Welcome to Year 2S!

Teacher: Miss Sweeney

Spring 2023

Hello Year 2! My name is Miss Sweeney and I will be your teacher this year. I am so excited for the new school year and I can't wait to get started with our learning. We will be doing lots of fun learning activities as well as learning some new school and classroom routines. I know that we are going to have a great year together!

Literacy

Our literacy focus for the start of our Spring 1 half-term, will be Mr Wolf's Pancakes by Jan Fearnley. During this unit, we will be exploring instruction writing and we will be discussing other non-fiction text types.  We will also look at a range of instruction features such as, time openers, imperative verbs and adverbs. Later in the half-term, we will be focussing on the classic story by Julia Donaldson - The Gruffalo. During our lessons, we are going to be answering comprehension style questions, sequencing and discussing how we can improve our writing, using drama and speaking and listening skills. For our final piece, we will write our own version of The Gruffalo using a range of Year 2 SPAG objectives. We will aim to include:

• Capital letters and full stops
• Finger spaces
• Phonics
• A range of sentence types
• Adjectives
• Adverbs
• Conjunctions
• Commas in a list
• Apostrophes for contractions

Maths

During our Maths lessons this half-term, we will be learning about Multiplication and Division. 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

This half term we will be learning all about Computer Science. In this computing unit, we will learn about early programming concepts. We will explore using individual commands, both with other learners  and as part of a computer program. We will identify what each command for the floor robot does, and use that knowledge to start predicting the outcome of programs. The unit is paced to ensure time is spent on all aspects of programming, and builds knowledge in a structured manner. We are also introduced to the early stages of program design through the introduction of algorithms.

Science

In Science this half term we will be learning all about Spring. We will learn to:

• observe changes across the four seasons
• observe and describe weather associated with the seasons and how day length varies.

Religion

In our RE lessons this half-term, we will be focusing on Lent and Easter. We will be learning to:

• understand why we celebrate Ash Wednesday

• understand Lent as a time for opportunities

• understand why we celebrate Palm Sunday

• sequence the Holy Week and orally retell the Easter Story

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 Berry 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.

Please see below an overview of topics we will be studying this year:

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