Welcome to Year 2!

Teacher: Miss Sweeney

Autumn 1 2025

Hello and welcome to Year 2!  I am so happy that you are in my class and I can't wait for all the exciting and fun learning we will be doing together this year. We will be doing lots of interesting activities and challenges as well as learning some new school and classroom routines. 

English

Our literacy focus for the start of our Autumn 1 half-term will be writing a narrative. We are going to be exploring the picture book 'The Bog Baby' by Jeanne Willis. This is a magical story about two sisters who secretly go fishing in a forbidden bluebell wood. Instead of catching a fish, they discover a tiny, magical creature – the Bog Baby. They take him home to care for him, but soon he becomes sick. With the help of their mum, the girls learn that wild creatures belong in their natural habitats, not in cages or jars – even if we love them. During this unit, we will be recapping all of our Year 1 phonics and sentence writing skills and retelling the story in our own way. We will aim to include:. 

- Capital letters

- Finger spaces

- Phonics

- Full stops

- Adjectives

- Adverbs

- Commas

- Conjunctions

- ?!

Maths

During our Maths lessons this half-term, we will be learning about Place Value and Addition and Subtraction. We will be using lots of practical resources and using our learning to solve real life problems. To support us in our learning we will be using Base 10, place value charts, ten frames and part-whole models.  Below are the objectives we will be learning and the order that we will focus on them. 

Topic

Our topic for this half term is... The UK. In Year 2, children build on their knowledge of the UK by learning more about its countries, capital cities, surrounding seas, and key human and physical features. They begin to use maps, globes, and atlases and develop their ability to describe and compare different places. During the unit, we will be learning to:

1. Locational Knowledge

• Name, locate and identify characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom.

• Name and locate the surrounding seas of the UK (e.g. North Sea, English Channel).

2. Place Knowledge

• Understand similarities and differences between a small area of the UK and a contrasting non-European country (e.g. comparing a village in England with a village in Kenya or India).

3. Human and Physical Geography

• Use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to:

  • Physical features: beach, cliff, forest, hill, mountain, river, sea, etc.

  • Human features: city, town, village, factory, farm, house, office, port, harbour, shop.

4. Geographical Skills and Fieldwork

• Use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the UK and its countries.

• Use simple compass directions (N, S, E, W).

• Use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and features.

• Devise a simple map and use and construct basic symbols in a key.

• Undertake fieldwork in the local environment to observe and record geographical features.

Science

In Science this half term we will be learning all about Everyday Materials. We will be learning to:

• identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, rock, paper and cardboard for particular uses
• find out how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching

Religion

In our RE lessons this half-term, we will be focusing on the Bible, stewardship and caring for our world. By the end of the unit, we hope you can answer and respond to these questions:

Can you show you know there are two parts of the Bible: the Old Testament and the New Testament?

Can you talk about psalms as prayers?

Can you respond to a range of artistic expressions of Creation and talk about your responses?

Can you identify some messages in the story of Noah?

Can you retell the story of Noah?

Can you express a point of view and give a reason about why people should care about the world?

Can you give a simple definition of stewardship and what it means for God’s world?

Can you reflect on actions that can help or harm others?

Can you simply describe a baby’s baptism?

Can you use religious words and phrases for baptismal symbols and give meanings for these?

Can you use religious words and phrases to show understanding of the words and actions of baptism?

PE

This half term you will need to come into school wearing your PE kit on our PE days which are Monday and Friday. In PE you will be learning about invasion and team games  skills with Mr Siddall outside and circuits skills in the hall. 

Homework

Reading – 10 minutes a night

Listening to your child read for 10 minutes a night makes a significant difference in their progress and attainment. It helps them practice key reading strategies and skills, develop their comprehension skills and supports their overall fluency and accuracy, which are vital skills they need for the future. Every Friday an eBook will be assigned to your child’s online account based upon the sounds they have learnt in phonics that week. The children will have practiced this book in their guided reading sessions so will be familiar with the text. The purpose of them practicing it again at home is to become more familiar with these sounds and fluent when reading them.

Your child will also choose a reading for pleasure book. This is a book that you can both read and enjoy together and encourage reading for pleasure. This will be a physical book that your child takes home and they will be given the opportunity to choose and change every Friday. As it is a reading for pleasure book, it is not necessarily aimed at your child’s reading level, therefore can be challenging, which is why we are asking for an adult to read this and your child to join in where possible. The reading for pleasure book is important as it is how we will help build a love of reading together.   Please ensure your child brings this back to school every Friday ready to change in our school Library.

Reading eggs – once a week      https://readingeggs.co.uk

Reading eggs makes learning to read interesting and engaging for kids, with great online reading games and activities. Children love the games, songs, golden eggs and other rewards which, along with feeling proud of their reading, really motivate children to keep exploring and learning.

My Maths and Mathseeds – once a week       https://mathseeds.co.uk/

Every Friday, your class teacher will set home learning for your child on MyMaths.co.uk. This will be based upon what they have learnt that week so your child can practice the skills taught at home to reinforce key strategies.  

Mathseeds is an online website that your child can use to develop pupils’ confidence and fluency in Maths and the interactive lessons provide step-by-step examples to break down learning into manageable chunks. The log in for this is the same one you use for reading eggs.

Phonics home learning – once a week

Every Friday, we will send home a phonics sheet in your child’s book bag for them to practice over the next week. The sheet will have the list of sounds your child has learnt that week, words and sentences for them to read and write with these sounds in and then a list of tricky words that the children need to know. These words will be familiar to them and ones they have practiced in phonics sessions.

You can then practice these sounds further on fastphonics (www.readingeggs.co.uk/fast-phonics-games), which is the same log in as reading eggs.

Learning logs – Autumn  2, Spring 2 and Summer 2

Last year we introduced our project-based home learning to replace the homework board we previously used. Pupil, parent and teacher voice all showed that project based home learning was the preferred style of home learning as it gave children more freedom to learn about real life world events, share personal experiences and it has helped motivate them to engage in home learning as it is child managed. It encourages the children to be more independent, inquisitive and provides more opportunities for outdoor learning together. This can be completed in your learning log, a scrap book of your choice or it can be uploaded onto Seesaw.

Instead of completing these every half term, we have reduced this to three half terms a year to make it more manageable. They will therefore be given out on the first Monday of Autumn 2 (31^st October), Spring 2 (27^th February) and Summer 2 (12^th June).  We ask that their project is brought into school on the last week of that half term to share and celebrate with their peers. You will be given a sheet of paper that will be stuck in your child’s learning log that will outline what the project is and ideas of activities you can do.

KS1 Creative ideas: https://sway.office.com/izWF4eAOc7u0rCfS?ref=Link