Year 2CS

Welcome back to Year 2, we hope you have all had a relaxing and restful break.

This Autumn term we’re starting our History unit on Castles. This is such an exciting and interesting topic which we’re sure the children will love learning about. We’ll learn about the different types of castles and how they have changed throughout history.

We’re also starting our new Geography unit which is Our World. This is where we will learn about the key features of a map and identify different landmarks around the world. The children will also learn about the different continents and the surrounding oceans.

In English, we will be looking at an information text as well as poetry later on in the term. We use the Talk for Writing approach in class and are starting with the information text ‘Not Now Bernard’ and making our adaptations. We regularly assess your child’s writing skills throughout a unit of work and formally at the start and end of a topic.

We’ll be learning about Materials in Science. Our focus will be to explore the properties of different materials and why we use them.

In Maths, we are using the White Rose curriculum. Our first topic is place value and once we are secure with this, we will move on to addition and subtraction. We will also be continuing to make sure we know our times tables fluently – in Year 2 the children are expected to know their 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s.

Our PE sessions will be on Mondays and Tuesdays. Please ensure that your child has their PE kit in school on these days.

Our school PE kit is a white T-shirt and black shorts or tracksuit bottoms and trainers or pumps.  Please make sure that your child’s PE kit is labelled with their name.

Homework:

Homework in Year 2 consists of daily reading for 10 minutes minimum (of your child’s banded/coloured reading book which is one level below their class reading level to support their fluency and enjoyment/their library book), counting in 2s, 5s and 10s and completing their Maths homework which is set each week on Class Dojo.  We will also send home a ‘Homework Menu’ each half term, which is a list of activities related to our learning in class. Your child may choose some or all of these activities to complete at home and then bring them into class.

This year we are introducing a new programme called Word Aware. Your child will be learning two new words each week in class. Please ask your child to tell you this word and see how many times you can use this word in your family home.

Reading books:

In our reading lessons, we will continue to read various text types and books. Fluency and comprehension are especially important and this is something which can be helped by 10 minutes reading at home every day. Your child will have the opportunity to choose their reading books on Thursday independently.  We do guided reading sessions each day and your child is heard twice a week to check their progress in reading. Children are moved colour bands when they are ready to be challenged by the demands of the next level. We formally assess your child three times a year using a reading assessment but informal assessment takes place every day.

We’re looking forward to a fantastic year with your children.

Miss Shields, Mrs Rosa and Miss Du Pont