Dear Parents,
Welcome!!
Mrs Giddy and I are really excited about starting our new adventure in Year 2 and although changing year groups is always a daunting experience for the children, at least I can totally sympathise, as this year it’s all new for me too!! With that in mind, I thought I would drop you a line to explain a few things about the coming year.
Topics
This year we have designed the curriculum so that the objectives of the national curriculum are met through a much more topic based and child centred approach. Because of this, I have been able to plan units of work which (I hope!) will both excite and inspire the children.
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Autumn 1st
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CAN’T COOK WON’T COOK
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This topic all about food and cooking.
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Autumn 2nd
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Dinosaurs!
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Spring 1st
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HAVE YOU GOT THE X-FACTOR?
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A project all about famous people – musicians, sports personalities, kings and queens, politicians and other inspirational people from history
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Spring 2nd
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This unit will be all about the capital city and it’s history – only the most gruesome bits of course!
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Summer 1st
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TO INFINITY AND BEYOND
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Space!
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Summer 2nd
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THE QUEEN VIC
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We will be learning all about the Victorians and what it was like to be a child at a Victorian school. Ahhh, those were the days!
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Obviously if you have anything you think may be relevant to any of our topics at home, please bring it in!!
The children have been given a book based on the colour bands passed to me by Mrs Deakin. Please be aware that although your child may be able to read the books they have been given fluently, in year two the teaching emphasis is very much on the comprehension as opposed to the decoding. I will stick a copy of the criteria for each colour in homework diaries so you can help your children develop the skills they need at home. Although the children are getting older now, it is still incredibly important to hear them read every day. Practise makes perfect! As the children are now the top of Key Stage 1, it is important for us to encourage them to become more independent in order to prepare them for being Juniors next year so your child will be expected to change their own reading books when they need a new one. This can be done either before school, after school or at break or lunch.
Spellings & Numeracy Practice
As of next week, I will be setting spellings to be learned at home, along with some maths practice. This will consist of number bonds, times tables, doubling and halving etc. I will set these on a Monday and then test the children the following Monday. The spellings will be based either on our class work, or on the words mis-spelt in your child’s books. If your child brings home words that appear to you very easy, it may be that they just require a little more reinforcement at home to make sure that they are spelling them correctly consistently in their work.
Homework Diaries
We will be using the homework diary predominantly as a reading record. Please could you write a comment in the appropriate day every time you hear your children read and then sign the bottom of the page at the end of every week. Any extra homework (this will mainly be simple topic based research) will be added sporadically as well. If you have anything to let me know, please feel free to write in the communication section of the page, but please be sure to instruct your child to show me, as I cannot guarantee I will get a chance to look at every homework diary every day.
SATS
As you are no doubt aware, year 2 is the first SATs year and these tests will take place throughout May. Please try not to take your child on holiday during this month as it will be difficult to make up the time. I just want to stress to you that these tests are really nothing to be worried about. They are merely to provide us with a measure of the children’s attainment and what needs to be done in Key Stage 2 to help your child progress further.
Swimming
We are swimming this term with Year 3. You will be receiving a letter about this very shortly!
Painting Aprons
During the spring clean I had during the summer, I disposed of Year 2’s supply of particularly disgusting painting aprons! I would be really grateful if you could provide an old long sleeved shirt or similar for your child so I can TRY to keep them clean in art lessons!
PE Kits
It is really important that the children have their PE kits in school all the time as I never really know when we might get the urge to go for a run about outside!
As a part of the new Wider Curriculum, it is suggested that children be given opportunities in both sustainable development and enterprise. As a result I am starting an ongoing project with the class in which we will turn the outdoor area into a market garden/small holding. The idea is that the children will fundraise to get the project started, and then get the area to a point where it pays for itself by growing and selling produce. This is going to be a massive undertaking so if any of you have any old gardening equipment, pots, seeds or plants going begging, we would be extremely grateful for donations! You will receive more information as the project develops, but in the short term, I may be looking for able volunteers to come in for an afternoon to do a spot of digging to help us create our vegetable patches!
“Fluffy” the Dog
Firstly I would like to stress that the name was NOT chosen by me! “Fluffy” is going to be our ongoing Geography project. The idea is that he should visit as many places in the country (or even the world!) as possible in order to give the children a much greater understanding of where places are. I would like to be able to send Fluffy home with every child at some point during the year so that he can accompany them on an adventure somewhere which your child can then come back and tell us all about it and locate it on our big map display which we will build up as the weeks go by. It could be somewhere as local as Evesham, or as far afield as
Come in ANYTIME!!
If you have any queries, questions or if you just fancy coming in to have a look round, please feel free to do so at anytime. I will always make time to see you. When clubs begin I will be unavailable between 3.15 and 4 on Thursdays and Fridays, but pop in any other time or give me a ring. Forgive me if I don’t recognise some of you, but I have been confined to Key Stage 2 for the last 4 years so I am a little out of touch… so feel free to pop in and say hi!!
There will be a week just before half term when you will have an opportunity to come in and have an individual chat about how your child is settling into year 2.
Looking forward to a super duper year!
Best Wishes,
Kaytie xxxx