Home Learning - INSET Days

Have you ever wondered what the future will be like? Well, now’s your chance to leave a mark and share a little bit about who you are with the world! As part of our special Time Capsule project for our new school, please create a fun, personalised page that will help future students learn all about YOU and your life today.

Here’s how it works:

Your Mission: Create a cool and colourful A5 page that tells us all about yourself. You can use any materials you like—draw, write, and even add photos. Be creative! This page will be sealed in our Time Capsule, which means future students will open it many years from now and get a glimpse of who YOU were and what life was like at our school.

You could include – a drawing or photo of yourself, your hobbies, things you’re into (e.g. your favourite book, TV program or video game), a special message for future students or what you want to be when you grow up.

This is a fun way to capture what life is like for YOU right now, so be as creative and colourful as you can. When you’re done, we’ll tuck it away in the Time Capsule, and in years to come, someone will open it and learn all about you and your time at our school. It’s like sending a message to the future!

Let your imagination run wild—this is YOUR Time Capsule!

Additional Activities for the INSET days.

As there are 4 INSET days over the Easter period we have set optional home learning for you to do at home with your children. This half-term in spelling, the children had been learning about adding suffixes (ed, ing, est and er) so I have included two sheets continuing on from that. The children have also been looking at microhabitats in Science so I have set a fun activity to build your own microhabitat for local minibeasts and finally I have added some maths home learning based on time, ahead of us studying it next half term. As always, please encourage your child to do Times Table practise by logging in to Times Table Rockstars. 
The sheets are all attached below and are named:
- Science Building a Minibeast Mansion
- Science Information Sheet
- Spelling Activity 1
- Spelling Activity 2
- Time Home Learning
 

Maths Cafe!

Thank you to all the parents/carers that attended our Year 2 Maths Cafe. The children thoroughly enjoyed doing the activities and having their family there with them to join in. I hope it was useful for you to see some of the ways we do maths in Year 2 and the methods that we use. I have attached some of the activities in the documents at the bottom of the page.

  

Spring 2 - The Dragon Machine

The children came into school to find dragons everywhere! They were hidden in coffee cups, coat pockets and in tissue boxes. The trail lead them to a dragon egg, which hatched a dragon called Blaze, who delivered us the book ‘The Dragon Machine’.

This book will be our English focus this half term and the children will use it as a basis to write a letter to the main character, a dragon encyclopedia and an adventure story of their own.

 

An Exciting Visitor

For part of our Kenya topic the children enjoyed an African music workshop. They got the chance to celebrate Africa through story telling, songs and African drumming.

  

   

 

 

Spring 1

Hello and welcome back after the Christmas holidays! I hope you have all had a wonderful festive period and enjoyed time with your families.

This half term, we will be learning about Kenya. We will be studying maps to locate Kenya, looking at its geographical features and animals, learning about the culture in Kenya and making comparisons between the life, weather and culture in the UK. Then later on this term, the children can look forward to an African music and drumming workshop.

In English, we will be focusing on the story Lila and the Secret of Rain and rewriting from the perspective of the rain. Please see Autumn 2 for more information about handwriting and spelling.

In maths, we will be focusing on multiplication and division (2, 5, and 10) so please continue practicing with Times Table Rockstars (TTRS) at home. Then later, we will be looking at the following objectives for money. More information about how to support your children with money is on the homework sheet attached below.

• recognise and use symbols for pounds (£) and pence (p); combine amounts to make a particular value
• find different combinations of coins that equal the same amounts of money
• solve simple problems in a practical context involving addition and subtraction of money of the same unit, including giving change.

P.E will continue to be on a Wednesday so please have P.E kits in school and Forest School will be on a Thursday so please ensure your child has appropriate clothing for the winter weather, including wellies and warm layers.

Homework for the half term will be sent home to all children and is attached via a link on this page.

 

Autumn 2

This half-term, we are learning about the Great Fire of London. We have learnt about the events that took place, how the fire started and what caused it to spread so drastically. In English, the children will be doing some follow-up writing about the Great Fire of London, including an explanation text and a diary entry – thinking about how it might have felt to be there.

