Year 2
Autumn 2, 2024!
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
Curriculum
Our Geography theme this half term is "What makes a place beautiful?'‘
Our theme this half-term will focus on developing our geographical knowledge, skills and vocabulary. Through our study, we will find out about Edenthorpe, our local area. We will identify physical and human features in our area and compare human and physical features of an Indian village – Chembakolli. Finally, we will discuss ideas and write about what we could do to improve our local area as well as recognise what people do to spoil our local area.
Writing
Our writing this half term will be based on the book The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark by Jill Tomlinson.
Plop, the baby owl, is like every barn owl there ever was, except for one thing – he is afraid of the dark . . . The dark is brimming with excitement and magic. As Plop ventures into the night, he meets a boy who shows him fireworks, a black cat who takes him exploring, a girl who tells him about Father Christmas, among other surprising discoveries . . . Filled with gentle humour and heart-warming illustrations, this is an uplifting story about finding the courage to face your fears and its message of resilience is as timely as ever!
In response to the book, we will engage in a variety of writing opportunities, including character descriptions and factual writing.
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 continue to learn new strategies of addition and subtraction of 2-digit numbers and use these to solve addition and subtraction problems. We will begin to learn our multiplication and division facts of the 2, 5 and 10x tables. We will also be learning how to use standard units for measuring length as well as reading and interpreting data from block graphs.
This half term we will also be focusing on knowing and remembering our Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs) for Autumn. Please click on the links below for Year 2 Autumn KIRFs and a song that will support your child with their learning of the 2x 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 continue to study Christianity and explore the concept of Incarnation and investigating the question 'Why does Christmas matter to Christians?' We are learning to reflect on the Christmas story and the reasons for Jesus’ birth.
Science
Our science theme this half term is Choosing Materials. In this module, we will:
● identify, describe and compare a variety of everyday materials, such as wood, plastic, glass, metal, water and rock, and their physical properties.
● identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, rock, paper and cardboard for particular uses.
Design and Technology - Mechanisms
Our learning will look at objects and understand how they move. We will explore levers, pivots and linkages and use these mechanisms when designing our own moving Christmas cards.
P.E. - Gymnastics and Dance
In PE, our focus is gymnastics and dance. In this unit, we will develop our agility and coordination. We will understand how the body changes during exercise; plan, perform, and repeat sequences of movement; and develop the fundamentals of movement.
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. - Celebrate/ Health & Wellbeing: Growing up
In our my Happy mind module we will learn more about our brain. We will discover what Character Strengths are and how they make us unique and special. We will focus on 5 Character Strengths and what they mean: Love and Kindness; Bravery and Honesty; Exploring and Learning; Teamwork and Friendship; Love of Life and Our World. Furthermore, we will develop our understanding that the best way to learn more about our strengths is to notice them. We will understand that our strengths are like superpowers, and when we use them, they helps us to be our best and feel happy. We will understand that it is nice to tell other people when they use their strengths, as it makes them feel good.
We will also focus on the theme of Health and Wellbeing. We will recognise the 5 key stages of human life and understand how their bodies and how lives will change as they get older. This will help us appreciate how increasing independence presents new dangers, challenges, benefits and responsibilities.
Computing – Online safety
In our computing lessons this half term, we will learn about online safety, including useful tips to stay safe when online and how to manage feelings and emotions when someone or something has upset us online. We will learn about the responsibility we have as online users and explore the idea of a 'digital footprint.'
Music
Our musical theme is Playing in an orchestra. Throughout our learning, we will understand that playing together is a very important part of learning music. There are many ensembles, bands and groups you can play in. One of these groups is an orchestra. This unit features the orchestra - what can you learn about the orchestra?
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 Friday.
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