WELCOME TO YEAR 2!
Hello,
Welcome back! I hope you all enjoyed your summer holidays. It seems like you have all brought the sun back from summer and it is shining for us this week. Here is a blog with some information on to help you be prepared for some of the routines in KS1.
Each week on Monday afternoons, we shall have ‘Show and Tell’ to ensure the children can share one piece of their homework or an out-of-school activity/club achievement they have accomplished that week.
Homework book – Due to really good feedback about homework books and your dedication and hard work you showed in Y1, we shall continue these. Please return this book each Monday morning when your child comes into school. This will also help tie into our ‘Show and Tell’ afternoons as the children will have their books back in school in preparation. I shall then mark them and stick in activities for the next week. These will be sent back home with your child on a Tuesday. Don’t worry if you have a busy weekend and can’t do all of the activities every week but please bear in mind that I shall still collect them in on a Monday so that I can stick them in ready for the next week. There will always be a spelling activity, a short ‘Special Homework’ (which varies each week – this might be English / maths / topic or PSHE based or something your child needs to work on individually). Your child should also log onto doodle for Maths activities and to do regular reading. Each half term will begin with the topic menu overview – details on the page to help you. The subject and type of activity changes each half-term but overall these activities enrich what we are learning at school. Our homework tasks are really short and we feel helpful in consolidating what we are doing in school. For science this half-term, we shall be looking at 'Animals, including humans' combined with our 'Wonderful Me' topic. Therefore, please can you stick in a picture of your child and their pet/previous pet with a small explanation of its name and how long it has been in the family (if you have one, if not you could borrow a family/friend's pet) before 11/09/23.
As in Y1, your child will already have a doodlemaths account and so activities will be set regularly for them to complete on here. Sometimes the objective will be returned to several times so you might recognise the assignments again. This is deliberate to help keep learning really fresh! Hopefully you find this a quick and fun way to practise key maths concepts. We certainly notice the impact of this in school.
Spelling – Within the homework book, I shall print and stick in a weekly spelling activity which links to what we have taught in school that week. Again, returning to this helps children to learn and embed words so this will be helpful support. We touch on these words every day in class as part of our English learning and do daily activities, also. I shall then test your child on their weekly spellings (shared on Monday with the class) on the following Monday. (Our spelling overview for this half term will be on a separate blog post).
EdShed / Spelling Shed – again, as your child will already have an EdShed account, they will be able to access the same words we have been learning in school. They can play fun games to further develop their spelling knowledge. We know children enjoy this and like playing games and learning. The words will swap over every Monday and children can access this unlimited. Therefore, even though the homework books will not be sent back out on the Monday along with the new spellings set for that week, your child will still be able to practice and view their new spellings via EdShed. Usernames and passwords will be sent home stuck into the front page of the homework book.
Reading is really important for your child’s progress and we hope this forms the main part of the work you do with your child each week. We will send home reading books each week linked to their phonic knowledge and encourage you to listen to your child read at least 3 times a week but more is fantastic. We use the Reading Journeys as you are used to from Y1 to record your reading at home.
We have a lovely class mascot called Bubble who will come to your house for a visit at some point for whoever achieves ‘Star of the Week’. We hope he behaves and you enjoy spending time with him.
We do have a trip to Tamworth Castle coming up. We will share more details with you when formal arrangements have been made (awaiting coach confirmation!) and we will be asking for parent volunteers that day also. We will use SchoolMoney to request a payment and for you to consent to your child attending.
Please see separate blog for key information regarding this half-term’s spelling overview, knowledge organisers which show our key learning, vocabulary and enquiry questions for our history and science topics and a ‘Curriculum Map’ which provides an overview of learning in all subjects for this term. Every term there will be a new blog post which gives an overview of these things.
We have Forest Schools this half-term which will be on a Friday afternoon. Please ensure that your child has waterproof trousers, wellies and a waterproof coat for this. This kit should be labelled clearly and kept on your child’s peg for them to access. We do love going out whatever the weather so children will need to be prepared for all weather conditions!
We look forward to seeing you at our Base One meeting on Tuesday 19th September where we will give you some more information about our routines and curriculum.
Please do come and ask if you have any queries in the meantime,
Miss Jackson