Year 2

The second half of the autumn term is already underway and pupils in Year 2 are being busy bees as ever!

The children have all embraced the new Accelerated Reader scheme and are now well into the swing of things, logging on to their iPads and completing their quizzes as soon as they come into school every morning.  It is great to see their enthusiasm for reading!

They are all grouped for phonics and the first part of every day is set aside for Read Write Inc, working on reading and writing all their sounds then using this knowledge to write a wide range of key words.  This is also when we do our ‘guided reading’ sessions, learning to read independently and with increasing fluency, expression and comprehension.

English lessons this half term are linked to our history topic: History Makers.  We are learning about significant people and events throughout history and the impact their actions have had on our lives today, beginning with Marie Curie.  We have already learnt a lot about her from one of the ‘Little People, Big Dreams’ books, writing about significant events in her life and building up to writing a biographical recount of her life.  We plan to continue to find out and write about other important men and women who are still remembered today for things they did in the past.

In Maths we are building on our ‘Place Value’ work, applying what we have learnt to enable us to add and subtract pairs of numbers.  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 a TT Rockstars login and are encouraged to practise at home as often as possible.

We launched our new Science topic ‘Animals including humans’ with a very special visit.  Children got to meet and hold a range of animals including snakes, a tortoise, snails, lizards and a rabbit which was great fun!  They are now going on to learn about what animals (including humans) need in order 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.

This half term sees a move from Art to DT, still linked to traditional tales- the topic is entitled ‘Baby Bear’s Chair’ and the focus is on creating structures.  These lessons take place every Monday afternoon with Miss Finch. 

The children continue to enjoy weekly PE lessons with Miss Peake as well as computing with Miss Brookes and singing with Mr Martin.  Music lessons also continue every Friday afternoon with Mr Charles.  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 on 13^th December.

This is always a very busy half term, with Children in Need, the Christmas Fair, 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 and Miss Finch