Year 2's Learning Blog

2024 - 2025

What are Year 2 up to?

2024 - 2025

1.1

Maths:

This half term, we will begin with place value where the children will focus on tens and ones. During lessons, we will look at partitioning the whole number into tens and ones. Later in the term, we will be counting in steps of 2s, 5s and 10s which will help us with our times tables. As well as this, we will be writing numbers and comparing amounts and number bonds.

English:

During English, we will be reviewing many previously taught skills such as basic punctuation and letter formation. At the same time, the children will be introduced to new ideas such as conjunctions, adjectives and expanded noun phrases. By the end of the term, children will have been exposed to different styles of writing such as narrative, recount and description.

Topics:

During Science, we will be studying ‘Habitats’. Children will look at different animals, where they live and why. The geography topic will cover hot and cold places making comparisons between them.

1.2

Maths:

We will begin this half term looking at addition and subtraction and how we can connect known facts together - for example, if we know 3 + 2 = 5, we also know 5 - 3 = 2, and so on. We will then move on to 2D and 3D shapes, building on our learning from year 1.

English:

In English, we will be expanding our vocabulary by looking at adjectives and how we can use them to create exciting and interesting descriptions in our writing and to challenge us to write our own expanded noun phrases. We will be using the stories of The Gruffalo to support us with our writing. After this, the children will be understanding

Science:

We are exploring minibeasts and their microhabitats in science this half term. We will be identifying and classifying different minibeasts, understanding different scientific enquiry and conducting a minibeast hunt.

Topic:
Our history topic is called 'How are schools different in the past?'. We will be learning about schools were different at different times, how they have changed and the similarities and differences between then and now.

2.1

Maths:

We will be looking at the difference between 2D and 3D shapes and be being able to name shapes within these. We will then move onto lines of symmetry and learn about the difference between faces, edges and vertices.

English:

In English, are looking at the short film ‘The Black Hat’ and continuing to embed our understanding of expanded noun phrases, verbs/ adverbs and time conjunctions which will allow use to create a polish write of a setting description. After this, we will explore the book ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ and write a persuasive letter,

Science:

Our science topic is called ‘uses of everyday materials’. By the end of the topic children will be able to name objects with the same use that are made from different materials, recognise that stretching, twisting, bending and squashing can cause some solid objects to change shape and name properties that make materials suitable for their use.

Topic:

Our geography topic is called ‘why is our world wonderful?'. We will be learning about chrematistics of the UK on a map, understand the differences between human and physical features, name and locate the five oceans on a world map and collect data by sketching findings on a map and completing a tally chart.

2.2

Maths:

We are going to be looking at multiplication and division. We will start by looking at equal groups and ensuring we understand sharing. After this, we will introduce the multiplication symbol and look into the 2, 5 and 10 times table and then how to divide by these numbers. After this, we will look into length, height and mass.

English:

This term, we will be exploring the book ‘Lots; The Diversity Of Life’ by Nicola Davies. This book celebrates animal and plant diversity around the world which links to topics we have covered this term and also discusses extinct animals including the dodo. Our polish write will be writing a diary entry as if we have seen a dodo for the first time. We will be using skills such as first person, description and past tense. After this, we will be looking at the short film ‘Caterpillar’s Shoes’ and writing a non-chronological report of a minibeast.

Science:

Our science topic this term is called ‘Animals, including humans: Life cycles and health’. We will be looking at the different stages of the human life cycle, to know which offspring come from which parent animal, observe and measure growth in humans and to identify and list the basic needs for survival for humans and animals.

Topic:

Our history topic is called ‘How did we learn to fly?’. Children will develop their knowledge of events beyond living memory, reinforce their chronological understanding by looking at significant events in the history of flight on a timeline. Learning about the individuals who contributed to the history of flight such as the Wright brothers, Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

3.1

Maths:

This term we are going over the fractions half and quarters and introducing the fraction third. We will begin by learning about parts and wholes and exploring equal and unequal parts. After this, children will be focussing on the fractions, half, quarter and third. Next, children use their understanding of these fractions to find half, quarter and third of an amount.

English:

In English we will be writing a letter to Mrs Timms to ask if we can go on a school trip to the Nature Centre. We will be going over different sentence structures, questions sentences, persuasive language and present tense. Subsequently, we will concentrate on the book ‘The Pirates Next Door’ to write the ending of a story using the third person, inverted commas and adverbs.

Science:

Our science topic this term is ‘plant growth’. We will be investigating seeds, bulbs and plants and recognising the conditions required for germination and healthy plant growth.

Topic:

Our geography topic is called ‘what is it like to live by the coast?’. By the end of the unit, we will be able to, name and locate the seas and oceans surrounding the UK in an atlas, define what the coast is, locate coasts in the UK, identify human features in a coastal town and describe how people use the coast.

