CURRENT NEWS
Autumn term 1 - Super Me!
English
In English this half term, we will be revising the phonics we did in Year 1 and developing our independent reading and writing skills through using a range of the wonderful and exciting books to get us off to a great start! We will be finishing off our Level 5 Phoneme revision and then be moving to Level 6 phonics teaching and learning for the rest of the year - we will be super readers and spellers soon!
We will be continue to develop our reading skills in both independent reading to adults and our weekly guided reading sessions as well as in our weekly library time - don't forget to read your 2 reading books as many times as you can each week to become a confident and fluent reader! We will be learning all about the features of letters, non-chronological reports, letters, character descriptions as well as instructions.
Check out our Class Reading Journey on this page to find out the range of wonderful books we will be reading together all year. We will be working hard on beginning to use pre-cursive writing, learning all about adjectives, conjunctions as well as making sure we become experts at using capital letters and full stops when we are writing recounts, stories, letters and instructions.
We will also revise all our Year 1 Common Exception words and begin our journey to learn to read and spell the Year 2 Common Exceptions words and as we move onto Level 6 of our school Twinkl Phonics scheme, we will have lots of opportunities to revise and practice these tricky words.
Year 2 Class Reading Journey:
Maths
In Maths this half term, we will consolidate our counting and place value knowledge and begin to secure our rapid recall of our 10,2 and 5s times tables to support us in our work on multiplication and division and begin to learn our double facts off by heart. We will learn all about methods to help us add and subtract 2-digit numbers and how to use known number facts to become confident when solving maths calculations in our heads. We will also be learning how to tell the time, and about how to measure length and capacity too!
We will also work daily on our maths fluency skills to help us become more confident when adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Check out the Year 2 Maths Knowledge organisers on this page to see where our Year 2 maths journey will take us.
Animals Including Humans in Science this half term, we will be revising and building on our Y1 work about animals and humans. We will be learning all about how to keep ourselves healthy through a balanced diet and exercise too. We will also learn about life cycles, the difference between living and non-living things, as well as sorting animals into their groups.
- Experiments and Investigations
- The importance of a balanced diet -
- Children to design a fruit kebab using their favourite fruits.
- Children to record favourite fruits of whole class using tally chart and bar graphs.
- Tasting food from different food groups
- Complete the disclosing tablets activity – importance of oral hygiene
Super UK –
Recognise landmarks and physical features of UK using maps and aerial photographs (What does Superman see as he’s flying to the rescue?) Naming capital cities of UK and continents and key features of a place.
Mapping skills covered:
name and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans
name, locate and identify characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom and its surrounding seas.
use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the United Kingdom and its countries, as well as the countries, continents and oceans studied at this key stage
Unit 1: What do Christians believe God is like?
Our Christian value for this half term is all about friendship. Through a combination of whole school worship, stories and work in class, we will begin the year by thinking about how we can be a good friend to other people to compile a ‘Friendship Charter’ to make sure we have a fabulous time in Y2.
In our R.E. sessions, we will be considering what Christians believe God is like, exploring and explaining our own perceptions and how God is represented in the Bible, and the story of Creation.
Technology in the world
In Computing this half term with Mrs Bester, we will be learning all about this unit How is information technology (IT) being used for good in our lives?
Computing systems and networks – IT around us
Art In our art lessons this half term, we will be developing our drawing skills and begin to learn the different methods that can represent texture and emotions of characters, using a range of different media. Here are the learning objectives we will be focusing on:
Tell a Story – drawing skills Suggest ways to draw a word through marks.
- Use relevant language to describe how an object
- feels.
- Suggest ways to create different textures through
- drawn marks.
- Freely experiment with different tools, receiving
- encouragement when needed.
- Describe and then draw shapes that make up an
- object.
- Use good observational skills to add details to their
- drawing.
- Use an interesting range of marks that show an
- understanding of how to draw different textures.
- Make sketches, which may be of basic stick-like
- figures or may imply more shapes.
- Develop sketches into a character, with some
- support, adding details to enhance their character.
- Demonstrate an understanding of how drawing
- facial features in different ways conveys
expressions.
