03 July 2023
Maths
In this week’s maths lessons we will be looking in more detail at temperature, and the units that we use for these measurements (degrees Celsius.) ‘Topmarks’ has some useful games to practise reading temperature scales, or finding the difference between temperatures (https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?f=Temperaturev2) and ‘Maths is Fun’ has an online thermometer with examples of how hot or cold the temperature might feel.
English
This week in English we are hoping to create our own class book based on The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. It will be called “The Day the Classroom Quit” and will feature letters from everyday classroom objects that are fed up with being treated badly by the children that use them!
We will look at writing letters in a conversational style, making a complaint and offering suggestions for how to make things better.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week we will be revising our previous work on suffixes, then taking a brief look at prefixes.
Please note, there are no spellings to learn for this week.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
26 June 2023
Maths
This week in maths we will be looking in more detail at mass, and the units that we use for these measurements (grams and kilograms.) We will also be using measurements in grams and kilograms for calculations involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
English
In this week’s English lessons we will begin our final unit of work, focusing on story writing.
Over the past year one of the books that we have enjoyed again and again in Year 2 is The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. I
f you’re not familiar with the book and would like to know what all the fuss is about, there is an enjoyable reading here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=489micE6eHU
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week, Miss Harwood’s group will practise the /m/ sound, spelled ‘mb’. This week’s spelling words are climb, crumb, lamb, plumber and thumb.
Mrs Skantzos’ group’s spelling words are combing, limb, numb, succumb and tomb.
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
19 June 2023
Maths
This week in maths we will be looking in more detail at length and height, and the units that we use for these measurements (centimetres and metres.) We will also be using measurements in metres and centimetres for calculations involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
English
In our English lessons we will be creating our own fictional plants and completing a report all about them!
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week, Miss Harwood’s group will be revising the letter x, making the “ks” or the “gz” sound. This week’s spelling words are example, exit, expect, explain, extinct, extra, extreme and sixty,
Mrs Skantzos’ group’s spelling words are excitement, excuse, exercise, exhausted, exhibition, existence, exotic and extraordinary,
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
12 June 2023
Maths
In our maths lessons this week we will learn how to find change from £1, initially by making one pound from different coins then taking away the coins that are spent and counting what is left.
We will move on to explore finding change from other whole pounds e.g. £5, £7, £10 etc.
English
In English we will continue our work on The Lorax. To begin with we will focus on an information text about Dr. Seuss’ fictional Truffula tree, then make changes to write our own report about another imaginary plant!
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week, Miss Harwood’s group will practise the /n/ sound, spelled ‘kn’ and, less often, ‘gn’ at the beginning of a word. This week’s spelling words are knock, know, knew, knee, gnash, gnat, gnaw and gnome.
Mrs Skantzos’ group’s spelling words are knack, knead, knelt, knowledge, gnarled, campaign, design and foreign.
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
06 June 202
Maths
This week in maths we will be learning some more about money (just in time for the Bake Sale!), specifically adding and subtracting amounts in pounds and pence.
English
In our English lessons we will begin a new unit of work based on The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. This book really compliments our “Green Planet” topic, encouraging children to think about the impact of our actions on the environment.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week all groups will be playing a variety of phonics games to consolidate the sounds and spelling patterns covered so far this year. This will help us to identify which areas we should target for further practice in the last weeks of therm.
Please note, there are no spelling to learn for this week.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
22 May 2023
Maths
This week in maths we will be learning all about statistics, including how to record information using tally charts, tables and pictograms.
English
In our English lessons we will focus on non-fiction writing, editing and improving the instructions we have written for how to grow a beanstalk.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week, Miss Harwood’s group will be learning about words ending with ‘-tion’. This week’s spelling words are addition, emotion, fiction, section, station and subtraction.
Mrs Skantzos’ group’s spelling words are caution, construction, imagination, organisation, pollution and situation.
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be practising all the vowel sounds that they have covered this term. There are no spelling words to learn for this group this week.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
15 May 2023
Maths
This week in maths we will revise addition and subtraction calculations, from number bonds to 10 to adding and subtracting two 2-digit numbers.
