Cathcart Street Primary School

Year 2

Year 2 - Spring 1 2025

Welcome Back Year 2 and a new start to a new year. I hope you have come back ready to learn!

Our Year 2 team this year is as follows:

Mrs West, Miss Spence, Mrs Di Micelli (Wed - Fri) , Mrs Bennett (Mon - Wed) and Mrs Smith (morning classroom support)

CLOTHING: PLEASE can you make sure all your child's clothing and belongings are labelled with their names especially as we move into winter and the children start bringing hats, scarves and gloves. Thank you.

PE is on a Friday this half term. The children will need to come into school in their PE kit and please remove any earrings at home.

This half term our topic is Dance. The children will create and explore movements to resemble a given theme. The pupils will link movements together to create a short dance piece.

Reading

We will be having a big focus on reading this year. The children will have daily phonics lessons where they will build on their phonic knowledge. During these lessons they will read a book matched to their phonics group.

Shared reading

For our shared reading we will focus on the following texts:

Once upon a Wild Wood
The Glassmaker's Daughter
The Secret of the Tattered Shoes
A poems from the book The Owl and the Pussycat

During these lessons we will learn reading strategies and skills, comprehension skills, vocabulary and how to refer to the text.

Spellings

Spellings will be given out on a Monday and tested on the Friday that week unless there is a Bank Holiday and then they will be given out on the Tuesday.

Homework

Homework will be given out on a Monday and expected back the following Monday unless it is a Bank Holiday then it will be given out on the Tuesday.

English

Our text to start the new year off is the Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis. We will use this text to help us compose our own Finding Narrative and to write instructions.

Recognise and use symbols for pounds (£) and pence (p); combine amounts to make a particular value • Find different combinations of coins that equalthe same amounts of money

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Maths

For maths this half term we will focus on the topic of money and recognising and using the symbols for pounds (£) and pence (p). The pupils will learn to combing amounts to make a particular value and find different combinations of coins that equal the same amounts of money. The pupils will apply their knowledge of counting in 2's, 5's and 10's when counting coins to find a total. The pupils will solve simple problems in a practical context involving the addition and subtraction of money including giving change.

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For maths basic skills we will be learning from the Mastering Number programme.

Numbots

Pupils will be given a Numbots login which will be placed inside the cover of their reading logs. Children can access this in school and at home to play maths games and unlock new levels.

Science

This half term we will be learning about Uses of Materials and identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, rock, paper and cardboard. The pupils will take part in Working Scientifically lessons and perform simple tests to find the suitability of materials for a particular purpose.

History

Our topic this half-term is Medieval Castles. We will be learning about why castles were built and their purpose. The pupils will learn about William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Year 2 pupils will also learn about who lived in a castle and what their jobs were.

Pupils will learn about Motte and Bailey castles.

We are planning to go to the park to conduct some research as part of our Geographical Enquiry to answer the question: What do people use the park for?