- Recount a story and select key events to draw.
- Create scenes from their own imagination, with
some support.
ONLINE LEARNING
In the event of your child needing to self-isolate at any time during this school year, I will be uploading tasks to complete regularly on the Year 2 Information page alongside setting printer free activities and mini challenges on Seesaw too. Maths and English will be set on a weekly basis and will mirror the work the children are completing in task. There will also be a topic grid full of activities that cover all the other subjects we do in class linked to our current class topic.
There will also be a weekly little lesson over on Mrs G's Little Lessons Youtube channel to help you practice your weekly spellings at home and links to other usual learning videos will be posted regularly on our class Seesaw page.
Check out the different spelling, phonics and maths playlists videos and little lessons on YouTube here:
https://youtube.com/channel/UCTWM1mZ7HDSMu-hvF9YCivA
READING
Reading is the cornerstone of all the children do and learn to do in Year 2. As children are expected to leave Year 2 on Stage 10 or higher, it is vital that children read at home as much as possible. Regular reading also helps children to learn the high frequency and common exception words that the children need to be able to read and spell, as well as modelling coherent sentence structures. Children need to become more fluent when reading aloud, and should only need to sound out a few words within the book.
From September, we will be assessing the children's reading and matching their reading books to their current phonetical knowledge. We group the children in class into 2 groups and endeavor to change reading books at least twice a week on a daily alternating basis, to ensure your child's book is changed when needed, please remember to record all reading in the blue reading diary.
It is also really important that your child reads as much as they can - these books do not need to be the school reading book, and I would encourage you to share your favourite books or authors with your children. In the next few weeks, I will be inviting parents (who wish to) to come and read their favourite children's book to the class at home time - to show children that books and stories should be enjoyed and loved! If you would be interested in this, please pop in and see me any time - the children and I would love to have you!
Homework and Spellings
In Year 2, it is very important that the children complete their homework including spellings and reading their homework book every week. At the end of the year, the children will be taking their SATs tests which include separate reading and spelling tests. The outcome of these tests supplement my end of year decisions - spelling plays a big factor in whether or not your child will reach the expected level for Year 2 by the end of the year. At Parent's evening later on this half-term, I will be sending home the lists of High Frequency words and the newer 'Common Exception words' for your child to practice reading and spelling at home to consolidate the work done in class as well as intervention groups. (Please see below for the list of words.)
Revising Year 1 Learning Home support:
This half term, your child will begin the year revising the phonics they learnt in Year 1 to help develop their confidence in both their independent reading and writing. A core skill we will be focusing on is teaching the children to use their phoneme fingers to sound out words when spelling independently. In class, we will be completing phonics fluency tasks that focus in on 5 words that include the same sound and the children have to write down the graphemes for the sounds they can hear. I will also be uploading the Gimme 5 Mini lessons on a regular basis to help your child be able to practice at home and begin their journey to become a Super Speller. Check out the most recent uploads to help you with your sounding out:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDNY9D-fYJHzpjh__CiVcvUyipeX98BBW
Phonics Information for Parents:
Please continue practicing using all the phonics resources we will be sending home in September and don't forget I love to see those videos on the Seesaw app.
You can also visit this website to play some phonics games:
Year 2 Common Exception words
These are all the words your child will need to be able to read and spell correctly when writing independently in class, your child may also refer to these as 'rainbow words' too as this is what we call them in class. Keep your eye out for Rainbow word challenges on Seesaw throughout this half term!
TIMES TABLES CHALLENGES:
In Year 2, the children need to know their multiplication and division facts for the 10,2,5 and 3 times tables.
Fancy practicing your timetables facts? Check out these games here:
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/multiplication-and-division
Want to find out a little more about what Year 2 is going to be like, and what your child will be learning in maths and spelling? Check out these handy Parent guides below:
What will my child learn in Year 2?
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/at-school/year-2-at-primary-school/what-to-expect-in-year-2-age-6-7/
More about Year 2 maths:
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/maths/primary-maths-age-6-7-year-2/
More about Year 2 spelling:
