Year 2 – Autumn Newsletter

Welcome back to school!  I hope you have all enjoyed a wonderful summer holiday and that the children are ready for a busy term ahead.  This newsletter outlines the curriculum areas to be covered this term as well as ways you can help us to ensure the children get the most from their time in Year 2.

English

Reading will continue to be a key focus for your children’s learning to enable them to access a wider range of reading material; listening to your child read and discussing their understanding of their reading are both important to support their development.   We will be giving daily classroom time to reading as well as teaching phonics daily, supported by handwriting and spelling practise.  Together we will be reading texts related to where we live and linked to habitats in science, beginning with Town Mouse, Country Mouse.  Children will be learning to differentiate between sentence types and to build increasingly varied and specific sentences of their own.  We will also be writing poetry and studying information texts related to our history topic after half term.

Maths

This term, we will be consolidating the children’s understanding of number size and place value, establishing their knowledge of number bonds to 20 and ability to double numbers to 15.  We will be building on the children’s existing mental maths skills, with an emphasis on times tables (x2. x5, x10).  The children will be working on addition and subtraction of single and 2-digit numbers and measuring length, using the language of position and direction (clockwise, anti-clockwise).  They will also learn the properties of 2D shapes, sorting them and identifying right angles.  The children’s learning will be re-enforced with practical work both within the classroom and at home through homework activities.  Using money regularly in real life situations i.e. counting out pocket money or paying for an item in a shop will support their classroom learning in this area.

History and Geography

We begin the year with a study of our local area and the natural environment.  We will be visiting the park before designing our own parks for the village and plotting our routes to school.  After half term, our history will focus on The Great Fire of London (350 years ago) and the experiences of people at the time, including a study of Samuel Pepys.

Science

The first half term we will be looking at animal habitats.  We will explore and compare the differences between things that are living and things that are dead.  We will identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants. In the second half term, we will be studying that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults,  find out about and describe the basic needs of animals, including humans, for survival (water, food and air) and describe the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different types of food, and hygiene.

Computing

We will be using the school laptops to teach the children to combine text and graphics and will be consolidating their word processing and keyboard skills.  E-safety will be an ongoing theme when using the internet.

Art and DT

The focus of our art this term is the creation of mixed media collages (inspired by the text ‘Window’) and the use of our sketchbooks to draw plants/views in our local environment.

In DT, we will be making a miniature playground for the village, linked to our geography visit to the park; the project will require the children to measure carefully, to choose appropriate materials and to consider how best to cut and join the materials to ensure stability and strength.  We will also be making Christmas puddings ‘from the bakery in Pudding Lane’ in food technology in our new DT room.

RE and PSHE

In RE, we will be considering special things in nature and special people, with an additional focus on Judaism and Buddhism.  Our PSHE learning will lead us to think about citizenship and values, discussing how we can make a positive contribution and considering our feelings and relationships with others.

Music

Year 2 will be being taught by Mrs Ford on a Thursday. The children will be combining the musical elements of rhythm, pitch and pulse with singing and playing musical instruments.

PE

Year 2 has swimming this term and this will take place on a Monday morning.  Whilst additional adults accompany the children to the pool, we would appreciate it if you could work with your own children to improve their speed and independence getting changed. The children will have PE on a Thursday afternoon with Mr Snelling.  Each child will need trainers suitable for use on the field as well as the playground and warm outer layers to be worn over their PE shorts and T-shirts.

Homework

In addition to hearing your child read, the children will be set spellings to learn each week on a Friday, ready for a test on the following Friday; please assist them with look, cover, write, check activities to consolidate their learning.

The children will have one piece of homework to complete each week: either a piece of English, Maths, Science or Topic work to help support their learning in the classroom. Please support your child to ensure that they understand what has been asked of them and that their work is clearly and neatly completed.

If you have any concerns or issues you would like to discuss regarding your child, I am available at the end of the day so please don’t hesitate to come and discuss them or ask any questions.

Regards

Mrs Hall, Mrs Perry and Miss Howett