English
In this week’s English lessons we will spend time focusing on editing techniques, making additions, revisions and corrections to our work.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week, Miss Harwood’s group will practise the /zh/ sound, spelled with an ‘s’ or ‘si’. This week’s spelling words are division, television, measure, treasure and usual.
- Mrs Skantzos’ group’s spelling words are confusion, illusion, invasion, persuasion and usually.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the /yoo/ sound and its alternative spellings. This week’s spelling words are Tuesday, unicorn, cute, tube, few and new.
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
09 May 2023
Maths
In this week’s maths lessons we will revise telling the time to o’clock and half past, then learn how to tell the time to quarter past and quarter to the hour.
English
This week in English we will be focusing on reading comprehension.
The children will be reading both fiction and non-fiction texts and answering questions about what they have read in order to demonstrate their understanding.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week, Miss Harwood’s group will practise the /or/ sound, spelled ‘a’ before l and ll. This week’s spelling words are all, ball, call, small, tall, talk, walk and always
Mrs Skantzos’ group’s spelling words are almost, also, altogether, beanstalk, chalk, falling, stalk and wall.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the /oa/ sound and its alternative spellings. This week’s spelling words are soap, grow, slow, bingo, tiptoe, rope, smoke and though.
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
02 May 2023
Maths
In this week’s maths lessons we will look at recognising and finding three quarters of a shape, length or quantity. We will then learn to count in fractions from zero, for example zero, one quarter, two quarters, three quarters, one.
English
This week in English we will look at the story of Jack and the Beanstalk from the point of view of different characters, including the giant and Jack’s mother. We will also be revising contractions and practising the spelling of some of the most common, including can’t, couldn’t, didn’t and don’t.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week, Miss Harwood’s group will practise the /r/ sound, spelled ‘wr’ at the beginning of a word. This week’s spelling words are write, wrote, wrap, wrist wrong and wreck.
Mrs Skantzos’ group’s spelling words are wrestle, wrench, wrinkle, writhe, writing and written.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the /igh/ sound and its alternative spellings. This week’s spelling words are bright, high, tried, behind, kind, sky, like and pipe.
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
24 April 2023
Maths
This week in maths we will build on children’s prior experience of fractions and look at the equivalence of one half and two quarters. We will also introduce thirds for the first time, and learn how to find a third of a shape, length or set of objects.
Finally, we will practise finding the whole number if a fraction is known, for example if there are 6 sweets in one third of a packet, how many sweets are in a whole packet?
English
In this week’s English lessons we will be writing a recount from Jack’s point of view, of the day that he climbed the beanstalk. Our grammar focus will be on tenses, looking at the different forms of past and present tense (e.g. I walked/I was walking, I walk/I am walking), and highlighting irregular verb forms.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week, Miss Harwood’s group will practise the /ul/ sound, spelled ‘al’ and ‘il’. This week’s spelling words are fossil, nostril, pencil, animal, capital, hospital, metal and pedal.
Mrs Skantzos’ group’s spelling words are crystal, mortal, rascal, typical, civil, evil, peril and tranquil.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the /ee/ sound and its alternative spellings. This week’s spelling words are street, bean, stream, funny, happy, evening, stampede and theme.
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
17 April 2023
Welcome back to the summer term! We hope that you had an enjoyable Easter break.
Maths
We start off the new term with a new unit of learning on fractions. In this week’s lessons we will look at finding a half and a quarter of a shape, length, set of objects or quantity.
English
This week in English we will be learning the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, as well as reading Eric Carle’s The Tiny Seed, complementing our “Green Planet” topic work for this term.
We will look at sequencing events in relation to both of these stories in order to write instructions, and recounts.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week, Miss Harwood’s group will practise the /ul/ sound, spelled ‘le’ and ‘el’. This week’s spelling words are bottle, little, middle, people, table, camel, label, towel, travel and tunnel.
