Year 2 2024 - 2025

Welcome to the Year Two Class Page

Class Teacher: Miss Croft

Support staff: Miss Ellison, Miss Gallagher & Mrs Middlehurst

I would like to welcome you all to the Year Two class page. Year Two marks the last year in Key Stage One and is always a fun, busy, exciting year!

As the daffodils start to bloom and the chicks begin to hatch, the children in Year Two will have fantastic opportunities for more exciting learning.

Our Christian Value this half term is Hope.

Our new author of the term for spring is Mairi Hedderwick. We will be exploring her book 'Katie Morag Delivers the Mail' within English using it to sequence, write a letter and write their own story based on Katie Morag. A wide variety of Mairi Hedderwick's books are on display in our class library ready for children to explore.

The focus for Maths this term is to consolidate our place value and addition and subtraction skills to calculate with Money before moving onto Measurement. 

As part of our History this term, we will be exploring significant historical events, people and places in our own locality; Ashton-in-Makerfield. The Year Two children are excellent historians!

Within Geography, we will be comparing London and Nairobi identifying the human and physcial features. This carries on from our learning in Autumn term where we learnt what human and physical features are and identified these within our locality. 

Within Science, the topic this term is 'Animals Including Humans'. Within this topic, children learn about animal and human life cycles with emphasis on the basic needs of animals and what humans need to keep their bodies healthy. 

Exciting Learning from Autumn Term

The Great Fire of London in History - Children transformed into detectives for the afternoon to identify pieces of evidence about an event that happened a long time ago. They used paintings, artefacts, newspaper clippings and diaires to try and uncover what happened on the hot, summer evening of 2nd September 1666. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see our video!

Drawing in Art - Children learnt about the artist Beth Krommes to make marks using different tools. The children first created a background using different papers, then used paint to make marks. Marks included cross hatches, lines, stipples and swirls. Children enjoyed listening to different music through Art this term, where they responded to a piece of music with their choice of tool to make marks.

TT Rockstars Day in Maths - We had a rockstar day across school to celebrate the relaunch of TT Rockstars and the launch of Numbots. Children came in dressed as a Rockstar! We had so much fun. The PFA were on hand to sparkle us up with temporary tattoos and glitter.

General Reminders

• Our P.E days are on a Thursday
• Every Monday afternoon, Mrs Middlehurst will teach your child
• For breaktime, one snack should be brought into school with a bottle filled with water, only.
• Earrings may be worn but only studs and they must be removed on P.E days, we cannot take them out or put plasters over them.

Homework

• Daily reading is expected at home. Please sign and date the reading record so an adult can pick it up in school. Your child will read in school with an adult a minimum of twice a week and have their book changed accordingly. If your child finishes their level book at home, please take the opportunity to re-read your child's book and ask questions to improve comprehension skills.
• Spellings and homework are given out every Friday. Homework is due in for the following Wednesday and our spelling test takes place every Friday morning. Spellings are tailored to match the Phonics taught within school and also include a mixture of common exception words.
• This year, your child will be introduced to TT Rockstars. This supports your child in learning their 2's, 5's and 10's timestables.

Ways to help your child

• Please ensure your child is on time for school each day; the doors open at 8:25am and learning starts promptly after registration
• Listen to your child read daily and write a comment in their reading record books
• Talk to your child about their school day
• Ensure that your child learns their spellings
• Ensure all homework is carefully completed in pencil and handed in on time
• Teach your child the time and the concept of money

Useful websites and games to support learning:

TT Rockstars is excellent for learning timestables (focus especially on 2's, 5's and 10's)	Numbots is fantastic for securing knowledge of numbers within addition and subtraction. It increases fluency and rapid recall.	Hit the Button is an excellent game which increasses fluency and encourages rapid recall. It helps in learning number facts.

Dates this term:

Fire Engine Visit - Tuesday 28th January 2025

Life Education Visit - Tuesday 4th February 2025

Safer Internet Day - Tuesday 11th February 2025

Parents Evening - Thursday 13th February 2025

History Curriculum Day - Wednesday 22nd January 2025

Parents, I am delighted to be teaching your child this year and I hope it will be a very happy and successful year for all of us.
Thank you for your support. Please do not hesitate to come and see me or message me on Dojo if you wish to discuss your child's wellbeing.

Make sure you keep up to date by checking Class Dojo.

Thanks to Wigan Today for allowing us to use their photograph.