Term Ahead

The Term Ahead Autumn 2012

Literacy	In Year Two your child will have a daily Literacy Lesson. Over the term we will be focussing on Stories with familiar settings, Traditional Tales, Poetry and Instruction writing. There will also be a daily phonics session where your child will learn the complex task of word building. Each child will work in a group suited to their ability level. You will be able to see the area of phonics that we are developing by checking your child’s weekly spelling challenge words. Those words will be utilising the phonic skills that we are learning that week. We will also have a weekly ‘Big Write’ during which we encourage the children to develop their confidence in writing greater quantities of interesting and focussed text. Before some Big Write sessions we will let you know the subject so that you can discuss with your child what they might write.
Numeracy	In our daily Numeracy Lessons we will make sure that all children have a solid understanding of Place Value (knowing that a 1 in the units column is worth less than a 1 in the tens column) and that they can partition numbers into hundreds, tens and units to help make calculation easier. We will develop their mental calculation skills through a series of fun maths games. We will also be investigating the properties of different 2D and 3D shapes. We will practice measuring length, mass and capacity using standard units of measurement. We will collect data and show how that can be used to make charts and graphs, which will make the data more easily understandable. When appropriate, we will also start to introduce the children to multiplication and division.
Other subjects	SCIENCE - In the first half term the children will be learning about Forces and Movement, looking at the differences between pushes and pulls and the effect of friction. We will check that they know how to devise a ‘fair’ test when devising experiments. In the second half of the term we will investigate Electricity, discovering how to make circuits and switches. We will also visit the Electricity Museum in Christchurch.  GEOGRAPHY - we will be looking at life in Gambia and comparing it to the way that we live. We will listen to Gambian music and try eating Gambian food.  HISTORY - we will look at the ill fated maiden voyage of the Titanic.  DESIGN TECHNOLOGY - we will design, make and race a Wind Powered Vehicle.  ART -  we will be investigating all kinds of patterns, we will show the children how to make things from Papier Maché and we will investigate different ways of making pots from clay.  PE -  the children will practice throwing and catching and develop racket and bat skills through playing outside games.  MUSIC -  we will try African Drumming as well as learning songs for Harvest and Christmas Celebrations. We will all have weekly recorder lessons.  R.E. -  we will investigate different re-tellings of the Christmas Story.  DANCE -  we will move to the story of the Greedy Zebra. We will develop our own DRAMA production based on the story of a very important Water Fountain.
Find regular news from Year 2 on our blog   -   http://pcisyear2.blogspot.co.uk