CURRENT NEWS
Summer term 1 - Amazing Africa
English
In our English lessons this half term we will be reading a selection of books based around stories and animals from Africa to help support our learning in our Geography topic of Kenya. We will continue to develop our proof-reading and correcting skills as well as extending our knowledge of how to use fronted adverbials, 2A sentences and a wider range of conjunctions and punctuation to help us prepare us for our Year 3 writing journey. As part of this journey, we will also be working hard to develop our cursive handwriting. Here’s the genres that will be our main focus this half term:
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One day on our beautiful blue planet Non chronological reports about lions |
Grace and her Family
Letters and descriptive writing |
Anna Hibiscus’ Song – linked to comparative to Africa Geography Africa report |
Anna Hibiscus - linked to comparative to Africa Geography
Postcards |
Stories from the same author – Anthony Browne – The Tunnel Extending a story |
Stories from the same author – Anthony Browne – Voices in the Park Narrative writing
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Transition writing – letters to our Year 3 teacher |
In Spelling and Phonics, we will continue to work through Level 6 of our school’s Twinkl Phonics scheme as well as looking back and consolidating the trickier spelling rules from throughout this year.
In our Reading sessions, we will be working hard to develop pace and expression when reading aloud and continue to question the meanings of new words and add them to our growing vocabulary that we can use when writing independently. We will also continue to focus on our prediction, inference, deduction and sequencing skills to build upon our success so far with our reading comprehension skills.
Year 2 Class Reading Journey:
Maths
In Maths this half term, we will be continuing to develop our rapid recall of multiplication and division facts as well as our number bonds to 20 and 100, we will also continue to focus on the 4 rules of number to build upon the arithmetic work we’ve already done in class. We will continue to use fluency starters to consolidate and revise our prior learning and develop our written calculation methods linked to addition and subtraction of 2-digit numbers etc. Here are the topics we will be studying:
Active Maths investigations covering:
- Missing number and inverse calculation, word problems and money, telling he time to nearest 15 and 5 minutes, fractions and multiplication and division, finding halves, thirds and quarters of amounts.
- Rounding, ordering 3 digit numbers, writing place value additions and understanding place value in 3 digit numbers.
- Using number facts to solve number puzzles, use knowledge of 2D shapes to recreate tangram pictures.
- Venn diagram – handling data Problem solving and Investigations
RE
In our collective worship and class discussions, we will be considering this half term’s whole school Christian Value of Perseverance and begin to understand this value by reading the Old Testament story of Noah’s Ark and thinking about how Noah showed perseverance and the reasons why.
In our class RE lessons, our topic is Ascension and Pentecost. We will explore what happened during these important times and develop our understanding of the Holy Spirit and link this to the meaning of The Holy Trinity.
Science
In Science this half term, we will be continuing with our topic of Materials. Everyday Materials
We will use our prior learning of naming various materials, classifying them in regards to their properties in order to investigate and answer the following questions:
- What materials burn/melt?
- What materials bend/squash?
- What materials can be frozen?
We will also be finishing our TITANIC BASED EXPERIMENTS and conduct experiments to develop our:
- Understanding of reversible and irreversible changes to materials such as water – children to make their own icebergs.
- Understanding of what makes a material fit for purpose – looking at waterproofing materials and strength of materials in order to make and test the sturdiest boat they can make.
- Understanding of why some objects float and sink and use practical activities to help us understand how Titanic was able to stay afloat when it had begun to take in water.
- Understanding of recyclable / sustainable materials, testing materials for absorbency, strength, flexibility and resilience. Introduction to concept of recycling.
Geography
Our Geography topic for this half term is ‘Amazing Africa’. This unit will teach the class about the geography of Kenya through focusing on the main human and physical features of the country. Children will learn about the key geographical features of the country including Kenyan wildlife, landscapes and culture. Children will learn about the similarities and differences between Kenya and the UK along with continuing to develop their geographical skills through a variety of fun and interactive activities. Their work on this topic will also be closely linked to the books we are studying within this half term’s Literacy sessions, helping the children to learn more about life in Africa from the perspective of a young girl and comparing what they read, as well as learning more about the animals in the African Savannah. The topic will begin to develop their knowledge of the wider world, and help them understand hot climates after studying colder climates in Year 1. We will also be finishing our Titanic history topic too!
Computing
In our Computing lessons this half term are focus will be Pictograms Data collection as tally charts. This topic ntroduces attributes to organise data and teaches children to begin presenting data graphically as pictograms.
Music
Our Music topic for this half term is: Glockenspiels and What’s The Score – Exploring instruments and symbols. We will sing a variety of songs and explore the versatility of instruments by finding different ways of making different sounds on the instruments.
We will also compose sound bites/ music (using their voices, body percussion and instruments) in response to a stimulus and then use symbols and graphic notation as a way of ‘recording’ their music.
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:
