Welcome to Year 2
Welcome back Deer Class, we hope you have all had a lovely half term break full of fun and adventures. Hopefully you have all managed to recharge your batteries and are ready for lots of exciting new learning opportunities in Term 2. We will be starting to rehearse our Nativity over the next few weeks, the class are very excited to start learning their lines.
Wider Learning in Term 2
In term 2 we are continuing to use the ‘Cornerstones curriculum’ to supplement our wider learning.
History- we will be continuing our learning about significant individuals from the past and more recent times in a history based topic called ‘Movers and Shakers.’ The class will learn about their lives, the impact that they have had on the world and how they are commemorated.
Science– we will be finishing our science topic on human survival and moving on to learning about different animal habitats and what a habitat needs to provide to keep the animals alive.
Geography– we will be continuing our learning about the four countries of the UK, hot and cold countries around the world and comparing England to Somalia.
Art– we will be moving onto learning about the work of significant still life artists and still life techniques.
D.T- We will be learning about the sources of food and we will learn how to follow a recipe to make a simple meal.
P.E – we will be focusing on athletics and team games. Our P.E day is Wednesday, please make sure they have a full P.E kit in school.
English
We will continue to develop their phonic knowledge using the Read Write Inc phonic scheme (RWI). We have carefully grouped the children so that each child is being supported, yet challenged, ensuring excellent reading progress. Children will have one book assigned to them digitally on the Oxford Owl website which will be linked to their phonic level and their RWI lessons. The other one is a book that they have chosen themselves to read for pleasure. The phonically matched text will stay online for a few days and should be re-read to develop fluency, this will be updated when they have been introduced to a new book at school. The reading for pleasure text is a book that they may want you to read to them at bedtime or may want you to share the reading with them if they need support, they are not expected to read this book on their own.
Our new Accelerated Reader programme is now up and running. Children who are ready to access this programme choose a book within their own personal range from our school library. They will need to read the book and then complete a quiz, answering comprehension questions about the book. Please do encourage your child to read as often as is possible at home.
Children who have completed the RWI scheme will now have daily English lessons, where there will be a focus on developing reading and comprehension skills through a key text and learning opportunities for your child to develop their spelling, grammar and writing skills in longer pieces of writing.
To support the children with their spelling, a weekly activity will be set on Spelling Shed for the children to access . They have the log in and password in their reading diaries.
You can access Spelling Shed via this link: https://play.edshed.com/
Reading/ comprehension Skills
Across the year, developing reading skills will be a key focus in Deer Class.
During these whole class reading sessions, we will be using VIPERS to support our understanding in reading – focusing on reading skills that go beyond simply word reading.
These are the skills we will be exploring in our sessions:
Maths
In Maths, our focus in Term 2 will be on addition and subtraction and move on to properties of shape.
To help develop and secure our knowledge of our times tables every child has access to Times Table Rockstars. This wonderful resource allows time to practise our times tables in a fun and engaging way. The children will be given log in details for this over the next few weeks.
You can access TT Rockstars via this link: https://ttrockstars.com/
Home learning
We have been very impressed with your home learning so far, keep up the good work Deer class. This will continue to be set on a Tuesday and is to be completed by the following Monday. This will be set on Google Classroom. The home learning task will mainly be focused on our wider learning topics in order to develop a secure understanding of the content.
Contact us
We are always available after school if you need a quick catch up. If you need a longer or more private meeting, please book this in at the office and we will be happy to accommodate.
If you have a non-urgent message for the team you could email the families email on the address below. This is checked regularly and the message will get to the class team.
families@bethersden.kent.sch.uk