Silver Birch Class - Year 2

Welcome to Year 2 and Silver Birch class. We have lots of great things to learn this year and are excited to welcome you back to school.

Please make sure your child has the following things in school:

an A4 plastic wallet for reading books/reading record
a bookbag (please no rucksacks as our cloakrooms are small)
a PE bag with black pumps inside (this will stay at school)
a reusable water bottle
a fruit snack for the afternoon

Please can children come into school in their PE kits on Monday and Thursday each week. They will need a red PE top, blue tracksuit bottoms (not leggings) and trainers.

Our classroom staff are:

Mrs Salkeld (class teacher)

Miss Andrews (class teaching assistant)

Mrs Houghton (class teacher for cover)

Mrs Goldsworthy (welfare assistant)

Things to do with your child

You can help ensure your child learns and practises key skills by doing the following every week:

reading at least 10 minutes, 5 times a week (this can be school reading books, online books or books at home, please log this in school reading record so your child can earn prizes and feel encouraged by the work they’re doing)
practise and learn spellings
complete and return homework tasks

We will update this list throughout the year as more appropriate tasks become relevant.

Our Autumn Curriculum

We have lots of rewards available for children to earn for behaviour and effort as well as brilliant work! We use ClassDojo where you can keep updated with any amazing achievements.

English - Our first topic will be reading the story The Way Home for Wolf and recapping various writing skills based upon the story. We will then look at letter writing through The Jolly Postman book and end the half term reading and writing poetry based on fireworks. After half term, we will read traditional tales with a twist including The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! and many others. We will end the term by learning how to read and write instructions and creating our own finger puppets based on twisted traditional tales.

Maths – During our first half term, we will be focussing on key skills to ensure a good understanding of maths vocabulary and methods. We will start with number and place value and then move onto measurement, looking at length and mass. Next, we will work on addition and subtraction skills and finish the half term looking at geometry, focussing on 2-D and 3-D shape.

Science – In the first half term, we will be looking at the human life cycle and how we grow. After half term, we will learn how we keep ourselves fit and healthy to support our bodies.

Topic – We start the year by studying Geography and learn about the weather. We will learn about how weather changes in time and in different places. The children will learn about weather reports and use their knowledge to do their own weather report.

After half term, we will change to a History unit and learn about the importance of Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole and Edith Cavell and the changes they made to nursing. We will take this up to present day and look at the NHS now and how important it is to us, especially over the last few years. If you work within the NHS and are happy to come into school to discuss what it is like in the modern day please contact us so we can set up a day for the children to meet you and ask pre-written questions.

Art – We will learn about how important line, paint and texture is when making artwork. To show this we will use the artists Picasso and Chaissac as inspiration for our own art.

Design and Technology – Towards the end of the term we will look at how to design and build a moving vehicle. We will take inspiration from the season and creative a festive treat.

Music – To the start the term off, we will learn about pulse, rhythm and pitch. We will learn that music has a pulse, a steady beat. Music is also made up of long and short and high and low sounds, called ‘rhythm’ and ‘pitch’. These elements combine when we sing and play. At Christmas, we will practise our singing and learn a variety of songs that we will perform for you.

PSHE – As it is the start of a new year, we will begin with the SEAL topic New Beginnings. In this we will think about how it feels to start a new school year and what we want to achieve during it. After the half term, we then look at Living in the Wider World and how we can be active in the world for the better.

RE – We are learning all about the Christian faith this term and asking the focus question- Does how we treat the world matter? We will look at things we can do to make our world a better place and how Christian beliefs line up with this. We will then look at the Christmas story and why Christians celebrate this important time of the year.

Computing – We will be going to the computer suite once a week and learning key skills to use the computers easily. We’ll learn about coding and how to create a simple coded activity. We then will learn about email and how to safely contact others using the internet.

Each half term we will have a week outside of the computer suite to learn about e-safety and how to be safe and look after each other while using the internet.

Meet the teacher 12th September

Thank you to all parents who came to meet me on Tuesday, it was lovely to see so many of you.

Below I have attached the slides from the meeting in case you wanted to recap anything.

meet the teacher 2023.pdf

Visit from Dylan's Reptile Time - June

This half term we are continuing to study habitats and are looking at microhabitats of minibeasts. We had a visit from Dylan from Dylan's Reptile Time where we saw and interacted with a variety of minibeasts and reptiles that eat minibeasts.

We learnt how they have adapted to their habitats and how they can protect themselves from predators.

Visit from Dylan's Reptile Time

Visit to local church - March

As part of our RE topic about Christianity and churches we walked to Christ Church and met with the Reverend. We looked for features that can be found in churches, learnt more about the Easter story and why it is important to Christians.