Mrs Skantzos’ group’s spelling words are baffle, icicle, noble, struggled, vehicle, angel, cancel, morsel, parcel and squirrel,
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the /ai/ sound and its alternative spellings. This week’s spelling words are explain, swaying, make, same, shade, break, great, grey, they and danger.
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
EASTER BREAK
27 March 2023
Maths
This week our maths lessons will have an arithmetic focus, as we work to consolidate our learning in multiplication and division and revise addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers.
English
In this week’s English lessons we will be writing a story about the mythical creatures that we created last week.
This will give the children a chance to show off all the descriptive writing techniques that they have learnt so far!
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week we will focus on the Year 2 Common Exception Words.
Please note, there are no spellings to learn this week.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the /ee/ sound and its alternative spellings.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
20 March 2023
This week in maths we will practise the five times table and dividing by five, as well as the ten times table and dividing by ten. Just a reminder that BBC Super Movers has some fun and energetic videos to help children in learning all of their times tables. These can be found here https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/ks1-maths-collection/z6v4scw
English
In this week’s English lessons we will be looking at mythical creatures.
We will even be creating our own, based on myths and legends from around the world!
Our grammar focus this week will be forming and using adverbs ending –ly. These adverbs will help us to write effective descriptions of the magical creatures that we encounter.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons we will learn the rule for adding suffixes to root words ending ‘e’ with a consonant before it. In these cases, the ‘e’ at the end of the root word is dropped before any suffix that begins with a vowel is added. For example, make – making.
For this week’s spelling challenge, children will be asked to add a suffix to one of the following words: have, hike, love, make, shine and use.
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Mrs Skantzos’ group will be practising some of the alternative spellings for the vowel sounds a, e, i, o and u, as well as focusing on the Year 2 Common Exception Words find, kind, mind, behind, child and children (repeated from last week.)
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the /ai/ sound and its alternative spellings.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
13 March 2023
Maths
In this week’s maths lessons we will practise dividing by 2 using the grouping and sharing strategies that we looked at last week. We will also look at doubling and halving, making links between doubling and multiplying by 2, and halving and dividing by 2.
English
This week in English we will finish off writing our own stories based on the poetry of Edward Lear, then focus on editing our work to make it our best yet!
Phonics
In our phonics lessons we will revisit the suffixes -ing, -ed, -er and -est as well as introducing -ness, -ful, -less and -ly. This week we will learn the rule for adding them to root words ending in ‘y’. For these words, the final ‘y’ is changed to an ‘i’ before the suffix is added, for example happy – happily, reply – replied and silly – silliness.
For this week’s spelling challenge, children will be asked to add a suffix to one of the following words: beauty, carry, happy, merry, pity, plenty, reply, silly, try and worry.
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Mrs Skantzos’ group will be practising some of the alternative spellings for the vowel sounds a, e, i, o and u, as well as focusing on the Year 2 Common Exception Words find, kind, mind, behind, child and children..
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the /u/ sound spelled u or o, and the ed spelling pronounced as /d/ or /t/ at the end of a word.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
06 MARCH 2023
Maths
This week in maths we will focus on the two times table, using different strategies to calculate multiplication. We will then move on to look at division, beginning with making equal groups by sharing, then by grouping.
This short video demonstrates the difference between the two methods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdglIPNNhuI
English
In this week’s English lessons we will plan and write a funny story based on the characters and settings we have met in the poetry of Edward Lear.
Our grammar focus will be on tenses, including the present and past progressive (continuous), for example I am running vs. I run and I was running vs. I ran.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons we will practise adding the suffixes -ing, -ed, -er, -est and -y to words of one syllable ending in a single consonant letter after a single vowel, e.g. pat, drop or sad. For these words, the last consonant is doubled before the suffix is added: patting, dropped or saddest. For this week’s spelling challenge, children will be asked to add the suffix -ing, -ed, -er, -est or -y to one of the following words: big, fat, hot, put, run, stop, swim and thin.
