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Glen Waverley Primary School

774 High Street Road Glen Waverley 3150

Ph: 9802 9938 Fax: 9886 1590

www.glenps.vic.gov.au

LEVEL TWO

2018 Term 2 Newsletter

Dear Parents / Guardians, Welcome back to another exciting term of learning and new experiences. We hope you all had a wonderful Easter or holiday period and we can’t wait to hear all about it through your child(ren)’s holiday sharing. Below are some important dates for this term, please take a few moments and record them into your diary or calendar.

IMPORTANT DATES & EVENTS

29th May, Tuesday – ICAS: Science 11th June, Monday – Queen’s Birthday (Public Holiday) 12th June, Tuesday – Curriculum Day (pupil free) 13th June, Wednesday – ICAS: Spelling 21st – 25th June – Education Week 22nd June, Friday – Semester One Report to be available on Compass at 4:00pm 25th & 27th June, Monday & Wednesday – Student Led Conference 29th June – Last day of Term Two (2:30pm dismissal) For regular updates of the whole school events, please refer to the fortnightly school’s newsletter that can be access from our school’s website. http://www.glenps.vic.edu.au/

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CURRICULUM UPDATES

Term One Flashback Term One has flew past rather quickly, here are some of the learning highlights in Level Two.

Academic Rigour

Learning Reflection: Spelling Inquiry Writing Session: Roving Conference

History Box Incursion learning experiences Inquiry Wonderings & Finding Out

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Orderliness

Reading & Writing Goals

Brain Breaks: Getting ready to the next learning Morning Routines: Starting a day of learning with a success

Learning Maths through CPA

I enjoyed doing the Inquiry Wonderings

because we got to search for the question

that we want to answer. - Nartana

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Educating the Whole Child

Twilight Sports YCDI Keys to Success

Water Safety YCDI Keys to Success

I like going outside and do our Free Choice

writing because it was different and gave

me lots of ideas. - Lehara

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Term Two Previews Term Two will see learners in Level Two continue to build on their skills and knowledge from Term One and here are some of the key areas of focus.

ENGLISH In Reading, students will be adding on new strategies such as ‘Comparing and Contrasting’, ‘Predicting’ and ‘Identifying the Main Idea and the Supporting Details’ to further develop their Comprehension. To enhance the learner’s comprehension though ‘Comparing and Contrasting’ they will identify similarities between texts (comparing) and understanding the differences that they also bring (contrasting). Predicting allows the learners to deepen their comprehension through using pictures and word knowledge. Learners will identifying the main idea by using supporting details, such as pictures and meanings of words throughout the text through brainstorming activities. In addition, students will work on their Fluency and Accuracy through Reader’s Theatre studies and sharing their poem and stories. Reader’s Theatre is a reading strategy which creates and builds onto a learner’s reading skill and incorporates confidence through acting. This gives reading aloud a real purpose to improve on fluency, and the importance of speaking and listening. In Writing, students will be encouraged to explore their very own writing identities through a series of ‘Sustained Writing’ and ‘Lightning Writing’ sessions. They will learn how to communicate instructions, construct their stories and express their feelings through our rigorous Procedural, Narrative, Poetry and Writer’s Workshop writing units. Students will enhance their learning by being able to part take in writing their own Fractured Fairy Tale. Creating their own setting, characters, problem and solution to develop the key parts of their fairy tales. Students after completing their fairy tales will then be given the opportunity to present it in either a puppet show or using multimedia programs like Scratch Junior or the Dash robots. They will then present these to their classes to enhance their speaking and listening skills. Also to link with our Science Inquiry topic of ‘Chemical Reactions’ students will be looking into Procedural texts. Students will follow recipes and experiments that will allow them to be exposed to rigorous Procedural texts. Throughout this term, Reading and Writing sessions will be closely linked to provide even more authentic Literacy learning experiences and the opportunities for students to transfer their learning. In Spelling, we will continue our ‘Spelling Inquiry’ instruction model where the learners will understand how to decode words by breaking down words into syllables, understanding the etymology (origin) of the word is so that the learner expands on their vocabulary of words to enhance their writing, and reading knowledge.