2023-2024

What are Year 2 up to?

3.1

As the children’s writing ability continues to progress, we will be looking at writing a letter to inform. Here, we will look at new skills as well as developing our existing ones. Later in the term, we will be writing postcards and re visiting narratives. The children will continue to practise their handwriting as each day we make sure that we are in the correct position and have the best posture to support our writing. Take a look at the Year 2 common exception words (found in the homework packs) we are trying our best to regularly spell these words correctly in our work.

During the beginning of the Summer term we will continue to work on division. Once we have completed this unit, the children will move on to length and height. Year 2 will use metres and centimetres to measure and order lengths. Later in the term, we will look at grams and kilograms when learning about mass. It is important that the children continue to use TTRS to support their times table knowledge.

This term, we will be using our scientific enquiry skills to look at ‘Plant Growth.’ Hopefully, as the Spring sets in, we will be able to see flowers and plants growing around us in the community and link this to our learning at school.

This term we will be going back to a geography unit: ‘What is it like to live by the coast?’ Children learn about the physical features of the Jurassic Coast and how humans have interacted with this, including land use and tourism.

2.2

During this term, the children will spend some time unscrambling sentences, with a focus on editing their own work. This will also recap the basic skills of capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. The children will also practise writing a sentence that has been read out loud to them, this will include the Year 2 common exception words. We will then put these skills into practise when writing a set of instructions for George’s Marvellous Medicine.

Year 2 will continue to work on their phonics in reading and we would appreciate your continued support reading with the children at home. Let’s making reading magical!

This half term, the children will be visiting multiplication and division. During this topic, the children will learn how to make and add equal groups and then move on to arrays. We will focus on the 2, 5 and 10 times tables. During the lessons the children will also recap doubling and halving. Year 2 will continue to review place value, addition and subtraction including those all-important number bonds! We encourage the children to work on their times tables via TTRS.

During Science, we will be focusing on the topic ‘Life Cycles and Health.’ This will follow on nicely from our previous learning all about habitats, microhabitats and mini beasts.

Our next topic is ‘How Schools Were Different in the Past?’

This will develop an understanding that although schools have been in the local area for a long time, they have not always been the same. Children will identify historical similarities and differences; using a range of sources to recognise continuity between children’s lives past and present.

2.1

English: During the start of the Spring term, the children will be focussing on a set of instructions and a diary entry using George’s Marvellous Medicine as a stimulus. Here they will learn and review commas in a list, imperative verbs, a range of conjunctions and the use of apostrophes.

Year 2 will continue to work on their phonics in reading and we would appreciate your continued support reading with the children at home. Let’s making reading magical!

Maths: This half term, the children will be visiting Shape. Here we will look at 2D and 3D shapes and their properties. Later in the term, we will be moving on to money – counting money, looking at notes and coins and comparing amounts money. The children will continue to review place value, addition and subtraction including those all-important number bonds! We encourage the children to work on their times tables via TTRS.

Science: During Science, we will be focusing on the topic ‘Microhabitats’ – here, we look at where mini beasts/ invertebrates live and even make our own wormeries!

Topic: Our next topic is Why is our World Wonderful? This will be a geography topic. See our topic grid for some ideas to do at home.

1.2

Maths:

This half term, we will be moving on to focus on Addition and Subtraction. Within this unit, we will look at number facts, adding and subtracting to the next 10 and number bonds within 100. It is important that the children keep up their place value knowledge through lots of daily practice. We encourage the children to work on their times tables via TTRS.

English:

During English, we will begin by focussing on the story ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson. Using this text, we will look at sequencing, time conjunctions and past tense with an end outcome of writing a narrative. Later in the term, we will write set of non-fiction instructions and a setting description using ‘Owl Babies’. Year 2 will continue to work on their phonics in reading and we would appreciate your continued support reading with the children at home.

Science:

During Science, we will be studying ‘Everyday Materials.’

During this topic, we will explore different materials and sort them into groups. The children will focus on the use of different materials and the suitability of them for different purposes.

We loved preparing for the X-Factor competition and were very proud of ourselves for earning 'Most Theatrical Performance'!

We designed a pair of odd socks to show that everyone is special and it's good to be unique!

We made jam sandwiches to help us write a set of instructions.

Year 2 have really enjoyed preparing for their Christmas assembly with Miss Walker!

This term we learnt about Road Safety.

It was great to learn about the history of Allens Croft at the exhibition. We enjoyed finding photos of our teachers.

1.1

Maths:

English:

Science:

During Science, we will be studying ‘Habitats’. Children will look at different animals, where they live and why. The topic will cover hot and cold places making comparisons between them.

Year 2 Learning Blog 1.1.docx

2022-2023

3.2

English: This half term we are using a lovely video called 'Bubbles' as our stimulus for writing. The story of a girl who finds a magical bottle of bubbles on the beach that takes her on adventures will give us our ideas for narrative writing, character descriptions and writing different sentence types.

