Welcome to Year 2

 

Caterpillar and Spider classes are our Year 2 classes at the Isle of Ely Primary School.

Who works in our classroom:

Mrs Godfrey (Mon-Tues)  Mrs Silveira (Wed-Fri)  Mrs Wreathall  Mrs Anna Frost 

        

 Mrs Claire Harrison    Mrs Samantha Lambert    Mrs Diane Magroun

  

In Year 2 this half term, we will be learning:

Subject

Content

English

Children will be learning about writing recounts in the form of diary entries. We will look at Jack’s Diary which is written from the viewpoint of one of the characters in The Tunnel which we introduced the children to last half-term. The key skills we will be focussing on are writing in the first person and in the past tense, using progressive forms of verbs. We will also be using coordinating conjunctions in our writing.

Later in the half-term we will begin looking at rags to riches stories, using Cinderella as our model text. During this unit we will introduce the children to more suffixes for adjectives e.g. -er, -est, -ful, and –less.

Throughout all of our writing we will be reinforcing the need to use correct spellings for common exception words and to apply the spelling rules we have learned to date.

Maths

This half term children will complete their work on shape and then learn about money and multiplication and division.

Money: this unit builds upon basic money work children completed in Year 1. It also reinforces children’s counting skills, as well as addition and subtraction strategies. In this unit, children focus on coins and notes and comparing amounts of money.

Multiplication and division: this unit focuses on multiplication in the context of skip counting, equal groups, times-tables, multiplication sentences and arrays. It is an essential basis for children understanding the times-tables and what × means. Within this unit, children will gain a solid grounding in equal groups and what this means, as well as how to recognise any groups that are not equal. Children will be introduced to arrays as a representation of multiplication, which will help highlight the commutative properties of multiplication. Throughout this unit, repeated addition sentences will appear alongside multiplication sentences so that children have a reference to help them understand what × means in context. Children will be encouraged to see multiplication in two different ways: sharing a group of a items amongst b people, and alternatively as grouping a items in groups of c.

How can you help at home?

  • Practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s
  • Look at coins and banknotes together – can children recognise them?
  • Count different amounts of money
  • Play ‘shops’

Science

This unit introduces electricity, what we use it for, how it behaves and how we must use it safely. We will be exploring circuits to find out how electricity behaves and what is needed to create a complete circuit. The children will learn about the differences between batteries and mains electricity as well as how our electricity system is connected across the country and beyond. We will be learning about the symbols that scientists use to represent components of a circuit. This links to their understanding of using symbols on a map in geography. We will be working scientifically to investigate conductive and non-conductive materials. The children will make predictions, undertake an investigation and explain their findings.

 

History

This half term we are focusing on ‘The Bronze Age’. This unit builds on from ‘Discovering History’ in Year 1 which introduces children to the idea of ‘prehistory’. We will be developing the children’s understanding that ‘prehistory’ means a time before written records, and knowing that archaeologists find out about the past from what people left behind. We will be focusing on the discovery of Must Farm in Burwell. The children will learn about what was discovered at the site and the importance of the discovery.

Music

In this unit the children learn about ‘beat’ music. The rock/pop group the Beatles are known for ‘beat music’. ‘Beat music’ is known for having a strong beat on each beat. By learning about beat music the children develop their understanding about the beat/pulse and metre (where the beat is split into regular groups). This builds on their knowledge of beat developed in year 1 and beat/metre studied in the first unit of year 2. By studying the Beatles’ song, ‘Yellow Submarine’ the children develop their understanding of beat and metre. They learn to sing the song and in doing so also learn how a song can have a verse/chorus structure. They discover how a melody can be accompanied by instruments in a band and create their own accompaniment for ‘Yellow Submarine’ using tuned and untuned percussion instruments.

Physical Education

Team building: In this unit pupils develop their teamwork skills. They develop key skills of communication and problem solving. They learn to discuss, plan and reflect on ideas and strategies. They lead a partner whilst considering safety. Pupils have the opportunity to show honesty and fair play. They also begin to use basic map skills.

Gymnastics: In this unit pupils learn explore and develop basic gymnastic actions on the floor and using apparatus. They develop gymnastic skills of jumping, rolling, balancing and travelling individually and in combination to create short sequences and movement phrases. Pupils develop an awareness of compositional devices when creating sequences to include the use of shapes, levels and directions. They learn to work safely with and around others and whilst using apparatus. Pupils are given opportunities to provide feedback to others and recognise elements of high quality performance.

Computing

This unit develops learners’ understanding of instructions in sequences and the use of logical reasoning to predict outcomes. The children will use given commands in different orders to investigate how the order affects the outcome. They will also learn about design in programming. They will develop artwork and test it for use in a program. They will design algorithms and then test those algorithms as programs and debug them.

