Welcome to Year 2
Spring 2 2024
Dear Parents/Guardians,
I am wishing you all a warm welcome back after the holidays, I hope you have had a restful break and are eager to start the Spring term. This term we will continue to remind children about our school values of Respect, Good Manners, Patience, Perseverance and Honesty. We will use our reward system 'Brookhouse Monster's University' to recognise good behaviour and attitudes. If your child is in the winning University team, they will be given a reward at the end of the term.
PSHE plays a key role in our school, this will take place through class and assembly sessions. The topic for spring 2 is called 'Families and friends.'
The spring 2 topic is called 'The Farm Shop'.
Homework
Please encourage your child to complete their homework each week. Homework is given out on a Friday and is expected to be completed and returned no later than the following Wednesday.
Your child's weekly homework tasks can be found in the spring 1 homework grid, which is glued into your child's homework book - a copy of which can also be found above in the important document section.
An optional termly project is also sent home, a copy of which can be found in the important document section above, along with online optional homework available through Purple Mash, Reading Plus and TT Rockstars.
Daily reading is crucial, so please can you listen to your child read as much as possible at home to support their learning and also their understanding of different texts.
English
To begin with we will studying a fiction unit called stories from the same author, focusing on the story "The pig who thought he could fly," by Michael Morporgo. We will do this through the use of the ‘Talk for Writing’ strategy of imitate, innovate and invent. As well as this, we will be focusing on the skills needed to invent their own piece of writing and look at writing through other subject areas.
Whole class reading will continue to take place every day, through which we encourage children to focus on new vocabulary in the text and the comprehension of the text.
To further support your child's skills in reading comprehension, please support your children in their reading of school books, at home for ten minutes every day. We will also continue to encourage children to improve their oracy skills through continued application of Voice 21 strategies.
Mathematics
Maths lessons will provide pupils with the opportunity to learn using concrete, pictorial and abstract models. They will then learn to apply this knowledge to reasoning and problem solving (QUACK - Please ask your children what this means). We will start the new year with a focus on measure, before moving onto temperature and pictograms.
Please encourage your child to practise their timetables at home, completing to achieve Bronze, Silver or Gold in counting in 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 8s and 10s. Please begin with the 2 times table, before leading to hopefully securing the 2,3,4,5,8 and 10 times tables. In order to aid them with this, your child can use the online program 'Times Table Rockstars' or complete set activities on Purple Mash.
Science
We will observe and describe how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants. We will find out and describe how plants need water, light and a suitable temperature to grow and stay healthy.
In order to help your child remember the key knowledge, please encourage your child to learn their Knowledge Organisers.
Physical Education
In Year 2, P.E will take place every Wednesday so please make sure your children come to school in their full P.E kit - yellow P.E shirt with the school's logo, black joggers, shorts or leggings and their school green sweatshirt. In their P.E lessons (games) they will focus on learning how to catch a ball, to hold a bat and strike a ball accurately, leading up to using tactics in a game to outwit an opponent.
Computing
In our computing this half term pupils will continue to learn about Computer Science (questioning). They will learn how to create and read pictograms and how to construct a binary tree to separate different items.
History
In our history topic the children will learn about key historical explorers, including Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong. Children will recognise the distinction between past and present in their own and other people's lives, identifying similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods.
DT
In our DT project the children will make a moon buggy. To begin with we will explore existing car construction kits and designs, discovering how they are made and the function of their different components. Before the children design and then create their own moon buggy.
Oracy - Voice 21
As a school we are developing our Oracy, learning through talk and learning to talk. In class, we will create discussion guidelines in order to aid meaningful discussions. We encourage children to fully participate by taking on a range of roles and utilising sentence stems to articulate their ideas. We will provide opportunities for discussion in all areas of the curriculum.
Every school day is important, therefore it is vital that they are punctual in the mornings and they attend school every day, as much as it is possible.
Any queries feel free to talk to us in the morning or at the end of the day or arrange an appointment through the school office.
We look forward to seeing you later in the spring term, at our Parents Evening in March, 2024. More details will be released closer to the time.
Thank you in advance for your continued support, it is much appreciated.
Mr G Owen (Year 2 Teacher and Lower School Leader)
Mrs S Ali (HLTA)
Mrs N Saleem (SSA)
Mrs Y Hussain (SSA)