Year 2 Overviews
Term 2, 2013
Religion: Jesus and his teachings.
This term the planned curriculum provides students with opportunities to discover more about Jesus, the man, and will enable students to develop a deeper understanding of his mission and ministry. Students will identify key teachings and actions from Jesus’ life that guide us as individuals and influence the life of the church community. Collectively we will explore the historical, cultural and geographical context of the first century Mediterranean world in which Jesus lived. The fertile questions which will engage students learning are “Why is the life of Jesus important for us today?” After exploring this concept, the students will be asked to reflect and gain more knowledge of Jesus’ life through inquiry learning about “What would be different in the way Jesus lived to the way I live today?” Students will be encouraged to make connections about how Jesus lived and how he would want us to carry out his teachings. This concept will be consolidated with a combined class visual display of words and images that come from the teachings and action of Jesus in Gospel stories and our students real lives.
English: Report Writing
As we implement the Australian Curriculum with more depth , the 3 areas of Language, Literature and Literacy are our focus when teaching concepts. The students are learning the text type of a report, exploring many different types of reports and what the purpose of a report is. They will be supported in class to write about a specific topic i.e insect and then set a task to write their own report at home; describing the features of a self-chosen minibeast. The students will then present this report to the class in a visual format. We are exploring a wide range of writing concepts such as word families, digraphs, parts of speech and specific grammar concepts such as sentence construction. The use of dictionaries will be a focus and improved use of punctuation in their writing. The Words Their Way program will be implemented daily and explicit teaching of specific rules and grammar will aim to improve the students understanding of words and how they are spelt, reflecting in their writing. These activities are very hands on and focus on the individual progress of the students. A focus is to model and teach a number of specific reading strategies with the vision to enhance students ability to read fluently and with expression. All of these new skills and strategies are consolidated daily throughout Writing and Reading Rotation activities.
Science: Biological Science – ‘Watch It Grow’
The unit Watch It Grow! explores the growth and life cycles of living things. The students will examine the growth stages, change, reproduction and death of many different types of animals. Through these investigations, students will gain an appreciation of the diversity of living things and how there are similarities and differences to how things grow. The students will produce a visual representation of an animal and present to the class. An excursion to Baroon Pocket Dam ties in last term’s unit Waterworks with the life cycle of living things in the water.
History: The Past in the Present - “Sites of Significance”
In this unit the students will identify and research historical sites of cultural or spiritual significance in the local area of the Sunshine Coast, such as the Big Pineapple, The Nambour Sugar Mill and the Glass House Mountains. They will also explore the significance of ANZAC day and the importance of local memorials, identifying where their local memorial in located. At the conclusion of the unit, students will create a poster advertising a local site of importance to the public. The poster will encourage people to visit the site by highlighting its importance to people today.