Topic: We are becoming explorers this half term! We will be learning about the lives of significant explorers in history, such as Matthew Henson, Neil Armstrong and Ibn Battuta. We will find out what makes a person significant to history and the amazing adventures these explorers had.

Maths - This term in Maths we will be focussing on statistics before moving onto look at position and direction. We will consider different languages to describe direction and the turns off objects as well as continuing our use of data collection in a range of graphs.

Science - We will look at different ways electricity can travel around a circuit and how it was invented. We will also consider how germs are spread and the impact Florence Nightingale had on the change in cleanliness.

3.1

English:

This term we have focused on retrieval, inference and prediction skills when reading new texts. We have used these skills to support in the fluency of our reading and understanding of a range of texts.

Maths:

This term we have looked at fractions and worked out how to find a half, quarter and a third of different values. We have also started to learn the time and have been practicing displaying the time on our clocks.

Science:

We have been learning about Isaac Newton to see how he discovered gravity and the transportation of light through transparent objects. We have enjoyed completing investigations in class to discover more about these theories and to see what happens for ourselves.

2022-2023

2.2

Maths

This half term, we will be looking at measurements, exploring length and height as well as mass. Throughout this unit, we will not only develop our ability to measure accurately using different units of measure (cm, m, g and kg) but also how to answer questions using that context.

Topic

This half term we are very excited to be learning about the Great Fire of London! We will be learning about the key events within the timeline of the fire, the impact it has had and the significant individuals associated with it! We are looking forward to learning about Mr Farriner and his bakery and Mr Pepys and his diary.

2.1

Maths:

For our Maths learning this half term, we will be looking at money and exploring how we can use our knowledge of place value to help us deepen our understanding. We will then be looking at multiplication and division, beginning practically sharing and grouping objects and moving on to abstract problems. We will be developing our knowledge of our 2, 5 and 10 times tables.

English:

We are going to be looking at the wonderful story of George's Marvellous Medicine this half term. We will examine the characters and build upon our previous exploration of adjectives to create character descriptions. We will then plan and write our own short story, using the framework of George's Marvellous Medicine as inspiration.

Science:

This half term we are looking at natural and man-made materials and how they are produced. We will be categorising different materials and their properties. This will then help us to identify what those materials should be used for - for example, if we want to make something waterproof, what materials would be suitable?

Topic:

We are looking at Geography this half term and have been building on our learning from term 1.1 - we are looking at maps again, but taking our learning deeper to understand the different types of maps there are and how they are used. We will then create maps of our local areas and use atlases to find significant locations in our country and beyond.

1.2

Maths:

English:

In English, we will be expanding our vocabulary by looking at adjectives and how we can use them to create exciting and interesting descriptions in our writing and to challenge us to write our own expanded noun phrases. We will be using the stories of The Gruffalo, The Highway Rat and The Stickman by Julia Donaldson to inspire our writing.

Science:

We are exploring animals and their habitats in Science this half term, looking at what different animals need to live. We will be connecting this to our previous Topic learning of the world by looking at how

different places in the world provide different types of habitats for different animals.

Topic:

Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot is our exciting and interesting topic this half term. We will be learning about the events that took place, what lead up to them and the conspirators reasons for their actions.

1.1

English - we are exploring language and vocabulary, writing about ourselves and all the wonderful things that make use special and unique. We will be using adjectives and conjunctions to add detail and depth to our writing, and creating whole class books. We will use time conjunctions to chronologically order a recount of a visual story.

Maths - we are exploring our knowledge of numbers - our understanding of place value in two digit numbers, correctly spelling numbers as words and being able to order and compare numbers and objects.

Topic - we are looking at the wonderful world we live in. We are naming the continents and oceans and looking at the different climates in our world!

Science - we have been discovering the growth and offspring of humans and animals. We have considered the things we need to survive and how our differences allow us to adapt to our habitats.

2021-2022

1.2

We thought about how we are unique and different to those around us. We talked about how although we are different, we all deserve to be treated with respect.

1.1

In English this half term, we have been writing about the Disney short film: The little boat. We have been learning how to use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, expanded noun phrases and commas in a list to write about the adventure that the little boat goes on.

In Maths, we have developed our understanding of numbers up to 100 and beyond. We have been partitioning adding and subtracting numbers within 100 and we have also been practicing how to count in 2s, 3s, 10s and 5s.

In Science, we have been learning about Animals including humans. We have talked about what living things need to survive, different life cycles and different habitats.

In Year 2P during PSHE we had a visit from an alien, Maz. We explained to him all about the different feelings we have. We had lots of fun acting out these different feelings. We read ’Gloomy Baboony’ and wrote postcards to him to make him feel better and cheer him up.