CURRENT NEWS
Spring 2 - Explorers and Adventurers
WELCOME TO OUR FOURTH TERM IN YEAR 2!
Are you ready to have a fantastic year with me in Year 2? We are going to learn and have lots of fun too! Here is what we will be doing in our first Spring half term together:
English
In English this half term, we will be consolidating and extending our knowledge around cohesive writing, aspects of sentence punctuation as well as expanded noun phrase and the role of conjunctions, question marks and exclamation marks. We will begin the half term by writing a recount of our Christmas holidays and work hard to write in the past tense and sequence our recount using time connectives. This half term, we will be covering these genres: recount, instructions, narrative writing, non-chronological reports and diary entries. Check out our Class Reading Journeys to see what awesome books we will be reading this half term, and for the whole year too! We will also continue to develop our pre-cursive handwriting and begin to learn simple joins to help us become Handwriting Heroes!
We will continue to learn our Level 6 phonemes and progress on to the Level 6 Rhino Readers books in line with our Twinkl Phonics teaching sequences as well as having lots of opportunities to explore and choose a range of library books in our weekly Reading for Pleasure time. We will also continue to revisit and recap our Level 5 phonemes and tricky words as well as more focus on the Year 2 Common Exception words. We will also continue to vote for our daily home time story and have more visits from our Reading Ambassadors too!
We will continue to develop our reading comprehension skills to build upon our reading progress so far this year to become super at our Reading Special Agent Secret Missions.
Year 2 Class Reading Journey:
Maths
In Maths this half term, we will begin each lesson by completing our ‘Flashback in 4’ fluency tasks to ensure we can apply our prior learning in our maths sessions. This half term, we will begin our Special Agent training, which will give us lots of opportunities to apply our learning in problem solving session.
We will continue to develop our mental maths strategies to help begin to learn how to use rapid recall of known number facts to become quicker at doing sums in our heads. Here are the topics we will be covering this half term:
- Number and Place Value – consolidation our knowledge of place value to add 2-digit numbers, begin to use known number facts to solve calculations, compare 2 and 3-digit numbers using the < > and = signs. We will also begin to learn all about how rounding numbers to the nearest ten to estimate answers to calculations.
- Money – we will revise recognising UK coins and notes and learn how to add a mixed range of coins, developing our knowledge of using place value to help us add these coins before completing reasoning tasks to consolidate our learning.
- Addition and Subtraction – we will begin by revisiting the addition and subtraction strategies we have learned so far this year and use pictorial representations, simple written methods and number lines to add and subtract 1 and 2 digit numbers. We will also begin to understand how we can use know number facts to ten and twenty to help us add 3 numbers as well as solving other calculations alongside developing our mental maths strategies to become super maths Special Agents.
- Subtraction of 2-digit numbers – we will develop our subtractions skills even further this half term by learning written methods such as number lines and the expanded column subtraction methods to begin to crack the Special Agent maths codes.
- Measures – we will have our first look at how to measure capacity using ml and litres as well as comparing and estimating mass and applying our knowledge of this topic to complete our reasoning skills.
- Shape – we will consolidate our knowledge of the names and properties of 2d and 3d shapes and develop our knowledge further by comparing similarities and differences between a range of these shapes.
Science
In Science this half term, we will be learning all about Plants and starting these lessons by recapping what we can remember from Year 1 and what we want to find out in these sessions. We will answer a range of questions related to the growth of plants to determine any misconceptions to help us plan and conduct an experiment to see why a plant needs specific things to grow and be healthy. We will be learning to describe how plants that have grown from seeds and bulbs have developed over time, to identify plants that grew well in different conditions, tospot similarities and differences between bulbs and seeds and how we can nurture seeds and bulbs into mature plants identifying the different requirements of different plants.
We will be taught the following objectives:
- To observe and describe how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants.
- Find and describe how plants need water, light and a suitable temperature to grow and stay healthy.
