Australian Curriculum Overview
English
In Year 2, students learn that there are different modes of communication with distinct features that can be used when sharing ideas, thoughts and opinions with familiar audiences for different purposes.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read and view spoken, written and multimodal texts that may be imaginative, informative and persuasive. Texts may include oral texts, picture books, various types of print and digital stories, simple chapter books, rhyming verse, poetry, non-fiction, various types of information texts, short films and animations, multimodal texts and dramatic performances.
As Year 2 students transition to become independent readers, they continue to develop their decoding and comprehension skills, using a range of texts. Informative texts present new content about topics of interest and topics being studied in other learning areas.
Students create texts whose purposes may be imaginative, informative and persuasive. Texts created may include recounts of stories and experiences, reports and explanations of learning area content, explanations of simple processes, and expressions of opinions about texts or experiences, including supporting reasons.
Mathematics
In Year 2, learning in Mathematics builds on each student's prior learning and experiences. Students engage in a range of approaches to learning and doing mathematics that develop their understanding of and fluency with concepts, procedures and processes by making connections, reasoning, problem-solving and practice. Proficiency in mathematics enables students to respond to familiar and unfamiliar situations by employing mathematical strategies to make informed decisions and solve problems efficiently.
Students further develop proficiency with positive dispositions towards mathematics and its use as they:
- recognise that mathematics can be used to investigate things they are curious about, to solve practical problems and model everyday situations.
- partition and combine numbers flexibly, recognising and describing the relationship between addition and subtraction and employing part-part-whole reasoning and relational thinking to solve additive problems
- use number sentences to formulate additive situations and represent simple multiplicative situations using equal groups and arrays
- use mathematical modelling to solve practical problems involving authentic situations by representing problems with physical and virtual materials.
- compare and contrast related operations and use known addition and subtraction facts to develop strategies for unfamiliar calculations
- recognise types of patterns in different contexts
- partition collections, shapes and objects into equal parts and build a sense of fractions as a measure, connecting this to measures of turn and representations of time
- use uniform units to measure, compare and discuss the attributes of shapes and objects, and the duration of events
- describe spatial relationships such as the relative position of objects represented within a two-dimensional space
- build the foundations for statistical inquiry by choosing questions based on their interests as they collect, represent, and interpret data, and recognise features of different representations
- develop a sense of equivalence, chance and variability when they engage in play-based and practical activities
Science
In Year 2, students describe the components of simple systems, such as stationary objects subjected to pushes or pulls, or combinations of materials, and show how objects and materials interact through direct manipulation. They observe patterns of growth and change in living things, and describe patterns and make predictions. They explore the use of resources from Earth and are introduced to the idea of the flow of matter when considering how water is used. They use counting and informal measurements to make and compare observations and begin to recognise that organising these observations in tables makes it easier to show patterns.
HASS
The Year 2 curriculum extends contexts for study beyond the personal to the community and to near and distant places that students are familiar with or aware of, exploring connections between the past and present and between people and places. Students examine remains of the past in their local area, coming to understand how connections have changed the lives of people over time and space and how their community values and preserves connections to the past. They study where they are located in the world and how the world is represented on maps and through place names that reveal the history and value of these places. Students explore other cultures' connections to their local place and their own connections to distant places. Through a study of technological change, students see how they are both similar and different to people in the past and how they are connected to places near and far. The idea of citizenship is introduced as students think about how people are connected.
Health and Physical Education
The curriculum for Years 1 and 2 builds on the learning from Foundation and supports students to make decisions to enhance their health, safety and participation in physical activity. The content enables students to explore their own sense of self and the factors that contribute to and influence their identities. Students learn about emotions, how to enhance their interactions with others, and the physical and social changes they go through as they grow older.
The content explores health messages and how they relate to health decisions and behaviours and examines strategies students can use when they need help. The content also provides opportunities for students to learn through movement. It supports them in broadening the range and complexity of fundamental movement skills they are able to perform. They learn how to select, transfer and apply simple movement skills and sequences individually, in groups and in teams.