Year 2 Spring Newsletter

Our focus this term will be on ‘Famous People’. We shall be learning about a variety of people from the past and the present.

English

In Literacy hour we shall continue our exploration of stories and poems from other cultures as well as factual writing. The children will be developing their writing skills with work on characterisation, settings, dialogue and use of adjectives. We shall also continue our emphasis on punctuation and phonic knowledge, to aid the children’s spelling and reading. There will be a fortnightly focus on comprehension skills and speaking and listening skills.Please continue to help the children learn their spellings for a weekly test on Friday.

Click here to find out your child's spellings and what they are learning about this week in literacy.

Click here to find some good websites to help with your child's literacy skills

Numeracy

In numeracy this term we will be covering place value, division, data handling, measuring,weighing, telling the time, money, fractions and learning the 2, 5 and 10 times tables. We shall be teaching the children mental arithmetic strategies, so they can handle sums such as 16 + 21 and solve mathematical problems in their heads. The children will also be recording how they solve mathematical problems, to help them improve on their skills.`

Click here to find out what your child is learning about each week in numeracy

Click here for some good sites to help with your child's numeracy skills

Science

This term we will focus initially on electricity followed by forces and motion - push, pull and the forces that speed things up, slow them down and cause them to change direction. Next we will learn about sound - sources of sound, how it travels, and how sounds are heard when they enter the ear.

Click here for some good sites on electricity. Scroll down until you come to the yellow section on 'electricity'. You may like to look at the site called 'Learning Circuits' which we are looking at in class.

Use the same site as above for forces. Scroll down right to the bottom to find the section on 'forces'.

Geography

As our focus is on history this term, geography will not be included. The Summer term will therefore have a geographical bias to it to compensate for this.

Design and Technology

Our focus this term is food. We shall be making cheese, using a variety of ingredients and tasting the results. Also we shall be preparing, cooking and eating baked potatoes with fillings.

Click here for a site on different food groups.

Music

Children learning the recorder will still need to bring them and their books on Mondays.Our focus will be on pitch and dynamics in music. We shall also learn about gestures and how they are used in music to give instructions. The children will also be listening to a variety of music by composers, both old and modern.

Click here to find lots of fun sites to learn and appreciate music.

P.H.S.E.

Art

Our main focus is on painting. We shall be looking at works by famous painters to inspire our own paintings. Brush skills and colour mixing will be practised throughout our variety of projects.

Physical Education

Gymnastics: We shall be working on travelling, balancing and body shape.

Dance: The children will be interpreting moods and feelings in response to music.

Games: The children will be taught netball skills by a professional coach every two weeks out of three. On the third session they will develop their skills working with small apparatus.

Religious Education

We shall be learning about Jesus as a teacher and leader. The children will compare his life as a boy with that of their own today. We shall hear some of the stories Jesus told and think about what message he was teaching through them. During the second half of the term we will discuss why rules are important to the way we live and look at how Jesus tried to live by the commandments.

Click here for stories that Jesus told and to learn more about His life.

I.C.T.

In the computer suite we will be using the internet, to search for information about the people being studied in History. The children will also be using a variety of drawing packages.

History

The children will be learning about a variety of famous people such as Grace Darling, George Stephenson etc. through stories, contemporary accounts, pictures and research using non fiction material. There will be a more in depth study of Florence Nightingale. “History Off The Page” an educational group will spend two days in school. The children will dress up in period clothes and study “The great Fire Of London”

Click here to find sites for both The Great Fire of London and Florence Nightingale

Click here for the BBC school's site on famous people in history

The staff in Year 2 appreciate the support you give your children. Please continue to discuss in detail their reading books; understanding what is written is as important as reading the words. It is also very useful to talk about the things they have learnt in school.

Early warning !!!SAT’s will take place during May. Please avoid booking a holiday at this time.

Click here to read a parent's guide to SATs for seven year olds.

In the first part of the term the children will all participate in “Fit to Learn Week”. They will learn about healthy life styles, table manners and play games that help with their social skills. In the first part of the term they will follow a unit called “New Beginnings” which is about the class and school community and how to play a positive part within it. In the second half the unit is “Getting on and Falling Out” which helps the children to deal with conflict and how to see things from the point of view of others.