Our Year 2 Class    

A very warm welcome to our Year 2 class page. In Year 2, our children are really starting to fly! Building on previous years they will become confident readers, writers and mathematicians. As school life falls into place, they find themselves our oldest infants and begin to develop a real sense of responsibility. I hope that you find all the information useful and if you have any questions I am available before and after school for a quick chat.  

Our Year 2 Class 2024-2025

Class Information

Who's Who

Miss Barton- Year 2 Class Teacher

Mrs Jackson -  Part-Time Teaching Assistant

Mrs Holmes – Part-Time Teaching Assistant 

Mrs Casilli - Inclusion Teaching Assistant

In Year 2 PE is on Tuesday and Friday, please make sure you send your child in the correct PE kit. 

Reading

The guided reading schemes we use in Year 2 are:

• Read, Write Inc
• Oxford Reading Tree  

Home Reading books

Whilst your child will read regularly in school you can make a big difference by listening to your child read and asking them questions about what they have read for just ten minutes each night. Your child will bring home a reading journal, please update this each time they read at home. Children need to read 5 times a week at home to earn a stamp in their reading journal. 

Please note: Your child will only change their books on a Thursday when they will bring a book home to read the following week. This is to allow your child to become a fluent reader and have time to spend discussing the text. 

Phonics

In Year 2 we follow Read, Write Inc

Each day we undertake a RWI lesson. During this time we review the set 2 and 3 sounds and will learn a new sound each day. After the Speed Sounds lesson we look at a key text for the following three days. RWI is really helpful for embedding spellings and during each lesson we come across new 'Red Words' which, we learn how to spell and are encouraged to use in our independent writing. We really enjoy our RWI time (particularly the partner work, actions and rhymes!)

Homework

Homework is sent home on Thursdays and needs to be completed by the following Thursday.

• Spellings will be sent home on paper and will be added to Spelling Shed, a minimum of 5 games need to be played each week.
• Handwriting will be sent home in a small yellow book, each week your child will have different letters and words that need to be practised and written out.
• RWI Speedy Sounds videos will be added weekly to watch at home with your child, these will be the same as the Speed Sounds learnt in class that week.
• A maths number bonds sheet will be sent home weekly to work on mastering basic number facts. Maths practise can be completed on Numbots.

Evidence for all homework needs to be added to Seesaw by Thursday each week so that dojos can be awarded to your child.

This half term.... Spring 2 (February - April 2025)

Over the next half term our topics will be: 

• Maths – We will begin 2 units on multiplication and division. To begin the children will learn what equal groups are and how to add them together. They will start to form simple multiplication sentences using arrays. We will look at the two different ways objects can be divided, by creating equal groups or by sharing. The children will then learn the multiplication facts for the 2s, 5s and 10 times tables, once they have mastered this skill they will look at how to divide by 2, 5 and 10. 
      
• English – The children are going to complete some writing based on the book Wild by Emily Hughes, they will be learning about expanded noun phrases, adverbs and the different sentence types. They will then learn all about the big cats of the world and write a report using all their newly gained knowledge.                                                                                                                                                                 
• Science – The children will name, identify and hunt for everyday materials including wood, metal, plastic, glass, rubber, brick, rock, paper, fabric and card. They will list properties of different materials such as hardness, strength, flexibility and shininess. They will learn that the properties of materials are important to the object they are made from. They will identify suitable and unsuitable materials for different objects and will be able to explain why. They will learn what absorbency means and explore the absorbency of different types of materials. At the end of the topic, they will use all their knowledge to design a nappy.                                                                   
• History - Local Mills and children at work in Victorian Times - We will use digimaps to identify what our local area looked like in 1890's, 1950's and today, discussing the key features of the maps and how the area has changed. Using old photographs from these mills we will look at evidence of what life was like for children working in the mills. By reading the book 'You wouldn't want to work in a Victorian Mill! by John Malam' the children will discover the many jobs children had to do in the mills. They will use this information to compare their day to the day of a Victorian child in the form of two diary entries. We will visit a Mill to investigate real artefacts and role play some of the jobs children did. Linked to our computing unit, 'We are researchers' we will present our findings as digital content.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
• DT – This term the children will be designing and making a moving mechanical Easter animal. They will learn about the different types of levers, linkages and levers and how functional linkages can created input and output motions.                                                                             
• RE – In this unit the children will be answering the question, Why does Easter matter to Christians. They will recognise that the concepts of God, Incarnation, Gospel and Salvation are all part of the big bible story. They will find out about the key events of Holy Week and how Christians celebrate and worship Easter in church.                                                                                                                                
• Computing – This term the children will be getting to grips with programming using the app ScratchJr. They will learn what each block of code means and what it can do, what a sprite is and how to create a clear algorithm. At the end of the unit they will use ScratchJr to retell the popular fairy tale, ‘The Three Pigs’.                                                                                                                                                                   
• Music- The term the children will be learning about Pitched Percussion and will use the chime bars and glockenspiels. By the end of the unit they will know that there are different sounds in music and how to change instrument sounds.                                                                 
• Outdoor PE – Invasion Games - We will be developing our understanding of the basic principles of invasion games such as attacking, defending, scoring and teamwork. The children will learn how to dribble with a football, to pass and receive the ball in a variety of ways to use space effectively in a game. They will learn how to dodge to get free from a defender to receive a pass from a team member.
• Indoor PE – Yoga – The children will be learning about mindfulness and body awareness. They will begin to learn poses and techniques that will help connect their body and mind. They will improve their well-being by building strength, flexibility, co-ordination and balance.

