AISS Year 2 Parent Newsletter 2011: Newsletter Term 3 Week 2

Dear Parents,

We welcome all our new families to Year 2 and AIS. We hope you are settling in well and enjoying the atmosphere of the Year 2 community.

Unit of Inquiry

How We Express Ourselves

Central Idea People create and respond to music to express their feelings and ideas.

We will be inquiring into

· Individual responses to music

· The creation of music

· How music is organised

The concepts connected to this unit are Perspective and Function

Perspective

Why do individuals like different kinds of music?

Why do individuals respond to music in different ways?

Why do we link feelings / emotions / mental images with specific types of music and sounds?

Function

How do individuals respond to music?

How do individuals create music?

How do individuals use music to express themselves?

An excellent display of 'homemade' instruments are appearing in classrooms! Sounds like a few bands are in the making.

Some ideas to help at home -

Have discussions about different types of music and how they make you feel.
What types of music do you listen to at home? why?
Who are your favourite musicians and why?
Sing songs together - make up your own lyrics
Create a 'kitchen' band using pots and pans

Read-a-thon begins!

Kai's Kids for Cambodia - Read-a-thon

by Year 10 student Sophie Aitkin (MYP Project)

Last week, a brochure about the upcoming Year 2 Read-a-thon was sent home with your child.

Sophie Aitken, the organiser of this event, is very excited to be involved in this educational fundraising event for KaisKids in Cambodia.

The Read-a-thon starts on Friday, 29 July. The sponsor, Smiggle, has been incredibly generous in supplying many stationery gifts in support of this event.

Please encourage your child to become involved during this intensive lead-up to Book Week at the end of August. The Read-a-thon itself will be launched on Friday, 29 July at a Year 2 assembly. We wish your children happy reading!

Class of the week - 2HA

2HA have made a great start to Term Three. We have been busy learning about our new unit of inquiry which has allowed the students to respond to and express themselves through dance, visual art and music so far. We will also be learning some poetry and drama throughout this unit.

Parent helpers have been busy in class as well, they have been assisting with reading, writers workshop and maths groups.

It’s been a fantastic year so far and we look forward to continuing the fun and learning throughout the rest of the year.

Ethan W, Bridie, Chloe and Yelena using clues to work out the central idea (People create and respond to music to express their feelings and ideas) for our new UOI unit (How we express ourselves).

Ethan B, Max, Issie, Olivia and Ella having fun while experimenting with instruments.

Charlotte B and Ally showing paintings that were their responses to musical pieces.

Ethan W and Noah making some new friends from 2HS during our lunch break.

House Leaders

Murray - 379 points

Lachlan - 310 points

Fitzroy - 289 points

Derwent - 252 points

Meet the Staff - Mrs Alison Le Cornu

5 Facts about me

One of my favourite things to do in Singapore is to have a Foot-Rub on the weekend.

I have two sons at AIS. Flynn in Year 3 and Ashton in Year 9.

I absolutely love reading. From picture books to novels, I just can’t get enough!

My Mum is the only person in the world that calls me Alison.

I have two dogs at home. George is a relaxed 9 year old Shiatsu Cross and Indy (short for Indiana Jones) is a manic 8 month old Beagle.

Y2 Learning - Caught on Camera

Robbie enjoying his lessons

Specialists in the Spotlight - PE and Gross Motor

In PE and Gross Motor this term, Year 2 have started learning the moves used in bush dances. They have selected work groups that they will use to create their own dance. This group dance will be performed to either the music for the Gallopade or the musical piece that they are creating in their classroom.

CCA News

The new timetable for this semester's CCA program will be emailed this week. There are a number of new choices as the result of the children's survey. If your child has not been placed in a a CCA please contact your class teacher and Ms Bianca Chapman.

Dates to Remember

Monday, 1 August	Semester 2 lunchtime CCAs commence for Year 2 students
Thursday, 18 August	Student-led Conferences: this is not a normal school day
Monday, 22 - Friday, 26 August	AIS Book Week
Friday, 26 August	Book Week Dress Up Parade 8.40 - 10.00am MPH; Theme - ‘One World, Many Stories’
Thursday, 1 September	Teachers’ Day
Thursday, 15 September	AIS Foundation Day celebrations
Friday, 16 September	Junior and Primary Fathers’ Day Breakfast – hosted by AISSPA
Monday, 19 September	Year 1 Athletics Carnival
Tuesday, 20 September	Prep Athletics Carnival
Wednesday, 21 September	Junior International Peace Day Celebrations
Thursday, 22 September	Year 2 Athletics Carnival

Parent Education

Successful reading is not simply the mechanical process of "decoding" text. Rather, it is a process of active inquiry. Good readers approach a text with questions and develop new questions as they read, for example:

"What is this story about?"
"What does the main character want?"
"Will she get it?" "If so, how?"

Even after reading, engaged readers still ask questions:

"What is the meaning of what I have read?"
"Why did the author end the paragraph (or chapter, or book) in this way?"
"What was the author's purpose in writing this?"

Researchers have confirmed that thoughtful, active, proficient readers are metacognitive; they think about their own thinking during reading. They can identify when and why the meaning of the text is unclear to them, and can use a variety of strategies to solve comprehension problems or deepen their understanding of a text (Duffy et al. 1987).

Reading comprehension is paramount for children to become successful readers. Not understanding the text is not 'real' reading. Teachers often find that children learn to read 'word for word' very well but they can't answer questions related to the text. This is necessary to achieve reading success.

As parents there are many strategies you can use to assist your child to become a 'real' reader and instill the love of reading whether using 'old fashioned paper' books or using the increasing number of available Internet reading material and applications.

Below are some links that may be of assistance to parents when helping your child with reading comprehension.

http://www.readinglady.com/

http://bcove.me/n0n9i74l

Challenge!

The Year 2 team started the term with a 'challenge' . Watch the Ted talk video below if you would like to challenge yourself!