Autumn 1 – Ocean Adventures

Join us for a trip around the globe as we learn about the world’s oceans.  We will be reading about Barry, the fish with fingers, and writing wonderful creative stories about life under the sea and poems about the oceans.  In Art we will learn about the colour wheel and have fun creating underwater collages. In Geography we will identify the key features of a beach and discover the countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom.  We will also use the seaside theme to help the children improve their ability to write sentences with capital letters, full stops and adjectives. In Science we will be investigating different materials and making a materials monster.

Writing Genres	Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
Short stories Poetry Information texts	Revision of vowel phonemes Capital letters and full stops Conjunctions Nouns Adjectives

Mathematic Skills
– read and write numbers to at least 100 – recognise the place value of each digit in a 2-digit number – compare and order numbers from 0 up to 100; use <, > and = signs – count in steps of 2, 3, 5 from 0, and tens from any number, forwards and backwards – recall and use addition and subtraction facts to 20 fluently, and derive and use related facts to 100

Autumn 2 – Fire Fire

Watch out! There is a fire in Pudding Lane as we journey back in time to September 1666 to rediscover the Great Fire of London.  We will join Thomas Farriner and Samuel Pepys to find out how the fire started and look at why it spread so quickly. We will discover what life was like in 1666 by using historical sources and writing a report on the Great Fire.  The children will pretend to be eyewitnesses, like Samuel Pepys, and write a diary entry for the events of Monday 3^rd September 1666. A trip to Aston Hall will further immerse the children into this exciting topic. We will learn about the sequence of events of the Gunpowder Plot and understand why we remember, remember the 5^th of November. The children will write exciting fireworks poems and then perform them to their class friends.  In Science we will be learning about living and non-living things.

 

Writing Genres	Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
Non-chronological reports Diary writing Instructions Explanation texts	Revision of vowel phonemes Question marks Exclamation marks Commas for lists Verbs

Mathematic Skills

– solve problems with addition and subtraction – identify and describe the properties of 2D shapes, including the number of sides – identify and describe the properties of 3D shapes, including the number or edges, vertices and faces – identify 2D shapes on the surface of 3D shapes – compare and sort 3D shapes into everyday objects

Spring 1 – Feeling Fit and Fabulous

It’s time for New Year’s Resolutions as we get ‘Feeling Fit and Fabulous’ in Year 2! We will write instructions for making a nutritious sandwich and look at the importance of food hygiene before making our own healthy sandwich in class. We will learn the importance of having a healthy lifestyle and investigate healthy food choices in Science. We will write fantastic fruit and vegetable riddles and ask you to guess what is being described from the clues.  Join Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole as we discover the changes they brought to nursing life. We will also find out about Louis Braille and learn about the invention of Braille. So let’s get ready to feel fit and fabulous!

 

Writing Genres	Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
Recounts Riddles Instructions	Contractions Suffixes Apostrophes for contractions Adverbs

Mathematic Skills
– recognise and use symbols for pounds (£) and pence (p); combine amounts to make a particular value – solve simple money problems including giving change – recall and use multiplication facts for the 2, 5 and 10 times tables, including recognising odd and even numbers – show that multiplication of two numbers can be done in any order – solve problems involving multiplication

Spring 2 – Island Adventure

Let’s all go on an island adventure and join Katie Morag and her family on the Isle of Struay. We will be researching the author Mairi Hedderwick and enjoy reading her stories about Katie Morag’s life on Struay together. We will become an author like Mairi and write our own Katie Morag adventure story; focusing on descriptive writing and story structures. We will also identify the human and physical features of the Isle of Coll and compare island life on Coll with where we live. In Science we explore habitats and how animals are adapted to live in different environments. In DT we will use clay to make a mini-beast and continue developing our painting skills.

 

Writing Genres	Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
Character description Setting description Book reviews Persuasive text	Suffixes Apostrophes for possession Present and past tense verbs

Mathematic Skills
– recall and use division facts for the 2, 5 and 10 times tables, including recognising odd and even numbers – solve problems involving division – recognise, find, name and write fractions ½, , ¼, , ¾ of a length, shape, set of objects or quantity – measure, compare and order lengths using centimetres and metres

Summer 1 – Sun, Salsa and Sombreros

It’s time to enjoy the sun, salsa and sombreros of Mexico!  We will be learning all about this exciting country and start by looking at where it is in the world, its capital city and language. We will delve deeper into the country to the village of Tocuaro and compare life in this small village with our city of Birmingham. Also, the children will be making posters with their friends about Mexico and writing their own information leaflets. As well as this, we will be learning basic Spanish, such as numbers, colours and days of the week. Plus, to bring it to a finale, we will have a Mexico Day where the children will be able to come to school dressed in their Mexican clothes, listen to some Mexican music and enjoy tasting some Mexican foods. In Science we will be exploring the fascinating world of plants and enjoy growing some plants of our own.

Writing Genres	Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
Narrative Information texts Formal and informal letters	Common exception words Irregular spelling patterns Consolidation

Mathematic Skills
– interpret and construct simple pictograms, tally charts, block diagrams and simple tables– tell and write the time to five minutes including quarter past/ to the hour and draw the hands on a clock face to show these times – know the number of minutes in an hour and the number of hours in a day

Summer 2 – Raise the Drawbridge

It’s time to raise the drawbridge as we journey back in time to discover all about fascinating castles. The children will become researchers as they find out about the key features of a castle and interesting information about castle life.  We will go on a wonderful trip to Tamworth Castle and discover more about this Norman Castle and how it is one of the best preserved Norman motte-and-bailey castles in England. Subsequently, the children will create their own coat of arms to go on a shield that they will make and learn all about castle attack and defence strategies. In Science we will be continuing to learn about plants plus carrying out some exciting scientific investigations to bring our time in Year Two to a thrilling end.

Writing Genres	Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
Narrative Information texts Character description Setting description	Silent letters Consolidation

 

Mathematic Skills – use mathematical vocabulary to describe position, direction and movement including movement in a straight line and distinguishing between rotation as a turn and in terms of right angles for quarter, half and three- quarter turns (clockwise and anti-clockwise) – choose and use appropriate standard units to estimate and measure mass, temperature and capacity to the nearest appropriate unit, using scales, thermometers and measuring vessels – compare and order mass, volume/ capacity and record the results using <, > and =

Please note that Parent Information Leaflets are sent out each half term with further details.