Year 2
Year 2 @ Mount Street Primary
Welcome to the Spring Term in Year 2!
English
This term we will continue to develop our fantastic phonics and reading skills. Reading continues to be a priority our school and so we will practise reading every day so that we become fluent, confident readers. We will continue to have the opportunity to visit the library in school and in the city - to explore reading books for pleasure! We are reading so many new books at the moment and sharing our skills with our friends in school.
At the start of this term, all children will continue to advance their phonic skills further through our Read Write Inc program. If you are in the Language and Literacy group you will be exploring sections from some fantastic new books and reading much longer books together as a group!
We will focus on answering questions on a range of new texts by using some of the the 6 VIPERS reading comprehension skills. (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explaining, Retrieval, Sequencing).
In writing, we will consolidate and build on our learned grammar skills. We will learn how to write stories that will engage the reader with exciting detail and fantastic word choices as well as developing our ability to write non-fiction texts (letters) and poetry (Diamante poems). We begin the term looking at Poetry, specifically diamante poetry, which has a very clear structure and uses some strong vocabulary choices. Then we will progress to writing letters and reflecting on the topic of the term: The Great fire of London! Then later in the Spring term we will explore fiction and learn about stories where something is lost and the main character is on a mission to find it again!
This term we will also continue to practise our writing skills by completing creative writing and imaginative quick writes through the week! A big focus will be placed on hand writing too - our writing has to be a uniform size and neat.
Maths
In maths, we will continue to practise our fundamental skills of place value, simple addition and subtraction to develop our arithmetic skills. We will begin the term learning about multiplication and division initially as equal, repeated groups of the same size. the children will perfect and learn their 2X, 5X and 10X and will be beginning 3X. They will be spotting patterns and learning that there are patterns to be seen in multiplications and corresponding divisions. Our hope is to make the children confident to spot these patters and use them when problem solving.
Then they will be learning more about basic statistics and information that can be gathered using charts and tables, including 5 bar gates.
Later in the term we will learn about length and hight (measure) and then finally we will begin to learn about shape and the properties of a range of shapes - including names of regular and irregular shapes, symmetry and pattern.
Using the Maths Mastery scheme daily, we will continue to secure our understanding of place value and use a variety of apparatus, mental maths strategies and jottings to represent tens and ones within numbers to solve a range of question types. We will also broaden our understanding of addition and subtraction and a variety of apparatus will be available to support the children with their learning.
We will also continue to use Numbots and I have set a min of 10 minutes Numbots homework a week.
Science
In Science, we will learn about materials. We will explore a range of materials and their uses. The children will lean what a fair test is and be given to opportunity to conduct a wide range of experiments for a purpose.
We will then progress onto plant growth and why, how, where and when we use plants in everyday life. We will learn about the history of this field of science and explore some key discoveries and some influential scientists of the time. We will also review this area of science with consideration of the impact of a range of global issues upon plant growth and use. Our science skills will include conduction experiments for a range of purposes, carrying out a fair test and how to measure and present our findings. This unit is under review and will be updated in much more detail as soon as possible.
Art
This term we will explore local art and art featuring fire. We will spend time looking at art by a range of artists to depict fire in particular - making links to the Great Fire of London. The children will learn about creating effect using colour and texture and use a range of materials and techniques. We will explore line and shape to create an interesting and varied foreground and use collage skills to layer up our final painting.
DT
This term we are learning all about cooking skills and techniques. we will use tools to help us with the practical skills of cookery and essential life skills. These will include peeling, chopping, grating, kneeding, measuring, baking and boiling. We will learn some historical references to some foods and get the change to make a dessert using our skills. We will conduct taste tests and have the freedom to choose some seasonal ingredients.
Computing
In Computing, we will continue learning about safety. How to use a computer safely and effectively and we will learn what computers are, where we use them in real daily life. we will use basic skills to collaboratively use a computer to produce a simple document collaboratively. Later in the term we will learn about simple programming using Scratch Junior.
