Dahl

Welcome to Year 2 - Dahl Class

On our class page below you will find information about what Year 2 are currently learning about across all subjects. You will also find any useful links or resources here.

Welcome to Year 2 - Dahl Class

Spring Term

This term we are exploring a project titled ‘Coastlines’. In the Coastline project, your child will learn about physical and human features of coastal regions across the United Kingdom, including a detailed exploration of the coastal town of Whitby, in Yorkshire. They will learn to use compass directions to explain the positioning of different places in the UK and also how to use a key on a map. They will take part in a case study of Whitby and draw on conclusions to demonstrate what makes Whitby a good tourist destination. Alongside this topic the children will be learning about Uses of Materials, Animal Survival, Losar (Buddhism), Jumu’ah (Islam), Beach Hut (DT) and Flowerhead (Art).

In addition, we will be following the national curriculum requirements of English, Maths, Science, RHSE and R.E.

In Literacy this term we will be exploring four different texts, these are: ‘The Bear Under the Stairs’ by Helen Cooper, ‘The Minpins’ by Roald Dahl, ‘The Owl and the Pussy-cat’ by Edward Lear and ‘Grandad’s Camper’ by Harry Woodgate. The Bear under the Stairs- Children will write letters of advice to the main character and back before writing their own story of a child who is scared of something that might be in the house. The sequence of learning finishes with children making comparisons between real bears and toy bears and using this as the basis for an information report about bears to give to William to help him feel less scared. The Minpins- children begin by engaging in the themes of the story by talking about danger and what they are allowed and not allowed to do, imagining gruesome consequences if they don’t follow instructions! They then go on to read and explore The Minpins and create character descriptions (for their own monsters and The Minpins themselves), retellings of key events, reports about The Minpins and eventually writing a new chapter. The Owl and the Pussycat- children explore the themes of the poem, write in role as the characters, create fictitious interviews, create lists of items they can take on their honeymoon and eventually innovate upon the poem to create their own versions. Appropriate terminology is written in bold. Grandad’s Camper- Children create labels for the items, then explore the concept of memories by thinking about how things special to them hold memories and form connections to times and events in our lives. Following this, children create expanded noun phrases to enhance their descriptive writing and use these to support them in writing poetry about an object which holds a special memory to them. They will practice writing in the past progressive by creating captions for the photo album and develop their skill at writing questions in role as the little girl by interviewing Grandad about his campervan adventures. They will then send a postcard home from Grandad and Gramps on their beach adventure before planning, drafting and editing a sequel for the book where Grandad and the little girl head off on their own campervan adventure.

In Maths we will be developing our key skills and knowledge in the related topics- Money, Multiplication and Division, Length and Height and Mass, capacity and temperature. They will be looking at different notes and coins that we use as English money. They will also use their previous skills of addition and subtraction t help them add amounts of money and also learn how to find change from a pound. Multiplication and Division is the biggest topic in spring term as they start to look at the symbols used for multiplication and division. They will use their prior learning of grouping to help find ‘lots of’ an amount. Finally, they ill be using different skills for measuring using different types of units such as cm, m, ml, and degrees Celsius.

P.E. will take place on Monday and Thursdays where we will continue to wear our P.E kit to school. The kit consist of a sky blue polo, royal blue Oaklands jumper, royal blue cotton shorts, socks and suitable sports trainers. For health and safety reasons earrings and watches should be removed for all P.E lessons and long hair must be tied up. This term they will be focusing their Gymnastics skills with Miss Mason and Throwing and catching with Mrs Bell before moving onto invasion games and sending and receiving.

Computing- This term Year 2 will be learning about spreadsheets and questioning. We use Purple Mash for our computing lessons which is a child friendly site if you would like to access this at home for any extra practice.

Music- In Music this term Year 2 will be learning two new songs- ‘I wanna play in a band’ and ‘Zootime’. They will be using their composition and rhythm skills to practice learning different sections of the songs and accompanying their singing with a variety of instruments such as the xylophone, drums, rain shakers and maracas.

Homework

Reading: Every night (15 minutes – please comment on your child’s reading record).

Reading books will be changed on a Friday and each pupil will take two books home depending on their level of reading ability. Please make sure children have their books available in school every day.

Work from an area of the This will be given out on a Friday and to be returned the following Wednesday in

curriculum: homework books. (Every other week)

TTRS and Numbots: We have moved over to Times Table Rockstars and Numbots. They have completed the introductory lesson in school and should have their login details stuck into their reading records. Please practice on either of these apps to continue to improve their Maths fluency.

If you have any concerns, or questions regarding your child, please contact the school office (admin@oaklands.herts.sch.uk) to arrange a meeting.

Kind regards,

Miss Mason and the Year 2 team