CURRENT NEWS
Autumn term 2 Local History
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 half term together:
English
In English this half term, we will be revising the phonics we did in Year 1 and developing our independent reading and writing skills through using a range of the wonderful and exciting books to get us off to a great start! We will be finishing off our Level 5 Phoneme revision and then be moving to Level 6 phonics teaching and learning for the rest of the year - we will be super readers and spellers soon!
We will be continue to develop our reading skills in both independent reading to adults and our weekly guided reading sessions as well as in our weekly library time - don't forget to read your 2 reading books as many times as you can each week to become a confident and fluent reader! We will be learning all about the features of letters, non-chronological reports, letters, character descriptions as well as instructions. We will also use our Remembrance writing topic to continue to learn how to apply our knowledge to improve our independent writing.
Check out our Class Reading Journey on this page to find out the range of wonderful books we will be reading together all year. We will be working hard on beginning to use pre-cursive writing, learning all about adjectives, conjunctions as well as making sure we become experts at using capital letters and full stops when we are writing recounts, stories, letters and instructions.
We will also revise all our Year 1 Common Exception words and begin our journey to learn to read and spell the Year 2 Common Exceptions words and as we move onto Level 6 of our school Twinkl Phonics scheme, we will have lots of opportunities to revise and practice these tricky words.
Year 2 Class Reading Journey:
Maths
In Maths this half term, we will begin to secure our rapid recall of our 10,2 and 5s times tables to support us in our work on multiplication and division and begin to learn our double facts off by heart. We will learn all about methods to help us add and subtract 2 digit numbers and how to use known number facts to become confident when solving maths calculations in our heads. We will also be learning how to tell the time, and about how to measure length and capacity too!
We will also work daily on our maths fluency skills to help us become more confident when adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Check out the Year 2 Maths Knowledge organisers on this page to see where our Year 2 maths journey will take us.
RE
In our class R.E lessons this half term, we will be learning all about how good news is spread by angels in the Bible before moving onto revising and adding to what we know about the Nativity story to help us understand the true meaning of Christmas in our units:
Unit 1.4 – What is the ‘good news’ Christians believe Jesus brings? Unit 1.3 – Why does Christmas matter to Christians?
We will also be working very hard alongside the children in Reception and Year 1 to practice and prepare for our Nativity play in church. A letter with dates and times will be sent home very soon alongside your child's script!
Within our whole school worship, we will be exploring the Christian Value of Kindness and learning how and why we can serve and help others. We will begin this half term by making a Kindness tree in class to consider how and why we should show kindness to others.
We will continue to learn more about the meaning of the Holy Trinity and revise what we have learnt so far this school year about our 7 Christian Values and what they mean to us.
PSHE
Unit 3: Health and Wellbeing (Lessons 1-7)
- Lesson 1:
Experiencing
different
emotions - Lesson 2:
Being active - Lesson 3:
Relaxation:
breathing
exercises - Lesson 4:
Steps to
success - Lesson 5:
Developing a
growth
mindset - Lesson 6:
Healthy diet - Lesson 7:
Looking after
our teeth
To describe a
range of
feelings and
develop simple
strategies for
managing
them.
Science
In Science we will be finishing off learning all about Animals Including Humans and learning about how to keep ourselves healthy through healthy food choices and finding out all about the importance of exercise before moving onto our new Living things and their habitats topic – check out our Science Knowledge Organiser to find out more! We will be learning all about and considering the answers to:
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Food chains and local, mini and global habitats looking in more detail at animals that may live on The Galapagos islands, why is that habitat suitable? How have the animals adapted to their surroundings? How do we classify whether something is considered living, dead or never lived? We will also make hypothesises about what best makes a mini-beast habitat before making a selected area more attractive for the mini-beasts. Why have they chosen the area they have? What mini beasts did they attract?
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History
In History this half term, we will be learning all about the history of our local area, including the history of Hollingworth Lake, Rochdale town centre as well as the history of the Rochdale Pioneers. We will think about the terms the past, the present and 'beyond living memory' and consider our own personal history at the beginning of this topic. We will also pay a visit to the Rochdale Pioneers museum to bring our learning to life!
Within our English teaching and learning, we will also be learning about the meaning of Remembrance day and the events during the wars and research the lives of soldiers and the conditions in the trenches to write a non-chronological report.
Art / Design Technology
In Art this half term we will be focusing on design and technology unit 'Moving Monsters' to learn all about mechanisms through testing them and evaluating which mechanisms work best and why before moving to designing and making our own Moving Monster. We will also be making Christmas cards at the end of the term.
Computing
In Computing this half term, we will be learning all about:
Alternative unit Digital imagery |
Music
In Music this half term, we will begin to learn our Nativity play songs as well as learning how to play a glockenspiel. We will exploring pulse and rhythm and continue to develop our listening skills. We will use our voices, movements and the playing of percussion instruments to respond to different pulses and rhythms.
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:
