Welcome to the Year 2 page.

The second half of the autumn term is already underway and pupils in Year 2 have settled back in and are as busy as ever, striving to be Kind, Respectful, Safe and Ready. 

We all know that it can take some of us a little longer to get going in the morning, so here at Ribble, we continue to support our children with a slightly ‘softer start’. This simply means that when they arrive in a morning, everyone has opportunity to have a drink, help themselves to a bagel, listen to some music, enjoy a bit of yoga, draw a picture or read a book- whatever it is that they need to help them get ready to face the day ahead. 

This is also the time to share reading books and complete any online Accelerated Reader quizzes.   

In English lessons we continue to follow a book-based approach, using high quality texts to motivate our children to write.  This half term we will be focusing on Me and You by Anthony Brown and Wolves by Emily Gravett.  We will also take time to enjoy books at story time and encourage all our children to choose their own library book to take home to share with you on a Friday.  

Year 2 are all grouped for phonics and we have daily Read Write Inc lessons, teaching the skills needed to read and write with ever increasing confidence and competence.  This is also when we do our ‘guided reading’ sessions, learning to read independently and with increasing fluency, expression and comprehension. During these sessions, some of our children have now started to follow the RWI Spelling programme, learning a different spelling pattern each week. 

In Maths we are building on our ‘Place Value’ work, applying what we have learnt to addition and subtraction.  We have revised our number bonds to 10 and will now work on applying this to adding and subtracting numbers to 100.  We continue to work on counting in 2s, 5s and 10s with more of a focus on learning our times tables.  All children now have their TT Rockstars login and are encouraged to practise at home as often as possible. 

Our Science topic this half term is ‘Animals including humans’ where we will be learning what animals (including humans) need to survive, understanding the difference between what we need and what we want. 

We are also going to look closely at how we can look after our bodies with a focus on healthy eating, the importance of exercise and the need for good hygiene. 

We plan to finish our Geography topic, in which we have been comparing and contrasting where we live with a place called Kampong Ayer and then we will be moving on to learn about ‘History Makers’- people who are still remembered today for things (good OR bad) that they have done in the past.  Listen out for names such as: Guy Fawkes, Malala Yousafzai, Margaret Thatcher and Marie Curie amongst others! 

This half term sees a move from Art to DT, with the topic ‘Baby Bear’s Chair’ and a focus on creating stable structures.  The children continue to enjoy weekly PE lessons with their coach as well as Computing with Miss Finch and Music with Mr Martin and Mrs Higson.   Our RE lessons have now moved from Islam to Christianity, leading up to the significance of Christmas and culminating in the Key Stage 1 Nativity in December. 

This is always a very busy half term, with Bonfire Night, Children in Need, the Nativity, Christmas parties, Christmas Crafts and the wonderful whole school trip to the pantomime.  

Please continue to closely monitor Class Dojo for dates to remember! 

Thank you as always for your support and cooperation, 

Mrs Smith, Miss Finch and all the team.