Year 2
Spring 2 Curriculum Newsletter
Attenborough Class
Welcome back!
Welcome to another term in Year 2! We hope you had a lovely break. As always, this term is very busy with lots of fantastic learning taking place. Within this curriculum newsletter, there is some key information to help you support your child’s learning.
Uniform and water bottles
Please make sure your child is wearing the correct school uniform and that it is clearly labelled to avoid confusion. Uniform guidelines are outlined on the school website. School Uniform - Cherry Fields Primary School Please contact the school office if you have any questions. All children should bring a labelled water bottle to school every day. A hydrated body means a higher functioning mind.
Nut Free School
Please can we remind you that we are a Nut Free School, so please do not pack products in the lunchboxes that may contain nuts, this includes chocolate spread.
PE
This year our PE days are Monday and Thursday. Please make sure that your child has their PE kit in school every day in case these days change or extra events are planned. We suggest that kit stays in school all term unless the kit has got wet or dirty.
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Indoor PE: Children will need black shorts and a plain t-shirt in their house colour. Gym and Dance is done in bare feet. Children will need trainers or plimsolls for indoor games.
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Outdoor PE: black shorts and t-shirt, and a tracksuit or spare jumper for colder days. Children will also need trainers.
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Jewellery: A reminder that only stud earrings and wristwatches may be worn to school. Earrings must be removed or covered for PE with plasters or medical tape from home. Children should not wear bracelets to school.
Homework
Children will have one homework book, which will be used for all homework. In Year 2, the homework expectations are as follows:
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Maths homework on Times Tables Rock Stars (5 minutes three times a week)
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Daily/frequent reading
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One piece of weekly arithmetic homework which is to be completed independently
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Weekly spelling
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One piece of optional Curriculum topic homework each term
Please can homework books be returned to school on a Friday and they will be sent home again on the following Monday.
Times Table Rock Stars
Cherry Fields Primary School is signed up to the Times Tables Rock Stars programme to support your child with their multiplication and division facts. The curriculum states that all children should be able to recall accurately their multiplication and division facts up to 12x12 by the end of year 4. Therefore, daily times table practice is crucial. When it comes to times tables, speed AND accuracy are important – the more fluent they are with their facts, the easier they will access other aspects of the curriculum. In Year 2, the national expectation is that children become fluent in the 2, 5 and 10 times tables and the related division facts. For their maths homework, children are expected to play on Times Table Rock Stars for 5 minutes at least three times a week.
Reading
We expect children to have daily opportunities to read to, or with, someone at home, as well as independently. Each Friday, children will be sent home with the following: Book Bag Book: this is a text that is based upon the sounds that children have been reading in class. As such, the children should be able to apply their phonics to knowledge to read all the words within the book with minimal support. Library Book: this is a book that children have chosen themselves when they have visited the school library. These books are not based on prior phonics knowledge and should be shared with, or read by, an adult.
All children have a reading diary, which they should bring to school in their book bag every day. Please record your child’s reading (as well as any additional comments) in the reading diary including the date and, where appropriate, page numbers. To build fluency, children should read a text a minimum of three times. As such, school reading books will only be changed once per week on a Friday. We will check the reading record is completed regularly. If your child reads four times a week, your child will receive a raffle ticket that will be entered into our termly reading raffle. They have the chance to win a book of their choice from the selection.
Curriculum Homework Menus
Children will have a termly menu with additional homework options on it which are optional now that there will be weekly maths homework. Information on this will be sent home via class dojo as well as in children’s books which will go home on Friday.
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Curriculum |
This term our curriculum focus is Art. We will be focusing on the question ‘Can I create a piece of art based on a period of history?’. We will be exploring the curriculum areas of Art and History in detail, focusing on the Queen. We will learn that the Queen is our monarch, the Head of State for countries in the Commonwealth and a member of the royal family in Britain. Year 2 will learn that the Queen represents our country and works with the Prime Minister. In addition, we will investigate when Queen Elizabeth was born and the members of her family. Within Art, we will explore Pop Art and how this art movement emerged in the 1950s and flourished in the 1960s in America and Britain due to commercial culture. Year 2 will investigate key artists who become famous due to their Pop Art paintings, including Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. At the end of our project, the children will produce a piece of artwork in the style of Pop Art with a focus on symbolism. |
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Maths |
Our maths topics will allow us to explore the concept of division. We will begin by explaining that objects can be grouped equally and also start to identify and explain when objects cannot be grouped equally. The children will then be able to explain the relationship between division expressions and division stories, calculating the number of equal groups in a division story. Additionally, they will learn how to apply their knowledge of skip counting and division to solve problems relating to measure. After this, the children will explore how to use skip counting using the divisor to find the quotient and use this knowledge to solve division problems. Then, Year 2 will be developing their knowledge of addition and subtraction by considering how to add and subtract two two-digit numbers. They will be applying their known strategies of adding and subtracting multiples of ten to two single-digit numbers before adding and subtracting through the method of partitioning numbers into tens and ones. |
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Writing |
Our writing this term will focus on three different text types. The first will enable us to learn about character descriptions. We will be describing a variety of characters from books we have read this year (e.g. Mrs Noah, The Journey) and some new texts including Katie and the Mona Lisa. The children will be developing their vocabulary choices, conjunctions and use of sentences to convey meaning to the audience. After this, Year 2 will be developing their letter writing skills by writing a letter from Paddington to Aunt Lucy about the places that he visits. During this unit of work, the children will have the opportunity to watch snippets from the film and use this to inform Aunt Lucy about his travels. The children will be focusing on exclamation sentences, using commas appropriately and following a coherence structure. Finally, the children will record a recount of a key event that links to our curriculum session. Within this unit, the children will be exploring time conjunctions, sequencing and using the past tense. |
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Computing |
This term we will be looking at pictograms. This unit introduces the children to the term ‘data’. Year 2 will begin to understand what data means and how this can be collected in the form of a tally chart. They will learn the term ‘attribute’ and use this to help them organise data. Also, they will then progress onto presenting data in the form of pictograms and finally block diagrams. Kahlo and Seacole will use the data presented to answer questions. By the end of the project, the children will be able:
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HRE |
Within our HRE this term the children will be exploring 2 topics: safe relationships and respecting self and others. As part of this, the children will spend time exploring how people may behave differently online and how to respond. They will learn how to recognise and respond to personal boundaries and know what to do if they feel unsafe. Additionally, Year 2 will learn about how to treat themselves and others with respect and how to appropriately share their opinions. To finish, the children will learn how to recognise how they are feeling which is similar or different to others. |
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Music |
Our music this term is linked to a topic called ‘Zootime’. The children will be exploring the key musical terminology including: pulse, rhythm, pitch through singing and playing instruments. Zootime is a Reggae piece of music created by Joanna Mangona. |
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PE |
Our outdoor PE sessions will be focused on object control – we will be applying our skills to both tennis and cricket during the term and achieving the following objectives:
Our indoor PE sessions will be focused on gymnastics.
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Key dates:
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Start of term- Monday 19th February
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End of term- Thursday 28th March
Thank you for your ongoing support. We are looking forward to another busy term and working with you to support your child’s learning and development. If you have any questions or concerns, please do come and speak to us before or after school.
Kind regards,
Mrs Lammond
Year 2 Teacher