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Mrs Skantzos’ group will be practising some of the alternative spellings for the vowel sounds a, e, i, o and u, as well as focusing on the Year 2 Common Exception Words door, floor, poor, because, one, once.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the /s/ sound spelled s and ce, and the /e/ sound spelled e and ea.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
27 February 2023
Maths
In this week’s maths lessons we will be writing multiplication sentences from pictures and from arrays.
The following BBC Bitesize video shows how arrays can be used to solve multiplication problems
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/maths-ks1–ks2-how-to-use-arrays-to-multiply/zrks382
English
This week in English we will continue our learning based around the poetry of Edward Lear. We will be learning all about prepositions (words that describe time, place or movement), including words like inside, outside, towards, across, under, behind, above, between, before and after.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week we will be learning about more homophones, this time those that contain the /eer/ sound, for example dear and deer, or hear and here. We will also look at the homophones their, there and they’re plus to, too and two. (Phew!)
Please note, there are no spellings to practise for this week.
Mrs Skantzos’ group will be practising some of the alternative spellings for the vowel sounds a, e, i, o and u, as well as focusing on the Year 2 Common Exception Words half, money, Mr, Mrs, parents and Christmas.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the /ear/ sound spelled ear and eer, and the /air/ sound spelled air and are.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
20 February 2023
Maths
This week in maths we be starting a new unit on multiplication and division. We will begin by revising work done in Year 1 on recognising and making equal groups, then adding equal groups together (repeated addition), for example 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 20. Towards the end of the week we will introduce the multiplication symbol and use the vocabulary ‘lots of’, ‘times’ and ‘multiplied by’ to describe its meaning.
By the end of Year 2, children are expected to know the two, five and ten times tables off by heart. These should be learned in the format 1 x 2 = 2 (“One times two equals two”), forwards, backwards and answering questions at random. As this is an important part of the curriculum, we will be offering a certificate to every child who is able to recite these times tables fluently.
Practising at home will give your child a head start and help them to recall calculations quickly and easily. BBC Super Movers has some fun videos to support your children in their learning. They can be found in the KS1 Maths Collection here https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/ks1-maths-collection/z6v4scw
English
In our English lessons we will be looking at the nonsense poetry of Edward Lear, beginning with ‘The Quangle Wangle’s Hat’. We will use the title of this poem to investigate apostrophes used for possession as our grammar focus for the week.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week we will be learning about homophones, words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. We will focus on homophones containing the /air/ sound, for example pair and pear, hair and hare or wear and where.
Please note, there are no spellings to practise for this week.
Mrs Skantzos’ group will be practising some of the alternative spellings for the vowel sounds a, e, i, o and u, as well as focusing on the Year 2 Common Exception Words clothes, busy, people, water and again.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the /ur/ sound spelled ur and ir, and the /or/ sound spelled or and aw.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
06 February 2023
Maths
This week in maths we will be looking at money! We will learn to identify coins and notes, count amounts in both denominations and choose different ways of making the same amount. Children will learn to read and write amounts of money as “pounds and pence” e.g. £24 and 15p, but do not use a decimal point at this stage.
English
In our English lessons we will use what we have learned about describing characters to write a final character description, including well-chosen adjectives and similes. We will also build on last week’s work on contractions, practising our spelling and use of apostrophes.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week we will be learning about the plural form of words ending ‘f’ or ‘fe’, where the final letter(s) change to a v before ‘es’ is added e.g. half becomes halves. For their spellings this week, children will be asked to add the appropriate plural ending to the following words:
calf, elf, half, leaf, loaf, knife, scarf and wolf .
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Mrs Skantzos’ group will be practising some of the alternative spellings for the vowel sounds a, e, i, o and u, as well as focusing on the Year 2 Common Exception Words who, whole, any and many.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the long /oo/ sound spelled oo and ew, and the /ou/ sound spelled ow and ou.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
23 January 2023
Maths
In this week’s maths lessons we will continue our work on shape, focusing on symmetry in 2D shapes. We will learn about vertical lines of symmetry and practise using symmetry to draw the missing half of a given shape. The children’s knowledge of sides and vertices from last week’s lessons will help them to draw these 2D shapes accurately, with the correct number of sides and vertices.
