Year 2 Class

Week beginning 16th March 2020
 
 
English:
 
Our new class book is Traction Man by Mini Grey and Year 2 love it!  The lessons around this text only reveal a few pages at a time so it will be a while before pupils have seen the whole text.  (If you have a copy or plan to get one, please hold back from revealing the story whilst we study it in school.)  There are other Traction Man stories that your child may love to read once this unit of work is complete.  
 
Maths:
 
Our new chapter is 'Mass'.  We are having practical experiences of what a kilogram feels like and how to read scales.  Practice at home is encouraged - reading weights to the nearest kilogram and using words such as 'more than, less than or exactly.' 
 
We continue to practice mental and written arithmetic daily using addition, subtraction, division and multiplication.
 
1960s Topic: 
 
We hope you enjoyed looking at our 1960s fashion designs in our books at Parents' Evening!
We are currently spending some time on Charanga (our music curriculum) learning about the pulse (or beat) of the music.  Our song that we are learning is 'I wanna be in a rock band!' and links nicely to our developing understanding of The Beatles.    
 
We continue to work on our Pop Art topic too.  We are creating Pop Art self portraits from our own photograph and using bold colours to make them stand out like Andy Warhol's art.  
 
Bird Feeders: 
 
Year 2 are fortunate to have a classroom on the edge of the woodland.  We have placed bird feeders outside our window and have already had great excitement as a robin, blue tit and female blackbird have been to visit.  It is a lovely addition to our learning environment.  We have also provided the birds with some nesting material and hope that the bird box at the side of the window might attract a bird family.  It's all very exciting for our lovely 6 and 7 year olds!  
 
Parents' Evening Resource:
 
A couple of parents asked about the 'Maths No Problem' methods we use for addition and subtraction so that they can support their children with homework tasks.  Mrs McCann has created a document (available below this post) to help parents. Please let us know if it isn't clear or if you require any further help.  
 
Book Day Photographs below:
We had a lovely time celebrating World Book Day with the children.  Please can we politely remind families to send in their £1 donation to cover the cost of the Author visit if it hasn't already been handed in.  Many thanks.

Week beginning 2nd March 2020

This week our timetable has changed slightly as we are assessing the children during our reading and comprehension lessons and maths lessons. 

Some of you may have heard your child talking about our 'secret agent training' (these are our assessments). The children have absolutely loved talking part in them so far this week as they are fully on board with the idea that these assessments are testing out their abilities and training their brains to potentially become the secret agents of our future! They have literally jumped for joy on each occasion that we have carried out assessments. This has been a very similar reaction to last years class and it is so lovely to see our children feeling joyous and excited about the challenges that face them as opposed to anxious and upset.

Our afternoon lessons have continued as normal and children will be learning:

Science- food chain art work

RE- the parable of the lost son

ICT- mind maps of Goldilocks and the three bears

Topic- 1960's

 

Don't forget that it's world book day on Thursday. We are excited to see all of the different, wonderful and creative costumes that the children will come into school in. 

We will also be having a very exciting visit from an author to kick start the excitement of world book day.

 

 

Week beginning 24th February 2020

 

The children have settled back in beautifully this morning and shared lots of exciting news from their holidays.  From skiing holidays, days out climbing, new wobbly teeth updates and even a christening, they seem to have had a lovely time. 

 

This week we are learning the following:

  • Reading Comprehension
  • Spellings - Reading and spelling contractions e.g. aren't, won't
  • Maths - Length.  Pupils will be initially measuring with metre sticks talking generally about whether objects measure more or less than one metre.  Then they will move to more accurate measuring using 15cm rulers.  Any measuring you can do at home will certainly aid your child's understanding at school.
  • Writing: We have a new book this week - but the title can't be revealed until after the first lesson on Thursday.  Watch this space.  The children will love it. 
  • Science: Food chains. 
  • History: 1960s topic.  We will continue with our focus on Andy Warhol art. 
  • ICT: Using mind maps with digital content. 

