you are doing (like what you have learnt in your music lessons or sport lessons or what learning you are doing with your family).
 
• Write a story
 
• Write how you felt /reacted to the story or the part of the story you read:
• "I was surprised when ..."
• "I didn't like/I liked it when... because..."
• "I was disappointed that/when..."

Please make sure you read EVERY DAY because we become better readers by practicing and we become better writers by reading more!

Specialist Timetable:

2 SK (Simone)
Phys Ed: Tuesday 10-11am
Vis. Art: Tuesday 12.10-1.05pm
Italian: Tuesday 1.05-2pm

2 KS (Kevin)
Phys Ed: Tuesday 12.10-1.05pm
Vis. Art: Tuesday 1.05-2pm
Italian: Friday 2:30-3.30pm

2 RJ (Rita)
Phys Ed: Tuesday 1.05-2pm
Vis. Art: Friday 2.30-3.30pm
Italian: Tuesday 12.10-1.05pm

Place Value Home Learning

When you are driving or walking with your children, take a moment to look at some of the number plates that you pass or pass you by.

Standard Victorian number plates have 3 numbers and 3 letters. Encourage your child to read the number as a three digit number for example 283 would be read as two hundred and eighty three.

Discuss the value of each number in relation to their column. For example the 8 is in the tens column, there are 8 tens so it is eighty.

What is the largest number that can be made from the 3 numbers? eg, 832

What is the smallest number that can be made from the 3 numbers? eg 238

Our first learning agreement

Literacy focus: Writing a report. Does my writing make sense? How can I make it better? Numeracy focus: Every part of a number has a value. Counting patterns increasing and decreasing by twos, threes, fives and ten from any starting point

Must do: Reading: Home reading every day.   Choose one of the books that Kevin or Janette have read to you. Use your Reader’s and Writer’s Notebook to write a review of that book.    Writing: Write a report to tell us about your home learning in your writing journal. Start with Learning is everywhere. At home ……. Maths: Use Mathletics to explore place value and counting. Explore your number chart. Work on a number pattern that you are learning. Build towers of 10.  http://au.ixl.com/promo?partner=google&phrase=display%20audiences%20banner%20AU&gclid=CJbYrKrevLUCFaE8pgodOgcAyw   Spelling: Choose 3 words to learn. Write them in your spelling journal. Complete a word investigation activity for a word each day.

Specialist Timetable 2013

http://www.phpsspecialists.blogspot.com.au/

2Rita

Italian Tuesday 12.10. Phys Ed Tuesday 1.05. Visual Art Friday 2.30.

2Simone

Phys Ed Tuesday 10.00. Visual Art Tuesday 12.10. Italian Tuesday 1.05.

2Kevin

Phys Ed Tuesday 12.10. Visual Art Tuesday 1.05. Italian Friday 2.30.

 

Swimming

The dates for the Year 2 Swimming Program are March 14^th 15^th 19^th 21^st 22^nd 25^th 26^th

Place Value Week Four

Students creating the number using hundreds, tens and ones

Students creating the number using tens and ones (regrouping by trading the hundred for tens)

Hello,

We are working on place value in our targeted number sessions. This will continue for several weeks if not the entire term so as to develop in our students a very consolidated understanding of the base-10 number system and the value of digits within a number. Place value underlies all calculation and a thorough understanding of this will put our students in good stead for their future of mathematics.

The following are some Place Value online games/exercises that we will be doing during class in Week 4 and 5. I am providing these website links within this post so that the children can be independent during class and find the sites through the blog. They will also be very handy to practice at home after we cover the content during these two weeks.

While I have selected these as appropriate to the point-of-need of the children in my targeted class, Rita, Kevin, and Janette may also utilise these activities and tailor them to the point of need of the students in their classes.


"I know that the place of a digit in the ones, tens or hundreds place will give the digit a different value."

Practice naming numbers using MAB models

Up to hundreds

http://au.ixl.com/math/year-2/place-value-models-up-to-hundreds

Up to thousands

http://au.ixl.com/math/year-2/place-value-models-up-to-thousands

Value of the underlined digit

Up to hundreds

http://au.ixl.com/math/year-2/value-of-underlined-digit-up-to-hundreds

Up to thousands

http://au.ixl.com/math/year-2/value-of-underlined-digit-up-to-thousands

Identify digit in ones, tens, hundreds, or thousands place

http://au.ixl.com/math/year-2/identify-digit-in-ones-tens-hundreds-or-thousands-place

"I know how to regroup 10 ones into 1 ten, 10 tens into 1 hundred, and 10 hundreds into 1 thousand."

Regrouping tens and ones (they have to see that some of the ones can be renamed into tens).

http://au.ixl.com/math/year-2/regrouping-tens-and-ones

"I can rename numbers up to the hundreds in different ways"

Convert to/from a number

http://au.ixl.com/math/year-2/convert-to-from-a-number-up-to-hundreds

Convert between Place Values

http://au.ixl.com/math/year-2/convert-between-place-values-up-to-thousands

Convert from expanded form

http://au.ixl.com/math/year-2/convert-from-expanded-form-up-to-hundreds

Happy thinking! And remember, if you start off not understanding something (especially in maths) there are many ways to improve, for example: asking your teacher or someone in class who seems to understand, by practicing, by trial and error, by making connections to other learning. Never be afraid to ask questions and never give up because you will get there in the end!

Simone