WELCOME TO YEAR 2
Why does it matter where my food comes from?
This term our enquiry question is "Why does it matter where my food comes from?" Our subject focus is Geography. We will investigate places and communicate geographically by naming and locating different countries, including those in the United Kingdom. We will look at physical and human features of different landcapes and identify the differences. We will be learning about dairy farms and where milk comes from, the geographical features of Devon and why Costa Rica has a suitable climate to grow bananas. We will be visiting Boydell's Farm on a field trip to enhance our learning even further.
In Science we will be learning about living things and their habitats. We will be spending time in the outdoors exploring and comparing differences between things that are alive, have never been alive or used to be alive. We will look at habitats and why they are suited to provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants.
Maths
In Maths we have recently been learning about money. We have been focussing on the value of coins and notes and using our known addition, subtraction and muliplication facts to help solve money problems. The children have been practising their mental arithmatic and have enjoyed embarking on their TT Rockstars journey!
English
In Year 2 we love books! The first text we looked at this term is The Tunnel by Anthony Browne. We have used Talk for Writing to retell the story and wrote our own narratives. Some of our writing is on display outside our classroom! In the Autumn term we wrote a recount of our trip to the church and Layer Marney Tower. We based our poetry unit on the poem 'The Tiny Burning Flame' which linked perfectly with our Great Fire of London topic. This half term we are focussing on fairytales and we will writing our own tale with a twist!
Those that have completed the phonics scheme have now started 'Guided Reading' in Year 2. We are studying 'The Moon Dragons' by Dyan Sheldon and Gary Blythe. We will be focussing on the skills of word meaning, prediction and retrieval this half term.
Other Curriculum Learning
We enjoyed our history learning last half term as we went to Layer Marney Tower to learn more about the Great Fire of London. We also looked at lots of significant people from the past and present day and used the 'Little People Big Dreams' books to explore them further.
This half term we will be learning about DT where we will be making healthy wraps and designing and making ferris wheels!
Reminders
Our PE Days are Tuesday and Thursday. Full school PE kit needs to be work into school on both of these days.
Trainers/Wellies and Waterproofs! - At Layer-de-la-Haye we are an "All-Weather" school. This mean that unless deemed unsafe we will be outside at playtimes even if it is raining. Please make sure that your child has a change of shoes (and socks!) or wellies in school for days when it is very wet.
Year 2 Key Dates for Spring Term
22nd January - Maths Parent Partnership 9am-10am
7th March - Celebration Assembly 2.45pm
27th March - Trip to Boydell's Farm
Homework
Reading - In Year 2 pupils should be reading daily (4-5 a week). Pupils will bring home multiple books each week. This will include a book to share together, and a book that is either phonetically decodable, or an "Accelerated Reader" (AR) book that they can quiz on when they have finished it. Please record how your child is reading at home as this will help us to support their needs further. We ask the children to hand in their reading folders/book bags and homework on a Monday with the reading record inside. We will then change the books as needed and hand them back out on Friday. Pupils who have an AR book will be able to change their books as soon as they have quizzed each time.
Times Tables - We would like to see each child log in and use the learning tool Times Tables Rockstars for upwards of 20-25 minutes a week. This will help them to develop their knowledge and speed of recall. We regularly check the childrens scores and set their tables challenges accordingly.