Dear Grade 2SB Parents,
I hope that you have a lovely, long holiday with your family over the winter break and also enjoyed some time trying new activities. I am glad to be back in Sohar and in grade 2. The children have been telling me about their holidays and have begun this term working hard on our new UOI.
This week we have been completing our mid-year assessments in maths, reading and writing. This provides us a baseline on each child’s understanding which allows us to build a curriculum to suit that child’s needs for their learning. These assessments will also support your child’s in their next setting of learning goals. Reports for your child will be sent out at the end of this month which reflects the learning that has taken place since the last progress report.
Our new unit of inquiry is How the world works.The descriptor for this transdisciplinary theme is written as; An inquiry into the natural world and its laws; the interaction between the natural world (physical and biological) and human societies; how humans use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and technological advances on society and on the environment.
Studying simple machines from a scientific lens helps students learn about the basic principles of how things work. Inquiring into machines is truly transdisciplinary with integration with reading, math and critical thinking skills, to name a few.
Students will know:
-Identify and differentiate the six types of simple machines: lever, screw, pulley, wheel and axle, inclined plane, and wedge.
-Differentiate and classify specific examples of simple machines found in school and household items. These include a screwdriver, nutcracker, screw, flagpole pulley, ramp, and seesaw.
-Explain the function of each of the six types of simple machines. An example would be that an inclined plane is a ramp to make it easier for a heavy object to be moved up or down.
Students will understand:
Simple machines make work easier and possible for humans
Please have a look around your home, especially the kitchen area and in the toolbox to find simple machines in your own home. This will reinforce the concept that these machines are in use in our everyday lives and that they make our work easier for us.
In this unit for maths, students will review and extend their place value understanding to include the hundreds place. They will start by building 3 digit numbers on a place value mat with base-10 blocks, and developing the understanding that 10 tens make 1 hundred. Students will write numbers in expanded form and compare them. Students will then look at the 1,000 chart noticing patterns and finding numbers that are 1 more or less, 10 more or less, and 100 more or less than a given number. Please see the family letter below which provides further details and how you can support this learning at home.
The writing for this new unit of inquiry most closely associated with it is instructional or procedural writing.
What is procedural writing?
Procedural writing is simply any text that provides instructions in a simple, step-by-step format. The name comes from the fact that the reader must follow a procedure if they wish to carry out the instructions. A procedural text is a great way to teach someone something new, from how to ride a bike to how to get from one place to another. Procedural writing is a great example of a non-fiction text that your children might encounter.
What is the purpose of procedural writing?
The main thing that unites different types of procedural texts is their purpose. All examples of procedural writing are informational and directional – they aim to instruct the reader, and help them towards a specific goal.
We will be reading books which include instructional texts as well as other fiction and non-fictions texts. The students will have access to non-fiction books about simple machines and how they are used and we will begin identifying non-fiction text features which helps us locate information. We will also read fiction books which spark our imaginations and motivate us to think how simple machines can be used to solve problem. Please see the text below which describes a reading strategy to support reading non-fiction texts.
Wishing you a restful weekend.
Numbers greater than 100 Family Letter
Adjust and apply different reading rates to match text
Please see current photos below: