Year 2
Spring 2, 2025!
Welcome back! We hope you are ready for lots of learning and fun this half term in Year 2.
Start time – 8:40am Pick-up time- 3:15pm
If you have any questions, concerns or worries, please contact us at year2@cpa.dsat.education and we will do our best to respond as soon as we can.
Please ensure that your child brings a labelled water bottle to school each day as well as ensuring that all items of your child's uniform is clearly labelled too. A healthy fruit snack is provided for all our Year 2 children.
Please follow the link below to view information from the Year 2 Beginning of Year Meeting.
Please follow the link below to view information from the Key Stage 1 Reading Information Meeting.
We are continuing to deliver the program to all year groups at school called myHappymind. myHappymind is all based around helping children to understand how their brain works and to support them in developing positive skills and habits to be their very best selves!
Please click on the link below to access an overview of what the program entails.
myHappymind Parent information
At the end of every myHappy mind session, we finish with our Let Your Light Shine prayer which you can find below.
Curriculum
Our Geography theme this half term is "What is the earth made of'‘
Our theme this half-term will focus on developing our geographical knowledge, skills and vocabulary. Throughout our study, we will find out consolidate our knowledge about the continents and oceans of the world. We will learn information about a locality by using different sources of evidence to research different weather patterns around the world.
Writing
Our writing this half term will be based on the book Major Glad, Major Dizzy by Jan Oke.
Major Glad, Major Dizzy is a photographic picture storybook based on the true discovery of a hidden hoard of Victorian toys under the author's floor. It introduces some of the milestones of recent British history and hopefully interest children in tracing the past through found objects and old photographs. It's also funny and poignant in parts.
In response to the book, we will engage in a variety of writing opportunities, including writing a recount of historical events from the text from Major Glad’s point of view.
Phonics and Reading
As a school we follow the Read, Write, Inc programme to deliver our phonics teaching. During this half term, we will continue to work hard embedding our knowledge of phoneme / grapheme correspondence, as well as continuing to segment and blend. We have lots of information on our schools phonics page.
For those children who have progressed from the RWInc phonics lessons, we will continue with our whole class reading lessons which are taught in the same style as KS2. We will focus on different skills throughout the week (vocabulary, retrieval, inference and sequencing) and how to answer different styles of questions.
Click on the link below to see the list of Year 1 and Year 2 Common Exception words that our children have to read and write confidently by the end of Year 2. Please support your child in learning these.
Year 1 and Year 2 Common Exception Words
Maths
This half term we will build on our knowledge of addition and subtraction of 2-digit numbers involving regrouping and adjusting and use these to solve addition and subtraction problems involving money. We will also look at fractions and fractions of amounts - 1/2, 1/4, 3/4.
This half term we will also be focusing on knowing and remembering our Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs) for Spring. Please click on the links below for Year 2 Spring KIRFs that will support your child with their learning of multiplication and division facts for the 10 times table. The online game, HIT THE BUTTON, will also support your child with this.
If you have any questions about these areas of Maths please don’t hesitate to come and speak to us.
R.E.
In RE, we will study Judaism, focusing on and explore the question 'Why does Easter matter to Christians?' This will support our understanding of how celebrating Easter helps Christians show God how they value their special relationship with Him.
Science
Our science theme this half term is Growing Up (Animals and humans). In this module, we will:
● notice 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)
● describe the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different types of food, and hygiene.
Design and Technology - Cooking and nutrition: a balanced diet
Our learning will help us to understand the importance of a balanced diet and we will use that knowledge to create a tasty wrap. We will learn about the main food groups and identify foods that belong to each group. We will be able to describe the taste, feel and smell of a given food. This will help us to think of three different wrap ideas, considering flavour combinations before making our own healthy wraps.
P.E. - Health related exercise
In PE, our focus is Health related exercise. In our learning, we will explore a variety of movement, thinking and communicating skills that are the foundation of different sports or physical activities as well as develop our agility and coordination.
Our PE day is Tuesday. Please ensure that your child comes to school in the correct P.E kit and brings their school uniform to change into after their lesson. If your child wears earrings, these must be removed or provide tape to cover them. Ensure long hair is tied back away from the face.
P.S.H.E. - Relate/ Relationships: Friends/ Health & Wellbeing: Physical health
This module is focused on the importance of being able to relate to and get along with others in order to have positive relationships. It uses Character Strengths to illustrate the need to be able to see other perspectives in order to build relationships. Through lots of examples and discussion, we will develop our Active Listening skills to ensure that we understand other points of view rather than jumping to conclusions.
We will also focus on the themes of Relationships and Health and Well-being. We will recognise how to be a kind friend
identify features of being a good friend. We will understand the importance of exercise and why we need to have good hygiene in order to be healthy.
Computing – Programming
In our computing lessons this half term, we will learn about Programming: Algorithms and debugging. In this module, we will be able to:
- decompose a game to predict the algorithms.
- give a definition for ‘decomposition’.
- write clear and precise algorithms.
- create algorithms to solve problems.
- use loops in their algorithms to make their code more efficient.
- explain what abstraction is.
Music
Our musical theme is Recognising different sounds. Throughout our learning, we will explore the voices and instruments used within music to identify how and when harmony takes place. When voices or instruments work together to play different pitches that sound at the same time, we can hear harmony in music!
NUMBOTs – Every day 10 minutes
NUMBOTs is an on-line programme to boost addition and subtraction skills. It is available on a range of devices, including mobile phones. You can play online at NUMBOTs Game or download the NUMBOTs app. Playing little and often will significantly improve your child’s recall and understanding of number bonds and addition and subtraction facts. These are critical foundations in maths so we are excited by the impact NUMBOTs will have. In order to get the best out of NUMBOTs children should regularly play for short bursts of time over the week, there are 18 stages to complete!
If you have misplaced your log in details or are having trouble accessing the website, please email me to let us know.
READING – Every day 10 minutes
Please continue to enjoy your reading each day. Reading is fun and a great way to spend time together with your family, as well as developing our imaginations. Encourage your child to talk about what they have read and ask them a question or two about the book. This will help consolidate their comprehension work in school. Adults please remember to record what your child reads at home in their reading record. We will count all entries in the reading diaries weekly and award golden tickets to those who have read 20 times or more in a month.
Our book change day is Thursday.
OXFORD OWL – One book a week
Oxford Owl is an e-book library to boost reading skills. Once your book has been read there is a short fun quiz to complete afterwards. Children will receive a golden ticket for every book they complete. Click on the link below to access Oxford Owl;
Oxford Owl for School and Home.
If you have misplaced your log in details or are having trouble accessing the website, please email me to let me know.
As always, thank you for your continued support with your child’s learning.
Mrs Milnes, Mrs Margetts, Mrs Smith and Mrs Watson