Welcome to Year 2 2023/24!

Welcome to our Year 2 page. Here you will find all the fabulous learning that our wonderful Year 2 pupils have been doing. We add our learning updates regularly so please do keep popping by to see what we have been learning about.

For further information about our curriculum, please see our curriculum overview for this academic year, alongside our "Welcome to Year 2" Powerpoint and information to support your child with reading at home. You can also find further information about our school curriculum in the curriculum section of the website. 

We also have a list of 50 books we recommend the children read during their time in Year 2. Please mark them off as you share them. Who will be the first to read them all?

Summer One  - Would you go down to the Woods today?

We are exploring rural areas this half term and comparing them to the more urban areas like where we live. We will be exploring habitats such as the woodlands and grasslands of the British countryside and exploring what lives there. We will begin to consider how animals adapt to live in their habitats. We will continue to develop knowledge of life cycles through looking after something very special. 

Through the core text “Little Evie and the Wild Woods”, we will explore the character of the wolf. We will then read other stories which have a wolf as a main character and decide if the wolf has been fairly represented. Is the wolf always the baddie? Why? Is that fair? We will explore wolves in the wild and explore why the wolf might have developed such a bad reputation. We will compare wolves in stories, giving opinions and exploring what is the same and what is different. We will help Evie decide if she should go down to the woods.

Our English learning this half term will be based on the following books:

For the Summer term, our Maths focus will start with measuring and understanding time. This will be followed by teaching of statistics, position & direction along with consolidation of former learning units. 

Spring - Should we really want the rain to go away?

We are exploring how water is necessary for life. We are investigating how the climate and its extremes can support or endanger life. We are finding out about where we live and comparing it to a place in Kenya through exploration of the text ‘Lila and the Secret of Rain’. We will be finding similarities and differences and using geographical vocabulary to explain our findings.  We will be finding out about the culture of Kenya by exploring African music, art and dance. We will explore the different animals that live in Africa and how they survive in the hot climate. We will find out what they eat, as we learn about food chains. 

Our English learning this term will be based on the following books:

A vast array of areas are taking place in the Spring term for Maths. Multiplication and division in various formats, understanding money, measuring and work with fractions. 

Autumn Two - Is London a place you would like to live?

During this half term we look back in time to explore The Great Fire of London. We also take on the role of architects to explore materials (inspired by Iggy Peck) to build new London and explore structures to make bridges to span the River Thames. We learn all about Roma Agrawal and Christopher Wren and their famous buildings, The Shard and St Paul's Cathedral. We explore what it is like to live in a big city and discover how cities are planned, designed and built. We then compare how it is different to living in London in the past. We find out about the famous people who are associated with London, the most famous being the King. We find out about his role and what has changed during his reign. 

Our English learning will be based on two books:

For maths, further work with place value will take place along with further addition and subtraction development. In addition, learning properties of shapes are our new learning focus in maths.

Autumn One - Why is Planet Earth our home?

At the start of a new year, we learn about our Earth and whether it is the only (and best) place to live. To encourage aspiration, we learn about famous people who weren’t satisfied with staying where they were.  We explore our world and the world beyond, inspired by the explorers who discovered it, both real and fictional. We learn the characteristics that all these explorers have. We investigate how great explored travelled and see if we could emulate them.

We explore whether we have to live on Earth or whether we could live on the moon, investigating conditions for life. We then learn about our place in the world, developing a wider knowledge of it; and how important it is to look after it responsibly if we can’t live on any other planets.

In maths this half term, we will be focusing on understanding place values of numbers along with addition and subtraction in various forms. These areas of learning will be aided with visual and tactile resources.