Geography
This term's geography will be a short revising and revisiting set of lessons looking at where we live and pin pointing Plymouth on a map of the UK, what county we live in and what counties border us. Then we will branch out to recap where we sit in a global map - recapping the continents and oceans of the world.
History
History is a driving topic this term. The Great Fire of London is our main focus. We will look at life in London before the fire for the different communities living there at that time. Not only will we look at the causes of the fire and hos it spread, we will consider what effect this had on the city and its people. Does this effect us today? Then ultimately we will learn about how we even know about the fire. Can we trust what we have found out? What information is most reliable. We will also look at what is happening in history research to help us to continue learning more and more facts about the past.
Music
In our Music lessons, we will be learning a range of songs and using our voice to sing and accompany others. We will be learning about all the Foundational Elements of Music with a focus on simple patterns. Later in the term we will learn about tempo and dynamics where we will work on the application of dynamics and tempo within listening and performing. We will begin to play Instruments and use body percussion with or without Notation . We will also begin to improvise, using our voices and instruments.
PE
In PE, we will develop our fundamental skills of throwing and catching effectively. Once we have polished some of these skills we will begin to look at simple ball team games. We will also develop our dance sequences, both individually and with a partner, responding to beat, rhythm and a theme to express ourselves to themes and music choices. At the end of the term we will have nailed a fire group dance using props and a range of dance skills.
PHSE
For the first half of term we will focus on 'Dreams and Goals', thinking about who we are, what we need to do, what we want to do and from last term what our strengths are. After half term, we will focus on 'Healthy Me' - thinking about what makes us happy and healthy, both physically and mentally. We will look at a range of areas including, food, hygiene, sleep, relaxation and friendships.
RE
In RE, we will begin by asking the question ‘Who is Muslim and how do they live?’. We will build upon some of the key Muslim beliefs about God found in the Shahadah and the 99 names of Allah from last term. We will learn about a range of Muslim stories such as 'Muhammad and the Cat', and the teachings of Muhammad PBUH. We will explore examples of how stories about the Prophet show what Muslims believe about Muhammad PBUH and how Muslims use stories about the Prophet to guide their beliefs and actions.
Later in the term, we will focus on Christianity and ask ‘Why does Easter matter to Christians?’ and explore the account of Jesus’ death, recognising how Christians use the story to guide their beliefs and actions. We will make links to beliefs that have shaped the lives of Christians - looking at kindness in our community and charity work. Here we will again reflect on the Muslim faith and how charity and kindness is important to all the beliefs we have looked at this term.
Maths Challenges - How many can you solve?
Year 1 and 2 Common Exception Spelling Words
Useful Information
Home learning
This will be set at the following times:
Home learning will be given out on a Monday (English) and will be due in on the following Monday. Maths Home learning will be sent home on a Friday to be returned the following Friday.
Home learning will bet sent home in a paper format. Sometimes we will send the learning on Teams.
Reading – 10 minutes reading daily. We ask that an adult signs the reading diary and it is brought into school every day. The children will bring home Read Write Inc books that match their phonics group and reading levels. They will be able to decode these independently to you. We encourage them to read the same RWI book 3 times - by the final read their confidence and expression!
Numbots - an exciting way for your child to practice their maths skills daily at home. I Can't wait to see your child's weekly score! I have set 10 minute targets weekly.
Spellings - Spelling checks will be on a Friday.
Games and PE
Children will need their PE kit in school all week as children MUST have P.E. kit to take part for health and safety reasons. Lessons are Tuesday and Thursdays.
Kit: Trainers, white shirt, blue/black shorts, football/trainer socks.
In colder weather, a plain tracksuit may be worn outdoors for games.
Please ensure that all items of clothing are named. A small named bag containing your PE kit is all that is necessary as cloakroom space is limited. Please keep your PE kit in school and we will ensure that it is sent home each half term for washing.