 

This half term we will continue to encourage the children to use a joined cursive handwriting style and to take pride in the appearance of their work. 

 

 

Week beginning 10th February:
 
Reading Comprehension: Non Fiction, Penguins Text
Spelling: Contractions
Maths: Lines of symmetry
English: Bob's Best Ever Friend text.
ICT: What is a digital footprint?
History topic: 1960s continued - to date we have covered timelines, 1960s dance and the space race but there is much more to come! 
RE: What it means to sin and asking God for confession.
Science: Animal habitats
 
Homework
The children will only bring home reading books during this holiday.  Please encourage your child to read aloud to you. 
  
To support your child's reading:
Encourage your child to note the punctuation in the book and read accordingly.  E.g. Stopping at full stops, pausing at commas and changing their tone of voice for spoken parts. 
 
Our aim in Year 2 is to develop your child's reading 'fluency'.  This is when your child can largely read words without decoding (sounding out), read with pace and note how the punctuation is helping them.     
 
We would also recommend that the children practice their 2, 5 and 10 times tables.  Purple Mash has games that they can play to help with this.
 
Wishing you a happy half term break.  
 
The Year 2 Team
 
Week commencing 27th January 2020
 
English:  We are writing sequels to 'Bob, Man on the Moon'.  Last week we used story boards to form our ideas and begin a draft.  This week we will be using our editing skills to make changes and improve our writing further.  
 
The author of our text Simon Bartram has a website: http://www.simonbartram.com/  There are other Bob books in the series that your child might enjoy reading as we conclude the first one.
 
Maths:  Continuation of Fractions.
 
History Topic 1960s: We are having so much fun with this topic.  Huge thanks to Theo's lovely grandparents who kindly visited us last Friday.  They talked to us about life in the 1960s.  They also brought along coins from the 1960s, Swizzell and Love Heart sweets (that we still eat today) and an authentic pair of lace up hot pants!  WOW.  
 
A lovely box of books and artefacts are also out on display for the children to read and explore.  We read a a book about Rosa Parks and how she inspired Martin Luther King Jnr.  The children responded beautifully to the story of Rosa showing disbelief and frustration at how people were segregated in 1950/60s USA.  
 
This week we will focus on the Space Race.  We began to read a book last week that told us about the Saturn V rockets and how they were used to launch astronauts into space.  We were fascinated to learn that Apollo 11 stood 111 metres tall.  We tried to measure this distance across both playgrounds with a trundle wheel but we ran out of space at 77 metres!
 
We are happy to welcome more family members to school if they would like to talk to the children about their lives in the 1960s.  Please send a note for the attention of Mrs McCann if you would like to arrange this.
 
Chinese New Year:  There will be some activities related to Chinese New Year this week.  The children will also have the opportunity to visit the Year 6 classroom which will be hosting a Chinese Multi Cultural Extravaganza!
 
Thank you parents for your continued support.  We are very much enjoying teaching your children. 
Week commencing 20th January
 
English: We just love our class text 'Bob, Man on the Moon' by Simon Bartram.  To date we have written a letter to Bob, sent postcards from the moon, created our own moon souvenirs, produced warning signs and designed our own aliens!   Next week we will continue to build on our language skills with exciting adjectives.  Talk to your child about the word 'silly' that we looked up in the thesaurus today (Friday).  We found a variety of exciting alternatives including 'dippy' and 'featherbrained' which caused much amusement. 
Optional Challenge: Can your child use a thesaurus to find more exciting words to describe an alien?  
 
Maths:  We have now concluded our chapter on Multiplication and Division of 2, 5 and 10.   Please continue to use Purple Mash to practice these times tables as they are a vital skill in Year 2.  Our next chapter is 'Length'.  In this chapter your child will begin by understanding what a metre is and what centimetres are and then progress to using them in real-life contexts.  Please get involved at home by measuring with rulers and measuring tapes.
 
