Welcome to Year 2 

Miss Fowler

Mrs Milbourne, Mrs Robinson, Miss Chisholm and Miss Fallon
 

Autumn 2

History & Geography

We will begin this half term continuing with a focus on Victorians for the first couple of weeks with a specific focus on Victorian transport. The children will continue this learning when they go on their school trip to The Herbert Art Gallery and The Coventry Transport Museum as they will explore the history of bicycles and transport while they are there. After learning about Victorian transport, we will start our new unit which is called, ‘What is the difference between a map of Binley Woods and Coventry?’ and is geography based. During this unit of work the children will make comparisons between Binley Woods and Coventry.

English

In English this half term, we will be reading a variety of exciting books, one being Mrs Armitage on Wheels by Quentin Blake. This book will start our new English unit off in an engaging way. It is based on the adventure of Mrs Armitage, her dog and her bike. It is an amusing text with some superb illustrations and repetitive language. Using this book as their stimulus the children will write: a character description, setting description and an informal letter. Towards the end of the half term the children will be focusing on poetry and writing instructions.

Reading, as always, will be a crucial part of the children’s learning and will be part of English lessons every day (for example the children will be making predictions, exploring new vocabulary, summarising what we have read etc.). In addition to this, the children will have a variety of reading lessons over the year, including: whole class comprehension lessons, Little Wandle reading groups and one to one reading.

Maths

In Maths, our first new unit will be, ‘Measures: Length’ which will focus on measuring length. The children will choose and use appropriate standard units to estimate and measure length/height in any direction (m/cm) to the nearest appropriate unit, using rulers and scales. They will learn how to measure curves and straight lines, draw lines with specified lengths and will apply their knowledge through problem solving tasks.  After this, the children will move onto learning all about graphs where they will represent and interpret data on various graphs. Finally, we will start our next unit called, ‘Multiplication and division’ which focuses on the 2, 5 and 10 times tables.

Science

In this unit the children will build on learning from Year 1 about different materials and their properties. The children will consolidate their understanding that one type of object can be made from different materials and also that one material can be used for a number of different objects. They will continue to develop their understanding of the simple physical properties of materials and consider in more detail how these properties make materials useful for particular purposes. During the unit the children will test a range of different materials for different purposes. They will also have an opportunity to think about creative and unusual uses of everyday materials.

D&T

In D&T this term, the children will be exploring mechanisms with a focus on wheels and axles. They will use the ideas from their visit to the transport museum and the text ‘Mrs Armitage on Wheels’ to design their own vehicle that could help Mrs Armitage to get around safely.

RE

In RE, we will be exploring a focused enquiry question: ‘Why do Christians believe God gave Jesus to the world?’ This unit is linked to Christianity and will look at various beliefs linked to Christmas.

PSHE

In PSHE this half term the children will consider many aspects linked to the unit ‘Celebrating Difference.’ We will start the unit by understanding that sometimes people make assumptions about boys and girls (stereotypes). Then, the children will look at why bullying might happen and will understand that bullying is sometimes about difference. After this, the children will recognise what is right and wrong and know how to look after themselves. Towards the end of the unit, the children will learn that it is OK to be different from other people. Finally, they will learn that these differences make us all special and unique.

Computing

This half term the children will be learning how to become coders! They will learn skills to support them in learning the basics of coding. They will learn what an algorithm is and will create a computer program using an algorithm. They will learn key skills like how to create timed sequences and collision detection whilst creating their program and will be able to test and debug their program.

PE

PE this half term is timetabled for Wednesday (gymnastics) and Thursday (Forest School). Children should come to school wearing a white T shirt, black shorts/joggers, school sweatshirt or cardigan and trainers on these days. On Thursdays, the children will also need to bring in: a waterproof coat, waterproof trousers and wellies to change into before their afternoon session. They can also bring in any additional warm clothes, hats, gloves etc, as it may be quite cold!

Useful websites to practise key skills at home:

English:

Oxford Owl - provides access to free e-books (You have to create a free account to view them) 

This website is American, but it has some nice phonics and reading games.

This website is currently free with the username: march20 password: home

Your child has an individual log-in for this website. They can play spelling games based on lists of words. I will set 3 spelling lists to practise per week. Try using the code '#710619' to enter a hive game for common exception words! 

Use these links to find an interesting image. What do you think is happening? Can you describe what is happening in your exercise book? Can you write a story about it?

'Mr Thorne Does Phonics' has lots of grammar and phonics short episodes 

This blogger has compiled a list of children's authors with great books to read, each author has a few reading based activities on their website. 

Audible has lots of free audiobooks for children while you're learning at home.

Alphablocks games and some episodes can be found here. 

Maths:

This website has LOTS of age appropriate maths resources and they have produced home learning packs for each year group with helpful videos and activities for each day of home learning. 

This website has lots of interactive maths games. 

This website groups games together well and you can search by subject.

Times Table Rock Stars - your child has an individual log in for this.

This is a story based maths game which your child can log into with their TT Rock stars log ins.

Other subjects:

This is a fantastic website with lots of videos, interactive activities and printable resources around all the subjects as well as current events. Great for exploring if you want some extra material in your home learning. 

Once clicking this link, choose 'Espresso' from the drop down log-in menu in the top right hand corner. You will receive a username and password for this website. 

This website often has child - friendly news items, and they will be uploading some free content when schools close. 

With this link you can take a virtual tour around the British Museum, London. 

This website has lots of activities you can do in the garden, as well a lots of information about animals and plants for research tasks.

Find out information and take quizzes using this link.

These games are the first steps of computer programming, they are very engaging for children. 

This is a typing game for children beginning to learn to type. 

This website has fun movement videos for children

SEND SUPPORTED RESOURCES

We work with a company called SEND Supported at school and they are releasing newsletters each week offering support and guidance to parents of children who many have additional needs in school. Please find below a link to these newsletters:

There are also lots of other resources and information available on their website. The 'Things to do Issue 2 - Resources' file has some lovely activities for all children regardless of whether they have additional needs or not. There are lots of great visual puzzles and games for children to play so please have a look if you can. There are also resources available now to support with developing children's memory skills in 'Thing to do Issue 3 - Resources.'