Welcome to Year 2

Important Information

Year 2 Curriculum

In year 2, children are required to complete their SAT’s in May. In order to prepare pupils for these we work hard in class at encouraging children to become independent thinkers and to build up their stamina to read and write longer pieces of work.

 Reading Homework

Please ensure all children bring their book bags into class every day, regardless of whether they have read the night before. Reading books will be changed on a Monday and Thursday. We ask children to re-read books to develop fluency. In year 2 we also encourage the children to write and draw about their favourite books they are reading at home using their reading record. There is a prize each Friday for the child who has tried their best with this activity. We also encourage adults at home to ask children questions about this reading books not just listen to them read. This help with their comprehension skills.

Extra Homework

Every Friday children will receive a list of year 2 words, these are either common exception words or words that contain ‘sounds’ we are learning that week in class. These need to be practised at home each evening in readiness for testing on Friday.

Handwriting is very important in year 2 and we are going to be focussing on improving our cursive writing over the next half term. We will send out handwriting homework each Friday along with spellings. We are asking that parents/carers take some time to sit with their child and encourage them to correctly form each letter using the given examples.

Topics

Art: Mixed Media through ‘The African Savannah’

Computing: Using Computers

PE: African Dance and Our Healthy Bodies

RE: Christianity

Science: Animals including Humans

Geography: The UK

History: Moon Landing

PSHE: ‘Money Matters’ and ‘Who likes Chocolate?’

 

 

English 

Our Power of Reading text for this term is ‘One Day on our Blue Planet…In the Savannah’. It is a beautifully illustrated nonfiction book looking at all the wildlife found on the African Savannah, in particular Lions. This book will give us a wonderful opportunity to explore non-fiction writing around Lions and other Savannah animals as well as poetry to explore settings and animals.

In the next half term, we will be looking at ‘The Journey Home’ by Frann Preston-Gannon. As the ice is melting, Polar Bear is in need of a new home. We join him on his journey across the seas; meeting new friends along the way. This beautifully illustrated story has a powerful message of conservation, which we will be discussing. We will explore the key characters, create diary entries from their points of view and write predictions and alternative endings, as well as exploring those powerful messages about protecting our animals.

GUIDED READING

We will also be doing daily guided reading sessions, where we will focus on a different text each week. We will be looking at a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts, as well as using our inference skills to investigate illustrations. Our guided read sessions help us build on our fluency, understanding of what we are reading in addition to being able to make predictions, sequence and retrieve information from the text.

MATHS

This term we will continue to practice counting in 2s, 5s and 10s as well as developing our multiplication and division methods, such as repeated addition and subtraction, sharing, grouping and arrays. We will record mathematical statements using the correct multiplication and division signs. Next half term, we will explore ‘Measurement’ looking at different standard units to estimate and measure length/height (m/cm), mass (kg/g), temperature and capacity (litres/ml). We will use rulers, scales, thermometers and a variety of measuring vessels to estimate, measure, compare and contrast our measurements. We will also be investigating money; recognising different coins, combining amounts to make a particular value as well as solving simple problems in order to give change.

SCIENCE

We are continuing our ‘Animals including Humans’ topic, looking at the needs of animals, including humans, for survival as well as the importance of exercise, eating healthily and keeping clean. We will continue to practice our scientific skills through asking and answering questions and develop our understanding that there could be different possible answers. We will use our observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions about animals and humans.

Art Week

We have had a fun- filled art week exploring the colourful world of the famous 1960’s pop artist, Andy Warhol.

The children created their own self portraits by carefully tracing around their photographs, painting the sections with bright colours and then adding the bold, black lines with felt tip pens. We then put them all together to create a large scale piece of art work. We are so proud of the end result!

We also looked at Warhol’s ‘Campbell Soup Cans’ image and created our own repeating patterns. We really had to concentrate to make sure we used the correct colours to keep up the pattern.

Finally, we used black paint and folded our paper to create our own images in the style of Warhol’s ‘Rorschach’ paintings. We spent time looking at the images to see what objects and patterns we could see in our creations!

Children in Need

Year 2 had a fabulous day for this year’s Children in Need. We followed the journey of the cyclists on the ‘Children in Need Rickshaw challenge’ on a live interactive map of the United Kingdom. We used our map skills to plot their route on our own map. We couldn’t believe how far they cycled!

Geography

We have been exploring the continents and oceans of our world.

We have spent time looking at Google Earth’s aerial photographs of each continent and where each one is located on a world map. We have used our knowledge to locate and label each continent on our map.

We have loved using atlases and are getting so confident in naming the continents and oceans.

Climbing Wall

Year 2 had an AMAZING time at the climbing wall. Everyone had a go at the different interactive games and it was so much fun! Some of us were even brave enough to go to the very top!

Project Loan Books

Year 2 have had an exciting delivery of new Project Loan books from the library! We love finding out what books are in the boxes and themes they cover this term.

We have spent time looking at the books and so far have discovered books all about pets, different animals, the moon landing and a box full of wonderful new fiction texts!

We can’t wait to have a good read of them over the next few weeks.

Art

Year 2 created some animal masks using a variety of oil pastels and colours. We enjoyed using the oil pastels and cut our masks out to create the animal outline.

Watercolour Paintings

Year 2 painted bright and colourful sunsets using watercolours. We then added animal and tree silhouettes to complete the African savannah inspired artwork.

Science Week

Year 2 had an amazing time investigating how polar bears keep warm. We used lard as the polar bears fat and put our hand into freezing cold water. We discovered that we couldn’t feel a thing when our hand was covered with the fat! So polar bears fat works as an in insulator to keep them warm.

Science Week

We learnt lots of interesting healthy food and hygiene facts from the nurse. She talked us through how to keep a healthy, balanced diet and we put different foods into the correct food groups.

India Week

What a jam packed week year 2 have had!

It all started off with a bang; with the famous King G, showing us how to play the Dhol drums. We had an amazing time following the beat and banging the drums so loudly that the whole school could hear!

We then learnt the amazing Indian dance moves of ‘Bumblebee’, spinning and twirling in our colourful costumes. We were all naturals, learning two different dances and then putting on a performance at the end of the day. The children absolutely loved it and picked up the dance moves so quickly! We were very impressed.

The rest of the week consisted of saree designing, collaging Indian temples, creating vibrant Rangoli patterns using sand and becoming news reporters to report on the tragic floods in Chennai. The children were fascinated and took on their roles as reporters very seriously, leading to some brilliant pieces of writing!

We also had a visit from Chitra Soundar, the author of Pattan’s pumpkin, who told us how she came about writing the story. We were bursting with questions for her and could have sat chatting to her all afternoon.

The end of the week finished with us preparing, cooking and tasting our very own vegetable curry. Despite how the children said it looked, they all said it was delicious and were asking for seconds. The word ‘magnificent’ was even used to describe it!

All the children and staff have had a wonderful time exploring and celebrating the culture of India.