Final Post for 2014!

What a big year it has been! I can't believe that we are almost at the end of our time together as a class. We have all achieved so much and improved a great deal in maths, writing, spelling and how to get along well with each other. Each student should feel very proud of their efforts.

Last week the students enjoyed transition sessions to different grade 3 classrooms. We also visited the kitchen and garden and we are looking forward to spending more time there next year.

Thank you to all students in 2D this year. I have had a great year and have enjoyed knowing you and helping you along in your learning journeys. Thank you also to parents for their help and support throughout the year. Enjoy the festive season and your summer holidays!

Concert Rehearsal

Kitchen orientation for next year

Comment

What has been your highlight (favourite thing) this year in grade 2? Don't forget to write your name.

Home Reading

A quick post this week...

All home readers and library books are to be returned back to school as soon as possible so that they can be checked and prepared for next year. Even though students won't be able to read school books it is still highly important that they continue reading leading up to Christmas and over the holidays to maintain and improve their reading standard. 

Ideas for Summer Reading

• Visit your local library: Mornington Peninsula Libraries run programs to encourage reading over the summer and you receive  prizes for reading certain amounts of books. Borrow a variety of books including picture books, fiction and non-fiction
• Read together: Find a book that you will both enjoy and take in turns reading pages and discussing what is happening.
• Buy a book for Christmas: Choose a book that your child will enjoy and have fun reading. Children at this age love reading funny books (Andy Griffiths, Tom Gates Series, Captain Underpants) and books about their interests including sport and animals.
• Break the boredom: When your child has nothing to do, read a book instead of turning to video games!

Their are lots of exciting things happening over the next couple of weeks including transition activities and the school concert!

Swimming

It's been a busy and tiring week in 2D. We have all enjoyed our swimming lessons as well as the walk to and from Orbit. We wrote about our time at swimming earlier this week and have concentrated on using connectives (such as and, but or because) to make our sentences more detailed and interesting. We also needed to use interesting words and think about how we can start our sentences differently to make it more entertaining to read. Here are some excellent examples:

On a cold and stormy Monday all the grade two's went swimming. It was a very wet and rainy afternoon so we had to take the bus to Orbit Swim School. I enjoyed Orbit because we had the best day ever and it was the best swim ever!
Alyssa 

My teacher was Gary and it's easy to remember because my dad's name is Gary too! First he told us the rules then we did some swimming. First we did torpedo, second we floated, third we torpedoed again.
Ellie 

Monday was a very wet and stormy day and we had to get a bus because it was too wet to walk! Mum brought my goggles so then I could see under water. I like swimming because the teachers are extremely nice.
Ryan 

On a cold and stormy afternoon, we went swimming at Orbit. When we got there we went to the change room and got changed. Then we went to the pool and showed the swimming teachers how we swim. We had a fantastic tie at swimming because we got to jump in the pool and go through hoops to find our goggles.
Mckenzie 

It was a cold and damp day when we went to swimming. We are learning freestyle and backstroke so we get better at it. There are lots of chemicals in the pools such as chlorine. I love Orbit Swimming Pool because the teachers are extremely nice.
Casey

Orbit by Gwyneth

Objects that create light from the past and present

Practising for the upcoming school concert

Remembrance Day

On Tuesday it was Remembrance Day. Alyssa brought in some very special medals and badges belonging to her great grandfather who was a pilot during World War II. We learnt about the types of planes he flew and how he was lucky to survive after his plane was shot at.
We also read a great book Gallopoli by Kerry Graham. The book helped us to imagine what life would have been like as a soldier in the war. Later on we used our VCOP skills (Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation) to write about Remembrance Day.

I needed my shirt ironed but all we had was this really old, heavy iron!

Last week we also worked hard on multiplication and symmetry in maths. We continue to investigate life in the past (see photo above) and last week we compared transport of the past to what we use now. Students also enjoyed having a creative writing session. Here is Sebastian's story:

Sam and the Forest by Sebastian

There was a big old tree and in the tree lived tree people. They are polite, kind and respectful except on named little Loki. He had a plan to steal all the tree fruit for himself so he did that and went into the forsaken forest.

