Spring Term 1 2020
'Would you make a good explorer?'
We are looking forward to finding out about explorers this term, in our topic “Would you make a good explorer?” This topic will include explorer stories and researching the lives of famous explorers, as well as thinking about the values that explorers need and the necessary requirements for survival. If you have any books, artefacts or photographs relating to this topic, or know anybody who has been on an exciting expedition, we’d love to hear from you!
Our hook for learning will be a visit from a local modern day explorer. We shall also compare the lives of significant explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong, and discover similarities and differences between their expeditions.
In science we will be thinking about how explorers survive in extreme conditions, and finding out about a healthy lifestyle including exercise and sleep. We will find out about the requirements all animals have in order to stay alive. We will be making healthy explorer snacks and ‘fruits of the world’ smoothies.
Our calculation emphasis will be on the four operations with particular attention on division and the links with multiplication. In addition and subtraction we will continue adding and subtracting two, two digit numbers. We will be using mathematical vocabulary to describe position, direction and movement.
This half-term our grammar focus will be on suffixes, contractions and punctuation. Throughout all our writing we will be encouraging the children to use noun phrases, conjunctions, accurate spelling and punctuation. We will also be encouraging the children to use a neatly joined cursive script for their writing.
Our PE days will continue to be Wednesdays and Fridays. If your child normally wears earrings, please ensure they are either not worn on these days or that your child is able to remove them themselves. They will not be permitted to take part in PE if they are wearing earrings and we are not able to remove them for them.
Reading books should be returned on Mondays in 2W and Wednesdays in 2K and Shared Learning Books should continue to be returned on Mondays.
Autumn Term 2 2019
'Where in the world would you like to live?
This half-term has a geography focus as we travel around the world with Miranda the explorer. We will be learning to name and locate the world’s continents and oceans and explore the physical and human features of different countries. We will find out about many countries as part of our whistle-stop tour including Russia, China, India and Australia. Whilst studying India, we will take part in an Indian dance workshop on 14th November and research the climate, dress, culture and animals that live there. If any parents have links to India and would like to come into school and share their own experiences we would love to hear from you! We will also research Indian food, and make our own vegetarian curry and Indian sweets to taste.
As a school we continue to work on developing the children’s vocabulary. Some of the vocabulary we hope the children will begin to use includes continent, ocean, country, atlas, globe, human feature, physical feature, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Antarctica, Australasia(Oceania), Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Southern Ocean.
Our English work will focus on traditional stories and we begin the half-term with “The Magic Cooking Pot”. The children will also be learning about different word types such as adjectives, adverbs, verbs, nouns, conjunctions and connectives. We will be looking at different word endings (suffixes) such as –ed and –ing. We will continue to encourage the children to use a neatly joined cursive script and to try and make their writing as exciting as possible. Whilst reading, the children will be encouraged to use expression and to ask about vocabulary they are unsure of. They will also be asked more challenging questions requiring them to use the skills of inference and deduction.
In Maths our focus is on the operations of addition and subtraction. We will be building on our work in the last half term culminating in the children being able to add and subtract a two digit number to and from a two digit number. We will be representing our thinking using a part,part whole model and the bar model. Throughout this unit we will be using concrete materials such as tens and ones equipment. Through our learning challenge we will be exploring symmetry of Indian patterns and buildings.
PE will continue to take place on Wednesday and Friday.
Autumn Term 2019
Welcome to Year 2! Further to the welcome letter sent home at the end of term, we have tried to compile some further useful information for you. However, as we have said, if you do have any questions or anything you are not sure about, please do come and speak to us. The best time to catch us is after school but we are around in the mornings for urgent matters. Alternatively you can send an email to admin2423@welearn365.com This is a really busy but fun half-term. We hope your children enjoy their first half-term in Year 2.
Autumn 1 Topics (3.9.19 - 25.10.19)
This year we begin with an introductory topic entitled “How do I feel?” The children will be encouraged to think about their own feelings and the feelings of those around them. This learning will be based on “The Zones of Regulation”. This is a framework used to teach children self-regulation and self-control. It aims to help children to categorise their feelings improving their ability to recognise and communicate how they're feeling in a safe, non-judgmental way. Emotions and feelings are grouped into four coloured zones categorising alertness and emotions. The framework emphasises the importance of letting the children know that it's fine to experience all of these emotions while they're at school. There is no bad zone, but that it is important to learn and use strategies that will help them get to their Green Zone. We will be teaching the children to use strategies or tools to help them move between zones. For those of you wishing to know more, we will be sharing more detailed information about the scheme via a parent/carers’ document and ‘Drop in’ sessions with Mrs Wade and Mrs Davey to be held on Friday 6th and Monday 9th September between 2.40 and 3.40 p.m.