English
This week in English we will be starting a new topic on descriptive writing, looking particularly at character descriptions. We will focus on the writing of Roald Dahl, starting with his book The Twits and the characters of Mr and Mrs Twit – yuck!
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week we will be looking at plurals, adding ‘es’ to words that end in s, ss, x, z, ch and sh. For their spellings this week, children will be asked to add the appropriate plural ending to the following words:
bus, quiz, class, kiss, fox, lunchbox, peach, bunch, brush and wish.
Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the /ee/ sound spelled ee and ea, and the /igh/ sound spelled igh and ie.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
16 January 2023
Maths
This week in maths we will start a new unit of work on shape. We will begin by looking at the properties of 2-D shapes, including number of sides and number of vertices (corners.)
English
In our English lessons we will be learning how to use adverbs to add information to our instruction writing. Words like ‘quickly’, ‘slowly’, or ‘carefully’ can be used to describe an action and say how it should be done, for example “Gently mix the ingredients together in a bowl.”
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week we will look at the /igh/ sound, both spelled with a ‘y’ at the end of a word. This week’s spelling words are cry, dry, fly, July, reply, shy, try, why. Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the /ai/ sound spelled ai and ay, and the /oi/ sound spelled oi and oy.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
09 January 2023
Welcome back to the spring term! We would like to wish all our Year 2 families a very happy new year 2023.
Maths
This week in maths we will practise subtracting 2-digit numbers, both with and without crossing 10 (exchanging.) As we near the end of our unit on addition and subtraction, we will consolidate what we have learned so far by practising some mixed addition and subtraction calculations including missing number and word problems.
English
In our English lessons we will be writing instructions inspired by the Oliver Jeffers book How to Catch a Star. We will learn how to use subordinating conjunctions to extend our sentences, by joining two ‘clauses’ with the conjunctions when, if, that and because.
(Other examples of subordinating conjunctions are who, which, where, then, so that and until.)
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week we will practise the /j/ sound, spelled with a ‘g’ before e, i and y. This week’s spelling words are gem, gentle, ginger, magic, gym and energy. Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the sounds /yoo/ spelled ‘ue’ as in rescue, the long /oo/ sound also spelled ‘ue’, as in clue, and the /yoor/ sound spelled ‘ure’ as in adventure.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
04/01/2023
We will be settling in to school and commencing with our Stunning Start to the Topic for this term – Inventors and Inventions with Lego Building Sessions with Bricks McGee
12 December 2022
On Monday and Tuesday of this week we will be heading to St Mary’s church for our final Nativity practices before the performance on Tuesday evening. Families with young children are welcome to come along and watch the full dress rehearsal on Tuesday morning. We will dress the children in their costumes when they arrive at church that morning, and aim to start at 9:30am. Costumes will then be sent home after school on Tuesday for children to arrive ready-dressed at church for the evening performance.
The rest of our week will be spent enjoying some Christmas-themed activities, as well as Christmas crafts and Christmas music!
Please note, there are no spellings to learn for this week – that would be mean!
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
05 December 2022
This week we will be spending much of our time practising for our Nativity performance. The Nativity play is a wonderful opportunity for our children to work on speech and language skills and they have done a fabulous job of learning their lines! Rehearsals are going well so far and we are very much looking forward to sharing their hard work with you!
In maths, we will continue to practise adding and subtracting two 2-digit numbers to increase children’s fluency in this area. In English, we will consolidate what we have learned about the four different types of sentence: statements, questions, exclamations, and more recently, commands.
Please note, there are no spellings to learn for this week. Instead, we will spend time practising our Year 2 common exception words.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
28 November 2022
Maths
In this week’s maths lessons we will move on to subtracting one 2-digit number from another 2-digit number. Once again, we will begin with calculations that do not cross the tens barrier, then move on to calculations that bridge ten with an exchange of tens and ones. Towards the end of the week we will practise both addition and subtraction calculations involving two 2-digit numbers.
English
This week in English we will continue our unit of work on instruction writing. We will learn about adverbs ending –ly, and how these can be added to commands to give extra information on how the instructions should be carried out. For example, “Lift the lid of the pot carefully.”
