Year 2 Autumn 2023

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• In English, the text, ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ is taught, which is about a boy called Duncan who is shocked by the announcement that his crayons no longer want to work for him unless some changes are made. Pupils will write a retell of the story using their own words and sentences and write a postcard from an additional crayon who has escaped. As pupils finish the Read Write Inc programme for teaching phonics, they will start taking part in reading lessons, which are linked to our class text. This is where we use our DERRIC model to decode, explain word meaning, retrieve information to answer questions, interpret characters feelings and thoughts, review sections of the text and discuss why authors have used certain techniques in our choice lessons. We then study ‘Stick Man’ by Julia Donaldson. We use her exceptional story writing techniques to support our own narrative writing and our non-fiction writing centres around a letter from Stick Man to Santa as he is one of the key characters from the book. This term, our handwriting lessons, and daily handwriting starters, focus on printing letters using the correct formation, orientation and sizing, before introducing joined writing next term. Finally, SPaG is a key focus within English lessons, focusing on writing grammatically correct sentences that are beginning to use adjectives to describe and basic conjunctions or time adverbials to link ides together. They focus on the basic punctuation forms including full stops, capital letters, question marks, exclamation marks and commas for lists.

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• In Year 2, place value, as well as addition and subtraction to 100 is explored, including partitioning, comparing and ordering numbers. Key methods to add and subtract numbers are introduced, encouraging understanding of number sentences and the key number sentence calculation symbols. With a focus on the 2, 5 and 10 times tables, pupils become more confident with manipulating basic numbers before moving onto multiples of 3. In addition to this, key terminology and properties relating to 2D and 3D shapes are introduced, including sides, edges, faces, vertices and lines of symmetry.

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• In Science, the topics of everyday materials and animals/ plants are studied.  Furthermore, pupils explore through practical investigations, making predictions, selecting materials, recording results and drawing basic conclusions for themselves based on their enquiries.

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• Through the topic of “Toy Story”, Year 1 and 2 undertake historical and geographical learning. In history, pupils will find out about changes within living memory, covering aspects such as toys and music, whilst in geography, in the build up to Christmas, children spend time mapping Santa’s routes around the world, learning about the different continents, oceans and countries in the process.

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• In PE this term, pupils will be receiving lessons on team building and target games from their teachers and fundamental sporting techniques and ball skills through the support of Soccer 2000.

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• In Art, we will be sculpting toys, drawing toys using charcoal, completing observational pencil drawings and we will also be painting seaside landscapes.

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• Computing focuses on the basic skills needed to access our technology, such as logging on and using a mouse before moving on to writing digitally. 

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• In Jigsaw, we are covering the topic “Being Me in My World” where pupils consider their thoughts and feelings as they start Year 2, as well as considering rights, responsibilities, choices and consequences. We then move on to “Celebrating Differences” where pupils consider how to challenge assumptions based on gender, reflect upon how to make friends, stand up for yourself and others and the importance of celebrating everyone’s unique character traits. We use Project Evolve to link this learning to online safety, focusing on self-identity and self-image and how to manage online information.

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• DT this term has a focus on mechanisms. Pupils will create a moving storybook with a slider mechanism and will create a moving toy monster using levers, linkages and pivots. DT explores the design, plan, make and evaluate model. 

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• In Music, Year 2’s learning focuses around a unit called ‘Hands, Feet, Heart’ in the first half term and a unit titled ‘Ho Ho Ho!’ in the second half term. Pupils will be given the opportunity to listen to and appraise songs, considering their own likes and preferences as well as comparing music to other, similar songs with a focus on not only the melody and instruments but also the lyrics. Pupils will learn to sing songs and play instruments, including glockenspiels and untuned percussion instruments.

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• In RE, Year 1 and 2 study a unit called, ‘What can we learn from stories from the Bible?’ based around the stories of Moses, plus a unit in the second half term called, ‘Beginning to learn from Islam.’

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• Reading a variety of genres regularly at home as well as keeping up-to-date with homework (which will provide opportunities to share and practise what has been taught in class) will support pupils’ development. Furthermore, all pupils have access to a Times Tables Rock Stars account, which they can access from home to help them learn and recall their times tables. We thank you for your support with this.

