Ashurst Primary School

Year 2 Class 

'Excellence Everyday'

'Learn, Live, Laugh and Love Ashurst'

Learn to be inspiring and make a difference to this world, we know how amazing you are,

Live with understanding and compassion for others, knowing we are all different and special in a community where equality stands tall,

Laugh and listen to the enjoyment of learning and excitement of everyone celebrating their achievements,

Love Ashurst, our special school and the hub of supportive staff, parents and children who aim high to be the best they can be.

Year 2 staff

Teacher Miss J. Fildes	Learning Assistant Mrs E. Kempster	HLTA Miss A. Forshaw

Learning Environment

Year Two is a warm and welcoming classroom where lots of exciting learning takes place. We aim for all lessons to be interactive, exciting and engaging. Throughout Year Two, children continue to develop their independence. They are given lots of responsibilities and they challenge themselves to achieve their full potential! With support from teachers and family at home, the children work hard on their goals.  Mental health and well-being are high priority in Year 2.  We work hard to support the children to be happy and free from worry and anxieties.  We promote positive self-talk and resilience and guide children through any difficulties they face.  We use wonderful stories to explore themes linked to mental health and  well-being. 

Each child enters Year Two at a different stage. Therefore we treat every child as an individual and plan to cater for their individual needs. We understand that every child learns in a different way and has different interests and it is our aim to adapt our teaching to suit the children. We encourage their independence throughout, allowing them to take ownership of their learning and achievements and to understand how to solve problems on their own.

Rules and Routines

 At the beginning of the year, children are encouraged to contribute to our class rules and vision. This runs alongside the schools  policies and procedures and is expected to further improve the learning environment for all and in turn develop strategies for 'Behaviour for Learning'. Conversation and discussion are encouraged in Year 2 and is balanced with dedication to learn and succeed through quiet and independent work.        

Routine

• Doors open 8:45am
• Registration is at  8:50am and the school day ends at 3:15pm
• Break time will be at 10:20am.
• Lunch time will be at 11:30am until 12:30pm.

What do we learn?

We have daily Maths and English/SPAG lessons.  We have exciting books on our class reading spine which give children a breadth and depth of literature. We use the Talk for Writing approach, which starts with oral rehearsal moving into innovated pieces of writing and finally independent pieces of writing.  We have reading lessons to help us work on year group reading objectives. We have daily opportunities to read across the curriculum.  In Maths, we use a mastery approach to enable all children to gain a deep understanding of the unit of work. The activities we complete range from practical to written in order to cater for the different learning needs of the children.  

We have an action packed curriculum with lots of exciting learning.  We work as scientists, historians, artists , musicians and much more!  Click on the Long Term Plan and Topic Web documents for more information on the exciting learning journey that takes place each half term.

Important things to remember for September 2023: 

• The class door opens at 8:45am and closes at 8:55am. The school day ends at 3:15pm - your child will enter and leave from the Year 2 classroom door.
• You may wish to provide a healthy snack for your child to eat at 10:20am playtime or your child can have a piece of fruit provided by school.  Lunch will be at 11:30am -12:30pm.
• Each child can have their own water bottle on their desk, please provide these with their name on.
• We have PE every Wednesday and Thursday– please ensure that your child attends school on these days in their PE kit.  On these days children must wear the following PE uniform: Black jogging bottoms with the new logo, or black sports leggings, white PE tops , black hoody tops . Or a Summer PE kit : red shorts and white PE top.
• Reading books will be changed every Friday.  Please ensure your child has their reading book in school each Friday.  Reading records will be provided for you to comment on your child's reading.  We will ask for these to be sent into school each Friday so that we can celebrate the reading taking place at home.  We expect every child to read at home every night to develop good habits and make the best progress. Thank you in advance for your support with this. 
• Homework will be set weekly and will usually consist of English, Maths and Spellings but may also relate to other subjects. Homework will be set on a Friday, and will be expected back in the following Friday.  
• Spellings will be sent home in the form of a worksheet (these will be different than the RWI spellings). Worksheets will be sent back into school the following Friday, with homework.   Please support your child in learning these spellings at home.  We recommend little and often. A spelling quiz will take place each Friday to allow us to assess and support your child.
• Topic webs will be uploaded onto this class page in the first week of each half term. Topic webs will inform you of the learning taking place that half term, you may wish to discuss key learning with your child at home. 

