Year 2 - Curriculum News

Summer 2013 Topic – Community Explorers & Growing things

The curriculum for Year 2 is topic based, this term we will base our learning on the following topics – Community Explorers and Growing things.

Community Explorers –

This topic has a geography focus and children will learn about the geographical and human features of their local community.  We will write a range of instructions and directions using maps and first hand experiences.  Children will learn about important people in the community.  They will create a large 3d relief map of the local area.  We will also use art and design to express ideas creatively.

ICT will form part of the children’s daily practice, all children should now be proficient with Microsoft Word and Power Point and will use these programs as often as possible in school.  Our ICT topic is control and we will be learning how to control a screen turtle and floor turtles (beebots.) This will also link to our Maths topic of turns, angles and positional language. 

Growing things –

We will be visiting a local garden centre and hopefully a local botanical garden.

This topic has a science focus and the children will learn about the life cycle of plants, conditions needed for growth and the names and parts of plants. We will learn how to write simple reports and develop skills in labelling and recording ideas.

The children will be learning about photography and digital imaging.  Pupils will learn how to take and upload photos into the correct folder.  They will then learn how to simply edit a photo using 2simple software.

Language, Literacy, and Communication skills –

Writing:

We will continue with our daily Jolly Phonic sessions as last term.  The children are now incredibly good with their sounds and this term our focus will be using the correct sound in spelling words.  Spelling patterns will reflect this and focus on sounds that can be spelt in different ways.

Spellings will continue to be tested on a Monday and the children have now started to record their new spelling patterns into their yellow spelling books.  Please ensure that all spelling books are returned to school on a Monday to enable the children to do this.

We will continue to handwrite on a daily basis, most children are now joining their letters and our target this term is to start using handwriting pens.

Our Big Writing non-fiction genres will be explanation texts, instructions, reports and recounts.  Children will also be writing letters to a school in a contrasting locality, asking questions and finding out information from children in a similar age group.

Fictional writing will focus on poetry, this term we will look at silly poetry, focusing on rhyming patterns, onomatopoeia and tongue twisters.  We will then revisit story writing during the latter part of term with our story focal point the fairytale, Jack and the Beanstalk.

Reading:

Children will continue to read as often as possible in school.  We listen to children read individually on a weekly basis and often more.  Please ensure that your child returns their books on the day stated on their red reading record.  Your child will then have the opportunity to choose new reading books for the week ahead and read to an adult.

Oracy:

This term we will continue our Hobby Hot Seat. The children are thoroughly enjoying bringing items into class to share with their peers.  Please encourage your children to choose objects that they can talk about and items that portray their interests and hobbies.

Mathematical Development –

Children will continue to have daily numeracy sessions following both the Abacus Evolve scheme of work and the fundamental core numeracy program – Big Maths.

Big Maths – Summer 2013

Counting:

We will be learning to read and write bigger numbers including tens of thousands!  We will look at decimal numbers and attempt to order numbers with 1 decimal place.  Children will continue to group count, this term working on 3s and 4s which will link well with learning the 3 and 4 times tables.

Learn Its:

We will learn how to divide by 10 and 2 using our knowledge of multiplication and halving. Our learn its this term are – 5 + 7, 5 + 8, 5 + 9, 6 + 8, 6 + 9 and 7 + 9. (These will be learnt by heart, children should know the answers to these calculations as easily as they know their name!)

It’s nothing new:

Children will use their basic numeracy knowledge to begin adding, taking and multiplying bigger numbers.  We will continue to double and halve 2 digit numbers, using partitioning to separate the parts of the number. Children will start to learn by heart number facts such as half of 30, 50, 70 and 90.

We will learn about jigsaw numbers – numbers that bond together to make multiples of 10 and then 100.

Calculation:

During our calculation sessions we will progress our skills of addition, learning how to add any 2 digit number to another 2 digit number.

Subtraction will progress with children able to take any 1 digit number from a 2 digit number.  We will then continue will the concept of subtraction as finding the difference between 2 numbers, using a number line to identify the jumps from the smallest to the biggest number.  Some children may begin to subtract a 2 digit number from a 3 digit number.

Children will extend their knowledge of multiplying, learning how to multiply a 2 digit number by a 1 digit number.

Division will concentrate on using our knowledge of multiplication facts to solve a division question.  We will learn to divide 2 digit numbers by 2,3,4 and 5 including numbers that give rise to remainders.

Shape, data and measure:

We will also consolidate our knowledge of 3d shapes, fractions, and time.  Children will be learning to tell and write the time on both analogue and digital clocks.  We will learn about capacity and use problem solving written questions to fully understand the meaning of capacity.  We will also revisit data using our topic heading to analyse local traffic, create frequency and then bar charts and read information from them. 

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Welsh Language Development –.

Children will be learning about Y Tŷ (The House). Welsh will continue to form part of our daily routine with commands and instructions.

Physical Development –

Year 2 will continue to have PE on a Wednesday and a Friday. Please ensure your children have the school uniform P.E. kit for these days (this can be kept in school if required).  PE kit should consist of black or navy jogging bottoms / shorts, a white t-shirt and suitable outdoor shoes.  Our PE sessions will begin to take place outdoors and we will learn about team games.  We will also begin preparing for Sports Day.

Year 2 will continue to have Sports Stars with Coach Rhys on a Friday. 

Personal & Social development, Well being and Cultural Diversity –

During our PSHE sessions we will explore emotions, how to relax our bodies when we feel tense or angry and how to deal with certain emotions.  We will learn how to deal with conflict and discuss the importance of thinking before we act.

We will then move onto the topic of relationships and learn how to talk about our feelings focusing on emotions children may feel at different times in their development.

Religious Education

Your children will be discovering the world of Christianity through daily acts of worship and through play based activities within the setting.  RE lessons will look at the life of Moses, the signs God sent to Moses and Jesus as a child.

Homework:

Homework (spelling, maths and Big Write) will continue to be sent home on a Thursday although reading books will be changed on the day specified on your child’s red reading record.  If you would like additional reading books please let me know.

Many thanks to all the fantastic visitors who came into Year 2 during the spring term to enhance our topic. 

If you would like to come and share a specialist skill or knowledge with the class please let me know, you are always most welcome.

Best Wishes

Mrs C. Jenkins

Ways to help your child:

• Please ensure your children have school P.E. kit in on the relevant days.
• Please return homework every MONDAY, this will be returned every THURSDAY.
• Please ensure your children have appropriate weather proof clothing which is clearly marked with their names.
• Please ensure all of your children’s uniform is clearly marked with their names.  We lose jumpers and cardigans on a daily basis and it is much easier to find their homes if they are clearly marked.
• Please ensure your children have a healthy snack for morning play time and also a drink.  As we are a healthy school, we do not allow chocolate, crisps or biscuits in school.  Drink bottles and snack boxes should be clearly labelled. Please remember also that as we have children in school with nut allergies no nut products are to be brought into school.
• Please check your children have their red bag with them every day and check its contents on a daily basis for correspondence from school.
• If your children are away from school at any time, please inform the school as soon as possible and also provide a letter stating the reason.  If we do not receive a letter we will have to mark your children with an unauthorised absence.  Holidays within term time are unauthorised absences and a holiday request form should be completed prior to the children’s absence.  These can be obtained from Mrs Money’s Office.