Class 2 Newsletter – Autumn Term
Year 2 – Autumn Newsletter 2020
Dear parents/carers,
Welcome back, I hope everyone had a lovely summer and the children are ready for all the fantastic learning coming up this term. They have already settled back into school well. Please find below an outline of the curriculum we will be focusing on throughout Autumn Term. Due to time out of school across the Summer term a lot of this curriculum will be focused on filling any gaps to ensure the children are in line with the current curriculum.
English
In year 2 we will be exploring a variety of texts to support our reading, vocabulary and writing development. To begin with, we will be sharing texts that have a familiar setting to help our development of sentence structure, adjectives, connectives and time connectives and with a continued focus on handwriting, capital letters and full stops. Through other aspects of the curriculum (science, geography, history etc.) we will be developing our non-narrative skills with information and instructions writing. Ensuring your child reads for at least 15 minutes a day will help their reading skills to develop along with discussions around the text read. It is just as important to read to your child regularly along with listening to audio books.
We will continue to develop our phonic skills, initially by recapping the sounds learnt in the Spring term prior to lockdown and then continuing with the next sounds following the Letters and Sounds scheme. Whilst practicing and applying our existing knowledge within our writing.
We will begin to learn how to join our writing, focusing on how to lead in and out of letters.
Maths
To begin the term, we will be recapping some Maths topics the children missed over the Summer term. We will then move onto looking at number systems with a focus on place value, addition and subtraction with explorations around money, multiplication and division. We will be using a variety of equipment to help children build their practical mathematical skills to support problem solving and calculations. The children will also be developing their mathematical vocabulary to develop reasoning tasks. To assist with children’s mathematical development encourage them to handle real money and understand the value of coins and notes along with reading analogue and digital time in a 12hr and 24hr format.
History and Geography
We will begin the year with developing our research skills including the use of atlases. This will be a focus in our Oceans and Continents Topic. The children have already enjoyed learning the ‘7 Continents’ song.
Science
Throughout the Autumn term we will be looking at the area of Science ‘Animals, including humans.’ Children will be introduced to the basic needs of animals for survival (food, water, air) as well as the importance of exercise and nutrition for humans. There will be a focus on growth, for example: egg, chick, chicken; egg, caterpillar, pupa, butterfly.
Computing
We will be starting with ‘how to stay safe online’ which will an ongoing theme throughout the school year. Children will be using the school laptops to learn how to combine text and graphics and will be consolidating their word processing and keyboard skills.
Art and DT
The initial focus for art this term will be ‘where we live’. We will be creating sketches of our local area.
RE and PSHE
In RE, we will be considering special places and special people and focusing in on different religions. Our PSHE learning will lead us to think about families, friendships and relationships.
Music
Year 2 Music this term is based around ‘Hands, Feet, Heart’ this focuses on body percussion and rhythm, pitch and pulse.
PE
The children will have PE on a Wednesday afternoon (with Mr Dyce) and Friday morning (with myself). Please send your child to school on both these days in their full PE kit, remember to send them in joggers and a jumper depending on the weather. We will be covering multi-skills and cross country.
Homework
Along with listening to 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. This will be uploaded on Teams; please could you upload their finished work back onto Teams rather than sending into school.
Reading Books
Due to the current circumstances we are required to quarantine books when they are returned to school. Therefore, we are only going to be changing books on a Monday and returning them home on Tuesday, this will allow time to change and hear individual readers. We will give each child three books from their current level. Please read these across the week and return on the following Monday. Do still write in their orange Reading Record every time you hear your child read and record any concerns in here. You do not need to send in their books and records any other day.
We have already assessed each child’s reading level. I do assess levels half- termly and your child will be reading to a member of the classes teaching team at least once a week, so each child’s level will be monitored.
At the back of your child’s orange reading record is the Class Two reading challenge. Please look at the different places to read and encourage your child to complete this. Every time they complete one, please date and write the title of the book in the space provided. Once all challenges are complete return to school and your child will receive their certificate.
Show and Tell
As you understand, we are no longer able to run show and tell sessions. The children cannot bring items in from home. However, as I understand how important it is for the children to share things that happen outside of school with us, if your child has a particular picture they would like to show me please post on Teams and we can share it with the class.
If you have any concerns or issues you would like to discuss regarding your child, please email the office and I will be in touch.
Kind Regards,
Miss Hagger