KS1 SATs 2024

May 2023 was the last year when mandatory Key Stage 1 SATs were held. From 2024, the tests are optional. In Year 2 we will continue to report teacher assessment levels in combination with the optional KS1 SATs tests. These tests remain to be published and provided to schools to allow teachers to assess knowledge and learning in KS1.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of your child's learning then please don't hesitate to call and make an appointment to see us. 
Thank you for your continued support and I look forward to working alongside your child and your family.
Miss Fildes

Year 2 Long Term Plan 2023-2024

Year 2 Topic Webs

Book recommendations for Year 2

Follow the link below to view a wealth of recommended books for your child in Year 2. You will never be short of book suggestions with this site. 

 https://www.thereaderteacher.com/year2

Useful Phonics Websites

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7fbLgY2oA_cFCIg9GdxtQ - free phonics films for parents

www.phonicsbloom.com

www.topmarks.co.uk

www.ictgames.com

Learning 2023-2024

Autumn 2023

Science

 We had a fantastic afternoon at Sankey Valley looking at different micro-habitats. We were lucky enough to find lots of different living things such as snails, worms, bees, spiders and even a squirrel. 

Talk 4 Writing 

To help us with writing our own story, we have been learning all about 'Jack and the Beanstalk' - we even made up our own actions !

History 

We are learning about The Great Fire of London in 1666. In this lesson we were finding out that there are different perspectives on the reasons to why the fire started such as wood, the baker, wind, sun and living conditions. 

We had to find the puzzle pieces of information around the classroom and return with them to add to the “bigger picture” surrounding the  causes of the Great Fire of London and its  consequences. We found out that it wasn’t just the bakers fault!

Our writing celebration wall!

Is writing better than the last piece?  If so, we 'peg it'! Year 2 are now able to articulate why their writing should be pegged on our celebration wall.  Children discuss with staff what they can do better than the last piece of writing.  Children are amazing at identifying their strengths and next steps.  Writing progress in Year 2 is incredible!  Keep it up super stars!  We can't wait to see your work 'pegged'!  

Take a look at the recent work we have had "pegged".

Talk for Writing 

In English, we have been writing a recount. We wrote our recount about our trip to the post office to post our letters to Father Christmas. Take a look at some of our amazing recounts!

Maths

In Maths we have been working hard to add two numbers together. Sometimes we have to add two numbers together by crossing 10. The equipment has really helped us to solve our calculations.

DT

We are designers!
We have designed and produced a pouch to hold some of our items. We worked extremely hard to learn how to thread a needle and do a running stitch in order to sew our material together. We created 4 designs for our pouch and picked our favourite one to make. Take a look at our creations below.

RE

This term in RE we have been exploring the religion of 'Chrisianity'. We have explored our enquiry question of "How do Christian's protect God's creation". We understand how God created the world for Christian's and what Christian's do to protect this. We also explored the "Harvest Festival" and Year 2 kindly donated items of food. Our local food bank were overwhelmed by the generosity of our Year 2 children.

Science 

Take a look at us hunting for signs of habitats in our school grounds. We worked together to search for signs of animals, including mini-beasts and thought about where we should look.  We looked in cracks in the walls, within the grass and the bushes, and under pots.  When we got back in class we talked about our findings. We were surprised how many animals we found. 

Music in Year 2

We have been learning to play the glockenspiels. 

English - Talk for Writing
Fiction - The Paper Bag Princess

Year 2 have been learning how to write a good character description. We used the model text of "The Paper Bag Princess" to help us with our journey. We investigated the text to see what features the writer uses. We added these to our toolkit to help us with our writing. We have used similes, speech, commas in a list and 'who' and 'which' to add more detail to describe our characters. Take a look at us performing the model text below. Enjoy reading our hot tasks of our new invention of a character description!

English - Talk for Writing
Non-Fiction - Report Writing

We have started to explore report writing. On Tuesday, a mysterious egg was found in our school hall. A news article was sent to our teachers about a mysterious object that had been spotted in the sky! We investigated the egg and we produced some 'I wonder' questions. We read our model text of a report about a dragon and soon realised it was a dragon egg!

