South Wellfield First School

Spring Term 2016

Year 2 Newsletter YEAR 2

AUSTRALIA

Our main topic for this half term is AUSTRALIA! We will take an exciting journey down under, exploring the historical roots and culture of Australia! We will investigate the geography of the land and sea, making comparisons to our home in the North East of England. We will explore and experiment with Aboriginal painting and drawing techniques and we will have a dabble with traditional Australian music. Many of us dream of a real life visit to Australia, so if you or others you know have been to Australia, we would warmly welcome any information and artefacts.

LITERACY In Literacy we are reading, analysing and writing our own instructions, We will use “Talk for Writing” to help us with this. Children will also explore characters and settings from traditional stories from Australia. We will develop and practise a wide range of literacy skills, use drama, explore grammatical correctness, develop reading comprehension skills and regularly practise joined up handwriting.

PE Alongside our weekly lessons from the specialised sports coaches of Access Coaching , children will be embarking on a fun series of lessons to develop the physical skills specifically needed when playing invasion games. We aim to continue to develop children’s sporting values and to embed their appreciation of an active, healthy lifestyle. We ask that children have PE kit in school all week. Please clearly label all items of uniform and PE kit. Spellings are given out weekly and tested weekly.

Remember, although a spelling test can be a useful way of monitoring progress, the real “test” is how well children apply spelling rules in their everyday writing. Reading. Children will read as a group twice per week , with reading homework set 3 times per week. Homework will be set every Friday and should be returned by the following Wednesday. Maths: Please refer to the letter in their homework book for ways of helping with maths at home. Grammar and punctuation: This is part of the new SAT tests.

COMPUTING We will be learning about computer programming. On 21stJanuary each class will receive a half day’s training in our ICT suite to explore Lego WeDo. This software enables children to create Lego models that can be programmed to move and make sounds. The children will be making various models including a model crocodile, incorporating sensors that allow the crocodile to be programmed to open and close its jaws.

SCIENCE In Science we will be finding out and describing the basic needs of animals (including humans) for survival. We will learn about the importance of exercise and nutrition and that animals have offspring that develop into adults. We will link this to our topic and study some Australian animals. To work scientifically we will be observing, measuring, asking questions and suggesting ways of finding answers. A reminder that you are invited to our class assembly on Wednesday 3rd February at 9.10 am. PLEASE COME AND TALK TO US IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR QUERIES.