Year 2

Welcome to Year 2  with Mrs Choudhury, Mrs Whittington and Miss Mara

This half term, Year 2 will be doing the topic Scrumdidiliumptious’ which is all about health and food. The pupils will have English, Maths and Reading lessons everyday. In addition, they will have regular handwriting and spelling lessons.  In foundation subjects, we will focus on DT, PSHE and Science. 

Helpful Resources 

Gold Star Words                                       

Year-2 Calculation-Policy

Year 2 Book Suggestions. 

Subject Area

Learning

How you can help at home

English

Reading:

Fiction and Non-fiction Texts: Students will explore a range of fiction and non-fiction texts, including narratives, poetry, information texts, and traditional tales. They will develop their reading skills through our daily guided reading approach. We celebrate books by reading to the class everyday.

Comprehension: 

Through high quality texts, the children will learn to make prediction, discuss vocabulary, make inferences, explain characters, retrieve answers within a text and sequence events.

Vocabulary Development: Building on their existing vocabulary, students will learn new words and phrases in context. This may involve exploring synonyms, antonyms, and the meanings of words through exposure to rich texts and discussions.

Writing:
Narrative Writing: Students will further develop their narrative writing  based on the text ‘The Incredible Book- Eating Boy’ by Oliver Jeffers. They will be planning, drafting, and editing their own stories. They will explore story structure, character development, and descriptive language, drawing inspiration from a variety of texts. 

Grammar is taught through our English lessons based on cake descriptions. Children learn to identify and use adjectives, expanded noun phrases, prepositions, verbs, capital letters and full stops.

Non-fiction Writing: There will be a focus on writing for different purposes and audiences, including writing an explanation about how bananas arrive in our supermarkets. Students may be encouraged to use headings, sequenced sentences and conjunctions to join ideas.

Handwriting: Handwriting practice will continue to refine students’ letter formation, spacing, and legibility. This half term there is a focus on sizing of capitals and lowercase letters.

Speaking and Listening:
Students will participate role-plays to encourage their understanding of texts and to help them rehearse their writing. 


Talk about our topic.  Any additional research will make them better writers!

Reading for at least 10 -15 minutes each day makes a huge difference!  Reading material can take the form of packets, magazines, signs and of course fiction, non-fiction and poetry books.  READ pictures too!

Take a trip to your local library and select a book related to our topics

Remember to keep reading to your child, as it should be an enjoyable experience – get cosy with a nice blanket!  Can they predict what may happen next?  Do they understand why certain events may have taken place?  Can they describe a character’s motivations?

Talk about new and interesting vocabulary that they come across and make sure they understand the meaning.

There is a spelling list of words that your child should be familiar with by the end of year 2 on the school website.  It is located under ‘parent zone’-‘home learning’.

It would be wonderful if they could read what they have written back to you to ensure it makes sense and includes a capital letter and full stop.

Remember if you would like to support your child with comprehensions you can get work booklets from any good book shop/Amazon.

Spelling

Spelling lists are available on the website.

The children will be taught specific spelling rules and patterns and a dictation session is held every week.

You have been gifted a common exception word booklet at the meeting in the Autumn term.

The children will take part in spelling lessons based on the Supersonic Phonic Friends programme, an information sheet about this will come home with them each week to show what we have been learning.

We would appreciate your support with helping your child to identify and learn spelling patterns correctly.  

They also need to be secure with the year 1 word lists.

Maths

We follow the White Rose scheme of learning for maths.

In Autumn we cover place value, addition and subtraction and shape.

I.

Where your child shows an interest in numbers at home encourage them to show you pictorial representations.

If the numbers are not correctly oriented, show them the correct formation and encourage them to have a go again. Could you engage in messy play – forming the numbers in cornflour and water?  How about using chalks in the back garden? Or even a hose?  If you’re not feeling adventurous a paint brush with water would also do!

When shopping encourage your child to look at the weights and prices of items.

Go to the park. Collect and count natural items.

Create a ‘copper jar’ at home and allow your child to count the amount – are they counting in 1ps or 2ps? Could you set up a little shop with a till?  Invite friends/family around for a shopping experience!

Chant in 2s, 5s and 10s.  Can you change your accent?  Can you raise or lower your voice?  Does your child also chant them backwards.

When counting forwards could you start at a number other than 0 or 1?

Engage in cooking experiences – your children become so much more confident when you believe that they can cook and bake.

Consider getting an analogue watch for your child.  Discuss when activities start/end and their duration. Some children can find time quite challenging, so any and all support in this area is most beneficial.

Play games likes snakes and ladders, as your child will be looking at numbers and they will become more fluent adding/subtracting small numbers from them. 

Creative Curriculum

Autumn 1’s topic is Scrumdiddlyumptious. 

Our focus in science, PSHE and DT will be on eating healthily, different sources of food globally and ways in which to keep our bodies healthy. Children will learn to design and bake healthy muffins in DT as well as learn about food hygiene. In Science they will conduct investigations based on the effects of exercise on the body and they learn to identify the food groups and their benefits to the human body.

You may help at home by discussing and asking questions about your child’s learning. You may want to look through your kitchen and identify the food groups.  Or you may want to experiment with different vegetable flavoured muffins.

RE

Our area of focus in RE in the Autumn term is Special places. Within this we will explore special places of worship as well as identifying places that are special to the children and why they are special. 

 Discuss at home the celebrations and times that are important to you and your families and communities.  

Ask your child about the things they are learning in RE.

There are lots of good books about special people in the Religion section of your local library that are very child friendly at an age-appropriate level.

PE

The children will have their PE lessons run by Non Stop Action. This is currently on a Thursday.

Please ensure all kit is labelled and in school at all times.  Do your child’s plimsolls still fit them?

PE is sometimes outside so your children can wear labelled navy jogging bottoms and sweater.

     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Home Learning

As well as reading independently for at least 15 minutes every day, as per our homework policy, children in year 2 will also be expected to spend at least 5 mins practising their knowledge of the 2x, 5x and 10x tables. Homework will consist of spelling/handwriting practise and some consolidation of maths concepts or other learning we have been doing in class. It may also involve comprehension activities such as reading and discussing a text. 

Homework will continue to be set every Friday and should be returned on Wednesday. Please also note that guided reading books should also be returned every Wednesday along with homework.