Welcome to Year 2S!

Teacher: Miss Sweeney

Autumn 2 2024

Hello and welcome back Year 2!  What a great start to the year we have had!  I can't wait to continue with all our amazing learning. We will be doing lots of fun learning activities as well as learning some new school and classroom routines. 

Literacy

Our literacy focus for the start of our Autumn 2 half-term will be based on the classic fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk. We all know the original story of Jack and the Beanstalk, this half-term we will be looking at alternative versions and eventually trying to come up with our own. 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

- Conjunctions

- ?!

Maths

During our Maths lessons this half-term, we will be learning about Addition and Subtraction and Shape. 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 Victorian's. The time when Queen Victoria reigned is called the Victorian era or Victorian age. She was queen from 1837 to 1901, and a lot of things happened in Britain during that time.

During the 64 years that Queen Victoria was on the throne, Britain was also going through the Industrial Revolution. Machines for factories were invented that could make things quickly, like textiles – so, there were more textiles around to sell, and more people who wanted to buy them. With the invention of the steam train, the textiles could get to places further away than before. Life in the Victorian era changed very quickly for a lot of people, and cities became busier and more crowded.

During this unit, children will learn to:

•             Understand simple chronology.

•             Describe the lives of some famous people who lived in the past and say why they’re famous.

•             Describe the lives of some famous people who lived in the past and say why they’re famous.

•             Describe what happened in important events in the past.

•             Understand some of the ways we find out about the past.

•             Begin to find out about life in the past by looking at: stories/information books /pictures or photographs /DVDs /the internet /artefacts /museum displays /old buildings and heritage sites.

•             Ask and answer questions about the past.

•             Use words and phrases that relate to the passage of time.

•             Tell you about a time before I was born.

•             Record my understanding of the past in different ways, such as: writing /drawing and labelling /painting and collage /drama /making models.

Science

In Science this half term we will be learning all about Living Things and their Habitats. We will be learning to:

• explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive
• identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other
• identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including microhabitats
• describe how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals, using the idea of a simple food chain, and identify and name different sources of food.

Religion

In our RE lessons this half-term, we will be focusing Waiting and Preparing. We will be learning to:

• understand that advent is a time for waiting and preparing
• use the advent wreath as we wait for Christmas
• retell and sequence the nativity story
• understand the story of the Christingle

We will also be focussing on Islam during our other faiths week. 

PE

This half term you will need to come into school wearing your PE kit on our PE day which is a Monday. 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