But one person names Sam went to find the fruit for his people. So he went through the spiky roses, past alligators, Minotaurs and a troll at the cave Loki hid in. He defeated the troll and brought the fruit back. 

 

Next Week (24th November) is Swimming

If you would like to come along to watch you are welcome to walk down with us. We will leave school around 12:30.

Procedures

This week has flown by again! In writing, we have focused on procedural writing. We all wrote our own procedure (see below for some examples) and wrote the following as a whole class as part of our Now and Then inquiry unit. We also did some quick research on the internet and found out that marbles have been around for thousands of years.

How to Play Marbles

What you need

• 2-6 players
• 13 marbles plus one shooter each
• Flat surface
• Circle made of string or chalk

Procedure

1. Spread the marbles out in the circle 
2. You are now ready to play
3. The first player has a turn by flicking their shooter. If any marbles go outside the circle, that player gets to keep them.
4. The next player has a turn to flick their shooter. Then you keep rotating turns.
5. The game ends when all the marbles are out of the circle.
6. Whoever has the most marbles wins the game

After working on the procedure, we had to test it out to make sure it works!

More Procedures

How to Grow a Fruit Plant - by Taylor

How to climb along tyres - by Mckenzie

How to ride a horse - by Gwyneth

Reminders

• Swimming lessons begin on 24th November so please return your form if you haven't already done so

Comments

Let us know what procedures or instructions you have used before...

Thanks to those who commented last week. That has to be a record! 

The Past and the Present

Students in 2D continue to bring in family objects from the past. Some of the things brought in have included photographs of great-grandparents, books, toys, precious plates and a walking stick used during World War II.

Some of the precious objects from the past brought in by 2D

We have also enjoyed looking at other interesting objects from the past. It has been great to see how they used to work and compare them to similar items that we have now. Can you guess what these contraptions are?

Somers Camp Letters
We loved the Somers Camp excursion and can't wait to go there next year. Below are some fantastic writing pieces that detail our exciting day:

Dear Grade Ones,
When you're in grade 2 you get to go to Somers Camp!
The first thing my grade did is low ropes. Low ropes is an obstical course and it has a whole lot of ropes and that's why it's called low ropes. The next thing we did is to see the cabins. The cabins look awesome because there was a lot of bunk beds and a teacher room.
After the cabins we followed a path to a beach and we all got a map from my teacher of different stuff on the beach.
Later we went to a place call the environment centre and the environment centre is full of fish, a shark, some guinea pigs, snakes and four lizards. First we saw the fish and shark. There were a lot of fish but I can only remember two - the old wife and the blue devil.
At the end of the day I was very sad but I had lots of fun! My favourite bit was seeing the guinea pigs. They were adorable!
From Ellie

Dear Grade Ones,
Last Monday all of the grade twos went on a day trip to Somers Camp.
My favourite activity was the beach walk. On the beach Mckenzie, Kaitlyn and I found squid eggs, seaweed, seagulls and one sea urchin. The sea urchin felt a little bit spiky and dry at the same time. The sea urchin was one of my favourite animals on the beach.
I also liked going to the environment centre. The first animal we saw was a glow fish. The glow fish looked rather like a puffer fish. After the fish we saw some lizards. The first lizard we saw was a rather funny looking lizard. It looked like it had two heads. It is like that because when a bird comes down to try and eat it, it will eat its butt instead of its head.
I had an awesome time at camp.
From Hollie

Dear Grade One,
On the 20th of October all of the grade two classes went to day camp. After the bus trip we chucked our bags in a big shed. The first activity was Low Ropes. Low Ropes is basically an agility course. Low Ropes was pretty challenging. My favourite challenge was the the tyres.
After low ropes we had snack before going on a beach walk. The treasure hunt list was bizarre! We had to find a great white shark and a killer whale.
A little bit later after the beach walk we did the Rock and Minigolf rotations. My group did the rock first. The rock is a big climbing rock. Then we did minigolf. I won by two points against Matt. After that we had lunch.
Last we went to the environment centre. It was really fun because it was inside but it had outside animals. I liked it because it was so fun and I had a great time.
From Casey

Homework
What game from the past would you like to try playing at school? Why? [leave a comment to tell me your answer]

Somers Camp

The past week has been very active and exciting. On Friday we had the Walkathon. Students dressed up as cartoon characters and completed lots of laps around the Dunns Road Reserve, which raised money for our school.

