Y2Curriculum letter Spring 2011

SPRING TERM 2011 7th January 2011 Dear Parents and children, Welcome back to Kew Gardens Base and to what promises to be another busy and exciting term! I hope that you had a lovely holiday and wish you all a happy and healthy New Year.

In Mathematics this half term we will be developing confidence in understanding numbers to 100 or 1000 and recognising hundreds, tens and units. We will be looking for number patterns and creating sequences of numbers so children will need to know odd and even numbers and be able to count on and back in ones, twos, fives and tens. Later in the term we will be using programmable toys to explore route making, turns and right angles, and then moving on to telling the time. As always we need to maintain a sharp focus on mental maths. You can really help your child with this by playing games encouraging quick recall of all addition and subtraction facts and number bonds to 10, and then 20.

Our topic this first half term is ‘Fire’. In our literacy we will be studying traditional tales and myths and legends about fire from different cultures. We will be retelling stories and further exploring the themes through music and drama.

In art we will be mixing paints to make hot and cold colours, we will look at famous paintings of fire and discuss the form and shapes artists have used. We will then create our own fire collages.

Our science will be based around materials and their properties. We will investigate how certain materials can be changed particularly through heating, burning and cooling. We will discuss which changes can be reversed and which cannot.

To develop our knowledge of history and our skills of historical enquiry we will research the facts of the fire of London. We will look at different eye witness accounts and discuss their validity. We will also look at the impact of the Great fire and its place in changing and developing both town planning and the fire service in this country.

As always we are concerned with promoting safety awareness and will be inviting a fire fighter in to talk about his job and discuss strategies for keeping safe from fire.

These websites are very good resources if you would like to research the Great Fire of London or Samuel Pepys with your child. www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/fire/ www.bbc.co.uk/schools/famouspeople www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/6-7/groupingmaterials.shtml

is useful in promoting discussion about different materials and their properties.

We will continue our Leap into Life daily exercise programme and children will also have lessons in gymnastics and netball. It is essential that children have shorts and t shirts for indoor activities and tracksuits or warm clothing and trainers for outside. We would be so grateful if everything could be named as items of clothing can get a bit muddled at changing time!

This half term our ‘Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning’ [SEAL] focus is ‘Going for Goals’.

The children will explore learning styles and find out how they learn best. They will then use this information to set their own goals in their learning or fitness and plan steps towards achieving their goals.

After half term the focus will be ‘Good to be Me’. This theme is about understanding our feelings as well as considering our strengths and weaknesses as learners. It aims to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in self-awareness, managing feelings and empathy.

R.E. this term will be finding out about the Jewish religion with a particular focus on Jewish family life. A visiting speaker will be giving a workshop where children can experience aspects of Jewish family celebrations.

In our Collective worship we will be exploring the value of Creativity.

Thank you to everyone for the enthusiastic response to our home learning activities so far. We have really enjoyed looking at and sharing the different ideas and approaches to the topics. We will continue this term to review books on Monday and set new challenges every Tuesday.

Spellings are also tested and new lists issued on Tuesdays.

Most importantly please continue to listen to your child read every evening, this need only be for 10 minutes. Some of this time can be spent discussing the text or re-reading passages.

Please can you record any reading that you do at home in your child’s reading record. Above all, these activities should be relaxed and enjoyable.

Don’t forget if you have any questions or concerns please do come in for a chat any evening after school.

All the very best for a wonderful New Year!

Mrs. Rees and Mrs. Thornton.