We hope all our wonderful mothers have a lovely day!
Happy Mother’s Day
May 12
This week we have begun learning about contractions. A contraction is a shortened form of one or two words. Here are some examples:
Here are some rules for contractions that we have discovered so far:
- The first word does not change
- A letter or letters are taken out of the second word
- An apostrophe `fills the space’ of the missing letter or letters
- Some contractions are made by removing only one letter : he + is = he’s
- Other contractions are made by removing all : she + would = she’d
Visit Spelling City to learn more!
We had fun singing along with this song which has lots of examples of contractions.
Can you share some examples of contractions that you know?
Have you noticed any other rules about contractions?
The Flat Stanley Project
May 8
We are off to a flying start in Term 2! We have begun reading `Flat Stanley’ by Jeff Brown. In the story a bulletin board falls on the main character Stanley Lambchop. He’s fine, but now he is flat! Stanley is able to go on all sorts of exciting adventures. He discovers that one of the advantages of being flat is that his parents can put him in a large envelope and mail him for a visit to his friends in California.
We decided to make our own Flat people who are just about to go on an adventure of their own! We have connected with a Year 3 class at South Shaver Elementary, Pasadena, Texas who have also made flat people. We are going to send our flat people over to visit their class and they will send their flat people to us. How exciting!! We plan to take photographs and keep a diary of everything that we do with our flat visitors.
Have you read Flat Stanley?
What do you think would be fun to do with our `flat friends’ when they arrive?
2D and Sport in Schools Australia on PhotoPeach
Easter Hat Parade 2013
Apr 12
Easter Hat Parade 2013 on PhotoPeach
Practising our spelling words on PhotoPeach
2D used Ms Dowling’s ipad to take a picture of their `Night Zoo’ animals then record their descriptions.
Before recording the 2D kids practised reading their descriptions to a partner. They wanted to make sure that the reading sounded fluent – just like a speaking voice. 2D thought it was also important to try to make their reading sound interesting.
This was the first time that they have used the ipad in this way and they also did it alone! What a great job!
Here are some for you to listen to at home.
Practising plurals
Apr 3
Over the last few weeks we have been learning how to change nouns (names of people, places or things) into plurals. We have discovered some rules to help us.
Rule 1: For most nouns you simply need to add `s’ to make the word into a plural
cat/cats bike/bikes spoon/spoons
Rule 2: Nouns that end in -ch, -sh, -x, -s or -z you must add `es’
crunch/crunches fox/foxes buzz/buzzes
Rule 3: If a word ends in a consonant and a ‘y’, drop the ‘y’ and add ‘ies’
fly/flies try/tries cry/cries
We always keep in mind that English is a tricky language and that these rules don’t ALWAYS apply – sometimes there are some exceptions!
The games below might help you to discover some new rules. (These games will be also be added to the literacy games page which you can access from the tabs at the top of the page).
Did you notice any new rules when playing the games? Explain in your comment.
Here are a few pictures of the 2D kids creating animals that they imagined might live in the ‘Night Zoo’.
2D Paint animals for the night zoo from Jen Dowling on Vimeo.
The children let their imaginations run wild. Look how they turned out!
We have been working hard on our descriptions and we have begun writing missions too. 2D realises that writing takes time.
Have you been to visit the `Night Zoo’ yet?
Year 2 Excursion to Bilo
Mar 14
