Year 2

Updated September 2022

Welcome to Year 2!

Class 2J are taught by Mrs Jenkins and 2N by Ms Nahil. They are supported by Jackie, Jane and Beata They can be contacted via year2@earlsfield.wandsworth.sch.uk

Welcome back to school, we hope you all had a wonderful break Christmas break enjoyed all the festivities. We are looking forward to continuing our learning this term, building on a fantastic start to the Autumn term.

In English in Spring 1, we are looking forward to reading, ‘The Snail and The Whale,’ by Julia Donaldson. We will explore the character of the snail by getting into role and writing letters, persuading the snail to either go on an adventure with the whale or to stay on the black rock. We will be focusing co-ordinating conjunctions in our writing as well as learning how to construct a persuasive argument. We will then move on to The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch by David and Ronda Armitage and use the text as inspiration to help us write setting descriptions and instructions.

In Spring 2, we will be reading stories from Traditional Tales such as, “Little Red Riding Hood” and we will be exploring characters from different viewpoints. After, we will be writing the story from the perspective of the Wolf, considering some alternative endings. How intriguing! All these texts will inspire and continue to support the children in order to become great readers and writers.

In Maths, for the first half of the Spring term we will be finishing securing our knowledge of addition and subtraction and then we will move on to Geometry:shape where we will be identifying and describing the properties of 2-D and 3-D shapes, including the number of sides, lines of symmetry, the number of edges and vertices and faces. After, we will move on to Measurement (Money). This is important for us to recognise and use symbols for pounds (£) and pence (p) combining amounts to make a particular value. This life skill of working with money is significant as it enables us to understand the world in which we live. Maths is all around us! Following on from this into the second half of the Spring term we will focus on Multiplication and Division, Length and Height. Eventually we will round off the term with Mass, Capacity and Temperature as well as making mathematical links in our science lessons.

Please continue with your Time Tables Rockstars, Doodle Maths and English. This is part of our home learning provision and a fun and engaging way to support children with their times tables knowledge, English and Maths.

In our History and Geography sessions this half term we will be developing our skills and knowledge in our topic, ‘Whatever happened to the Dinosaurs?’ Here we will be exploring different theories that led to their extinction as well as developing our Geographical locational knowledge (where we find different oceans and continents in the world). In addition, we will collaborate with one another in Design Technology in order to make a moving pneumatic dinosaur head. We will also learn about fossils and an important woman in Science, Mary Anning who first found the complete skeleton of a plesiosaurus. A visit to the Natural History Museum will certainly enrich our learning opportunities!

For the second half of the Spring term we will be asking, “Is organic better?” We will learn about sustainable farming, vegetables and nutrition. For Cooking and Nutrition in Food Technology we will learn to cook a healthy meal, explaining hygiene and keeping a hygienic kitchen. This also links to our Keeping Healthy topic in Science. We will be paying Goodwood Dairy Farm a visit in order to see a live organic farm in action.

In Science, we will be exploring and investigating Plants in Spring 1 where we will be identifying and naming a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including Microhabitats. In Spring 2 our science topic is Keeping Healthy where the importance of good hygiene and exercise impacts our lives hugely. Like expert scientists we are going to be working on improving and building on our prior knowledge and skills from Year 1 as well as developing our types of enquiry skills.

We are incredibly fortunate to have lessons taught by our specialist teachers (AM sports) in PE and Mr Robin Hopcraft for Music. We will also receive specialist gymnastics teaching from Mr David Wood on a Thursday (2N in Spring 1 and 2J in Spring 2). 2J will be doing Dance in Spring 1 and perfecting their movement skills.

We always look forward to working with you in supporting your children with their reading development. We will continue with Guided Reading this term and we will carry on sharing weekly home tasks in your child’s pupil handbook. Please encourage your child to read 3 times a week for at least 20 minutes and practice their spellings regularly. When tasks have been completed, please sign at the back of the Pupil Handbook to show your children have completed them. These will be checked by your child’s teacher every week. Weekly spellings will also be shared in these handbooks.

Thank you to all parents and carers for your ongoing support. If you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to email our Year 2 address. Teachers will check their emails before school starts (no later than 8:20am) and after school finishes at 3.20pm. If you have an urgent request, please telephone the school office as we cannot guarantee picking up messages throughout the school day.

The Year 2 Team.

Key Learning

You can find out about our approach to all our subjects through the curriculum page but the headlines for the year group are below.

Reading

Children can understand what they read by:

I can apply phonic knowledge and skills to decode words
I can read accurately by blending the sounds in words, especially alternative sounds for graphemes
I can accurately read words of two or more syllables
I can read words containing common suffixes
I can read further common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound
I can read most words quickly and accurately, when they have been frequently encountered
I can re-read books to build up my fluency and confidence in word reading

Children develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, vocabulary and understanding by:

I can listen to, discuss and express views about a wide range of texts including contemporary and classic poetry, stories and non-fiction texts
I can discuss the sequence of events in books and how information is linked
I am becoming increasingly familiar with and can retell a wider range of stories, fairy stories and traditional tales
I can begin to talk about non-fiction books that are structured in different ways
I can recognise simple recurring language in stories and poetry
I can discuss my favourite words and phrases and their meanings
I am continuing to build up a repertoire of poems learnt by heart, reciting some with appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear

Children understand both the books they read accurately and fluently and those they listen to by:

I can check that the text makes sense as I read and correct mistakes
I can make inferences on the basis of what is being said and done
I can predict what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far
I can participate in discussion about what is read to me, taking turns and listening to what others say
I can explain clearly my understanding of what is read to me

Writing

Writing

I can write simple, coherent narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real or fictional)
I can write about real events, recording these simply and clearly
I can write most sentences using capital letters and full stops, and use question marks correctly when they are needed
I can use present and past tense mostly correctly and consistently
I can use co-ordination (e.g. or / and / but) and some subordination (e.g. when / if / that / because) to join clauses

Spelling

I can segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling many of these words correctly and making phonically-plausible attempts at others
I can spell many common exception words

Handwriting

I can form capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower-case letters
I can use spacing between words that reflect the size of the letters

Greater depth (working above the expected national standard)

I can write effectively and coherently for different purposes, drawing on my reading to inform the vocabulary and grammar of my writing
I can make simple additions, revisions and proof-reading corrections to my own writing
I can use the punctuation taught at key stage 1 mostly correctly
I can spell most common exception words
I can add suffixes to spell most words correctly in my writing (e.g. –ment, –ness, –ful, –less, –ly)
I can use the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join some letters

Statutory spellings

Homework

Days to remember

Day	Activity
Monday	PE with AM Sports (Come to school in PE kit) Spelling test New Spellings sent out for next week Guided Reading Homework due (Please bring Guided Reading Book and Pupil Handbook)
Tuesday	Weekly Talking Homework via Seesaw to be submitted. Guided Reading Homework sent out in the Pupil Handbook. Complete the task and record the reading 3 times. Music with Mrr Hopcraft
Wednesday
Thursday	Teacher led PE/ Gym with Mr David Wood (Come to school in PE kit) Weekly Talking Homework set via Seesaw
Friday
As frequently as possible	Home reading (banded books or books from home) Doodle Maths and Doodle English Times Table Rockstars

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