Positive Penguins (Year 2)

Autumn 1 Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers,

 Welcome back to the start of a new academic year. We hope you had a lovely summer break. We would like to invite you to a Welcome to Year 2 meeting on Thursday 12^th September at 5pm in the Y2 classroom. The meeting will give you the opportunity to meet the both of us, see the classroom and ask us any questions you have.

This half term our main topic is ‘Barnaby Bear’s Highland Adventure’. We will learn where Scotland is, the features of Scotland and look at some of the traditions and landmarks of the country.

As many of you like to know what we are learning about at school so that you can help your child, we are sending home a topic web for your information. It really is beneficial to the children if you can support and reinforce their learning at home, below you will see some of the topic words your child will be introduced to this half term. Please discuss these with your children and encourage them to use the words at home. If your child has any books or artefacts that support our topic and they would like to bring them into school then that would be wonderful.

Maths

We will continue to follow the White Rose Maths scheme which the children began in Y1. During the first half term, Miss Edwards will teach Place Value on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Mrs Furniss will teach shape on a Thursday and Friday.  

Supporting videos are available at: https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-2/  should you wish to learn more about how we teach maths in Year 2.  

We really recommend the White Rose 1 Minute Maths app which is available for free on the Apple Store, Google Play and Amazon Kindle.

Reading and Spelling

The children will continue Twinkl Phonics which covers Y2 spelling rules right up to the end of Year 2. Alongside Twinkl Phonics, we use Rhino Reader Reading Books which align with Twinkl Phonics. They are fully decodable, exciting and cover a variety of topics which reflect our modern world. We will continue to send new books home on a Friday, just as the children did in Y1. Children should read each book at least three times. Once for decoding, a second time to improve fluency and a third for comprehension. The children will continue on 5c until we have covered the initial sounds of 6a and then we will begin handing those out to the children. Level 6 Rhino Reader books are quite long so we don’t expect the children to read the whole book in one sitting. However, we know that some children will get through their book quite quickly so we will leave a box of our old reading books outside the classroom on a Monday and Friday for either you or the children to independently borrow. As the Rhino Readers are brand new and we have a limited number of books, the children will need to return their book on a Friday before being able to swap it for a new one. Lost books will incur a charge of £3.40.

 The children will receive a new reading book on Friday 6^th September.

 In order to meet the expected standard for a Y2 reader, your child would need to be fluently reading and understanding the books stated below by the end of each term.

We can’t emphasise enough what a difference regular reading makes to your child’s development. It has the single biggest impact on their progress across the curriculum. To encourage your child to read at home, we have a class reading reward. The children need to read at home at least five times per week. It is important that an adult or older family member makes a note in your child’s Reading Diary after they have read. The diaries will be checked on a Friday morning and if your child has read five times, they will receive a marble to pop in our Reading Reward Jar. When the jar is full, we will celebrate with a Book Brunch where the children can bring in books from home to share with their classmates and delicious treats to share too. We usually buy a new book linked to the children’s interest to use as a class reading book too. Reading Diaries will be checked on Fridays from Friday 13^th September.  

 A spelling overview for the half term will be sent out on Friday 13^th September so please keep hold of this.  Y2 Phonics lessons will begin w/c 16^th September and take place every day for 45 minutes. The children will apply their new skills in a Phonics Workbook everyday culminating in sentence dictation on a Friday where they will be challenged to write four sentences using the spelling rules for that week. Please try to support your child in learning their spellings as it impacts on their reading & writing attainment. Spellings will be tested on a Friday so please make sure your child has their red spelling book in school on a Friday (They will be given a new one for Y2).

Science

This half term we will be learning about ‘Living Things & Habitats’. Children will look at living, dead and things that have never lived. They will also name a variety of animals and look at how their habitats meet their needs.

Each half term your child will be working on specific science targets that go with their current unit of work. Our science targets this half term are:

Homework

Homework will always be set on a Friday and must be returned by the following Wednesday. We have a box for homework in the classroom so it can be handed in earlier if it’s completed over the weekend. Homework should be completed in pencil and should be of an acceptable standard. We alternate between a maths booklet and a reading comprehension booklet. We also send home an additional spelling worksheet to support the upcoming week in phonics.

Occasionally, some children may bring home some extra work from the homework outlined above. This may be because they are working in an intervention group and need some extra practice at something, or it may simply be that your child needs a little extra work on something they have not understood.

 Further information:

Our P.E lessons will be on Mondays and Thursdays. The children are invited to come to school in their PE kit on those days. Children should not be wearing any jewellery on PE days. If your child is not able to take out their earrings, you must send them to school with earrings taped up on these days or provide tape that they can put on themselves.

Miss Edwards works on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Mrs Furniss works on a Thursday and Friday. PPA time will take place on a Wednesday and Friday afternoon and will be covered by Mrs June Armstrong. Mrs Gilbert will work in the class full time except for Friday mornings. Miss Heath-Smith will be in Y2 every morning.  

We hope you have found this letter informative. If you have any questions about any of the above or any other queries, please do not hesitate to contact us via Dojo. If you have an important message which we need to be made aware of on the day, please contact the school office. We won’t always check Dojo if we are teaching, and we would hate to miss something important.

Wednesday – Homework Due in. There is a box in in the classroom to pop it in.

Friday – spelling test, change reading books, change library books and Must Reads.

Thank you

Mrs Furniss and Miss Edwards

 Class Teachers

Curriculum Web Autumn 1

Please take a look at the wonderful things we will be learning about this half term

Knowledge Organiser Autumn 1

Please see below for this half terms spelling list

Key Vocabulary 

 Please see below the vocabulary that we will be using in class this half term.