WELCOME TO YEAR 2
St Bernadette (Y2A) and St Martin de Porres (Y2K)
Spring 2025
Welcome to Year 2A and may we wish you a Happy New Year! We hope you have all had a lovely break and had a well-deserved rest, spending time with your loved ones.
Here's to the start of an exciting year ahead with lots to look forward to.
On our class page you will be able to find information about this half term's learning.
Key Dates:
World Book Day – 7th March
Y2A Class Assembly – 19th March 2025 (more details to follow)
Parents Evening – 12th/13th March
Important Information:
Home Learning and Book Bags
Book bags will be sent home with a new reading book and reading for pleasure book every Friday. This is a book to share with the family and discuss together. It is a great opportunity to build a love of reading together. Please ensure book bags are brought in each Thursday. Home learning projects will be set each half-term linked to pupils class learning. These should be completed throughout the half-term in learning logs or on Seesaw. Home learning will be shared in class in the final week of the half-term, where the children will be able to celebrate their learning with their class. We will also look on our class Seesaw page during this time too!
Water bottles
Water bottles should be brought into class each day. Pupils will have access to these throughout the day.
Reading, Phonics and Spellings
We will be using seesaw to post weekly spellings to support the children's learning in Phonics and Spellings.
My Maths
My Maths tasks are set every week and these should be completed on the My Maths website. My Maths supports the children's learning in class, as well as consolidating previous learning.
PE Days
Our PE days will be on a Monday and Friday. Children should come into school wearing their PE kits on these days. Please ensure your child's name is in all items of clothing including their basic school uniform. If your child's name is not on their items of clothing this makes it very difficult to locate lost items. If you are unsure of what your child needs for their PE kit please see our School uniform policy.
Religion
This term we will be looking at the Local Church within our community. Children will learn about the importance of the Bible and other scriptures and where these are used. Children will understand that there are two main sections in the Bible - the Old Testament and the New Testament. The role of the Bible and the Gospels in the life of families will be explored.
English
We are starting the new year with the text 'The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch'. During this unit we will be learning more key skills to apply in our writing to make our stories even better. We will be learning to use a range of conjunctions (and, so, but, because, if, when, however) as well as using some adjectives to describe the characters and setting to make our writing more interesting.
We will start to become more independent when applying new key skills in our writing this half term by using our steps to success ladders and our success criteria's. During this unit we will be learning to write a set of instructions, a diary entry and a non-chronological report.
We will also look at the poem ‘The Magic Box’ where children will create their own poem and perform it using GarageBand, as well as perform their poems at our Poetry Café.
Maths
In maths, we will build on our knowledge of shape from Year 1 and understand the properties of both 2D and 3D shapes. We will continue to develop mental maths strategies by applying key mathematical concepts like our number bonds and place value. Children will be learning about the value of coins; how to find the total of items and how to find the change. Every Friday, children will have the opportunity to apply these mathematical skills in our ‘Class Shop’ where children spend money that they have earned over the course of the week. We will also be using our counting in twos, fives, and tens to develop a deeper understanding of multiplication and division.
Science
In Science we will be learning about Animals including humans. Children will investigate the impact of exercise on the body and will record their findings in a table and then onto a bar graph. Throughout our lessons we will be asking lots of questions, observing and performing simple tests, identifying and classifying and gathering and recording data. We will also be learning about how a healthy diet and hygiene are essential in order to keep our bodies healthy. Children will design a healthy meal based on the recommended five food groups.
Topic
This half term we will start our unit 'The Great Fire Of London'. During this unit we will be using our retrieval and inference skills when looking at a range of sources from 1666 to understand what happened during the great fire, what caused it, who was to blame and we will investigate what changes have been made since the Great Fire and how they have impacted us today. We will then use our findings to take part in a class debate about where we think the blame lies.
We will learn to plot key events on our class timeline and compare London in the past to London now. We will go on a virtual tour of London in the 1600s and discuss the similarities and differences between key time periods.
PSHE
In PSHE we will continue with the module Created and Loved by God which explores the individual. Rooted in the teaching that we are created by God out of love and for love, it helps children to develop an understanding of the importance of valuing themselves as the basis for personal relationships. For any further information please see the TenTen parent portal.