Year 2

Welcome to Year 2!

I am Miss Mc Ardle, the Year 2 class teacher. The children in Year 2 are fantastic learners and we are having lots of fun learning different knowledge and skills in a wide range of subject areas. Please find out about our curriculum below...

Literacy

During Literacy this year, the children will be learning about:

Autumn One:

• Stories with familiar settings - The children will be reading ‘Dogger’ by the author Shirley Hughes, which is a story about a lost toy. The children will be writing their own stories about losing a toy.

Autumn Two:

• Instructions-The children will explore different instruction texts about how to look after a dragon and how to trap an ogre.
• Traditional Tales - The children will look at the Traditional Tales 'Little Red Riding Hood' and 'The Three Little Pigs' 

Spring One:

• Poetry - The children will focus this term on poems with patterns. 
• Narrative - Children will read the book Voices by Anthony Browne and create their own stories based on the author's work.

Spring Two:

• Non-chronological reports-The children will read and write a variety of information reports about unicorns and dragons!!!
• Information Texts - The children will have the opportunity to explore a variety of information texts linked to different areas of the curriculum.

Summer One:

• Authors - The children will focus on stories by Roald Dahl. We will read The Twits by Roald Dahl. Children will retell the story then write their own stories and character descriptions. 

Summer Two:

• Explanations-The children will read and learn about different life cycles of butterflies, frogs and sunflowers. They will also write their own explanations using different layouts, features and their own diagrams.
• Poetry - The children will learn about silly stuff and will really look at different types of poetry. 

Reading

We encourage you to read at home with your child whenever you can.

Every morning, the children will have a 30 minute Guided Reading session. Each Reading group will have a focused session with me once a week. While I am working with a focus group, the other children will work on a variety of activities based on reading, comprehension and writing which will help them to develop their understanding of the text focus for that week.

Children will also read their home reading bools one to one with myself or another member of staff. On Friday, the children have 20 minutes of Drop Everything and Read! – this is a time when the children can read any book they choose. The children thoroughly enjoy this!

In Year 2, we love reading! We will be looking at many different authors over the year and it would be fantastic if the children could read some books by their favourite authors. If you would like to read any books with your children at home in addition to their reading books, there are many books to choose from in book stores or in the library.

Spellings 

The curriculum focuses heavily on spelling, we are encouraging he children to practise their spellings at every opportunity. The children will take home spellings each Friday to practise each week. We also have explicit spelling lesson in school daily in order to practise our spellings. 

Every child has access to IDL Cloud, an excellent programme that enables them to practise spellings in different ways. 

Spellings come from the statutory list from the National Curriculum for Year two. We will also focus on the Year Two common exception words. 

Maths

During the year the following topics on Maths will be covered in Year Two:

Autumn:

• Place value of two digit numbers
• Addition and Subtraction
• Multiplication and Division 

Spring:

• Money
• Fractions
• Properties of 2D and 3D shapes
• Measurement - time, mass, capacity, weight and temperate 

Summer:

• Statistics 
• Direction and Position

In school we focus on learning the skills in our Maths lesson but also being able to apply it to real life problems and open investigations. 

Mathletics 

All children are provided with a Mathletics login which can be accessed at home. We actively  encourage children to access Mathletics at home and in school in order to practise their Maths skills. 

Science

This year in science class 2 will be learning about lots of new and interesting things. Throughout the year children will develop their scientific knowledge by exploring, classifying, comparing, investigating and testing for a range of different topics.

Year 2 science topics include:

Autumn Term:

• Materials

Spring Term:

• Living Things and their Habitats

Summer One:

• Animals including Humans ​​​​​​​

Summer Two:

• Plants

Geography

This year in our Geography lessons children will learn about locational knowledge, palace knowledge, human and physical geography and geography fieldwork through the following topics:

Aumtumn:

• Liverpool

Spring:

• Africa

Summer:

• The Seaside

History 

This year children will cover a range of History topics to deepen their knowledge about significant historical events, people and places in their own locality. 

Autumn:

• Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela 

Spring:

• The 60's

Summer:

• The Wright Brothers (The First Flight)

RE

The children shall be following the schools ‘Come and See’ curriculum. Throughout the year children will cover a range of topics including:

• Beginnings – God is present at every beginning.
• Signs and Symbols – Signs and symbols used in Baptism.
• Preparations – Advent: preparing to celebrate Christmas.
• Books – the books used in Church.
• Thanksgiving - Mass is a special time to say thank you to God for everything, especially Jesus.
• Opportunities - Lent; an opportunity to start anew in order to celebrate Jesus’ new life
• Spread the Word – Pentecost a time to spread the good news.
• Rules – Reasons for rules in the Christian family, sacrament of reconciliation.
• Treasures – God’s treasures: the world. 

The children will also learn about Judaism and another world religion throughout the year. 

Physical Education

Children will take part in a wide range of PE lessons this year and will have sessions from many sports coaches in school. Below is the PE timetable for the year:

Autumn One:

• Gymnastics - Beth Tweedle Total Gymnastics 

Autumn Two: 

• Football - Liverpool FC

Spring One:

• Rugby Tots

Spring Two:

• Rugby Tots

Summer One

• Gymnastics - Beth Tweedle Total Gymnastics 

Summer Two: 

• Dance

Art/ Design Technology

Art and DT will be taught explicitly each week by Miss Kronenburg and will often be linked to topics children are learning about in other subjects.  The children will have lots of fun creating photographs, drawings and paintings based on their current topic.  The children have many exciting DT and Art sessions to look forward to.

Music

During the year, the children are listening to learning new songs from different parts of the world. They will also have the opportunity to accompany the songs using different instruments and playing a variety of rhythms. Also, during the second half of the Autumn term, the children will be preparing for their Christmas play which will be a lovely celebration of the Nativity story in addition to the children showcasing their immense musical talents.

Computing

Throughout the year, the children will be learning different computing skills through six topics:

We are astronauts – Programming on screen using the computer programme ‘Scratch.’ 

We are games testers – Exploring how computer games work.

We are photographers- Taking digital photographs and editing and enhancing their work.

We are researchers- Collaborating with others to find information using the internet and presenting this information using multimedia programmes.

We are detectives- Developing skills in writing, editing and sending emails whilst being aware of e-safety issues when using emails.

We are zoologists- Collecting, sorting and classifying data using charting software to produce pictograms and other charts.

PSHE

Our PSHE topics throughout the year will cover a wide range of topics-

• Keeping ourselves safe
• Healthy eating
• Physical Activity
• Citizenship/Global Citizenship
• British Values

We will also be participating in the following SEAL Topics-

• New beginnings
• Say no to bullying
• Getting on and falling out
• Relationships
• Going for Goals
• Good to be me
• Changes

British Values

Throughout the school year the children will be taught about 'British Values', which they will learn through a variety of activities and subjects across the curriculum. It is an important aspect of their learning, and will include focus on; democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. At the start of the year, the children discussed different rules and our school Code of Conduct and we talked about the importance and necessity of these rules. They also agreed and signed a Class Charter to show their agreement of these rules. The class haven also taken part in the election of school councillors that will represent Year 2 on the school council. This gave the children a chance to experience democratic practice; the children who wished to be elected presented a speech to the rest of the class. The class then voted for the person they wanted to elect.