Our PE value for this half term is RESPECT.

Spring Term 1 NEWS!

This term our writing in English linked with our science and PE topic, Plants. As a class we read the book Bloom by Anne Booth. This inspired the children to write their own instructions about how to plant a seed and how to care for it to ensure it grew. We focused on using imperative verbs, time adverbs, adjectives and conjunctions. We then read The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch by Ronda and David Armitage, the children wrote some wonderful sentences using adverbs, adjectives and used commas in a list. Independently they rewrote the story of The Lighthouse Keeper’s Breakfast using the new grammar they had learnt.

In Maths the children explored the features and properties of 2D and 3D shapes. Firstly they began by learning the names of the shapes and how to identify each one. They counted sides, vertices, faces and edges. The children enjoyed using mirrors to understand how symmetry works and how to find lines of symmetry. Our next unit was Money, the children learnt how to count coins and notes, compare different amounts of money, find ways to make the same amount and work out the amount of change needed. 

In Science we became gardeners and planted a variety of seeds and bulbs. We had to make sure we remembered to water our plants and we observed how much they grew and changed each week, recording the growth in our diary. To prove what conditions plants need to germinate, we placed 3 basil plants in different places. The one without water wilted and died, the one in the fridge also died and the one in the dark continued to grow but turned yellow. Plants has been our favourite science topic so far!

In Computing the children got to grips with word processing. They began by learning keyboard shortcuts to help them type faster and change the style of the text. Next they learnt how to insert images from the internet into a document and then how to copy and paste poems and stories. To end the unit the children became digital writers, using the knowledge and skills they had learn their created their own newspaper.

Our Geography this term we focused on our local area and to start our new topic we went on a local area walk. We created a tally chart with the different types of houses and recorded what we saw. We completed a scavenger hunt and ticked off what we could see e.g. a vets, a doctors, a cycle lane, a post box and more. We looked at different types of maps of the area and the different symbols used. We then wrote a recount of our walk.

Our Art topic this term was Life in Colour! The children began by painting with the primary colours and mixing them to make the secondary colours. Using paint and different materials the children painted different textures and explored patterns. They then using this technique to add texture to different types of paper and cardboard. Inspired by the work of Romare Bearden the children made a collage of the bandstand in Pennington Park.

In RE we explored how Jesus was a friend to everyone and the miracles Jesus performed. . We read many different bible stories; Jesus and the children (Mark 10:13-16), The Ten Lepers (Luke 17:11-19), Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52, Luke 18:35-43) and The man lowered through the roof (Luke 5:17-26). We focused on the values of friendship, love, compassion and hope. The children loved listening to the different bible stories and understanding the meaning behind each one.

In our indoor PE unit the children work together to play some fun and exciting Team Games. Each week they played a variety of games that encouraged them to support their friends, communicate in small groups clearly and make a plan and including everyone in the games. In our outdoor PE unit the children began to work on the fundamental principals of defending and attacking ready for the next unit of PE. They developed their throwing, catching and rolling skills and worked hard to improve their aim when throwing at a target.

Autumn Term 2 NEWS!

In Maths the children have worked very hard to master addition and subtraction and have strengthened their understanding of number bonds to 20. They began to add two 2-digit numbers together and subtracting a 2-digit number from another 2-digit number. To help strengthen this new skill the children used place value grids, part whole models, number lines, bar models and tens frames. We then progressed onto the money unit and how to understand the value of each coin and note. The children were able to count amounts of money and then find how much change was needed.