Back at school, we made our own churches out of Lego including features we knew should be in there.

Check out the pictures of the church and our Lego builds below.

Recorder Practise 30th January

The children showing their new noted A by playing Annie's Animals.

Our Summer Curriculum

We have lots of rewards available for children to earn for behaviour and effort as well as brilliant work!

English: We will begin the term by reading Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. We will look carefully at the characters in the story and describe the settings. We will write an alternate ending for our story. We will then be writing instructions. We will finish the term with some poetry - The Owl and the Pussycat.

Our second half term will begin with the story - The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch. We will then complete a non fiction unit about explanations and finish with a poetry unit reading poems about the seaside.

Maths: This term we will be revisiting many key skills including place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We will also be developing skills involving fractions, money, time, position, shape and measures.

Science: We will begin our Habitats topic with a visit to Blue Planet Aquarium in the first week of term. We will then be looking at a wide range of animals, learning about the habitats in which they live and how they may be adapted to this environment. We will also learn about simple food chains for a range of habitats. During our second half term we will be studying minibeasts.

Geography: Our topic in the first half term is 'Weather'.

History: The topic for the second half term is the Titanic.

Art: We will learn how to create art using collage. We will use a variety of materials including paper, card and fabric to create a collage representing an animal's habitat eg rainforest.

Design and Technology: In the second half term we will complete a unit of work using textiles. The children will design and make sock puppets.

Music: This term we will be listening to and appreciating pieces of music - The Firebird and Zootime.

PSHE: This half term we will complete work from the SEAL topic 'Changes'. After the half term, we will continue to work on these topics in our Health and Wellbeing topic.

RE: We are learning about the Hindu faith this half term and asking the focus question- How might people express their devotion? In the second half term we will look at Judaism and ask the focus question - What aspects of life really matter?

Computing: We will be going to the computer suite each week investigating how some simple games are created. Later in the term we will use our skills to research a topic.
At the beginning of each half term we will complete our e-safety lesson recapping how we can stay safe and behave appropriately online.

PE: Our PE days will be Mondays and Thursdays. Remember to wear your PE kits to school on these days. On Monday afternoon Lancashire Sports Partners will be leading our gymnastics lessons. Please bring a pair of pumps, in a school PE bag, for use during Dance and Gymnastics sessions. These can be left in school.

Wellbeing week

22nd February

Today we have had a wellbeing day as part of wellbeing week.

We did a yoga session this morning (see pictures below) and had a well-being carousel this afternoon including: making a hope cloud, mindful colouring and creating aboriginal artwork for our PSHE British Value Mutual Respect.

Friday 10th February - Year 2 Pirate Day!

We had lots of fun ending the half term with our pirate day. We did lots of activities including:

dressing up as pirates
making 'join my pirate crew' persuasive posters
going on a treasure hunt with a map
performing our pirate dance we've been learning
making (and eating) a pirate snack

We had loads of fun - check out our pictures below.

Safer Internet Day - 7th February 2023

We read a great story about internet safety from Childnet called Hanni and the Magic Window. We talked about what had happened to Hanni and who we could talk to if we had something similar happen to us. It was interesting to see how the internet was like a magic window that we all have in our homes. It can show and teach us wonderful things from around the world but we need to be careful using it.

We then drew our own magic windows with what we love to use the internet for. Lastly we wrote the top 3 things we used the internet for. Many of us wrote about watching shows, playing games and talking to family members.

Forest School -January

We had a great time with Mrs Dykes and Mrs Houghton in our forest school. We did lots of exciting activities including:

Looking at how the eco-garden had changed - we found some shoots as new flowers start to grow
Den building
Collecting items to make rafts with next time
Bird watching
Refilling the leaf compost pit
Searching for mini-beasts

Although the weather turned cold we have a great time in the forest school area. We learnt a new game of hide and seek where the seeker stays still and the closest person hiding wins. Mrs Salkeld found it really difficult to spot us so she starting counting really fast as we had to hide in a new space.

The children were brilliant and spotted lots of new things - check out our pictures.

Forest School -December

We had a great time with Mrs Dykes and Mrs Houghton in our forest school. We did lots of exciting activities including:

Looking at how the eco-garden had changed
Watching Mrs Dykes build a fire
Eating warm marshmallows
Den building
Creating winter art
Bird watching
Weeding the flowerbeds

We warmed ourselves around the fire and learned how to stay safe around our fire area. Mrs Houghton and Mrs Dykes cooked marshmallows and we enjoyed eating them.

As always the children were amazing and it was a lovely end to the year!