RE – taught by Mrs Bester
Our Christian Value for this half term is ‘Forgiveness’ and will be learning about the meaning of this and how and why we can demonstrate this in our lives through both whole school worships and classroom discussions. We will begin this by considering how respect can grow based on our actions towards others in our day to day lives.
Our RE topic for this half term is: Unit 1.5 – Why does Easter matter to Christians?
Within this topic we will find out and recall the events of Holy Week, how and why it is an important Christian festival and how this is celebrated by Christians.
History – Explorers and Adventurers – Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong (KO?)
This half term, we will be finding out all about two significant individuals form the past and why we still remember them. We will begin the topic by revisiting and recalling the key facts from our last history topic of our local history before beginning by learning about the voyages of Christopher Columbus.
Studying these 2 explorers engages the children and provides a basis of an understanding of boats in the past that the children will build upon when they do the Titanic topic later on in the year. The contrast between the evidence regarding Christopher Columbus and the moon landing helps children to understand how we find out about events in the past and provides a clear example of how life changes over time. When studying Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong, the contrast of 15th century travel with 20th century space travel helps pupils to strengthen their ideas of similarity and differences between time frame both beyond and within living memory, the story of Christopher Columbus allows children to explore and sequence key events and links well to our Geography topic when we are learning about continents and the world.
Learning about key events in both the life of Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong also provides opportunities for children to place these key dates on a timeline and discuss where the Great Fire of London would be placed, revising key information and consolidating the concept of a significant individual with children being able to make links and references to Samuel Pepys. When discussing Neil Armstrong, the concept of travelling to space captures the children’s imaginations and encourages them to be excited about exploring the unknown and has great opportunities for learning at home as parents and grandparents can engage and discuss the Moon Landing with them, making it accessible both at home and at school.
PSHCE – taught by Mrs Bester (HeartSmart scheme of work)
Our topic for this half term is ‘Don’t rub it in, rub it out’
Within this unit of work, we will learn and consider how our actions have consequences for both ourselves and others by learning about and considering the following learning objectives
- Saying sorry and offering forgiveness between friends
- how holding onto unforgiveness can make us feel
- Reflecting on helpful ways to deal with hurt
- Ways to handle negstive emotions
- Demonstrating the consequences of teasing or bullying
Computing – taught by Mrs Bester
This half term, we will be learning all about an Introduction to quizzes
We will recap on our learning from the Year 1 Scratch Junior unit, understanding that sequences of commands have an outcome and making predictions.
Music – taught by Mrs Kenyon
Our Jack and the Beanstalk unit of work continues from last half term:
Linking with the class’ reading work based on traditional fiction, the children will do listening, evaluating, singing, playing and performing based on the story of Jack And The Beanstalk.
The children will:
- a) Sing songs, in unison and two parts, with clear diction, control of pitch, a sense of phrase and musical expression
- b) Play tuned and untuned instruments with control and rhythmic accuracy
- c) Practise, rehearse and present performances
- d) Explore and explain their own ideas and feelings about music using movement, dance, expressive language and musical vocabulary
- e) To listen with attention to detail and to internalise and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
How the combined musical elements of pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, texture and silence can be organised within musical structures
Art and Design Technology –
This half term, our focus is on art skills in the unit ‘Life in Colour – Painting skills). Within this topic, we will do a range of activities to help us learn to:
- Name the primary and secondary colours.
- Talk about the colour changes they notice and make predictions about what will happen when two colours mix.
- Describe the colours and textures they see.
- Try different tools to recreate a texture and decide which tool works best. Show they can identify different textures in a collaged artwork.
- Apply their knowledge of colour mixing to match colours effectively.
- Choose collage materials based on colour and texture.
- Talk about their ideas for an overall collage.
- Try different arrangements of materials, including overlapping shapes.
- Give likes and dislikes about their work and others’.
- Describe ideas for developing their collages.
- Choose materials and tools after trying them out.
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:
