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Year 2
Homework Letter – Autumn 1 2008
Dear Parents & Carers,
A warm welcome to Year 2.
This letter is to give you some guidance about how you can support your child’s learning in school at home.
Our topic this half-term is Health & Sport
The topic is Science- based, with a strong emphasis on healthy living and personal wellbeing.
To make the most of this exciting area of study, please encourage your child to carry out research at home by reading books, going to the library, using the internet, watching T.V programmes and to think about the following questions:
Healthy Eating:
- What is a balanced diet?
- What foods should we eat a lot of?
- What foods should we only eat in moderation?
- What are the different food groups called?
- Where do different foods come from in the world?
Sport, Exercise & Sleep:
- Why is it important to exercise?
- What happens to our heart and breathing when we do exercise?
- What sports do we enjoy?
- What sports have we seen on T.V or in a magazine?
Hygiene:
- Why is it important to keep clean?
- When is it important to wash our hands?
- How do we keep our teeth clean?
- What part does cleanliness play in food preparation?
Personal Safety:
- How do we keep safe at home and outdoors?
- Why is it important that children don’t play with medicine?
- What are dangerous areas in the house? = e.g. plug sockets, kettles, irons etc.
- Where is it safe to play when you are outside?
It would be great if the children brought in the information that they have researched and reported back to their classmates.
Websites
www.welltown.gov.uk
www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/index.htm.
Personal & Social
This term we will focus on New beginnings.
We have begun to think about what it means to be in Year 2 and the roles and responsibilities that devolve upon the oldest pupils in the school. On 26 September we will be holding elections for the school council. This is an opportunity for the children to have a say in how to help make our school community a better place to learn.
Literacy
In literacy this half term we are working on stories and instructions. Children will be encouraged to:
- Identify and discuss reasons for events in stories.
- Understand time and sequencing – e.g. what happens when?
- Link stories to own experiences.
- Read simple written instructions in classroom and simple recipes.
- Use models from reading to organise instructions sequentially – e.g. listing points in order.
Spellings
Your child will have spellings to learn both at home and in school each week. Spellings sent home in dictation books will continue on from the last set your child was working on in year 1. Please practice every day by reading each word to your child and asking him/her to spell back or write down the word. REMEMBER we use phonic sounds not letter names.
Children will be working on their weekly spellings in class by practising:
Look / Say / Cover / Write / Check
and by working with the TA during reading circuit.
We ask you that you continue to:
§ revise regularly all tricky, ie. phonetically irregular words received in year 1
§ hear your child read and read to your child every day – remember that reading like everything improves with practice
§ help your child write their full name, including their surname, using joined up, cursive script and capital and lower case letters appropriately
Mathematics – layered target (Counting)
Each half-term the whole school will be working on the same area of learning in numeracy. Targets for Year 2 for this half-term are as follows:
§ We all need to: say the number that is 1 or 10 more or less than any given number within the range of 1-30
§ If we try hard most of us should be able to: count on and back in ones or tens starting from any 2 digit number to 100
§ If we try hard some of us could: order whole numbers to at least 100 (or beyond) on a number line
Targets with children’s names recorded against the target they are working on are on display in each classroom.
Targets are aspirational; as children achieve one target their names are moved and they begin to work towards the next target. Targets may also be modified to meet the individual needs of higher attainers.
In mathematics we will also be working on:
§ reading and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers in figures and words
§ describing and extending number sequences
§ recognising odd and even numbers
§ using the greater than > and less than < signs
§ explaining what each digit in a 2 digit number represents including numbers where 0 acts as placeholder
§ recalling all addition and subtraction facts for each number to 10 and all pairs of numbers with totals of 20
What you can do to help
- Ask your child to add and subtract a variety of numbers verbally
- Practise using money with your child and telling the time
- Make and use a 100 square
- Ask your child questions – “What is 1 /10 more/less than….?” If I have 10 books and want to share them between you and me, how many do we get? It is crucially important for children develop the skill of applying their number knowledge to real-life situations
- Make groups or sets also known as multiples – e.g. 3 x 6 can also be described as 3 sets of 6 and children find it easier to see patterns practically before they can calculate in their head
- Cooking is a fabulous way to teach maths with weighing and measuring ingredients and timing the cooking process. It’s fun and children will want to be involved
D.T.
We will be planning and making a healthy recipe, choosing our own ingredients and modifying our plans to improve our recipes.
Art
We will be exploring colour, shape, texture, line through looking at natural objects. We will explore these using a range of media.
R.E.
In R.E we will be focusing on the question why should we be friends? by reflecting upon Christian and Hindu stories and the morals behind them.
I.C.T
At home why not practice some of the skills we will be working on in school. We will be focusing on word processing, using the space bar, enter, shift, capital, backspace. Also saving work and importing a picture into text.
Dates for your diary this term
Week beginning 22nd September: school council election week
Week beginning 20th October sharing work*
Week beginning 27th October half term holiday
Week beginning 3rd November One World week*
* - Letter to follow
PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT STAFF IF YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS ABOUT YOUR CHILD
The Year 2 team
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