Welcome to Year 2 – Pearl Class!

Our Topic
Our exciting topic 'Global Gardens' will lead us to find out about famous people in History interested in the environment and consider the impact of their discoveries on our lives today.

History
In History, we will be studying famous people who have made significant contributions both nationally and internationally. We will learn about famous people interested in the environment including Charles Darwin, Carl Linnaeus and Nicholas Grimshaw, Architect of the Eden Project. We will learn about Anna Atkins Botanist and Photographer who created detailed botanical illustrations. In Computing, we will ask: What does a Botanist do? What tools do Botanists use? We will use the Natural History Museum website as a stimulus and we will ask an expert for answers to our questions.

Geography

In Geography, we will be exploring a contrasting locality overseas and discovering where our food comes from. The children will be asked to use a globe and an atlas to name continents and oceans and to locate rainforests around the world. We will explore gardens in the U.K. and compare them with gardens in other countries.

Science
In Science, we will learn about Seasonal Changes and Plants. We will learn about the lifecycle of seeds and beans and we will discuss what plants need to be able to grow. We will identify wild flowers and garden flowers and we will experience growing our own sunflowers. During Healthy week, we will be focusing upon the importance of exercise if we are to be fit and healthy. The children will describe the importance for humans of eating the right amounts of different types of food and hygiene.

English

Our Pathways to Write texts are 'The Last Wolf' by Mini Grey. We will read 'Fantastic Mr Fox' by Roald Dahl. The children will be looking closely at statements, commands, questions and exclamations, understanding the importance of sentence structure and the use of punctuation to demarcate sentences will continue to be a key focus in writing. We will focus on using the past and present tense correctly and consistently and we will use subordination (because, when, that). We will build up to writing our own diary entries and letters. In Spelling we will be concentrating on developing spelling rules when suffixes are added to a root word, ensuring we apply the rules in our written work.
The children will continue revise their spelling of the Year 1 and Year 2 common exception words.

https://www.ictgames.com/littleBirdSpelling/

Maths
Throughout the term we will deepen our learning through problem solving activities with money and use our reasoning skills to explain. We will be developing quick recall of the 2x and 5x tables. We will be concentrating on Fractions including halves, quarters and thirds. We will also learn about position and direction to describe movement and turns. We will use language such as 'forwards', 'backwards', 'up', 'down', 'left' and 'right' to describe movement in a straight line. We will write directions for given routes and record routes on 2D grids. 

Maths Online Games

Number names

http://www.maths-games.org/number-word-memory-to-20.html

Ordering numbers

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/countingCaterpillar/index.html

Addition Games

http://www.maths-games.org/adding-games.html

Times Tables

http://www.maths-games.org/times-tables-games.html

Place Value

https://ictgames.com/mobilePage/placeValue.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zsjqtfr/articles/z9w3g82

Art
In Art, we will explore painting and mixed media: Life in colour by developing colour mixing skills, learning about the work of artist Romare Bearden and creating textured papers using paint, children compose collages inspired by their exploration of colour and texture in the world around them. 

Music
In Music we will sing songs about the weather, in unison and in a round, and accompany with percussion instruments and then compose jungle music with symbols on a grid through the Down in the Jungle theme.

Design and Technology
In Design and Technology, the cooking and nutrition unit includes opportunities for children to learn about the importance of a balanced diet and use that knowledge to create a tasty wrap. 

Religious Education
In RE we will be discussing two key questions: 'Why are leaders, symbols and artefacts important to people?' and 'How do religious and non-religious families show they belong?' We will explore the roles of leaders in different communities and explain how different groups welcome babies.

Wellbeing

The children's wellbeing is our priority. We will also be developing our wellbeing toolkit and promoting self-regulation using The Zones of Regulation.

Physical Education

Cosmic Kids Yoga can be used for meditation and to try out a Yoga Session.
https://www.cosmickids.com

You can contact us at Pearl@stjamesaudlem.cheshire.sch.uk to share your adventures or ask any questions.

Click here to access Pearl's Purple Mash display board.