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week we will practise the /s/ sound, spelled ‘ce’, ‘ci’ and ‘cy’, usually at the beginning of a word. This week’s spelling words are December, cellar, cinema, city and cycle. Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the sounds /air/ as in ‘hair’, er sounded /u/ as in ‘sister’, and er sounded /er/ as in ‘herb’.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
21 November 2022
Maths
This week in maths we will be learning to add two 2-digit numbers. We will begin with calculations that do not cross the tens barrier, then move on to calculations that bridge ten with an exchange of tens and ones. In doing so we will touch on the more formal ‘column method’ of recording calculations for the first time.
To support the work done in class, you may wish to look at the White Rose addition and subtraction booklet found here:
Y2 – Addition and subtraction.pdf
Questions 1 – 5 reflect the learning done in class so far in this unit.
English
In English we will be starting a new unit of work based on writing instructions. We will concentrate on using imperative (bossy) verbs to give commands, and will be playing lots of games of ‘Simon Says’ to practise!
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week we will be moving on from revision of the sounds covered during Year 1 to the spelling patterns of the Year 2 curriculum. We will begin with the /s/ sound, spelled ‘ce’ at the end of a word. The children will practise this spelling rule throughout the week and will be ‘tested’ on a selection of words on Friday. The spelling words for this week are chance, choice, dance, pence and prince. Please support your child by helping them to learn this week’s spelling pattern at home.
Just a reminder that all phonics sheets will be completed in class – they are sent home for reference and revision only.
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the sounds /ow/ as in ‘town’, /oi/ as in ‘coin’, and /ear/ as in ‘year’.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
14 November 2022
Maths
In this week’s maths lessons we will be learning techniques for subtracting from a multiple of ten, then subtracting across ten. Children who are gaining confidence in their number bonds to 10 may find it tricky to recognise subtraction as the inverse (opposite) operation, for example if 6 + 4 = 10 then 10 – 4 = 6. Should you wish to support you child at home, it would be useful to practise the following subtraction facts:
10 – 10 = 0
10 – 9 = 1
10 – 8 = 2
10 – 7 = 3
10 – 6 = 4
10 – 5 = 5
10 – 4 = 6
10 – 3 = 7
10 – 2 = 8
10 – 1 = 9
10 – 0 = 10
English
This week in English we will use what we have found out about nocturnal animals to begin writing our own non-chronological reports. We will also look at using subordinating conjunctions to join clauses in our sentences. The conjunctions that we will focus on are because, when, if, that, who and which.
To find out more about subordinating conjunctions, you may like to watch this video
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zkxxsbk/articles/zsm9g7h
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week Miss Harwood and Mr Brown’s group will be revising the /air/ sound, the /eer/ sound, and the /or/ sound, with the alternative spellings for each (please see children’s phonics folders for more information on these spellings.)
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the sounds /ar/ as in ‘farm’, the /or/ as in ‘fork’, and the /ur/ as in ‘purse’.
Please note that all phonics work will be completed in class so there is no need to complete the phonics sheets at home – these are for reference and practice only.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
07 November 2022
Maths
This week in maths we will practise “adding to the next ten”. This involves using known number bonds to ten to make the next multiple of ten, e.g. if 8 + 2 = 10 then 18 + 2 = 20 and 28 + 2 = 30 etc. We will then progress to adding across a ten, using the partitioning techniques from last week’s lessons for calculations that cross multiples of 10, for example 27 + 5 = 32.
For more information on these techniques, please see the following
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/znj7hyc/articles/zms9mfr
English
In this week’s English lessons, children will try to find out as much as they can about a nocturnal animal of their choice, in preparation for writing their own non-chronological report. We will look at how to improve our sentence-writing through the use of different sentence openers, and have a go at writing complex sentences, where two short sentences (clauses) are joined by a coordinating conjunction to make a longer sentence. The conjunctions that we will focus on are and, but and or.
