Year 2 - Miss Morris (2 Oak)

Email - lmorris@st-peters.wakefield.sch.uk

You can find out what we are currently learning on our Curriculum Newsletter.

Welcome back to school and to year 2, I am so excited to be working with you and your child for the following year. Every day, you will be greeted with a big smile from a caring team. Throughout the year, I want to communicate with parents the best I can, so I will update the website as often as possible to show you what exciting things we have been up to. If you have a message for us, then please have a brief chat on a morning, or you can write a note in the reading record, which will come home with your child every evening.

In year 2, we encourage the children to be organised and prepared for each school day. Year 2 is an important milestone because of how much your child will grow, mature and become more independent over the course of the year. We appreciate your continued support in every aspect of your child’s learning.

About our class

In 2 Oak, we are a team! We work together, with the support and guidance of the adults, to be the best we can be. We support and celebrate each other’s achievements and we are proud when we accomplish something new. We follow our St Peter’s & Clifton SPIRIT in all we do and we will be recognised and celebrated when showing these school values.

Homework expectations

• Reading daily for at least 10 minutes
• ED SHED - At least 10 rounds over the week
• Spellings - practise writing them on the sheet provided. Set Thursday to be returned by the following Thursday.
• Mathletics - 3 x tasks over the week. Set Tuesday to be completed by the following Tuesday.
• TT rockstars - for 20 minutes over the week

Maths

Mathletics is a fantastic online resource for children to develop their mathematical understanding in a fun and accessible way. All the activities are differentiated for your child’s needs- meaning they provide just the right level of challenge according to their level and depth of mathematical understanding. If that wasn’t exciting enough, using Mathletics frequently earns your child points, which go towards bronze, silver and gold certificates. The more children in our class who use Mathletics will hopefully earn us enough points to win the weekly Mathletics trophy in Friday’s celebration assembly!

As a school we are taking part in the ‘Times Tables Rock!’ challenge. By the end of Year 4, all children should know up to 12x12; however, in Year 2, we focus on knowing the multiplication and division facts for the 2s, 5s, 10s and the 3’s and 4’s. We complete a time table challenge as part of our morning work- we may send a sheet home if we think anyone needs a little more practice. Please support your child with this.

Every child also has a tt rockstars log in and can practice getting quicker on line, how cool is that!

Reading

Reading is extremely important to children of all ages, but during Year 2, you will notice significant changes in your child’s reading fluency and comprehension as they become more independent. There are numerous things we as a school do to support children’s reading and coupled with support from home, their progress accelerates momentously.

• Reading raffle- 1 ticket for every 5 times read at home, having had their reading records signed by an adult.
• I would love every child to read for at least 10 minutes every day- reading is so important
• We have an amazing reading garden in our classroom where we can chose to read, we even read outside quite a lot.
• Guided reading- all children participate in a mixture of guided or whole-class reading every day in Year 2. Children will also have the opportunity to read individually with an adult at school too.
• Phonics- we will be consolidating phase 3 - 5 sounds in the autumn term, then begin to work on Phase 6 for the rest of the year. All children will sit a phonics check within autumn 2, to ensure all sounds are consolidated from year 1.

Physical Education

Our PE days are Tuesday and Wednesday. The children should bring their PE kit in a bag and will get changed for PE at school on these days. Both at the moment, will require an outdoor kit

Kit required for P.E:

Boys - White T-shirt and black shorts and trainers for outdoor games during summer and winter months. Warm navy/black tracksuit and trainers for outdoor games during the winter months.

Girls - White T-shirt, black shorts or cycling shorts (not nylon or lycra) and trainers for outdoor games during summer and winter months. Warm navy/black tracksuit and trainers for outdoor games during the winter months.

Please note earrings must be removed for PE or covered by tape provided by the parent.

Behaviour

We follow the ‘good to be green’ behaviour management system. Every child starts the day on the green lily pad; if they make bad choices (e.g. shouting out, not listening etc.) they will move down the chart onto the yellow warning fish or red consequence fish. However, they can rectify this with good choices and move back onto the green lily pad. Exceptional behaviour is rewarded by moving up to the rainbow.

If your child arrives home on Friday without their good to be green sticker, it means that at some point in the week they received a yellow warning or red consequence fish; it may be worth a gentle discussion with your child about how they need to make things better for the following week.

We love rewarding good choices and hard work; we offer certificates for Writer, Reader, Mathematician and Spirit Star of the week.  

Thank you for your ongoing support and I look forward to a brilliant year,

Miss Morris and Mrs Bird

We had a great time showing off our dance moves at the school disco!