1960's History: To date we have created a timeline of key events from the 1960s.  We have been introduced to the dances 'The Twist' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETX03Zjtarc and 'The Swim'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-HpjnnXAJw  Why not try these out at home together.  We will continue to introduce different aspects of the 1960s such as fashion, music and space exploration.  
 
Thank you for your continued support.  It has been lovely to see the children's enthusiasm with these new themes.  
 
A reading pack and homework pack have been left behind by two children.  These will be sent on Monday. 
 
 
Week commencing 6th January 2020
 
Happy New YearWe hope all you had a wonderful break.
 
Mrs McCann is very excited to begin teaching Year 2 later this week (Thursday/Friday).  We hope the children will be too.
 
New Topic: The children should prepare to travel back in time over this Spring Term as we explore the awe and wonder of the 1960s!  Sixties music, art, famous people and space exploration will feature in the coming weeks.  Please encourage your child to talk to family members who lived in the 1960s and may be able to share interesting stories and experiences of daily life at that time.  
 
New Class Text: Mrs Broadbent and Mrs McCann will reveal the new class text to the children this week.  It links nicely with our 1960s topic and will inspire our writing activities.  
 
Some key vocabulary from the text is listed below.  It may be helpful to discuss the meaning of these words with your child.
  • astronaut, Mars, Saturn, aliens
  • responsible, tourist, entertain, somersaults, guided tour, craters, patiently, souvenir, wits (keep your wits)
 
 

Week commencing 2nd Dec

 

Comprehension- George and the dragon.

Spelling- adding ‘ies’ to verbs and nouns ending in ‘y’.

Composition- Christmas themed writing.

Numeracy- Multiplying by 2 5 and 10

Art- Christmas cards

Drama- Christmas play rehearsals

 

Homework

Spellings-

Flies                               Babies                        Marries

Tries                              Carries                        Families

Replies                          Cries

Copies                           Dries

Comprehension

Learning lines for the Christmas play

 

Additional notes

We have now sent out the letters detailing costumes needed for the Christmas play.

If you have not yet received one then please do not hesitate to contact us and we can send home a new letter.

Thank you for your support at home with helping the children to learn their lines for the play; the children are really starting to grow in confidence with this.

It is the Christmas Bazar this Friday and the children will have the opportunity to spend some of their money in the bazaar during the day.

Week commencing 18th November 2019

 

Spelling- spelling the sound ‘l’ with ‘il’ and ‘al’ at the end of words.

Composition- Instruction writing – focusing on children’s recipes

Numeracy- Multiplication

Science- Elastic experiment

 

Homework

Spellings

Maths- addition

Ticking text comprehension

 

Additional notes

It was lovely to see you all at last weeks parents evening. Thank you for all of your support. 

For those parents who have requested a list of the weekly spellings, we hope you find this useful:

Pencil, fossil, nostril, pupil, metal, pedal, capital, hospital, animal, oval

Over the next couple of weeks our children will start to bring lines home to learn for the Christmas play. We are currently in the process of handing out parts. Several of our children have requested to have a non-speaking part in the play and we will respect each child’s wishes so as not to create any anxiety. For these children who have speaking parts can we ask for your support in learning these lines at home as soon as possible?

We will also be asking for your help in providing costumes for your children and we will send out letters to inform you of what is needed as soon as parts have been decided.

Week commencing 21st October

We have had a lovely first half term with your children and we hope that you all have a lovey half term break.

 

Comprehension- Timid Tim and the Cuggy Thief

Spelling- Common exception words.

Grammar- Address writing.

Composition- Writing a letter based on the book ‘Dear teacher’.

Numeracy- Subtraction.

Science- A hunt around school for wooden objects.

 

Homework

Spellings

Comprehension

Maths

Reading

Handwriting

 

Additional notes

Mad hair day

Please note that all of the parents evening appointments have now been given out so please do contact school if you have not yet received this.

