Welcome to Year 2
Key information:
Amsterdam- Class Teacher: Mrs Storey
Helsinki - Class Teacher: Mrs Culshaw
Teaching Assistant: Miss Godfrey
PPA cover/support staff: Mrs Valente (PPA cover)
Pick up and drop off: All Year 2 children will enter via the cloakroom door and exit school directly from their classrooms. The doors will be open at 8.40-8.50am and again at 3.15pm.
PE Days: Monday and Wednesday every week.
Children should come to school in their PE kit.
Curriculum overview for the Autumn Term:
English –Writing
As part of our English curriculum, we use the PALS approach to support and develop pupils' writing skills:
P – Purpose
A – Audience
L – Language
S – Structure
Through the use of exciting and engaging high-quality texts, alongside the PALS approach, children are inspired to write for a range of purposes and audiences. By considering these key elements, we will be learning how to make effective choices about the content, language and organisation of our writing. Throughout the year, we will explore a variety of writing genres, helping us to develop our creativity, communication skills and understanding of different text types.
During the Autumn Term, we will have opportunities to write in a range of genres, including biographies, diaries and non-chronological reports, alongside other carefully chosen text types that support learning across the curriculum.
Our texts this term are:
Over the course of the year, pupils will work towards meeting the following writing objectives:
• Say, write and punctuate simple and compound sentences using the joining words and, but, so and or (co-ordination)
• Use subordination for time using when, before and after (e.g. We went out to play when we had finished our writing.)
• Use subordination for reason using because and if (e.g. I put my coat on because it was raining.)
• Segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling many correctly
• Learn to spell common exception words
• Develop stamina for writing in order to write at length
• Evaluate their writing with adults and peers
• Proofread to check for errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation
• Form lower-case letters of the correct size relative to one another
• Use capital letters appropriately (e.g. not always writing A as a capital, not using capitals within words)
We will also be learning to improve our writing by making effective choices of verbs, adverbs, adjectives and nouns, and using a variety of different tenses and sentence types.
This progressive approach enables children to build confidence as writers and develop the skills needed to communicate clearly, accurately, and purposefully in a range of contexts.
English – Reading
Autumn 1:
Our Guided reading this half term will focus on key reading and comprehension skills using small texts and paragraphs to hone our skills of fluency, retrieval and some inference. We will be sequencing events and looking at why the author has used certain vocabulary.
Autumn 2
Our book for Guided Reading this term is called ‘Above and Below’.
We will work on many reading skills which are outlined below.
Our lesson sequences follow the structure below.
Maths:
Place Value
- Numbers to 20
- Count objects to 100 by making 10s
- Recognise tens and ones
- Use a place value chart
- Partition numbers to 100
- Write numbers to 100 in words
- Flexibly partition numbers to 100
- Write numbers to 100 in expanded for
- 10s on the number line to 100
- 10s and 1s on the number line to 100
- Estimate numbers on a number line
- Compare objects
- Compare numbers
- Order objects and numbers
- Count in 2s, 5s and 10
Addition and Subtraction
- Bonds to 10
- Fact families - addition and subtraction bonds within 20
- Related facts
- Bonds to 100 (tens)
- Add and subtract 1s
- Add by making 10
- Add three 1-digit numbers Add to the next 10
Shape:
- Recognising 2D and 3D shapes
- Counting the sides and vertices on 2D shapes
- Recognising and drawing lines of symmetry
- Sorting 2D and 3D shapes
- Counting faces, edges and vertices on 3D shapes
- Making patterns with 2D and 3D shapes
Money:
- Counting money in pence, pounds and notes
- Choosing notes and coins and making the same amounts
- Comparing amounts of money
- Calculate with money
- Making a pound
- Finding change
- Two-step word problems with money
Times tables focus: 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.
Useful website: Hit the button, times tables speed tests, BBC bitesize and top marks.
Autumn 1 Topic – ‘The Great Fire of London’.
The focus of our topic this term is History with some Geography. We will be looking at the fire of London and Nantwich, how they started, what made them spread and other aspects of life in Tudor life.
Autumn 2 Topic – ‘The Great Fire of Nantwich’.
The focus of our topic this term is Geography with some History. We will be looking at the fire of London and Nantwich, how they started, what made them spread and other aspects of life in Tudor life. We will be comparing maps, learning about human and physical features and comparing features of a city and town.
Science:
Our topics in Science in the Autumn Term are ‘Animals Including Humans’ and ‘Living Things and Their Habitats.’
In Autumn 1, we will be focusing on understanding animals and how they grow, how we grow, healthy diets and keeping clean.
In Autumn 2, we will be focusing on understanding things that are alive, dead or have never been alive, local habitats, microhabitats, world habitats and food chains.
Design and Technology: Autumn 1
This term, our D&T project is to create a purse using sewing skills. We will need to investigate different fabrics and decoration methods. We will also design, create and evaluate our finished product.
Art: Autumn 2
This term our Art project is to create some water-resistant autumn leaves using wax crayons and water colours. We will need to investigate nature and the world around us and be creative with our art materials and resources.
Music:
Mrs Valente will be teaching us Music, using a variety or percussion instruments and different songs.
PSHE:
Mrs Valente will be teaching our PSHE lessons this term. In Autumn 1, this is around ‘Being Me in My World’. We will cover hopes and fears, rights and responsibilities, rewards and consequences, our learning charter and how this relates to our class.
Our PSHE unit in Autumn 2 is around ‘Celebrating Difference’. We will cover stereotypes, bullying, standing up for ourselves and others, diversity and how we celebrate difference and still be friends.
Computing:
Our Computing units include Coding, Online Safety and Spreadsheets, and Questioning.
RE:
Our RE will be taught by Mrs Valente this term. We will be considering questions including why we give thanks and why light is important to people.
Reading and Homework:
The homework for Year 2 is to practise spellings ready for our spelling test on Mondays, practise the 2’s, 5’s and 10 times tables and to read with an adult.
The expectation is that you read with your child 3 times per week, ensuring they are reading their coloured book. Please enter any reading completed at home on Pageticker.