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.
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. 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, using the text 'Little Red' as inspiration.
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, Ossiri and the Bala Mengro by Richar O'Neill and Grey Island Red Boat by Ian Beck. We will be focussing on the skills of word meaning, prediction and retrieval this half term.
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
30th January 2026 - Celebration Assembly 2.45pm
11th March 2026 - Maths Parent Partnership 9.05am-10am
26th March 2026 - 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 (at least 4x a week) 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. 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.
Other Curriculum Learning
In Science, we have been exploring habitats and were thrilled to welcome Andy from Colchester Zoo, who shared lots of fascinating facts about animals and where they live! We chose our favourite animals and investigated their habitats, and even created our own imaginary creatures, explaining why they would be suited to their chosen environment.
In Computing, we took our learning outdoors to explore digital photography. We experimented with portrait and landscape formats to capture the best images and had fun editing our photos to enhance them.
In RE, we took our learning outside to explore Matthew’s Gospel and the story of the birth of Jesus, reflecting on the meaning of this special event.
In History, we explored a range of significant people, and our favourites were Guy Fawkes and Malala! Using books, videos, and artefacts, we investigated why these people are important and how they impacted the world. We also explored the Great Fire of London, which included a visit to Layer Marney Tower, where we examined materials, artefacts from 1666, and discovered lots of fascinating facts about this catastrophic event.
This half term we will be learning about DT where we will be making healthy wraps and designing and making ferris wheels!
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