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

• Why did the character say this and how did it affect the story/plot?
• How did the charcater feel when....?
• How do we know this?
• What did.... do to make... say/feel that?
• Why did the character say this in a gentle/worried/angry voice?
• How did the character behave when....why?
• What made that character do that?

 

To identify and comment on what a text looks like(layout)

• Which section of the information booklet tells you about...?
• What is the heading?
• Which caption tells us about?
• Why has bold print been used for that word?
• Explain why the writer has chosen to write that sentence/word like this?

 

To explain writers use of language

• Pick out three words that explain how..... moved?
• What do these words tell us about a character/object?
• Explain why the writer uses a word... To describe the.....
• Can you think of another word with the same meaning as...

 

As a reader what do you think about the story

• What kind of story do you think it is?
• What happened in the story to make you think this?
• Can you think of an alternative title?
• What did the characters in the story learn?

 

How does the text relate to you?

• Can you compare this story with others you have read?
• What kinds of stories normally start/end/are written in this style?

Maths

In maths we often find that many of the skills such as telling the time, money and measurement are best learned when they are practical and fun activities that are covered a little and often. With this in mind if you are looking for additional ideas to help your child these are the areas to cover. You will probably find opportunities to help your child just in your usual daily routine. Kitchen cupboards, cooking, bathtime and shopping trips are perfect sources for initiating activities and conversations about money and measurement.