Year 2

Spring 2025

We have settled in well after the Christmas break and have already been working hard!

In English, we have been learning about the different parts of a story. We have looked at story openings and endings, and some of the typical language we expect to see in our stories.

Much of our English work this term will be based on Roald Dahl's The Twits and Clockwork Dragon by Jonathan Emmett. We will be using these stories as a stimulus for a variety of learning including narratives, using commas in lists, and identifying statements, questions, exclamations and commands.

Our maths this term is starting with learning about money. We will be learning to count different amounts in pounds and pence and find change. This links very well with our PSHE unit which is Money Matters. We will then be moving on to multiplication and division, learning to practically make and share equal groups, moving on to learning the 2s, 5s and 10s times tables. We will finish the term with some measurement work in length, height and mass.

In science, we are learning about materials. We will be recapping different materials and what objects are made from, and suggesting reasons why. We will then be investigating how materials can be shaped or changed and investigating different properties such as absorbency. We are going to use our learning to design an umbrella and design a bouncy ball. 

Our topic this term is history-based, exploring the question, What Makes Someone Great? We will be finding out about and comparing six people through history - nurses Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, explorers Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong, and monarchs Queen Elizabeth I & II. We will be finding out who they are, what they did, and why they are significant.

We will also be working on lots of amazing foundation subject work, such as exploring music and mood, creating art based on the work of Van Gogh and making moving carts in DT.

An overview of our learning this half term can be found here. Our Year 2 homework grid for Spring 1 can be found here.

Autumn 2024

What a great start to the year! The year 2s have all settled really well. Full details of the learning taking place in the autumn term in Year 2 can be found here.

Our topic this term is The Great Fire of London - we will be investigating the question, " How did the spark from a fire destroy London?" We will be finding out about London in 1666, comparing it to present day London, and will continue by finding out how events unfolded and how we know about it. We will be reading the book Toby and the Great Fire of London to help us, and will be having a visit from Derbyshire Fire and Rescue to talk about fire safety.

Our English will cover a range of genres including narrative based on Roald Dahl  and non-chronological reports, based on events of The Great Fire of London. Nearer to Christmas, we will be learning about letter writing - I wonder who we could write to? We will also be getting started on lots of spelling and grammar work including expanded noun phrases.

Maths this term will cover place value of numbers to 100, understanding 2-digit numbers as tens and ones and partitioning them. We will also be revising counting in 2s, 5s and 10s and learning to count in 3s. After that, we will be moving on to addition and subtraction, learning different strategies to add and subtract 1 and 2-digit numbers within 100. We are also doing lots of work on mental arithmetic strategies and knowing number facts by heart. Our last unit will be 2D and 3D shape and knowing their properties and starting to learn about symmetry.

In science, we are learning about Living Things which includes habitats and micro-habitats. We are hoping for some good weather to take our science outside to see what is living in the school grounds! After half term, we will be learning about animals and humans. This will include knowing what humans need to survive and keep healthy, including healthy eating, exercise and hygiene. We will also be learning about animals' offspring and their basic needs.

There will be lots of other exciting things happening in the foundation subjects including music making, art related to Jan Griffier and The Great Fire of London, and DT practising cutting, grating & peeling skills to make fruit deserts - yum!

Summer 2024

This term, our topic is geography-based, exploring the question, "Is there water everywhere?" We will be learning the five oceans and seven continents of the world and using maps to locate them. We even have a little song to learn about them! We will be locating hot and cold parts of the world and thinking about what it would be like to live there, comparing where we live with a hot and a cold country.

We have started English by learning about onomatopoeia in poems. We have explored onomatopoeia words then written our own Noisy Playground poems. We will continue with poetry throughout the term, writing free-verse poetry and learning to recite some poems by heart. Our narrative work will include learning based on The Lighthouse Keeper books, and later in the term, Fantastic Mr Fox. We will be learning about the structure of stories and writing our own with a beginning, problem, resolution, ending. Non-fiction work will include non-chronological reports linked to our geography and science units and recounts.

The main focus of our maths will be fractions and time. We will be learning about halves, quarters and thirds of shape and number, and in time, quarter past/to and telling the time to five minutes on an analogue clock. We will also be learning about statistics, using tables, tally charts and pictograms. Our final maths unit is position and direction.

Our first science unit is Plants. We will be identifying plants, flowers and trees and investigating the conditions plants need to grow healthily. We will also be planting some seeds and recording the growth of our own plants. Our second science unit is continuing with Living Things and their Habitats. We will be investigating microhabitats and finding out about plant and animal life in a polar habitat.

Other areas of learning will include learning about William Morris in art and making clay printing moulds to create repeating patterns in his style. We are enjoying a musical half term as we are learning about digital music in computing as well as our music lessons in which we are focusing on pitch and composition.

A breakdown of this term's learning can be found here. Our Year 2 homework grid for Summer 2 can be found here.