To find out more about coordinating conjunctions, you may like to watch this video
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zkxxsbk/articles/zjdxhbk.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week Miss Harwood and Mr Brown’s group will be revising the /ur/ sound, the /u/ sound, and the /ar/ sound, with the alternative spellings for each (please see children’s phonics folders for more information on these spellings.)
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the sounds /oa/ as in ‘coat’, the short /oo/ as in ‘book’, and the long /oo/ as in ‘moon’.
Please note that all phonics work will be completed in class so there is no need to complete the phonics sheets at home – these are for reference and practice only.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
01 November 2022
Maths
This week in maths we continue our unit of work on addition and subtraction.
We will practise adding ones to a two-digit number, then use out knowledge of number bonds to ten to “add by making ten”. This involves partitioning a one-digit number in order to simplify a calculation.
For example, to calculate 4 + 9 we can say that 4 is made up of 3 and 1, and that 9 + 1 = 10. It is then easy to add the remaining 3 to make 13. If your child is not already secure with number bonds to ten, you can support them by practising these at home.
English
In this week’s English lessons, we will begin a new unit of work looking at “non-chronological reports”. These are non-fiction reports focused on a single topic, including various facts about this topic.
This is in contrast to a chronological report, or “recount” where particular events are described in the order that they happened, for example, a newspaper report. As a class, we will learn how to use non-fiction books to research a topic, and how to choose relevant information for a report about a nocturnal animal.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week Miss Harwood and Mr Brown’s group will be revising the /ow/ sound and its alternative spellings, plus the /or/ sound and its alternative spellings (please see children’s phonics folders for more information on these spellings.)
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the sounds /ai/, /ee/ and /igh/.
Please note that all phonics work will be completed in class, so there is no need to complete the phonics sheets at home – these are for reference and practice only.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
17 October 2022
Maths
This week in maths we will continue our unit of work on addition and subtraction. Our lessons will focus on related number facts (e.g. if 2 + 3 = 5, then 20 + 30 = 50) and numbers bonds to 100 (e.g. 30 + 70 = 100), in which children should spot the same patterns as number bonds to 10.
English
In English this week we will use some of the poetic techniques we have learned to compose our own autumn poems.
Phonics
In this week’s phonics lessons, all three groups will be revising the sounds they have covered this half term, as well as spending some extra time looking over the key stage 1 common exception words.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
10 October 2022
Maths
This week in maths we will be starting a new unit of work on addition and subtraction. We will begin by revising number bonds to 10, then number bonds to 20. It is crucial that children can recall these number bonds, as these form the basis of all addition and subtraction problems they will encounter over the course of this year.
The following video has some great visuals using ten frames to show the pairs of numbers that make 10, as well as showing the ‘rainbow to 10’ method.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0aNgUbct8k
A similar format for pairs to 20 can be found here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4BmhaodZ9s
English
In this week’s English lessons we will use what we have learned about nouns and adjectives to write expanded noun phrases and compose poems inspired by fantasy landscapes. Information on expanded noun phrases can be found on the BBC Bitesize website at this address:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zwwp8mn/articles/z3nfw6f
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week Miss Harwood and Mr Brown’s group will be revising the long /oo/ sound and its alternative spellings, plus the /oi/ sound and its alternative spellings (please see children’s phonics folders for more information on these spellings.)
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the sounds /x/ spelled cks, /ch/ spelled tch and /ng/ spelled nk.
Please note that all phonics work will be completed in class, so there is no need to complete the phonics sheets at home – these are for reference and practice only.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
03 October 2022
Maths
In maths this week we will look at comparing numbers using the inequality signs (‘greater than’ and ‘less than’). We will then finish off our unit on place value with practice counting forwards and backwards in steps of 2, 5 and 10, before introducing step counting in 3s. This is a hugely important step which supports children in learning their times tables later in the year. Should you wish to support your child at home, you may find the following step counting videos helpful:
2s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvTcpfSnOMQ
5s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EemjeA2Djjw
10s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftati8iGQcs
3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_cn87hOCDM
English
In this week’s English lessons we be starting a new unit of work on poetry. We will have a go at writing our own colour poems using similes – a technique which describes something by comparing it to something else. Examples of similes used for description include:
The ball flew into the net like a rocket.
