Welcome to this edition of the Year 2 newsletter. Hope you enjoy reading it!
Literacy
In order to be in line with the new National Curriculum changes in the UK, grammar is taking a much more important role in our Literacy curriculum. As from June 2016, as well as the traditional reading comprehension tests, all Year 2 children will also be tested on grammar, punctuation and spelling (SPaG tests) as part of their SATs test.
So far this term some of the areas we have covered are:
Vowels
Alphabetical order
Using connectives
Nouns (proper and common)
Verbs – the verb ‘To be’, past and present tense of regular and irregular verbs
Pronouns (my, his, her, etc)
Punctuation (capital letters, full stops, commas, apostrophes and question marks) The children will have an assessment on grammar on Thursday 17th December and results will be sent home after the Christmas break.
One way in which you can continuously help your child with grammar is pointing out the different parts of speech as they write and also encouraging them to use a variety of vocabulary in order to enrich their verbal and written English.
Another new change to the curriculum is a greater emphasis on poetry. We have introduced the children to a variety of different poems and spoken about poets, verses and the length of each line. We have also looked at any rhyme that might be present in the poems. During our writing lessons the children have created a variety of different types of poems. They began by looking at ‘Calligrams’ and making their own calligrams on an assortment of words. Then they wrote their own shape poems, acrostic poems and had fun creating alliterative poems. Our gallery at the end of this newsletter shows some of the poems that the children have produced.
Numeracy
Our new half term began with Maths Day on 6th November, a day where Maths was taught in an even more fun and exciting way than normal. The children rotated around the 4 Year 2 classes and in each class they experienced different areas of the subject. Below is a brief outline of what was covered in each class.
Mrs Georgiou- the children were able to solve problems using money and shopping and were able to put different amounts in order and also compare prices.
Mrs Melis- Maths games were played which reinforced concepts covered as well as new areas. These games were played using dominoes, dice and playing cards.
Mrs Manias- 3D shapes were made using wooden skewers and playdough. This helped the children further understand the number of faces, edges and vertices of 3D shapes.
Mrs Savva- different applications were used on the ipads which tested mental maths skills, problem solving, multiplication facts as well as others. Below is a list of three of the apps that we used which you might like to download for your child to play at home. Please note that they are for apple ipads.
Math Splash bingo
AB Maths II
Quick Math
Match 10
Champions
Other good websites for you to use at home are:
www.topmarks.co.uk
www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/
www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/maths/ www.ictgames.co.uk
www.resources.oswego.org/games/stoptheclock/sthec1.html
This half term has seen us continuing with our Big Maths teaching. One of the main benefits of Big Maths, is that it helps us break down all areas of Maths teaching into small manageable steps which has made learning simpler and clearer for the children.
As well as the calculations area of Maths, we also need to cover other areas such as shape, measure, time and money. For the final two weeks of term, the children have been learning all about o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to in both digital and analogue times. Help your child at home by continuously asking them to tell you the time at certain parts of the day e.g. wake up time, dinner time, activity time, bed time etc. At a later date, we will begin to solve problems regarding time such as one hour earlier/ later and ½ hour earlier/ later than a given time. They will also be taught how to read the time in 5 minute intervals e.g. 10 past, 25 past etc.
‘Christmas with The Aliens’
At the time of writing this newsletter, the children are still on a wave of enthusiasm after having just performed their Christmas show to the parents. They have worked extremely hard learning their lines and also managed to add expression and action to their parts. Thank you to all the parents for helping to provide your child’s costume. A very special thank you goes to a small group of parents who had given their time and energy in helping make props and costumes for our children. These parents are Mrs Eliades, Mrs Stavrides, Mr Mitsi, Mrs Chrysostomou and Mrs Nathanael. We would also like to thank Mr
Thomas Mousoulides from Thomopol who kindly made our spaceship and palm tree free of charge. Thank you all!
Before you enjoy our photo gallery, may we wish you all…
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Holiday homeworkWe feel Christmas is a busy time for all families and there is a need for children to
refresh and recharge their batteries for the extra busy Spring Term. Homework
for the holidays is revision for our Numeracy test on Monday 11th January.
You have also been sent the recent Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 high
frequency words test.
Please spend time learning the words that your child got wrong so that they are prepared for a small test on random high
frequency words when we return on the 7th January.
Reminders
School starts at 7.45am.
All children gather in the playground where the class teacher then walks them into the classroom.
Lessons begin at 7.50am and any child later than this time might miss out on valuable teaching time.
If you arrive later than 8.05am, please inform the receptionist so that your child is marked in as late.
Please make sure that all school uniform, especially fleeces and jumpers are clearly named so as we can find them easily should they get lost.
Photo gallery
MONSTER
M
onstrous animals
O
ctopus looking
N
otice his eyes
S
peedy little thing
T
errifying everybody
E
nergy that never stops
R
ubbish eating!
Created by Bogdan and
Lucas
Year 2P
RAINBOWS
R
ainbows are colourful
A
fter showers they come
I
nteresting they are
N
atural beauty sent from God
B
aths they do not have
O
ften you can spot them
W
ings they don’t have.
Created by Milan
Year 2P
Christmas with The Aliens
Learning the time using fun interactive whiteboard games and clocks.