Year 2 2022 - 2023
Welcome to Year 2
As your child enters into their final year as part of Key Stage 1, we aim to support them as best we can on their journey to become truly independent learners and workers. Our yearly curriculum is packed full of exciting opportunities, read more about this below:
Mrs Buckley | Mrs Gledhill |
Teacher | Classroom Support: |
General Timetable
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
Early Bird Activities | Early Bird Activities | Early Bird Activities | Early Bird Activities | Early Bird Activities |
Worship | Worship | Worship | Worship | Worship |
Phonics | Phonics | Phonics | Phonics | Phonics |
English | English | English | English | English |
Mathematics | Mathematics | Mathematics | Mathematics | Mathematics |
Group guided reading | Group guided reading | Group guided reading | Group guided reading | Group guided reading |
Music | Humanities | RE | Science | Art/DT |
PE | Humanities | ICT | Science | PSHE |
Teachers communicate with staff using Seesaw and when your child joins the class a parent invite will be given to open this line of communication.
Literacy
Each day begins with a phonics and spelling rule session which is designed to meet the needs of the individual child and how far along they are on their phonics journey. Handwriting sessions are held weekly to develop a child’s fine motor skills and specific time is set aside to develop understanding of reading, fluency and decoding skills. This may be 1:1, whole class or group situation. Children are expected to practise their weekly spelling list every evening as well as spending some time reading their reading scheme book. Additional reading for pleasure books are also sent home for them to enjoy with an adult.
Phonics and reading catch up is a focus for our class this year also as we prepare to take the Yr 1 Phonics Screening Check that was postponed from last academic year.
Parent meetings are held at the start of the year to inform them of the year ahead and the expectations within Year 2.
Maths
While exploring Mathematics, we aim to develop each child’s confidence and enjoyment of working with number while placing our activities within read life situations. Beginning with place value, we then move on to the manipulation of concrete apparatus to develop our skills within the four rules of number. All our pupils have access to the NUMBOTS app, an exciting online game that, with daily practise, develops their fluency in number recognition, place value and creating number statements. This competitive site encourages our children to collect parts to make their character robot the best in the class!
Autumn 1 Curriculum Information
This half term we are welcoming our children back to school with a short whole school topic based on World War 2 before moving on to our general curriculum themes.
English Here we begin by exploring the class book: The Lion and the Unicorn by Shirley Hughes. We will be focussing on our sentence writing skills as we create letters, diary entries and descriptive pieces. Grammar and punctuation work looks in more detail at the past and present tense, noun phrases, full stops, question and exclamation marks. Identifying statements, questions, commands and exclamations also will be introduced. |
Maths In this subject we aim to cover:
|
Humanities Here we begin by exploring life at school during and after World War Two through books, interviews and emails. Examining diary entries and photographs will also help is to learn about the life of evacuees as they joined schools in the countryside.
|
Science Here we will be exploring humans and animals and their off spring. We will be answering questions such as: What do humans really need to survive? Why should I exercise? What effect does exercise have on my body? What makes a healthy diet |
Art / DT We are really looking forward to celebrating Black History Month in October by exploring the art of Alma Thomas. We wonder what her art inspired from nature makes you think of?
|
PE Our visiting sports coaches will certainly be keeping us active this half term as we develop our team building skills playing small sided team games. Taking our pulse and noticing how our bodies change in these lesson will also be explored.
|
ICT As we explore our ICT curriculum, we will also be reminding ourselves of the importance of keeping safe on line. Using the iPads helps us to explore the curriculum as well as developing our keyboard skills.
|
Music Year 2 love to sing and to make music and though the Charanga scheme we will be doing just that! Finding and keeping simple beats while learning some popular songs will be preparing our voices for our upcoming performances.
|
Religious Education Teaching and celebrating God’s word permeates through all of our lessons as we make links between this and the way we live our lives today. In specific RE lessons, we will be investigating the bible, the different types of writing within and just why this books for Christians is so loved.
This half term’s Christian Value is : Friendship. |
PSHE / Values Celebrating the Christian values runs through every part of our school daily life, but through our PSHE lessons these are explored further as well as topical current issues and our feelings and responses to them. Understanding the British Values are explored and discussed.
|
Autumn 2 Curriculum Information
As we begin this very busy half term, we find ourselves investigating our local area through the eyes of a geographer. What features of our famous village will we discover?
English In Literacy, our studies are driven by our exploration of the text: The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. Factual information texts will be read and written alongside our enjoyment of the story as we learn about these beautiful nocturnal animals. Our writing will be developed though the understanding of how commas are used in list sentences and how adverbs are created from useful adjectives. Including co-ordinating conjunctions as we write will also be a focus feature. |
Maths In this subject we aim to cover:
|
Humaniies Our Geography goggles will be worn by Year 2 as we examine maps and plans of our local area searching for different features of the land and develop our use of geographical language. |
Science Here we will be exploring the habitats of a variety of animals. Why do different animals need and choose different habitats? How are they suited to the place where they live? Do all animals need the same basic features of a habitat? |
Art / DT In this subject we will explore the more formal elements of art through repeating patterns and printing. By experimenting with frottage, we will create personal pieces of the animals we are studying in our Science sessions. |
PE Are you ready for some stretching and balancing? Year 2 will be developing their gymnastic skills this half term as they practise techniques and create sequences. Culminating in an expressive routine. |
ICT In ICT we will explore the use of the internet as a place to communicate and create friendships. Who are our ‘online buddies’ and how do we keep ourselves safe online? |
Music Year 2 love to sing and to make music and though the Charanga scheme we will be doing just that! Finding and keeping simple beats while learning some popular songs will be preparing our voices for our upcoming performances. |
Religious Education In the lead up to Christmas, we ask ourselves who are God’s messengers and how did they bring the news of Jesus’ birth to Earth. Why was this news so good and such a cause for celebration?