Spelling Inquiry on Etymology

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MATHEMATICS Students will be expanding their knowledge of Number and Algebra by deepening their

understanding of the relationships between addition and subtraction using their

reasoning skills by recognising that they are the inverse operations. Learners will

enhance their understanding of patterns by skip counting forwards and backwards using

a range of starting points. To deepen their knowledge they will be asked to identify

different number patterns in the world around them, for example, a clock face skip counts

by fives.

When exploring Measurement and Geometry, learners will use informal measuring tools

such as a mug and formal metric cups to measure the volume and capacity of a range of

objects. They will explore where this data appears in real life and how we use

measurement in everyday experiences. Making connections to volume and capacity at

home will help students transfer their knowledge and deepen their understanding.

We will continue to develop their sense of time, exploring multiple ways to represent

‘quarter to’ and ‘quarter past’ using digital and analogue clocks. We strongly believe that

to enhance their fluency learners are given the opportunity to practice reading time

throughout various parts of the day. Encouraging learners to identify the time during

breakfast or dinner are authentic experiences that will further the transfer of their

learning within the classroom.

INQUIRY (Science focus)

Students will be exploring the topic “How do chemical changes impact on our environment?” This unit focuses on developing students’ understanding of Chemical Science through addressing these focus questions:

What are chemicals? What makes something a chemical reaction? How do a chemical reaction impact our environment? How can we be more sustainable?

Through a variety of experiments and learning experiences, students will learn and practise scientific skills of predicting, observing, questioning, critical thinking, discussing and explaining. In addition, strong links will be drawn to the learning area of Writing where students will have the opportunity to transfer their learning by writing authentic text types such as procedures.

Hands On Science Incursion

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Home Supports As educators, we encourage our students to never cease learning and we would love to see them continue to learn beyond the walls of our school. Therefore, parents’ supports are vital to children’s success in learning. To support your child’s learning at home, you could: English:

Together, read a well-known story and change parts of the story. Encourage your child to read aloud and re-read parts of the text to gain the desire

accuracy and fluency. Encourage your child to use chunking and letter-sound knowledge to sound out

and decode challenging words. Have discussion around the text such as “What’s the main idea of this book?”

“What details did the book provide to support this main idea?” “What will happen if …?”

Do something with your child such as making jelly, cook a dish or making slime, then ask your child to write down the procedure of the task.

Mathematics:

Encourage your child to explain his/her thinking and strategies when solving a

maths problem. For example, you may ask “How did you know 13 - 8 = 5? What

strategy did you use? How can you prove that it’s correct?”

Encourage your child to read both analogue and digital clock and tell the time in

different ways using the language ‘past’ and ‘to’.

Provide real life opportunities for your child to use addition and subtraction. For

example, asking your child to add up the cost of 2 grocery items and work out the

change required.

Science:

Do some Science experiments with your child such as the Colour Changing Milk, ask your child to observe and describe what happened.

Read and discuss the science behind the experiment together.

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REMINDERS

COMMUNICATION

We continue to value open and honest forms of communication so we can work as a partnership to provide the best possible learning for your child(ren). Parents are strongly encouraged to communicate via the school Communication Diary, which is checked by the teacher regularly for important correspondence. This diary is also used to track home reading, so please sign the diary each day indicating that you have heard your child read.

CLASSROOM HELPERS

Our sincere thanks to the parents who had help out in the classroom last term, we are extremely grateful for your support and assistance. Parent helpers have provided extra opportunities for our children to practise reading fluency and build their confidence in reading. If you would like to help around this area, we would love to hear from you. As a legal requirement, all parent helpers will need to provide a “Working with Children Check”. This is free of charge and the application can be completed online. http://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/ .

PUNCTUALITY & ABSENCES

Thank you once again to the parents for helping their children learn by being at school on time and minimising the absences in Term 1. As part of the Orderliness, students can enter the classroom at the 8:50am bell to organize and prepare for the learning by following the morning routine from each class. The 9.00am bell indicates the commencement of school instruction and we are always endeavoured to maximise our learning time. If your child is going to be absent, please communicate the reason via Compass as early as possible.

We hope this newsletter gives you a better insight and understanding of your child’s exciting learning journey during Term Two. If you require further information please speak to your child’s classroom teacher. Kindest Regards, Mr Peter Shen (2A and Level Two Teaching and Learning Leader), Miss Alicia Di Petta (2B), Mrs Raquel Kane (2C), Miss Monique Kelly (2D) and Miss Adriana Ballestrin (2E)