We have been getting practical in our maths lessons within our time topic. We had a go at using the clocks to show o'clock and half past and have mastered these skills!

We have been very busy creating our Mother's Day cards for our lovely family members and carers. We can't wait to give them to our grown ups this week.

We have completed our multi-skills competition this week. We had four different stations set up which tested our skill, balance and co-ordinations. The scores have been added up and we are now waiting in anticipation to hear where we have placed in the competition. 

Today in computing, we recapped on what we learnt last lesson and followed on by giving instructions. We measured our success against the criteria: I can follow an instruction; I can recall words that can be acted out and I can give directions. We started off with a game of “Simon says” to help us give and follow clear instructions. We then guided each other around the classroom, giving clear directions to ensure no one bumped into a table.

World Book Day has been full of reading, creating bookmarks and doing work searches. We have loved cuddling up with a book in our reading garden!

This half term in computing we are looking at programming and debugging computer. We introduced the topic today by understanding the importance of clear instructions to achieve the desired outcome. 

Today's PE lesson was very exciting as we used the equipment in the hall. We learnt the importance of apparatus safety and ensured that we landed our jumps correctly. 

We are now looking at "The Ugly 5" in our English lessons and focussing on the setting description. The book was introduced by using lots of African props, where we guessed and discussed what the items could mean and how this could link to the story. 

This week in computing, we have been researching blogs and writing our own. This children came up with some fantastic blogs, writing about things that mean the most to them.

Today we celebrated science day by dressing up as scientists, partaking in science activities and we were even visited by a real life scientist! 

This half term in music we are focusing on listening to music. This week, we used instruments to help us identify the beat in the song we are listening to "I want to play in a band". We had great fun!!

This half term in PE we are dodgeball. So far we have practised our dodgeball skills of throwing and catching and had a big full class game of dodgeball. 

In our Jigsaw lessons we are looking at "Healthy Me" and what it means to live a healthy lifestyle. We split into 4 teams and discussed this topic and wrote one answer on a whiteboard, then rotated. This continued until all the boards were full. Some excellent discussions included getting enough sleep, exercising and eating a balanced diet. 

Our topic this term is Kenya vs Yorkshire. We have been looking at African animals and using our artistic skills, we have created animal collages using tissue paper. 

We had a fantastic, fun filled time at our Christmas party this afternoon, followed by some yummy treats that pupils kindly brought in. Thank you!

As part of our Design and Technology topic this half term, we have been looking at creating our own moving vehicle. First, we collected a box for the main part of the vehicle, then we painted it. Next, we added the wheel and finally we added the finishing details. 

This afternoon, we completed our ten minute Christmas dash where we ran as many laps as we could around the playground in ten minutes. The children did really well and kept going even though it was chilly!

We have been really excited this week as our dress rehearsals have been underway! Making us even more excited for the show in front of grown ups still to come!

This half term in PE we have been developing our throwing and passing skills using a chest pass and putting our hands into a 'W' shape. This morning we had our first game of bench ball, where we worked well in our teams by communicating effectively. 

This morning we looked at our favourite toys from home and discussed why we like them so much. We used phrases such as 'I play with it with my family', and 'It is a special toy to me'. This will then inform an advert that we produce about the toy, trying to sell its best features to other people. 

This afternoon, we teamed up with Mrs Wilsons class and supported England for their first game in the World Cup. We cheered each time England scored and created flags and completed football related activities to show our support. 

Today we dressed up in spots to support Children in Need. We discussed the wonderful work that the charity carry out in the UK and across the world and why it is important to support them.

In Religious Education we are learning about Judaism. This week we learned about an object to Jewish people- the Mezuzah. We discussed why it is important to them, and then we made our own. 

In 2 Oak this week we have been creating a wreath using our hand prints to create poppies. The pupils have enjoyed learning about the symbol of the poppy and why we wear them, to remember all the people that fought in the war. 

Today we used concrete resources to help us understand our math's learning objective which was to add across 10. We worked in pairs and discussed our ideas with each other to develop our understanding. 

We had a lovely day at the Sculpture Park. You can view our photos here.

In Science we have continued learning about plants by dissecting seeds. We looked closely at the parts of a seed that would grow into a plant and thought about how it would germinate.

In Science we have been learning all about plants.  Linked to our English learning around the story of 'Jack and the Beanstalk' we have planted our own bean plants to learn all about what plants need to be able to grow healthy and what happens when they do not get everything they need.

Oak class enjoying the Autumn sunshine whilst practising our cursive handwriting style.  Handwriting can be fun!