Religious Education

In this half-term, the children in Year 2 do a topic on Rules and Reconciliation, in which they learn the importance of following good rules and making good choices. They learn about God’s rules to help us live well with ourselves and each other and of the importance of forgiveness. They learn about the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

They will then do a topic on Treasures in which they learn that the world is a precious treasure for us to share, appreciate, to look after and to praise God for. 

Our topic in the second half of the summer term is The Neolithic Age.

English

The children will continue to explore different types of writing including stories, poetry, letter writing and non-fiction. This term we will be working on writing at greater length and with accurate use of punctuation. We will be working on conjunctions (a word that joins two or more phrases together e.g. but, so, because, as, when, however). We will be revising adjectives, nouns and verbs and the four different types of sentences that there are: statements, questions, commands and exclamations.

In this half-term, the children will also be learning about tenses (which show the time of an action or a state of being as shown by a verb), specifically the present tense and the past tense.

Throughout the week the children will be heard to read individually and in guided reading groups. We will be reading a range of texts: fiction, non-fiction and poetry. This half-term the children will be reading The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. The children will use their knowledge to work out, predict and check the meanings of unfamiliar words and to make sense of what they have read.

In phonics, we  will move on to adding suffixes and strategies to spell longer and more challenging words.

The words that the children learn during the week will be sent home on the previous Friday and the children will have a ‘spelling quiz’ at the end of the week.

Maths

In Year 2, we will continue to use the White Rose scheme of learning which aims to provide pupils with key mathematical skills and knowledge using a mastery approach. Using the CPA (concrete, pictorial, abstract) approach ALL children are encouraged to use equipment and visual representations in Maths lessons and to tackle problem solving and reasoning questions. We will continue to develop mental maths skills and problem solving skills.

This half-term, we will be learning to tell the time to the hour, half hour, quarter past and quarter to and to the 5 minute multiples. We will also further develop our understanding of measurement of mass, capacity and temperature. Doing practical activities at home to give the children opportunities to measure amounts and read scales will greatly support them in this area of mathematics.

Science

In Science, the children will be learning about Life Cycles. They will learn that all living things have a life cycle and that they grow and change as they develop through their life cycle. They will learn about the life cycle of a butterfly in detail.

Children will develop an understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that will help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them. They will be equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future. We will achieve this through practical investigations, working scientifically, as well as knowledge-based lessons.

Computing

The children will continue to work on their keyboard and word processing skills and they will also work on using programming software to make objects move.

Humanities

After greatly enjoying learning about the Stone Age last half-term, the children will learn how life progressed during the Neolithic Age. We will look at how life changed with the advent of farming and study evidence from the past that indicates technological developments, such as making pots from clay and the oldest wheel in the world.

Art and Design

The children will use a variety of media including chalk, pastels and water-colours. In addition to weekly lessons, we try to incorporate art and creativity into as many other curriculum subjects as possible.

PE

The children will focus on athletics and team games, such as cricket.

The children do PE on Tuesday and Thursday. On Thursday’s, the lesson will be conducted by Sports Coaches.

Homework

The children are expected to read daily.

Spellings are sent out on Friday and there is a quiz on the following Friday on the spelling patterns that we learned in phonics that week. 

English and Maths homework is given out on Friday and should be returned on the following Monday.