[that's Declan in the middle!]

On Monday we went on an excursion to Somers Camp to see what it will be like when we go there for three days in grade 3. It was a beautiful sunny day and the students had great fun on the low ropes course, walking to the beach, playing mini golf and seeing all the amazing creatures in the environment centre. We even visited the cabins to see where we would be sleeping next year. There are lots more cool activities that we will get to do next time including the giant swing. A big thank you to Michelle and Kirsty for their help on the day.

Below are some photos from our day at Somers, and there are lots more action-packed shots on our classroom window.

Since the Somers Camp excursion we have been busy writing about it and there are some brilliant writing pieces that have used lots of paragraphs and interesting vocabulary. Next week we will feature some on the blog!  

Reminders

• Don't forget to return your form for swimming lessons
• Walk to School runs throughout October so please try and get to school 'actively' as much as possible.

The Past in the Present

Welcome back. The holidays seem like a long time ago but we have plenty to do and look forward to this term.

My holiday highlight!

Our inquiry topic Now and Then will compare things from the past (such as transport, toys and technology) to current day. Students have been sent home with an interview sheet that requires them to interview a grandparent or parent so that they can find what life was like when they were young. We have also enjoyed seeing objects that students have brought in from the past:

• Kaitlyn brought in her grandpa's police hat
• Jesse brought in sporting trophies belonging to his Dad
• Alyssa brought in a very old book titled "The Practical Man's Book of Things to Make and Do"
• Liam brought in some special photos and mementos belonging to his grandma
• Gwyneth brought her grandmother's jewellery and intricate jewellery box.
• Molly showed us her grandfather's pull along wooden dog and she told us how he actually wanted a fire engine!

2D has also busy working on their reading, spelling, grammar and writing skills. We continue to do literacy group work which involve a range of literacy activities including guided reading with the teacher. Thanks to the parents who have come in to hear our students read in the morning. If you would like come in to help listen to students read, feel free to drop in Monday-Thursday between 9-10 o'clock.

Tomorrow is the walkathon and Monday we are off to Somers Camp. We hope that the Spring weather will be kind to us!

Happy Holidays!

Well time has flown by this term. I can't believe there is only 1 term left for the year! Students in 2D have worked really hard this term and we have had many highlights. Below is a list of what students have enjoyed the most this term:

Ellie - writing

Ella – working on my punctuation during writing

Hollie - literacy groups

Sebastian - popcorn science experiment

Kobe - blue explosion and milk science experiments and literacy groups

Charlie - science

Jesse – Improving my writing using VCOP. I also liked literacy groups and the cricket clinic

Matt - I liked maths and science

Jett - I liked maths, writing stories and you can't forget about computers

Nic – PE and ICT

Billy - I have enjoyed starting at a new and better school

Declan - maths and computers in the classroom

Liam - my favourite thing was the footy day

Molly - I liked computers, PE and literacy groups

Alyssa - ICT

Gwyneth – science: my favourite experiment was the lemonade but I didn't like the popcorn

Tyler - I have enjoyed ICT and library

Lanie - Literacy and ICT

Mckenzie - science, ICT, footy day and persuasive writing

Lachlan - footy day, ICT and PE

The real 2014 AFL Grand Final Premiership Cup

Footy Day

All the best for the holidays and I look forward to seeing everyone next term!

Opera at Osborne

We watched an opera of Cinderella in the gym. The actors were Oliver who was the step brother, John who was the neighbour and the Prince, Rebecca who was the stepsister and Michelle who was Cinderella. It was different from the normal one. The step brother was pretending to be a girl when they went to the ball. The step sister and brother both wanted to marry the Prince but a boy can't marry a boy! Oliver spun John around while Michelle could sing really long notes and sing really loud notes! I quite liked it! by Taylor

Another highlight this week at Osborne was the instrumental concert where Jett, Leilani and Sebastian from our class performed with great skill and confidence.

