Class 2 (Y1&Y2)

Welcome back Class 2 and Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a magical Christmas holiday. We have another exciting term of learning ahead of us.

In all that we do, we aim to build Relationships, be Respectful, be Resilient, be Resourceful and be Reflective; these values are also reflected in all areas of our learning and we regularly refer back to them.

Curriculum:

We carefully plan the curriculum to suit the learning needs of all our pupils and make them excited to learn. Where possible, the curriculum areas are linked to provide context to their learning and allow them to delve deeper into the topic.

 

Throughout the term, in Maths, we will look at addition and subtraction; multiplication and division and length and height. There will be some variation in coverage for each year group. Please support your children by regularly practising their addition and subtraction fluency within 10 for year 1s, and for year 2s, practising counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s.

“Reading is the gateway for children that makes all other learning possible” – Barack Obama. A sentiment we share across the Federation and one we want to nurture in our children.

The pupils will have daily opportunities to read through Read Write Inc and have access to our class books where the children can explore a wide variety of genres. For children who are no longer on the Read Write Inc programme, the children will have daily opportunities to read and develop their comprehension skills; we use VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Predict, Explain, Retrieve and Summarise). Please support your children’s learning by regularly engaging with stories and books at home; this can be listening to them read, reading to them or discussing what they have read.

 

In English, we will begin by looking at the story of ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’, followed by ‘Beegu’ where various writing outcomes will be generated such as story writing, character descriptions, poetry and letter writing. Throughout the term, we will explore other texts to develop our writing skills and encourage pupils to apply the various grammar, punctuation, spelling and handwriting content taught.

 

‘Animals including humans’ and ’Seasonal Changes’, make up our topics in Science this term. Pupils will start by exploring different groups of animals and their diets.

We will be taking a trip to Space for our History topic learning about the Moon Landing. We will be exploring, why the moon landing was an important historical event and learn more about significant individuals in the history of space travel including: Neil Armstrong and Katherine Johnson.

Inspired by our History topic, in DT we will be learning about mechanisms designing, building and evaluating a moon buggy. We are looking forward to seeing the children show off their creativity in their designs.

Our Art work will focus on the work of Peter Thorpe and will also take inspiration from our History Topic to create a collage of rockets and space.

 

In Geography, we will be learning about the UK and the characteristics on the four countries, including: landmarks, Capital cities etc.

For Computing, the children will be exploring and learning about programming robots using Beebots.

In Music, each unit adapts an integrated approach where games, elements of music (pulse, rhythm, pitch etc.), singing and playing instruments are all linked.

In our Religion World Views, we continue to follow units within the Devon Agreed Syllabus. The units: Who do Christians say made the world?  will be taught and explored. Within RSE (relationships and sex education) we will be exploring relationships focusing on how we can be a good friend and what are good and bad touches. These topics will be taught through the Coram Life Education SCARF resources, who have a useful family page on their website if you would like to know more. To learn about good and bad touches we will be using NSPCC’s ‘Talk PANTS’ – here is useful link to explain in more detail.

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/pants-underwear-rule/

PE is planned for a Tuesday afternoon. However, it is always useful if the children have their PE Kit in school for the whole week.

 

Homework:

Homework will be posted on Class Dojo on Tuesdays. This will include:

• Maths challenges through DoodleMaths for both year 1 and 2, this will usually be linked to the work we have covered in our maths lessons that week.
• Learning spellings. These will be written into spelling journals each week based on the common exception words and will be specific to your child according to assessment. The spelling journals are for practising spelling at home, however it is essential that they are bought back into school every Monday for new spellings. Some strategies that the children have been enjoying to help with their spellings are Rainbow Writing and Pyramid Writing. Although there will be no formal spelling check each week, we will look for evidence within their writing and during morning activities. I will, however, periodically carry out spelling checks to see how the children are progressing. We will continue to stick a copy of the assessment in their spelling journals; the highlighted words being the words the children spelled correctly.
• Reading five times a week with an initial from a parent in their reading records. Reading regularly provides children with the necessary phonics practise (Fred talk/ Sounding and blending). As they grow in confidence reading consistently helps the children develop their on-sight word reading, fluency, comprehension and stamina, which are all fundamental to supporting their progress across the curriculum. Each week the children complete their five reads, they will earn a house point. This will be counted on a Friday.

Children receive House points as a reward. Rewards may link to our Carey Qualities, it may be for fantastic work, or using super language. There are endless possibilities.

Fraser Bear is ready for another term of exciting adventures with you all. Show and Tell bags will go home on Thursdays and Fraser will go home on Fridays.

The children’s well-being is of paramount important to us and as a school we aim to create a happy, healthy environment for all. If you have any worries or questions, please do not hesitate in coming to see me. Please email the school office if you have any urgent concerns to ensure we receive it straight away.

Miss R Preece (Class Teacher), Miss T Farrow (TA) and Miss D Elkins (TA)

Class 2 – Timetable

Class 2 Long Term Planning