Art

This unit starts by looking at the difference between portraits and a self-portraits by considering three renowned paintings: Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Holbein’s Portrait of Edward VI as a Child and Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Bonito. The children go on to consider a self-portrait by Van Gogh and Kehinde Wiley’s Portrait of Barak Obama, considering how each painter uses skin-tones to show light and shade on the subject’s face. They go on to study self-portraits by Rembrandt and Gentileschi using these works to consider how a portrait can show much more than what a person looks like: an artist can choose to represent a person’s personality, emotions, interests and status. Whilst considering all these works, over the course of several lessons, the children paint their own self-portrait, learning about the proportions of the face, and how to recreate skin-tones. They consider how they can choose to represent themselves, by choosing what to put in the background of their portrait. They finish by evaluating what they think of the self-portrait they have created.

Personal, Social and Health Education

Our PSHE unit this half term is called Dreams and Goals and will look at setting realistic goals, breaking them down into smaller steps and how to keep going when things are challenging. We will be discussing positive attitudes and how we celebrate successes with the help of our Jigsaw friend Jo.

 

Our class text is: Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl

Our PE dates are: Tuesdays and Thursdays

Knowledge Organisers:

At the Isle of Ely Primary School, we use knowledge organisers as a tool to enhance our students learning and to allow parents and carers to support their child's learning. In our knowledge organisers you will find essential knowledge, key dates, vocabulary and key figures where relevant. These can be used as a fun assessment tool which will ensure that students remember more and learn more in the upcoming unit of work.

Art
History
Music
Science 

 

Newsflash!

Week Commencing 10th February

This week, we designed and created our own pencil cases in DT. The children learnt about a running stitch and used this to sew pieces of fabric together. They all showed great resilience with threading a needle, tying knots and using the running stitch. In maths, we have continued practising our multiplication and division. We have been focusing on the 10 times table and using our knowledge of this to solve multiplication and division problems. We have also been learning about odd and even numbers. In English, we have written our innovation text about Charlie’s Dream using all the tools we have learnt to describe our character and the change in his life from rags to riches. As it is has been the last week of term, we have completed our end of unit assessments in our foundation subjects. The children have been able to show how much they’ve learnt this half term.

Week Commencing 3rd February

This week, we have been learning about lots of grammar within our English lessons. We have looked at words with suffixes -ful, -ness and -ment to improve our descriptive language; possessive apostrophes to describe something that belongs to someone; and subordinating conjunctions to add further details to our sentences such as when or why. Ask your child if they can give you some examples! In maths, we have been learning about arrays for multiplication and division. The children have been counting in 2s and using their knowledge of this to work out times table facts such as 2x6 and 16÷2. We have looked at the difference between sharing and grouping in division and understand that division is the inverse of multiplication. As part of our PSHE unit, we have been learning about working with others and recognising our strengths. The children have worked collaboratively on challenges such as learning numbers in Chinese as well as designing and decorating a bird.

Week Commencing 27th January

Thank you for coming along to our maths parent share on Wednesday. It was lovely to see so many of you! We have continued to look at multiplication in our maths lessons, making sure the children understand the vocabulary ‘groups of’ and ‘lots of’. We have been practising counting in our multiples to work out the answers. In English, we have started looking at our model text Cinderella, which is a rags to riches tale. We will be focussing on how to describe characters. In art, we have been creating our own self-portraits adding elements each week. This week, we painted our eyes, lips and hair.

Week Commencing 20th January

In English this week, the children have planned and written their own diary entries. They chose well-known characters to write in role as and were able to use the features of a diary that we’ve been learning about. We’ve also been practising checking our writing to make sure our punctuation is accurate and we’ve used the correct tense. We have continued our unit on money in maths. We have been learning how to work out the change needed, using our number bonds to 100 as well as using number lines to count on. In science, we have been learning about how electricity travels and the children have had the opportunity to make their own circuits.

Week Commencing 13th January

This week, we have been learning about money, building on our knowledge of coins from Year 1. The children can find the totals and work out which coins they need to make a total amount. In English, we have been learning about coordinating conjunctions and contractions. We have also innovated our model text Jack’s Diary to write a class version of Green Crayon’s Diary. In music, we have learnt to sing the chorus and verses of Yellow Submarine by the Beatles.

Week Commencing 6th January

Happy New Year and welcome back! The children have all settled back into school and are excited to learn our new topics. This week in English, we have started learning about diary writing. We have been learning our model text Jack’s Diary off by heart. We have identified the key features of diary writing: using the past tense to describe events that have happened, writing in the first person and describing feelings. In maths, we have continued with our unit on shape. The children have been sorting shapes using their properties and identifying the odd one out. We have been learning about patterns using 2D and 3D shapes, including working out the next one in sequence and symmetrical patterns. Our history unit this half term is the Bronze Age. We found out that it was called this because people started using bronze to make weapons and tools.