2D has also been working hard on writing persuasively. Our latest topic was Outdoor games are better than indoor games. Here are some samples of well written arguments:

Indoor games are much better than outdoor games, here's why. You can play  video games but you can't play them outside or the sun will get in your way. by Charlie

 Outdoor games are much much better than indoor games. Firstly I like outdoor games because you can play on equipment and indoor games are bad for you because if you play them for 2 hours or more you will feel sick and get blind. by Mckenzie 

You won't get fit if you want to play video games all day long. And you will probably be lazy when you grow up. by Ryan

Enjoy the final week of term 3 everyone. Remember to keep reading each night and use Mathletics to practice your maths.

We hope everyone had a happy father's day yesterday. Here are some examples of the excellent origami shirts that we made for fathers day.

This week during literacy rotations, some groups practised and then performed a readers theatre play. Students really enjoyed performing and experimenting with different voices. Liam sounded quite scary being the troll while Lachlan was convincing in his role as the little goat!

Yesterday I did a play called The Brave Little Tailor. I was the reader and the First King's Man. It was about a tailor that killed seven flies in one blow. He thought he was the strongest man in the universe! by Harper

In science this week we predicted and observed the reaction of mixing things together. We mixed venegar and bi-carb soda to make a mini eruption and we also made our own lemonade! Here is McKenzie's report on one of the experiments:

This week we have an Opera Australia performance of Cinderalla to look forward to as well as a focus on money in Maths. Don't forget Bring a Bloke for Breakfast is on this Thursday.

Sunny Days

This week we made the most of the great weather and completed a number of maths lessons outside. It's just as well it was sunny because measuring volume and capacity using sand and water would have made quite a mess indoors!

One of our writing lessons this week concentrated on descriptive writing and using interesting words. Students were provided with an image and were then required to creatively write about what they saw. They only had ten minutes to write but the quality of writing was excellent. Here are some samples:

Did you know that last night I saw a scary and big black scaly beak of something with big yellow eyes? Its mouth was open like a big hole in the ground. Who would want to be afraid of a tawny frogmouth? by Ella

I can see a very hairy, little cute and fluffy tawny frogmouth. It has very yellow, cute but strange eyes. It’s got white, black and brownish feathers. His beak is sort of yellowish and beige. The tawny frogmouth is enclosed. Sadly. by Casey

A very hairy monkey is sitting up a tree staring with its scary eyes. It has ginger fur with white around its face. It’s sitting on a ginormous tree. by Kaitlyn

In science this week we saw the reaction of mixing dish washing detergent with milk. We observed amazing results and spectacular colours (see photos and video below).

I have been impressed by the creative work 2D has completed in ICT with Mr Sharp. Here is a video of what they have been working on.

This week we will revisit fractions in maths, continue persuasive writing and perform more exciting science experiments. Have a great week!

Science Week

We've had another busy week in 2D. It was great to see so many of you at parent-teacher interviews. I am really proud of how far the class has come already this year.

To celebrate National Science Week we toured the vegetable garden to see what has been growing. We also performed a number of exciting experiments and we will continue with a range of mixing and shaking experiments for the remainder of the term.

We have learnt about area and perimeter in maths and have measured the area of our tables using a range of objects. Did you know that the area of one table is 150 playing cards or 50 coloured squares?

This week we will continue to learn how to write persuasively and we will be visiting the Life Education Van on Friday.

Please read the welcome post to find out a little bit more about the blog and don't forget to subscribe to be updated straight away to your email.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to our blog! After attending an ICT conference where I saw other classroom blogs in action I have decided it would be great for 2D to have our very own blog. This blog will be updated weekly so please subscribe to our email list (on the right) to keep updated and let your friends and family know as well. For more information about our blog and guidelines of use please visit the About page.

Time has flown by this term! Our inquiry unit has focused on health which will conclude with a visit to the Life Education van. We are currently working on measurement in mathematics. The students have enjoyed measuring and comparing the length and weight of objects in our classroom. A highlight has been the beanbag toss with the winners Ryan and Jett both throwing around 20 metres. We have been investigating persuasive writing and we hope to be able to have a constructive argument with you soon!

More of this to follow in the coming weeks.

Maths: 1 Thousand block, 3 hundreds and 7 ten sticks weigh just over 1 kilogram!