W H AT S ON TH I S TERM!

Level 2 Newsletter
T E R M 3 2 0 1 3

Wednesday July 31st Grade 2 Renewal of Baptismal Promises

Welcome Back
We hope that all families had a fantastic and restful break and enjoyed the beautiful winter weather in Melbourne. The diary supplied to your child at the beginning of the year is a wonderful learning tool for your child. It is beneficial to your childs learning that it is brought to school each day. The diary is useful in providing a way of communicating between home and school. You could work together to locate the date in the diary each night and your child should practice his/ her handwriting each night by writing the title of their reader into their diary. Using a diary will assist your child in becoming a more independent learner as they move throughout the school, enabling them to manage their time throughout effectively.

Sunday August 4th F/1/2 Hosting Mass

Tuesday 6th of August Grade 3/4 Cross Arts

Thursday 29th August Fathers Day Stall

Tuesday 17th September Grade 1/2 Cross Arts

StudyLadder:
www.studyladder.com.au We had many questions regarding the Study Ladder website during parent teacher interviews, and many of you may have seen this site as a recommendation on your childs report for assisting in mathematics development at home. Each child will have received a username and password to access the site from home and school. At school the children have full access to the website once logging in. The activities and tutorials are often used to further support and individualise learning in our Mathematics block.

Thursday 19th and Friday 20th September School Closure Days

At home the children can use the address above to access games, worksheets and tutorials across all areas of the curriculum. However, they are only able to access three activities at home each night. This limited access is free of charge . We feel that this is plenty for most children, the site will offer extended usage at a cost, however this is not necessary. The children have activities set by the classroom room teacher under the heading Set Tasks. This is the best starting place for your child. Furthermore, if your child has completed all set tasks and wishes to explore the other activities you need to be aware that all tasks are colour coded according to difficulty and it may be best to approach your childs teacher about which level activities would be best.

Reading & Spelling Tips

At this time of the year many children have read a lot of the readers already or are moving towards being a more independent reader. If your child has been reading black books for the past two terms you may choose to select books from the local library or school library for reading each night. Your child will continue to receive spelling words each fortnight. It is important that these words are practised a little each night rather than all in one go. Whilst the Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check technique is useful, it is most beneficial for your child to complete other activities with their spelling words such as working together to define each of the words using a children's dictionary or looking for familiar blends in each word. Your child should be able to independently read each of their words and they may also place each word into a written or spoken sentence. Your child could also try and locate their spelling words in the texts he/she reads.

Mathematics
In Term 2 we will be teaching the following concepts in Mathematics: Measurement and Geometry 2D and 3D shapes Mapping and Locational Language Length Mass Time Number: Fractions Ordering numbers Addition and Subtraction Multiplication and Division
Ideas for things you can do at home

Religion
This term we will be focusing on two key topic areas:

Creator God
In Creator God students focus on God the creator who is present in all of creation. They explore the first creation account in Genesis to learn about God as creator, the goodness of creation, and creation as a reflection of Gods love and goodness.

The Stories of Gods People.

In this unit students explore the Bible as the sacred story of Gods relationship with Gods People. In Part 1 they learn about some key figures and events of the Old Testament. In Part 2 they explore the concept of the Kingdom of God as it is expressed in some of the parables of the New Testament.

Use Study Ladder to practice number strategies Practise using an analogue clock to tell the time to oclock and half past.

Just a Gentle Reminder...

For students to be encouraged to carry their own bag into school and change their own reader each morning. We would love some donations for our Tinkering Tables. Please bring in any old electronics that are no longer working or needed. Eg, old DVD players, computer gear, etc. We will not be able to return these