Welcome to Year 2!

I am Miss Hodges, the Year 2 class teacher. The children are also supported in their learning by Miss Cathcart and Mr Brown. The children in Year 2 are fantastic learners and we have had lots of fun learning about ‘What was it like when Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in 1953?’. The children will be starting their new topic ‘What were the people like who lived in Liverpool 100 years ago?’

Literacy

So far the children have undergone topics learning about;

• Stories with familiar settings - the children wrote their own story including a familiar setting.
• Traditional Tales– The children read various traditional tales including The Three Little Pigs. they have written their own version of this tale and have also written amazing letters to ‘Judge Wise’ to say if they think the Wolf is innocent or guilty.

 During the Spring term, we will look at;

• Silly poetry – the children will have a chance to perform and act out different poems, including some of Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes. They will then have a chance to write some poems of their own in different styles.

• Authors - Year 2 will focus on stories by Roald Dahl. We will read The Twits, George’s Marvellous medicine and the BFG by Roald Dahl. Children will retell the story then write their own stories and character descriptions.
• Instruction writing-Using George’s Marvellous Medicine as inspiration.
• Explanations-Linked with Science, we will explore and explain the life cycles of frogs and butterflies.

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 focused group, the other children will work on a variety of activities based on reading, comprehension and writing which will help them the develop their understanding of the text focus for that week. Children will also read one to one with myself or another member of staff. On Friday, the children have 20 minutes of Drop Everything and Read! – where the children can read any book they like. The children thoroughly enjoy this! In Year 2, we love reading! Our author of the month will be Roald Dahl. If you would like to read any books with your children at home in addition to their reading books, there are many Roald Dahl books to choose from in book stores or in the library.

Maths

During the Autumn Term, we focused on addition and subtraction using various strategies and then using this to solve problems. During the Spring Term, we will be using multiplication and division and counting in equal groups of 2, 5 and 10 to solve word problems. We will also be exploring different 2D and 3D shapes and looking at data in the form of bar charts and pictograms.

Topic

During the Spring Term, we will focus on two History topics. The first topic is, ‘What were the people like who lived in Liverpool 100 years ago?’. During this topic we will look at evidence through different forms such as photographs and artefacts. We will explore what schools were like 100 years ago, what games children would have played and the types of music people enjoyed listening to. The children will complete a presentation to show what they have learnt throughout the topic called, ‘A day in my life 100 years ago.’ Then during the second half of the Spring term, we will explore the following question-‘How have Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela helped to make the world a better place?’ We will look at different aspects of this by defining discriminations, appraising British and Non-British art and music and finding out more about slavery. The children will present their work through a drama presentation about discrimination.

Religious Education

In RE throughout the Spring term we will focus on the following topics-

Local Church/Community-Books

Eucharist/Relating-Thanksgiving

Lent/Easter/Giving-Opportunities

Physical Education

PE is held on a Tuesday afternoon. The children will be learning a variety of team games skills during the first half of the Spring Term. Then they will explore different Health and Fitness activities during the second half of the Spring Term.

Art/ Design Technology

Art and DT will be taught through our topic. The children have already had lots of fun creating resist paintings using buildings around Liverpool as inspiration.  The children have many exciting DT and Art sessions to look forward to. During DT, the children will get the opportunity to create their own game which may have been played 100 years ago, perhaps including some modern twists! During Art sessions, we will compare Liverpool now to how it would have looked 100 years ago. During our work about discrimination, we will look at painting portraits of inspirational people and also the children will create their own posters to promote anti-discrimination.

Science

In Science, we will be learning about ‘Living Things and their Habitats’.

The children will:

• Explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive
• Identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other.
• Identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including micro-habitats

Describe how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals, using the idea of a simple food chain, and identify and name different sources of food.

Music

During the first half of the Spring Term, the children to learning about the language of music through playing the glockenspiel. Following this, they will participate in a topic called I Wanna Play In A Band.

All the learning is focused around one song: I Wanna Play In A Band. The material presents an integrated approach to music where the children will use different games to learn about the dimensions of music (pulse, rhythm, pitch etc.), singing and playing instruments are all linked.

Computing

During the Spring Term, the children will be learning different computing skills through two topics:

We are photographers - Taking, selecting and editing digital images 

We are researchers - Researching a topic (linked to our topic work about Slavery and Discrimination)

PSHE

Our PSHE topics during the Spring term will be focused on Healthy eating and Exercise and will be linked to the work the children are doing in their PE lessons.

They will also be completing activities as part of the SEAL topic, ‘Going for Goals’ which teaches children about personal goals, achievement, pride, self-esteem and perseverance.