Class 2 – Autumn Term 2023

Our Theme is:

All Creatures Great & Small 

 

I am really excited about our first topic and hope your children will be inspired by all the fascinating things they will learn.  Our topic will be, ‘All Creatures Great & Small’.

We will be finding out about a wide range of animals and their habitats. We will also look at the three ‘eras’ of dinosaur life on our planet.

Our timetable includes; phonics, writing, handwriting, reading, maths, science, art, history, geography,  PE and World Religions. 

Maths: During the autumn term, we will be revisiting some key areas of mathematics such as money and  time. Our main focus will be around place value and the four operations of calculation. (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). Pupils will be taught skills practically using objects to reason and problem solve, these will translate into jottings and recording maths sentences with understanding.

English:  Over the first term, we will be focusing on fiction texts  exploring settings and exploring characters. We will work from ‘Are we There Yet’ -Dan Santat, Various Julia Donaldson titles, ‘I’ll Take You to Mrs Cole!’ and  ‘Mrs Wobble the Waitress’  We will also read  nonfiction texts including; Usbourne ‘Lift the Flap- Dinosaurs- Questions and Answers’. Some of our writing will link to our topic including biographies about Mary Anning and Charles Darwin. We will read poems by John Foster with a dinosaur theme. Our grammar and punctuation foci will be commas in lists, sentence types and past and present tense. I will be teaching the children how to edit and improve their writing by adding interesting verbs and adjectives, changing word choices and using accurate punctuation.

Reading: In school your child will read in a group 3 x per week and have a specific Pathways to Reading lesson  each week focusing on reading skills. We will cover all reading skills from: Unpicking vocabulary, inferring meaning, predicting the  next part of a story, explaining our views, retrieving information and sequencing events. To access your child’s Big Cat ebooks, go to: https://ebooks.collinsopenpage.com/     

Spelling: We will follow the Year 2 Little Wandle Spelling scheme revising Phase 5 phonics before moving onto the Year 2 spelling requirements. Please continue to practice spellings at home using;’ Look, Cover, Write and Check’.

Science : We will be exploring living and non-living things. We will be finding out about animals and their habitats and researching food chains. We will be learning how to observe features of animals and group them. We will start by grouping dinosaurs based on their characteristics. During our study we will find out about Charles Darwin and explore different ways to classify animals.

History/ Geography : We will be comparing Lyme Regis to Congleton and also improving our basic mapping skills. During history lessons pupils will find out about the important life of Mary Anning and Charles Darwin.

We will also explore the 3 dinosaur eras. 

DT: We will build dioramas of animal habitats and make photo frames. For both of these tasks we will focus on the full process of design, make, test and evaluate. 

Our Art lessons will begin by exploring printing and looking at the work of William Morris to support this. We will build scrap book pages of ideas before creating repeated patterns. Our second art project will centre around Henri Rousseau’s ‘Tiger in a Storm’ which we will use collage to recreate. 

Computing : During the first half term we will explore how to stay safe online. We will also use google maps/ google earth to compare coastal areas with Congleton. We will regularly use the internet to support learning; including reading, maths and general research skills. Our Kapow computing scheme will also cover two units ‘What is a Computer?’ and Word Processing. 

P.E:  PE sessions will focus on team games and basic ball skills and gymnastics. Please ensure your child has a PE kit (named) every day.

Music:  We will explore continue to follow the Charranga scheme where the children will learn a range of new songs and continue playing an untuned instrument. 

Jigsaw PSHCE: We are using a new scheme of work for PSHCE this year which links to a whole school theme each half term. During the Autumn term we will cover ‘Being Me in My World’ and ‘Celebrating Differences’. Other important areas of PSHCE this term will include Anti Bullying and Internet Safety.

World Religions: Pupils will be given the opportunity to explore various Christian stories involving Jesus through drama, art and class discussions.

Homework:  Will  be  set  on  Mondays.