English

This week the children made a great start to our topic all about non-chronological reports. We started by reading the story called The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry and discussed what could happen if the characters chose to cut down the Kapok Tree. We then thought about the purpose of a non-chronological report and what genre this writing is. We worked out it is an information text so it is non-fiction.

Then, we read our WAGOLL (what a good one looks like) all about Kapok trees. We found some features of a non-chronological report and coloured these in on our own WAGOLLs. Later on in the week, we started to learn about the four main sentence types: commands, statements, exclamations and questions. We then found lots of statements and exclamations in the WAGOLL before we started to write our own statement sentences all about Kapok trees. We watched this video below to help us understand the four main sentence types: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zvp6dp3. 

Maths

We are continuing to focus on number this half term and we have started to look at multiplication and division. This week we focused just on multiplication and although it was tricky at first, we used our school value of determination to keep us going! We first looked at equal groups and what this meant. From this, we could understand that our equal groups were repeating and we could write addition number sentences to match these. Once we practised this a few times, we then introduced the multiplication symbol and thought about some different ways of saying it to help us understand. Then, we were able to apply our knowledge of repeated addition and equal groups to multiplication calculations. This was definitely tough but we tried and tried again and by the end of the week, it was much easier! Well done Year 2. 

This is us practising recognising equal groups. We had to identify how many groups there were and how many there were in each group.

Then we started to write repeated addition number sentences about equal groups.

Then we were able to use our knowledge of equal groups and repeated addition to help us write multiplication calculations to match pictures.

PE

This week we started our unit all about gymnastics. We started off with a warm up and then, most importantly, stretching our muscles. We then thought about different ways in which we can move our bodies that may be similar to a gymnast. We thought about stretching our bodies all the way down to our toes and also curling our bodies in different ways.

Then we enjoyed using benches to practise our balancing skills and moving in stretched and curled positions along the benches. Next week we will start to look at sequencing moves together to make a small routine. 

Maths

This half term in our maths lessons we have been learning about place value. We have been focusing on numbers up to 100 and understanding the relationships between numbers and what they mean. As you can see in the picture, we have also been learning to partition numbers and we used the Base 10 to help us. We have also been practising counting in our 2s, 5s, 10s and 3s. To help us with this we have using some songs which I have copy and pasted below, it would be great to play these for your children at home to help them to count confidently in these times tables. 
2s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvTcpfSnOMQ
5s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EemjeA2Djjw
10s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftati8iGQcs
3s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_cn87hOCDM

English

English This half term we have been using the story of Little Red Riding Hood to help us write our own traditional tale. We enjoyed immersing ourselves in the story and having a go at writing the story of Little Red Riding Hood before making changes to the original story. I thoroughly enjoyed watching children's creativity come alive with stories of Little Blue or a big, bad fox! We then explored poetry and what this actually is. We enjoyed listening to a range of different poems and discussing the differences between poetry and stories. Our text we used to help us was Apes - Zebras, an a to z of animal poems. We then focused on shape poetry and enjoyed writing our own poems all about lions and penguins.

DT

This half term we have been looking at wheels and mechanisms and making a trailer for a bee bot. The children have thoroughly enjoyed exploring different toys that use wheels and axles and labelling diagrams. However, perhaps the most exciting part was using the saws to practising our wood cutting skills! We will finish this unit off after the half term and look forward to sharing our creations with you!

Science

Our topic this half term has been animals including humans and specifically focusing on growth. We have been exploring what animals and humans need to survive and moved onto looking at a balanced diet. We looked at naming the 5 major food groups and thinking about ensuring we are eating a balanced diet. We finished this off by creating our own balanced snack plate and the children enjoyed eating this!

History

This half term we have been learning about the sinking of the Titanic.  The children have really enjoyed this topic and got stuck in. We have sequenced the events of the night it sank, reasons why it sank and used some sources of information to help us understand what the Titanic was like. We will finish this off after half term before we start our new topic, which dare I say it... It might be even more exciting! 

General information

Thank you for your continued support this half term, it has definitely been a tiring one! The children have been working really hard and it has been great to get to know them more. At the end of the half term I will share the new mind-map for this next half term's learning which will outline our new topics. After the half term, we will also start to learn and practise our KS1 nativity and the children in Year 2 will be given parts. I will share more information with you as it comes about the Nativity but watch this space!

Have a lovely half term,
Miss Harden

English

We kicked off our Traditional Tales unit by reading our unit text; Little Red Riding Hood. The children really enjoyed the story and even started to make comparisons to other traditional tales that have a big, bad wolf. We focused on retelling the story in pairs before then sequencing it in our books and writing a sentence to describe each picture. It has been a great start to the unit and the children have shown great enthusiasm for the learning ahead of them. 

Maths

This week we started our unit all about Place Value. This focuses on children's understanding of number and what those numbers look like and mean. We started off gently by practising making numbers with different resources in the classroom. This focused our thinking to tens and ones in numbers before we started answering some questions in our books. We will continue this next week and use lots of manipulative to help us. 

Another key part of our maths learning will be the Year 2 KIRFs (key instant recall facts). These are number facts that children should be able to recall instantly in order to help them make strong connections across different topics in maths. We will practise these regularly in school but it would be extremely beneficial if children could practise these at home too. With KIRFs, a little bit of practise often goes a long way and it is the repetition of these facts that will really help embed their learning. At the bottom of the blog post are the Year 2 KIRFs for the Autumn term, please do spend some time having a quick look at these and the recommended websites. If your child practises these at home, please do share their work with me via Dojo - I always love to celebrate any work completed outside of school!

We highly recommend the app 'One Minute Maths' by WhiteRose Mathematics. This is the scheme we follow in school and the app is designed for children in KS1. It is a quick and engaging way for children to practise addition and subtraction, and some of the questions link to the KIRFs. Daily practise on this app really will support your child's learning and quick recall of number facts. The best part about it... The app is completely free! For more information about this app, please follow this link: https://whiteroseeducation.com/1-minute-maths . 

General Information

Attendance has been fantastic this week so thank you for your support with this, it has been great to see the children again and get them settled in. Our PE lesson will be on a Wednesday so children can come into school in their PE kits on this day.

Below this blog post I have attached the KIRFs that children can practise at home but I have also attached a mind-map. This mind-map tells you what your children will be learning during this half term. You will also find some YR2 common exception words, these are words that we expect children to be able to correctly spell independently when in Year 2. It would be great for children to practise these at home regularly too. 

We do ask that you listen to your child read every day and write this in their reading record. We will collect their reading records on a Friday morning to check these and count up their reads for the Reading Karate bands. If you have any questions about your child's reading, please do get in contact as soon as possible. 

A gentle reminder, if you have not already please can you complete your parental consents on Arbor. This helps us to know which children can be photographed when completing the blog. Thank you in advance for your support with this. 

As always, if I can do anything to support you or if you have any questions, please do get in contact.

Take care, 
Miss Harden