During this unit of work we will also be delivering ‘The Taking Care Project’, Warwickshire’s protective behaviours scheme, details of which you will have received during your child’s time in their Reception class. We will also be thinking about online safety. This work will be based on Jessie & Friends, an animated series about online safety produced by 'Thinkuknow'. Thinkuknow is the national education programme from NCA-CEOP at the National Crime Agency. NCA-CEOP works to keep children safe from sexual abuse and exploitation. Further details about this work are included in a separate letter.
We will be taking part in Roald Dahl Day on Friday 13th September 2019 and much of our learning during this week will be based on the book “Matilda”. We would like to watch the film “Matilda” with the children, however as this film is rated ‘PG’ there is a separate letter asking for your written permission for your child to watch this. On Roald Dahl Day we encourage the children to dress as a book character and to bring in a £1 charity donation. We have decided this year to allow the children to wear any book character costume for this event so as to limit the need for multiple different costumes throughout the year. Further details about this event are included in a separate letter.
We will then move on to our topic “Are all castles bouncy?”. This topic will begin with a visit to Kenilworth Castle on Tuesday 24th September. Details of this trip can be found in a separate letter. A voluntary contribution of £9.50 is requested in order for this visit to happen.
As part of our topic we will be making model castles. This will take place in the weeks beginning 14th October and 21st October. On Monday 14th October please send in a cardboard cereal packet and any other junk modelling materials your child thinks might be useful for their model. We will be asking for some parents/carers/grandparents to help us for an afternoon nearer the time.
This half-term also includes our Year 2 class assemblies. 2K’s class assembly will be on Thursday 24th October at 9.05 am and 2W’s class assembly will be on Friday 25th October at 9.05 am. Parents, carers and grandparents are warmly welcomed to attend their child’s assembly.
In the afternoon on Friday 25th October, we will celebrate all our castle themed learning with a Medieval Banquet for the children. Children are asked to bring in a small contribution of food e.g. bunch of grapes and it would be useful if the children had a medieval costume (knight, king, queen, lord, lady, jester etc.) for this event. However, we do have some costumes in school if you are not able to provide one. As part of the children’s shared learning we encourage them to learn a joke, poem, dance, song or magic trick to entertain the class with at our banquet. Again, further information about this event will be found in a separate letter.
For further detail about this half-term’s topics, please see the topic overview also available on our website. The following information was shared in our ‘Welcome to Year 2’ letter but we thought it might be useful to re-share it.
Procedures
In the morning, Year 2 children come into school along the path at the far end of the playground and in the far door to the Year 2 cloakrooms. They come in on their own. Book-bag boxes will be in the corridor leading to the cloakrooms (labelled with group names). The home reading books box will be in the corridor as well. Children will be expected to come in to the classroom and sit down quietly and complete the jobs listed on the board, or perhaps finish work from a previous day. At the end of the day the children come out to you, and to foster independence we let them make their own way down the path to you. We do stress that if they cannot see the person picking them up they must come back in to school with a teacher. They must not wait with anybody else, go with a friend or neighbour or wait on their own. We won’t release them to anybody else without your written permission.
PE Days
Our PE days will be Wednesdays and Fridays. Please ensure your child has their kit in school on these days and that any earrings have been removed.
Learning Together
On Tuesdays the Year 2 door will open at 8.40 am to allow you to accompany your child into school to complete a short learning task in the classroom. It is not compulsory that you attend this session but we cannot accommodate unaccompanied children until the bell rings at 8.45 am.
Reading Books and Shared Learning Books
Please return your child’s Reading Book and Shared Learning Book to school on a Monday. New books will be issued to you on Wednesdays. We would encourage you to read daily with your child. Longer books can be broken down into small chunks, shorter books can be re-read two or three times in a week and we would also like you to record any books your child reads from home or the library. Shared Learning is issued half-termly and can also be found on our website. We encourage the children to do a task a week at home however, we do understand the pressures of busy lives and so will not chase the children to hand these in.
Year 2 Shared Learning
Reading
By the time children reach Year 2 most are fluent and accurate readers. The emphasis now changes to higher order skills talking about a text, using inference (hidden meaning and finding clues from the text) to answer questions about characters, settings or plots as well as discussing the authors choice and use of language.
The following questions may be useful when you are reading with your child, particularly if they are a fluent reader.
To deduce, infer or interpret information, events or ideas from text
To identify and comment on what a text looks like(layout)
To explain writers use of language
As a reader what do you think about the story
How does the text relate to you?