Week commencing 14th October 2019

 

Spelling- ‘j’ spelt ‘g’ before ‘e’ ‘I’ ‘y’. ‘j’ spelt ‘j’  before ‘a’ ‘o’ ‘u’.

Grammar- Forms of sentences.

Composition- Plan and write a new adventure for a character in the story ‘Dear teacher’ written in the form of a letter.

Numeracy- Addition with renaming

Science- Recording data.

Humanities- looking at human and natural features of an island and designing our own islands to include these features.

 

Homework

Spellings

Maths- addition with renaming

Ticking text comprehension

 

Additional notes

Wear Red for racism on Friday.

Week commencing 7th October 2019

 

Spelling- ‘j’ spelt ‘g’ before ‘e’ ‘I’ ‘y’. ‘j’ spelt ‘j’  before ‘a’ ‘o’ ‘u’.

Grammar- Using conjunctions.

Composition- Fable writing

Numeracy- Addition

Science- Absorbency experiment

Humanities- Continents of the world

RE- 10 lepers

 

Homework

Spellings

Maths- addition

Ticking text comprehension

 

Additional notes

Individual school photographs on Thursday.

 

 

 

 

Week commencing 30th Sep

The children are beginning to settle into the very busy routine of year 2 and seem to be enjoying the challenge that it brings.

 

Comprehension- this week we have been working on a range of comprehension challenges but our whole class comprehension has been about ‘The Lions Lunch’.

Spelling- the spelling rule for this week is ‘wr’ for r.

Grammar- Our focus is grammar this week is to create compound sentences using the conjunctions and, so & but.

Numeracy- We are focusing on number bonds using tens and ones.

Science- This week’s science has focused around all of the different types of scientific enquiry.

RE- The topic of Good News is continuing with the story of the Jairus’s daughter.

 

Homework

Wr spelling and handwriting

Ticking text comprehension

 

 

Additional notes

Thank you for your time and support on Friday for the ISING POP performances on Friday. If you do wish to purchase any of the merchandise that was on offer please fill in a form and return to school.

Welcome back to school Year 2! We hope you have all had a fantastic summer. And we are looking forward to seeing you all and hearing about what you have been up to. We are also looking forward to an exciting year ahead with you all. We have lots of lovely things planned for you and we hope that you enjoy the Year 2 adventure!

 

Week commencing 9th September 2019

 

We will be spending time over this week getting to know your children both personally and academically in preparation for the year ahead.

  • Science- We will be starting the year off with our materials topic.
  • Humanities- We will also be starting our St Lucia study in Geography.
  • RE- Our topic for this half term is Good News.

 

Homework

This week, your child will bring home their reading pack which will consist of two reading books. Please do not feel pressure to read both of these books in one week. This is purely to give you the option to hear your child read more should you wish.

 

Additional notes

We look forward to meeting you at our learning links meeting on Tuesday 10th September at 5.30.

We will update this year 2 class page on a regular basis to inform you of what it is that we are covering in school. We will also update the Dawpool twitter page each week with photographs of our exciting experiences.

 

Week beginning 24th February 2020
 
The children have settled back in beautifully this morning and shared lots of exciting news from their holidays.  From skiing holidays, days out climbing, new wobbly teeth updates and even a christening, they seem to have had a lovely time.  
 
This week we are learning the following:
 
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Spellings - Reading and spelling contractions e.g. aren't, won't
  • Maths - Length.  Pupils will be initially measuring with metre sticks talking generally about whether objects measure more or less than one metre.  Then they will move to more accurate measuring using 15cm rulers.  Any measuring you can do at home will certainly aid your child's understanding at school.
  • Writing: We have a new book this week - but the title can't be revealed until after the first lesson on Thursday.  Watch this space.  The children will love it.  
  • Science: Food chains.  
  • History: 1960s topic.  We will continue with our focus on Andy Warhol art.  
  • ICT: Using mind maps with digital content.