Year 2 2023 - 2024

Mrs Welsh

Spring 1

Welcome to the spring term and I would like to wish you a Happy New Year.

Below you will see what is happening in year 2 for the next six weeks.

If you have any questions/queries please do not hesitate to contact me by email:

twelsh@vinetree.org.uk

Mrs Welsh & Mrs Beck

Below is our class timetable.

* PE *

Children will take part in PE on a Monday and Wednesday afternoons. Children should come to school on a Monday and Wednesday in their PE kit and they will wear it for the remainder of the day.

* Please ensure that your child is wearing the correct PE kit - A plain white t-shirt , a hoodie and black or navy joggers.

Dates to remember...

Wednesday 24th January - 3:15pm meeting for parents and children about our residential trip in July

Wednesday 14th february - hand in year 2 homework books for class display

Friday 16th February - finish for half term holiday

General Information:

The school day

Timings: Drop off/Pick up point:

Year 2 start time: 8:45am Drop off: Main playground

Year 2 finish time 3:05pm Pick up: We will meet you on the playground at Year 2's gate and send children

one by one to parents as we see them arrive.

What will my child need to bring to school?

Full school uniform - black shoes , no trainers please.

A raincoat

A water bottle (water only)

A small healthy snack

A lunch bag (if needed)

Please ensure all personal items are labelled before sending them into school.

Read Write Inc

Read Write Inc is the program we have chosen as a school to teach children the sounds needed to read. There are 44+ sounds that children need to know so they can sound out/Fred talk any unknown words. As children build their knowledge of these sounds, they will in turn develop their fluency. This means children will be able to read words, with the sounds they know, at a glance. It is vital children can read fluently in order to understand what they have read.

See below for a list of all the sounds children need to learn in Year 1 and a video on how to correctly pronounce them.

Homework in Year 2

This half term the activities on the homework grid are based on our science topic - Healthy Eating. The tasks will cover a broad range of the curriculum including English, Maths, Science, Art, French and Music activities. Children can complete as many tasks as they wish, choosing ones that interests them most. This will further their understanding/learning in our termly topics.

Spellings

Spelling homework will be sent home every Friday afternoon. Children will get 10 spellings per week to learn. This half term we are focusing on learning all year one common exception words and some from the year 2 list. This is a list of words that the children are expected to be able to spell by the end of year two. This list is quite long and the words are sometimes tricky. The year 1 and year 2 word list can be found in the file below. Please help your child to learn to spell and write these words.

Maths

This half term the children will be working on counting in 3's and developing their addition and subtraction skills. ( More to come...)

Below are two free apps that would be really helpful to your child to increase their fast recall of maths facts. They are called One Minute Maths by White Rose and Numbots. ( Your child has their own passwords for Numbots.) Regular practise of their mental maths will be very beneficial. Enter text...

Encourage your child to practise these fun games and songs to practise counting in 2's,5's,10's and 3's.

English

This half term the children will begin working on the book called 'The Day the Crayons Quit' by Drew Daywalt.The children will write a poem about how the crayons feel and they will learn how to write a letter for their big write. I think the children will love this unit of work. We are also revising when to use capital letters - for peoples names, places, countries, days of the week and months of the year.

Book Buddies

The children will begin to take Miss Hootie and Bobby home with a short written task to complete. These toys are to encourage the children to learn authors names and start to be able to talk about their favourite authors. Please encourage your child to write a short book review in full sentences and learn the authors name so they can talk about their reading at school. The toys can come home for two nights and then must be returned to school please.

Reading Books

Children will be given reading books to take home every Monday.

Our reading focus in Year 2 begins with developing children's fluency in line with their knowledge of sounds. Children will use Book Bag Books in order to do this. It is highly recommended that you and your child work through the activities suggested to support their fluency when reading and understanding of the text. ( These activities are stapled to the inside cover of your child's reading record.)

Please use the SWAYs below to refresh your memory on how to use Book Bag Books effectively and the previously mentioned activities.

Children should read at least 3 times per week and this should be recorded in their reading diary. Each reading activity from the Book Bag Books counts as a read alongside any other reading experiences e.g. sharing a Bingo Book. The name of the book title and a signature is all that is required when recording your child's reading.

In addition to their Book Bag Book children will be bringing home a Bingo Book and a non-fiction book which they can choose from our class library. These books are sent home with a view for you to enjoy them together. It is not expected that your child will be able to read these books independently.

Get Epic

We are encouraging children to continue with their use of Get Epic. To login to access your child's books , go to www.getepic.com/students. Then click on students and enter our class code _________ and read as much as you like! I will assign some new reading material on here weekly in line with the topic we are learning about.

There are now 2 options to explore the website:

During school with Epic School: From 7am to 4pm, students can log in from anywhere using their class code and read for as long as they want between 7am to 4pm. Educators can access Epic School at any time or day. Epic School is always free for our educators.
After school with Epic Free: In addition to all the reading time that they get with Epic School, students can also read after-school or after 4pm for free on Epic Free. Epic Free is also available for students to access at any time on the weekends. But unlike Epic School, there is a time duration limit! Students can read on Epic Free for up to 2 hours per week. Also, students will need their parents’ help to unlock Epic Free with a parent email. Parents only need to provide their email address once during sign-up. There is no fee for for Epic Free. After the first log in, students can freely access Epic Free using the class code. They will transition between Epic School and Epic Free, depending on the time of day.

Unfortunately, this change in terms means that some books are not accessible on the Epic Free version.