Year Two is a time of gentle transition from the continuous provision and free flow of Early Years and Year 1 to a more formal approach more in line with what the children will experience as they move up through the school. The change in teaching style is gradual and the emphasis is still very much on creativity and exploration. This is reflected in the broad range of topics and activities that the children will experience. Of course, they will still have time for independent learning where the children can access the different areas in the classroom and outside area to learn through play and self-initiated exploration. Our aim is for the children to still feel secure enough to take risks and to challenge themselves.
Our class author is Anthony Browne, it would be lovely if you could share some of his stories at home, there are lots in our class library for the children to choose from. I hope you enjoy reading them together.
Home Learning
To help you to make home learning more accessible, each child will bring home a list of all the words they are meant to know be the end of Year 2, some handwriting sheets, a hundred square and a pencil.
Anything you can do at home to support your child’s learning would be much appreciated. I know this can be tricky at times, but if you only have time for one thing then read with your child. Studies show that the better a child can read the better their life chances are, so I can’t stress enough how important it is. If your child is reluctant to read to you then read to them – sharing books can be such a rewarding experience and will expose your child to a range of new vocabulary and ideas.
Don’t forget how important board games are for learning strategies, counting, taking turns and learning how to be a ‘good’ loser or gracious winner. Pen and paper games like hangman and noughts and crosses are also helpful.
Mathematics
The class are all working towards earning their Maths Magicians wristbands. They are really engaging with this and are very proud when they earn their next band. The children begin by working on number bonds to 10, 20, 100 and our 2, 5 and 10 times tables. Practising these at home will help them progress, each time they move to the next band they will get a practise sheet sent home.
There are also some great maths games they can play at Third Space Maths Hub and Topmarks Maths.
Learning through play is vital for this age group, it gives them the opportunity to learn in a non-formal way which helps them realise learning can be fun.
English
English in Year 2 builds on the grammar and spellings the children encountered in Year 1. This means the will be more work on suffixes (such as adding -ly to the end of a word e.g. sudden becoming suddenly) and noun phrases (e.g. the blue butterfly). If they write at home, it would be great if you could encourage them to use these elements in what they create.
The children love Free Writing and Pobble 365 has a new writing stimulus every day! There are sentence starters and prompts with each sentence and your children already use these in the classroom each week. Please email me any work the children do or share it on our twitter page. I will be sure to reward them at school for their hard work.
Please encourage your child to practice their handwriting skills whenever they are writing – the Letter-join website is available to support handwriting practice.
You can also access all the other website links within the ‘Supporting Learning‘ area of this website under ‘Useful links’. Let your child find out about and learn within an area they are interested in/a subject they enjoy or have a talent for e.g. Geography and mapwork/digital maps or History and a particular period of time that your child is interested in.
BBC Bitesize has great videos games and activities for all areas of the Key Stage 1 curriculum.
The children will continue with the phonics work from Year 1 either directly in phonics lessons or recalling their phonics knowledge in their writing and spelling. Your child can spend time revising all Year 1 and 2 common exception words which we are practising in our spelling. It is really useful if the not only practise spelling the word but also start using them in written sentences to show that they understand their meaning.
Art
The children love drawing and we aim encourage them to experiment and investigate without worrying about if their art is – in their opinion – any good. Visit this website for some great instructional videos to help the children learn to draw different things.
Careers Day
Year 2 thoroughly enjoyed Careers Day 2023
Times Table Rockstars Day
English