|
PSHE / Values Remembering those who have given their lives in war will be our first focus here as we join in with the Remembrance Day service. Our whole school Christian value is: Hope. How can we spread Hope and Understanding through our actions?
|
Spring 1 Curriculum Information
English Here we begin by exploring the class book: The Dragon Machine by Helen Ward. During this book study, we will be developing our character description and setting writing and preparing to write our own mini stories with set sequences. Our grammar work will focus on the correct use of the present and past tense, the use of subordination and the use of known suffixes. It is expected that each child will widen their use of the range of punctuation we have covered so far this year. Understanding what is meant by writing in the 3rd person will also be covered. |
Maths In this subject we aim to cover:
|
Humaniies Our theme here is ‘Flight through the ages’ and ‘The development of technology’. We will look at how humans first took to the skies and their attempts at making the first flying machine to the amazing spacecraft we have today. The development of nearby Liverpool airport will also feature as an area of study. |
Science Here we will be exploring ‘Materials and their uses and properties.’ We will make hypothesis, test theories and suggest ways that experiments can be made ‘fair’, especially when considering absorbance. |
Art / DT We are really looking forward to learning more about the life and art work of Vincent Van Gogh which will start with our whole school trip to the Van Gogh Live exhibition in Salford. We will then enjoy creating our own masterpieces based on the ways in which he created his art work and trying our hand at wax relief. |
PE Our visiting sports coaches will certainly be keeping us active this half term as we develop our skills in net and field games.
We will also be starting swimming lessons in our own temporary on-site swimming pool. |
ICT As we explore our ICT curriculum, we will also be reminding ourselves of the importance of keeping safe on line. Using the iPads helps us to explore the curriculum as well as developing our keyboard skills. |
Music Year 2 love to sing and to make music and though the Charanga scheme we will be doing just that! Making music with our friends is an activity we all enjoy. Our Year 2 choir members will also be working hard learning some new songs along the theme of, ‘Be The Change’. |
Religious Education
Teaching and celebrating God’s word permeates through all of our lessons as we make links between this and the way we live our lives today. In specific RE lessons, we will be celebrating that Jesus was a friend to everyone and exploring the miracle stories. This half term’s Christian Value is: Peace. We will also be learning about the lives of some inspirational Christian people.
|
PSHE / Values
Celebrating the Christian values runs through every part of our school daily life, but through our PSHE lessons these are explored further as well as topical current issues and our feelings and responses to them. Understanding the British Values are explored and discussed.
|
Spring 2 Curriculum Information
English In Literacy this half term, we are planning to explore the text ‘The Last Wolf’ which is based loosely on the adventures of Little Red Riding Hood. We will be developing our use of co-ordination and sub-ordination as we write our letters and recounts and use the correct progressive verb in the past and present tense. Our grammar work will continue as we explore further the punctuation we have learned as well as the use of suffix endings and the effect they have on the spelling of our root words. We will be building up our reading stamina as we work towards the Yr 2 SATs in May.
|
Maths In this subject we will be revising the four rules of number and the methods we can employ to solve problems in each area. Finding fractions of number will also feature here. Our new areas of study will include: Time to the nearest 5 minutes and reading different scales. Temperature and some work around measuring length.
|
Humaniies Our theme here will be focussed on learning the names and features of the capital cities of the United Kingdom and the seas surrounding us. Reading and creating maps will also come into play as we label our own large scale maps showing different human and physical features. |
Science Here we will be learning how and why plants disperse their seeds and explore the use of hydroponics in the classrooms. We will be growing our own plants we can eat and creating model seeds.
|
Art / DT In Art this half term, we will be exploring the work of Claude Monet as we experiment with colour mixing and creating different hues of the primary colours. We will paint on different surfaces working with paint of different thicknesses. |
PE Our visiting sports coaches will certainly be keeping us active this half term as we develop our skills in outdoor games.
|
ICT As we explore our ICT curriculum, we will be: Coding a Story: The children will write a basic story with illustrations. They will then turn this into an animated story using visual coding. The activity will introduce new concepts such as conditional language, repeat loops and debugging.
|
Music Year 2 love to sing and to make music and this half term we will be busy learning the songs for the upcoming Halton Infant Music Festival: Out of this world. We will be coming together as a Key Stage to prepare our summer performance to which we intend to invite our families to watch. I wonder what amazing performance t-shirts we will design this year! Wait and see! |
Religious Education Teaching and celebrating God’s word permeates through all of our lessons as we make links between this and the way we live our lives today. In specific RE lessons, we will be looking closely at why the church is a special place for Christians and making a visit to St Mary’s Church in Hale to learn about the role this church plays in the local community.
This half term’s Christian Value is: Truthfulness
|
PSHE / Values Celebrating the Christian values runs through every part of our school daily life, but through our PSHE lessons these are explored further as well as topical current issues and our feelings and responses to them. Understanding the British Values are explored and discussed.
|