Dear Parents of Students in the Year 2 EAL programme: The Year 2 team is beginning their second unit of inquiry

called How the World Works. The Main Idea The main idea of this unit is that materials are used in different ways depending on their properties. Students will also be looking at how materials change and can be changed. Vocabulary Words Wood, plastic, metal, glass, temperature and materials. What Will Your Child Be Doing At School? In this unit of inquiry your child will be given many different objects. They need to figure out if the object is wood, plastic, metal, glass or a fabric. Why do they think a certain object is made from wood? or maybe plastic? What is one feature or property for each of the above-mentioned materials? What We Would Like You To Do At Home? We would like you to explain the above vocabulary words and concepts in your mother tongue ( first language). Discuss these ideas and words at home in your first language so that your child is familiar with them. Then help your child learn the English words and ideas. Wood the trunk or main stems of trees. Can be used to build houses, furniture, etc. E.g. The table was made from wood that was 150 years old. Metal any one of a number of substances like gold, silver or copper. They can usually conduct an electric current. They are dull and you cannot see through them. E.g. Copper is a metal often used in pipes for plumbing. Plastic any of a group of materials that are not found in nature and that can be used instead of glass, wood, or metal. Plastic can be formed into all kinds of shapes when it is soft. When it hardens, it is very strong. E.g. Plastic toys last a long time. Glass a hard substance, sometimes see through and sometimes not see through. Glass is often used to make bottles and windows. E.g. The glass window broke easily when the baseball went through it. Temperature the measure of how warm or how cold something is. Measurement of temperature is usually in Celsius or Fahrenheit. E.g. Todays temperature broke all records for the last 50 years.

Materials the substance(s) which is ( are) used to make an object. E.g. Stone is a strong material. Scaffolding and Differentiation I will be assisting your child to learn the above vocabulary and a property for each material through student-to-teacher discussions, illustrative and real examples, peer-topeer discussions ( guided by myself), graphic organizers and use of non-fiction books. Some students through experimentation and observation may also be recording and observing changes in the materials being studied. These observations and results may be in the form of illustrations and simple descriptions up to the possibility of creating graphic displays using computer technology to illustrate what they already know and what they are learning. Thank you in advance for your support with this unit.

Ms. Eva Year 2 EAL Teacher