She went as red as a tomato.
The car went as fast as a speeding bullet.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week Miss Harwood and Mr Brown’s group will be revising the /s/ sound and its alternative spellings, plus the /e/ sound and its alternative spellings (please see children’s phonics folders for more information on these spellings.)
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the sounds /j/ spelled dge, /v/ spelled ve and /w/ spelled wh.
Please note that all phonics work will be completed in class, so there is no need to complete the phonics sheets at home – these are for reference and practice only.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
26 September 2022
Maths
In this week’s maths lessons we will continue to practise partitioning two-digit numbers to help secure the children’s understanding of place value. We will also build on last week’s work with number lines, this time counting in tens and ones up to 100 to identify patterns and missing numbers.
English
In English we will look at extending our writing through the use of compound sentences. These are sentences made up of two parts or ‘clauses’, joined with a conjunction such as or, and or but, for example…
Would you like to go to the park or would you prefer to go swimming?
My favourite animal is an elephant and I also like pandas too.
We wanted to play outside but it was raining.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week Miss Harwood and Mr Brown’s group will be revising the /j/ sound and its alternative spellings, plus the /ul/ sound and its alternative spellings (please see children’s phonics folders for more information on these spellings.)
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the sounds /sh/, /th/ and /ng/.
Please note that all phonics work will be completed in class, so there is no need to complete the phonics sheets at home – these are for reference and practice only.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
12 September 2022
Maths
This week in maths we will continue our unit on place value. We will learn how to partition two-digit numbers in different ways, for example splitting the number 82 into 80 and 2, 40 and 42 or 50 and 32.
To do this, we will use part whole models, information on which can be found through BBC Bitesize here https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zknsgk7/articles/z6yh2v4
English
In English we will be looking closely at fairy tales and begin learning ‘The Tiger Child’, a traditional tale from India. We will begin learning about the different sentences types, starting with statements and questions, and the children will practise writing their own sentences, making sure to begin with a capital letter and end with appropriate punctuation.
Phonics
In our phonics lessons this week Miss Harwood and Mr Brown’s group will be revising the /ee/ sound and its alternative spellings, plus the /igh/ sound and its alternative spellings (please see children’s phonics folders for more information on these spellings.)
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the sounds /x/, /y/ and /z/.
Please note that all phonics work will be completed in class, so there is no need to complete the phonics sheets at home – these are for reference and practice only.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael
05 September 2022
Maths
This week in maths we will begin our unit on place value, learning about the value of each digit in a two-digit number made up of tens and ones. We will also look at writing two-digit numbers up to one hundred in numerals and words.
For a brief overview of how place value is taught and some of the concrete representations that are used in school, you may wish to watch the ‘Maths with Michael’ video on place value from the White Rose team https://whiterosemaths.com/maths-with-michael
Should you wish to support your child in their learning at home, you may also like to have a look at the White Rose parent booklet which can be found here https://assets.whiterosemaths.com/web-pages/parent-resources/Y2-HL-Autumn-Block-1-Place-value-2020.pdf
English
Our English lessons this week will have a PSHE theme, as we discuss our ideal classroom and create a classroom code to make sure our classroom is the best learning environment it can be! We will focus on writing simple sentences, making sure to begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop, using the joined handwriting techniques that the children learned at the end of year 1.
Phonics
Next week in our phonics lessons we will be revising some of the alternative spellings first covered in Year 1.
Miss Harwood and Mr Brown’s group will be looking at the /ai/ sound spelled ‘ai’, ‘ay’, ‘a-e’ (split digraph), ‘a’ and ‘ea’ and the /ee/ sound spelled ‘ee’, ‘y’, ‘e’, ‘ey’, ‘ie’, ‘ea’ and ‘e-e’ (split digraph.)
Miss Carmichael’s group will be revising the sounds /j/, /v/ and /w/.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Harwood, Mr Brown & Miss Carmichael