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Year 2 Spring 2024

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• In English, the text, ‘Mr Wolf’s Pancakes’ by Jan Fearnely is taught, which is a tale full of plot twists! We are lead through the story believing that Mr Wolf is the goodie, but he actually turns out to be the villain! Pupils will write a character description of Mr Wolf, considering his appearance and personality and will be writing a recipe for pancakes too. We then study ‘The Ugly Five’ by Julia Donaldson. We use her exceptional story writing techniques to support our own narrative writing, including the use of dialogue, then our non-fiction writing centres around a non-chronological report on one of the animals. As pupils finish the RWI programme for teaching phonics, they will start taking part in reading lessons, which are linked to our class text. This is where we use our DERRIC model to decode, explain word meaning, retrieve information to answer questions, interpret characters feelings and thoughts, review sections of the text and discuss why authors have used certain techniques in our choice lessons. This half term, our handwriting lessons and daily handwriting starters focus on printing letters using correct letter formation, orientation and sizing, before beginning joined writing next half term. Finally, SPaG is a key focus within English lessons, focusing on writing grammatically correct sentences that are beginning to use adjectives and expanded noun phrases to describe, fronted adverbials and more developed conjunctions to link ideas together. They focus on basic punctuation including full stops, capital letters, question marks, exclamation marks and commas for lists and more advanced punctuation marks such as apostrophes.    
   

• In Year 2, during the Spring Term, money is explored, as well as multiplication and division. We learn about the UK’s different notes and coins: how to count them, total them and calculate change using them. When we move onto multiplication and division, we will be focusing on the 2, 5 and 10 times table, exploring ways to calculate related multiplication and division facts, using arrays, making equal groups, sharing, doubling and halving. We will begin to count in 3s too. In the second half of the term, we learn about measurements, studying length and height as well as mass, capacity and temperature.
   

• In Science, we have now moved onto the White Rose Science scheme of work. There is a focus on biology throughout the term, covering animals and plants, plus seasonal changes and caring for the planet. Pupils explore through practical investigations, making predictions, selecting materials, recording results and drawing basic conclusions for themselves based on these enquiries.
   

• Through the topic of “Splish, Splash, Splosh”, Year 1 and 2 undertake historical and geographical learning. In history, pupils will find out about seaside holidays in the past whilst, in geography, we study the oceans. 
   

• In PE this term, pupils will be receiving Soccer 2000 lessons based on net and wall games, as well as working on sending and receiving techniques. With their class teacher, they will be learning invasion games and focusing on the skills of striking and fielding. 
   

• In Art, we will be completing two projects across the term. The first is a drawing unit called “Make Your Mark” where we will learn how to draw lines to represent movement, fill shapes, make outlines and add detail or pattern. We will also learn how to use different marks to represent the textures of objects. After half term, we will be cutting and layering shapes and using watercolours and paints to create a landscape of a seaside.
   

• Computing includes the themes of programming, where we use programmable devices such as beebots and floorbots, and create media where we learn how to paint digitally.
   

• In Jigsaw, we are covering the topic “Dreams and Goals” where pupils learn about setting targets to achieve and be successful. We then move on to “Healthy Me” where pupils consider how to lead a healthy lifestyle, including nutrition, relaxation and motivation. Our Project Evolve Online Safety lessons for the term concentrate on privacy and security, health, wellbeing and lifestyle.  
   

• Design Technology this term has a focus on making a textile puppet and a windmill structure that can turn. DT lessons follow the design, plan, make and evaluate model. 
   

• In Music, Year 2’s learning focuses around a unit called ‘I Wanna Play in a Band’ in the first half term and a unit titled ‘Zootime!’ in the second half term. Pupils will be given the opportunity to listen to and appraise songs, considering their own likes and preferences, as well as comparing other similar songs with a focus on not only the music and instruments but also the lyrics. Pupils will learn to sing songs and play instruments, including the glockenspiel and untuned percussion instruments.
   

• In RE, Year 1 and 2 finish the Autumn Term unit called, ‘Beginning to learn about Sikhs’; in the second half term they study, ‘How and why some books are holy.’
   

• Reading a variety of genres regularly at home as well as keeping up-to-date with homework (which will provide opportunities to share and practise what has been taught in class) will support pupils’ development. All pupils have access to a Times Tables Rock Stars account, which they can access from home to help them to learn and recall times table facts.

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