Maths

In Maths this term we are looking at shapes. We have explored 2D and 3D shapes and become familiar with the shape names. We have looked closely at 2D shapes to identify how many sides and vertices each shape has.

We have also been exploring money in Maths. We have identified the value of each coin and note. We are using this to help solve some money problems.

Art

This term in Art we are exploring the work of Rachel Dein. We have investigated the work of Rachel Dein and realised she uses a lot of natural objects when printing. Over this term we will be developing different printing techniques from making rubbings to printing with foam. We created 4 design ideas in the style of Rachel Dein and then selected our favourite one to make. Take a look at our final pieces below.

Geography

In Geography we are exploring the question "Where does our food come from?" Using a map we have located our local high street and identified the route we will take from Ashurst Primary School to Chain Lane shops. We have used directional language to describe this route.

Computing

This term we are looking at "spreadsheets". We have explored what a spreadsheet is and how we use them. We have created our own shop using a spreadsheet. We combined computing with maths and we selected the correct amount of coins we need to pay for each item.

PSHE

Year 2 have been exploring 'Relationships' this term. We have been looking at what makes a happy family and what qualities we would like to have to make a good friend. We have explored 'good and worry secrets' and have discussed how people might feel if they are keeping a worry secret. We also looked at a 'mending friendship's chart'. This has helped us to come up with a positive solution of dealing with friendship breakups. It gives us time to STOP, THINK, and to create a plan. We noticed this was similar to our 'control signals' chart in PATHs.

Celebrations

This term we have had so much to celebrate. Firstly, we had the huge move into our brand new school and new classroom. The children have been really excited to explore their new school and we love our classroom.

This term we had a lot of fun celebrating King Charles ||| Coronation. We made crowns, waved flags and had a tea party on the playground whilst singing songs!

We have even had a visit from Saints. The women's head coach Matty Smith came to our school along with all of the trophies the Saints men and women's team have won this year!

Geography Trip to Crosby Beach

 Year 2 had an incredible time visiting Crosby Beach. As part of our Geography lessons we explored the features of a beach. We used a map of the UK to locate where Crosby Beach is. We found out it is in Liverpool and the River Mersey flows into the Irish Sea. We observed a number of ferries crossing the Irish Sea. We also found out a lot of information about the Iron Men on Crosby Beach. Did you know there are 100 Iron Men on Crosby Beach. Each one weighs 650 kilos, wow! Finally we finished off the day with a quiz about Crosby Beach, shell picking, a sandcastle competition and writing positive messages for others in the sand. What a fun filled day we had!

Lunchtime fun in the sun

 We are having a lot of fun with our friends at lunch time. We are enjoying using all of our equipment, especially having fun with the parachute.

English - Talk for Writing
Fiction - The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark

Year 2 have been learning how to write a short story with suspense.

Take a look at Jenna's cold task below. We cannot wait to share our Hot Tasks with you!

Maths
Fractions

We have been finding one half (1/2), one quarter (1/4) and one third (1/3) of a shape or objects. We used paper to find one half of a whole and one quarter of a whole. We used counters to find one half or one quarter of the total.  

Art

 In Art we are exploring the work of Arnold Machin. Did you know Arnold Machin created a portrait of Queen Elizabeth for the £1 coin and a stamp? We have experimented with different pencils to create a variety of pencil marks and we have discovered how to draw portraits. We will be creating a final piece of art in the style of Arnold Machin and we will produce a portrait of King Charles |||.

Science

 In Science we have been exploring the effects exercise has on our bodies. We planned a test to see what happens to our bodies after we have exercised. 4 children ran around our hall. We took their temperature before and after, took a photo of them before and after and listened to them talking before and after exercising. We noticed that after exercising the children became breathless and needed a drink, their temperature went higher and they had started to sweat.

DT

 In Design Technology this year we are exploring the stability of structures. We used the story of 'Goldilocks and the three bears' to notice that Baby Bear's chair was not stable enough for Goldilocks. We have investigated the most effective 3D shapes to make chair legs out of. We made a sphere, pyramid and cube out of playdough and tested how stable they are. We came to the conclusion that for a structure to be stable it has to have a flat base!