Hello and welcome to 2GN!

Miss Newton - gnewton@st-peters.wakefield.sch.uk

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.

Important information

About our class

In 2GN, 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. This classroom philosophy is based on a foundation of mutual trust and respect- between the adults and the children- and we show this through constant hard work and effort.

Physical Education 

PE day is Tuesday and Friday. Please send your child in their PE kit on PE days and they will stay in it all day. All items should be named. Please make sure your child has an outdoor kit (with trainers), including a warm jumper and preferably something waterproof. 

Kit required for P.E: 

Boys - White T-shirt and black shorts and trainers or pumps 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 or pumps 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. 

Maths

Mathletics is a fantastic online resource for children to develop their mathematical understanding in a fun and accessible way. Every child has a log in for Mathletics- please encourage your child to use the programme even just for 15 minutes a day. 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- and we all know how much Miss Newton loves to win!

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 and 10s. Please encourage your child to log on to the Times Tables Rock website- their username and password can be found on the inside of their reading record.

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. We set a new target for each week, please ask your child what it is!
• 100 books to read before you leave Year 2- this list was published by an experienced teacher in a different school. Starting from their first day in Year 2, please make a note in your child’s reading record every time they read one of the books from the list. We aim to have read all 100 of these by the end of the year. These books are all freely available to borrow from local libraries and it is likely you have some of these at home too. The children can also read a selection of them in our reading garden. Please don’t back-date books, e.g. we will only count the books that they have read from when we started in Year 2.
• Guided reading- all children participate in a mixture of guided or whole-class reading every day in Year 2. These sessions are not marked in their reading records, so it may appear that your child hasn’t read at school. Children will also have the opportunity to read individually with an adult at school too. Any reading volunteers who could spare an afternoon would be greatly appreciated!
• Phonics- in Year 2 we work on consolidating Phase 5 sounds in the Autumn term, then begin to work on Phase 6 for the rest of the year. All children will be sitting a phonics check in the second half of the Autumn term this year, as they were not able to do so at the end of Year 1 due to the lockdown.

Homework

Spellings are given out every Monday and need to be learned in preparation for the spelling test the following Monday. These spellings consolidate sounds practised during the week.

Behaviour

We follow the ‘good to be green’ behaviour management system. Every child starts the day on the green lilypad; 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 lilypad. 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 Star of the week and one lucky child brings home Polly, our class pet (!), to look after for the weekend.

If you have any questions/concerns, I am always available to chat at drop off/pick up time.

Thank you for your ongoing support,

Miss Newton.

You can view the Year 2 Sports Day photos here.

We had an amazing trip to church this morning! The children learned all about the story of Jesus and the paralysed man and what that means to them. They found out that Jesus forgave the man's sins, and they watched a blue tablet dissolve into some water to help them understand that when sins are forgiven, it is like they disappear. 

In our geography lesson, we were examining source material to help us learn about the lives of the Maasai tribe, who live in the Maasai Mara National Park in Kenya. 

What beautiful artwork! The children used paint to create these stunning Kenyan sunsets. 

What a brilliant time we had! There were some very red faces after we finished, but the sense of achievement was amazing. Well done everyone. You can view all the photos here.

As part of our RE lesson, we were answering the question "What is Sukkot and why is it important to Jewish people?". We learned all about this special Jewish celebration and made our our sukkahs out of lego. They all had three walls and the roof was made of dried leaves. 

Wow! Look at our Spelling Shed superstars! It has been wonderful seeing the children so excited and engaged using spelling shed, and their confidence is going through the roof as they become more and more familiar with our spelling words. Keep up the hard work everyone! 
 

Here we all are with our Kenyan headbands on, learning actions to and performing our poetry! What great fun we had today! 

In our PSHE (jigsaw) lesson, we learned all about giving and receiving compliments. We learned how these make us and other people feel. The children then wrote anonymous compliments about their chatty partner and Miss Newton read then out to the whole class- so everyone knew someone had written a compliment about them and it could have been any of the lovely messages that were read out! We all felt really good afterwards. With the help of some children in the class, we then created a "compliment wall" so everyone can see how kind we are in 2GN. 

Tennis in the sunshine + a surprise trip to the secret field = the perfect Friday afternoon! 2GN loved having their PE lesson on the secret field. We practiced holding the racket then hitting the ball between us. We also managed to enjoy our playtime on the field too- with some of us trying to teach Miss Newton how to do a cartwheel! Everyone decided that she needs more practice...  

In Year 2, we study Yorkshire Vs Kenya. The children are examining maps and looking for key human and physical features, such as the capital Nairobi and Mount Kenya. When then focused on answering some geographical questions, such as "what is Kenya like?" We had some great suggestions- such as "hot and dry" (but also with "a rain season!").  

Week 4, and our plants are coming along nicely. Well done 2GN!