Red Class 2020-2021Welcome to Year 2 Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers and our new Year 2 children,Welcome to Year 2! We have really enjoyed looking at all of your fantastic homelearning over the past few weeks and we are looking forward to working with you all next year. Wehave decided to send out our Term 1 newsletter now so that you can begin to prepare for life in Year2 over the summer holidays.

Behaviour and RewardsYou have already been introduced to Class Dojo and lots of you will need a dip in the box on our firstday back in September. In Year 2 we use Class Dojo alongside our behaviour ladder and gold bookbehaviour system. Children will still have the opportunity to move up the behaviour ladder, have theirname written in the gold book and earn afternoon tea with Mrs Lewer. In addition to this they willalso have the opportunity to earn positive Class Dojo points for all of the wonderful things that theydo throughout the day. From September for every 100 points that a child earns they will earn a ‘dipin the box’. Children can also lose points for making poor choices but we are sure this will be a veryrare occurrence next year.

Home LearningReading - It is very important that your child reads as regularly as possible to develop their fluency.It is also important that they do not only read independently but also sometimes have the opportunityto discuss their book with an adult who can ask them questions and help them to develop theircomprehension. Children who read regularly at home always make the most progress with theirreading in school so we really value your support in this area. In Year 2 the children will be given timeevery day to independently quiz (if appropriate) and change their books and they can do this as manytimes during the week as they want to. Teachers and teaching assistants will only write in your child’scontact book if they have read with your child. If your child has changed their own book we will notmake a note of this, we will just expect them to bring the book back before they can swap it foranother one.

Spellings - Every week we will send home spellings for the children to learn and we will have a spellingchallenge every Friday. There will be a choice of 1 Star and 2 Star spellings. The children only needto learn one set of spellings but please ensure that your child is challenging themselves.

Optional homework - We will also send home a reading comprehension, writing task and a maths taskevery week in the children’s busy folders. We do not expect the children to complete all of thishomework we just want to provide you with some options if your child wants to practise somethingthat we have been working on in class.

For every piece of homework that your child completes and for every time you write a comment intheir contact book to show that they have read at home they will receive a dojo point. Children canshow their contact books and/or busy folders when they arrive in the morning any day throughout theweek.

Some parents have asked for ideas for summer activities that they can do to help their child preparefor Year 2 and so we have attached some Year 2 Summer Holiday Challenges. For every challengethat your child completes they will receive 1 dojo point in September. There is no pressure tocomplete any of these challenges, it is all optional.

‘Are Pirates Real?’In September our topic will be focused on answering the question ‘Are Pirates Real?’Below is an overview of how our topic will link with the rest of the curriculum.

In English we will be begin by writing a recount of our summer holidays. Then we are going to beexploring the book ‘Captain Beastlie’s Pirate Party’. We will be writing a character description of apirate and we will be writing some pirate rules.

In Maths we will begin by looking at place value and we will be learning how to partition 2-digitnumbers into different combinations of tens and ones. We will then move on to learning how to addand subtract 2-digit numbers using an empty number line. Finally we will be looking at 2D shape.

In Science we will be focusing on ourselves. We will learn about the needs of humans for survival andhow we change as we grow into adults.

In PE are focus is going to be travelling and moving with equipment. PE will take place on a Thursday.Please ensure that your child has a complete PE kit in school and ensure that earrings have beenremoved and long hair is tied back on these occasions. On a Thursday afternoon the children will betaught by Miss Piper, our PE specialist, supported by Mrs Espadas and Miss Croker. Mrs Kreiselmeierwill be having her PPA on a Thursday afternoon. We will also be taking part in the Mile a Day mostdays.

In RE we will be looking at how and why Christians and Jews think we should care for the world.

In DT we are going to be designing and making pirate flags.

In Art we are going to be exploring Pop Art. We will be making a self-portrait and pirate themedartwork based on the pop art style.

In Computing we will be exploring e-safety and we will be reminding children about how to usetechnology safely and respectfully.

In History our focus will be famous pirates such as Edward Teach (Blackbeard). We will be learningabout the life of pirates and comparing them to our own.

In Geography we will be looking at treasure maps and we will have a go at making our own maps. Wewill also learn the names and locations of the 7 continents and 5 oceans.

In Music we will be exploring the song Hands, Feet, Hearts. We will also be learning some harvestsongs.

We have several pirate themed activities planned for our Forest School Inspired Learning nextterm. As well as continuing to be able to choose what they would like to focus on during our ForestSchool Inspired Learning time the children will also be digging for treasure, making maps and creatingpirate ships. This will take place every Monday. Please ensure that your child has appropriate clothing(waterproof coat, jumper, top, trousers) and footwear (wellingtons or boots) in school. We wouldprefer it if children could bring their forest school clothes in on the first Monday of term and thenleave their clothes in school until half term so that we have the flexibility to change our forestschool day depending on the weather. If the children’s clothes get really muddy or wet we will sendthem home earlier than half term.

As we haven’t been able to show you around the Year 2 area and classrooms we have included somephotos for you to look at below. They look a bit different as we still need to do some things in schoolto keep you safe such as sitting in lines and not having a mat to sit on.

This is the Year 2 shared area. You walked through this area at lunchtime when you went out to playand this is where you came for first aid. We have a Welcome to Red Class display outside of ourclassroom which has all of the photos you sent us of you holding your name cards. Our display boardsare all ready to be filled with the wonderful art work that we are going to make on our first couple ofdays of school.

You can also see the Year 2 toilets. We have a Boy’s Toilet and a Girl’s Toilet. Our toilets are in theYear 2 shared area rather than in our classrooms.

This is our classroom.

Instead of bug spots you will have a This is our book corner. For Term 1silver square to remind you where to it is a pirate ship called thesit on the carpet. ‘The Jolly Book Worm’.

This is our Wow Wall where we will This is our cloakroom where you will keep yourput special work that we are really proud of. coat, forest school clothes and PE kit.You can also see your trays in this photo.You will keep your book bag and a pack ofresources that we have made you in your tray.

This is our behaviour chart. This is the outside of our classroom. We will use our owndoor to go in and out of the classroom.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Have a wonderful summer holiday and we look forward to seeing you in September.Mrs Kreiselmeier and Mrs Espadas

Name: 1 Challenge Completed = 1 dojo point

Year 2 Summer Holiday Challenges

EnglishKeep a weekly diary about your

summer holidays.

ReadingRead at least one book a week.Fill in a book review for your

favourite summer read.Spelling

Practise spelling all of the Year 1common exception words.

PhonicsPractise saying all of the Phase2, Phase 3 and Phase 5 sounds.

For example, ‘s like in socks’, ‘owlike in cow’.

You could also start to learn theYear 2 common exception words.

MathsPractise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s.

HandwritingPractise your handwriting.Can you join your letters?

Practise telling the time to thenearest quarter hour (o’clock, half

past, quarter past, quarter to).We’ve attached some clock petals

you might like to copy and putaround your clock.

MusicLearn a new song.

Art/DTBe creative; create something

for your bedroom.History

Find out one fact about yourfamily’s history.

GeographyDraw a map of your house.

Science/Forest SchoolGo on a bug hunt.

PEComplete the mile a day at least

once.Computing

Discuss one time when you werebeing safe when using technology.

EcoTurn the lights off and read by

torchlight.I confirm that my child has completed the crossed out challenges.

Signed _______________________