In English the children unpicked a non-chronological report and looked at all the different features needed. Using our writing rainbow, we wrote our own reports on hibernation and habitats. This linked in with our science topics and we were able to include all the facts we had learned. The children did extremely well with their home reading and many completed their Christmas reading reward charts.

In Science we had a very exciting new topic to get to grips with, habitats. To get the children engaged with this learning we went on a mini beast hunt to Pennington Hall park, we looked at the habitats around us and explored microhabitats for bugs and insects. We took photographs and kept a tally chart, this helped us to keep a record of what we saw and linked to our computing unit, We are zoologists. The information gathered will be converted into graphs and charts. The children went on a school safari to look for worms and we looked closer at pond habitats. We had lots of fun exploring the world around us and learning about the many types of habitats.

In RE the children explored the topic of good news in the bible and how it was delivered to God’s people. We discussed how angels often brought good news and then explored the nativity story. The children loved listening to the story of Jesus’ birth and hearing about the many visitors to the stable. This linked with our school nativity play, A Bundle of Joy.The children retold this story and had a wonderful time doing so.

In DT the children worked hard to master the running stitch, they practiced this on small pieces of felt and paper. They then designed their own small pouch and cut up felt to create a design for the front. They then used the running stitch to sew the two pieces together. They really enjoyed this unit and can’t wait to do more sewing!

In outdoor PE the children develop-ed the fundamental ball skills such as throwing, catching, rolling, hitting a target, dribbling with both hands and feet and kicking. They developed their control and accuracy whilst performing these skills.

Our indoor PE unit was dance and the children created themed dances, the secret garden and jack frost. The children explored how they could use their bodies to express an idea, mood, character or feeling. They used counts of 8 to keep in time with the music and with a partner. They explored pathways, levels, shapes, directions, speed and timing to help them create dances individually and in pairs.

Autumn Term 1 NEWS! 

In Maths we have been mastering place value to 100, using lots of different resources. We have been using the part whole model to partition two-digit numbers into tens and ones and to deepen their understanding of place value. Using this new knowledge, the children order and compare numbers. We then moved onto to counting forwards and backwards in steps of 2, 3, 5 and 10. Once the children have mastered this, we will begin to explore times tables.  

In English the children wrote a letter independently based on the book Grandad’s Island by Benji Davies. The children really enjoyed this story and the beautiful images. They have been using their predicting and inference skills when reading the story and using clues from the text to help with their understanding. We have been introduced to the 'Writing Rainbow' and the different FANTASTIC symbols, which we included in our letter. We read lots of wonderful books this term by Benji Davies and lots of other Authors, our class book was The 13 Storey Treehouse.

In Science, we have discovered what makes things alive, dead or never alive. The children sorted and compared animals, plants and non-living things to help them create a list of the features of a living thing. The children enjoyed creating lifecycles for different animals and plants, this allowed them to discover that not all offspring resemble their parents at birth. The children loved looking at pictures of themselves as a baby and comparing it to a picture of themselves now to see how they have grown and changed.  

In RE we have been learning about the ‘Good News’ Christians believe that Jesus brings. In this unit the children learnt about the concept of ‘Gospel’ and the good news of forgiveness, peace and love. They learnt about Matthew the Tax Collector and how Christians believe that Jesus offers forgiveness, looking at their heart rather than what they have done in the past. The children learnt about the instructions that Jesus gives in the Bible and how Christians follow his example and these instructions in order to behave in a Christ like way.

The class topic in Art was Drawing to tell a story. The children learnt how to draw with charcoal, techniques to create textures and draw expression on faces. They did an observational drawing of a teddy bear and used the techniques they had learnt to add texture to the fur. Using Grandad’s Island as a stimulus the children created their own story book and character.

Our outdoor PE unit was Fundamentals. In the lessons the children learnt the fundamental skills of how to run, balance, jump, hop, skip and change direction. They took part in many activities to develop these skills, some independently and in small groups. The children learnt why exercise is important and how their body feels during and after exercise.

Our indoor PE unit was Gymnastics. The children learnt to explore and develop basic gymnastic skills, on the floor and using apparatus. They developed their balancing, jumping, rolling and travelling skills. They worked together to create short sequences including different shapes, levels and directions.

In Computing the unit the children have been learning about is Computing systems and networks, what is a computer? First they learnt about the different components of a computer and how they are controlled. They learnt what an input is and what an output is. They designed their own computer and decided what they wanted it to do, they then added how they would control it through inputs and outputs. In the last lesson the children took part in a supermarket role play.

 In music the children have been listening to and composing their own folk music. They have developed their listening and thinking skills. The children began playing the recorder, understanding how to hold it correctly, make a good sound and how to play different pitches.