In maths, we are focusing on addition and subtraction on a numberline – doing big jumps for tens and small jumps for ones (see picture below). Then later, we are moving on to learning about 2D and 3D shapes. Where the children will do the following:

• identify and describe the properties of 2-D shapes, including the number of sides, and line symmetry in a vertical line
• identify and describe the properties of 3-D shapes, including the number of edges, vertices and faces
• identify 2-D shapes on the surface of 3-D shapes, [for example, a circle on a cylinder and a triangle on a pyramid]
• compare and sort common 2-D and 3-D shapes and everyday objects

In science, the children are exploring the uses and properties of everyday materials and in art, they are using pastel techniques to work towards a piece of art depicting the Great Fire of London.

P.E will continue to be on a Wednesday and Thursday, so please have P.E kits in school.

Children who are doing the Little Wandle will continue to get a new book each week which they read in school and take home with them. Children on Accelerated Reading are encouraged to change their books as soon as they have finished it. All reading records are collected every Friday and children who have read 5 times a week or more receive a Dojo!

Homework for the half term has been sent home to all children and is attached via a link on this page.

Things you may choose to do at home in Autumn 2:

Writing - 
In class, we have been writing explanation and diary texts. Perhaps the children may want to explore this further. For instance, they could write an explanation of something in their lives, such as their hobby, i.e. what it is, what it involves and how it works, or a diary entry from their own life. This could be a trip or holiday they have been on or even a visit to someone’s house. You may wish the children to write freely, but if you choose to hone in on specific things, look for consistent use of capital letters and full stops. Sneaky tip - if you want to encourage writing even more at home, you can use the free version of chat gpt and ask it to come up with writing ideas at home for year 2 and it will also list tens of ideas. 

Maths - 
Practise your times tables - focusing on 2, 5, and 10. Earn yourself points on Times Tables Rockstars!
Have a go at adding two 2-digit numbers, like 43 + 36, using a number line. Do big jumps when adding tens and small jumps for ones.
Example: 

There are also numerous apps and websites for maths games appropriate for KS1. For instance, bbc bitesize or topmarks.

Handwriting -
In Year 2, we have been having a big push for handwriting and introduced joining up. When practising at home, please ensure the children are sitting properly (there is advice for this on the following website, as well as hand warm-up videos). Handwriting videos | Oxford Owl We use the Nelson handwriting scheme at school. Practise books for these are available to buy or you can just pick any letter to practise, then practise putting that letter into different words. Below is an example of a joined up script, following the Nelson Scheme. Other activities like lego and playdoh also develop the the fine motor muscles so we encourage these too!

Spelling - 
Please find ideas for spelling activities at home on the attachment below named Spelling Games, where I have listed 20 different games you can play. Including word searches, writing words in playdoh and anagrams. Below are the common exception words for Year 2, that the children are expected to spell by the end of the Year. We have also been focusing on spelling patterns - using ed, ied, es, ies, ing, er and ier this half term, in words such as jumped, hurried, copied, fishes, foxes, cries, stopping, shorter, bigger, and heavier.

 

 

Autumn 1

We have thoroughly enjoyed welcoming our new students into Year 2 and meeting all parents and carers. For those of you who were not able to attend the ‘Meet the Teachers’, please see the uploaded Powerpoint for any information you may have missed.

This half-term, we will be focusing on place value and addition/subtraction in Maths. We will be reading ‘Jim and the Beanstalk’ by Raymond Briggs in English and supporting the children to write their own alternative fairy tales.

For the children who are progressing through the Little Wandle reading scheme, they will read with a TA twice a week and these books will also be sent home. Those who have finished the scheme will be able to select Accelerated Reading books in their level. Please could you ensure children have their reading records daily in case there is an opportunity to read with an adult and all reading records will be checked on Friday.

P.E will be with Mr Stocker on a Wednesday and Thursday. Please make sure children have their kit in school, especially on these days. As both the sessions are at the end of the day, children will change in class and then come home in their kit. It is also helpful if children can have an art apron at school. Please ensure that your child is prepared with wellies on the wetter days and that everything that comes into school is labelled with their name so it can find its way back if it becomes lost.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Best wishes,
Miss Nicholls and Mrs Barber