Class Teacher: Mrs Grant (Year 2 and 3)

Welcome back. We are looking forward to another fantastic year of 

'Learning and growing together'

 

Terms 1 & 2

Our enquiry is:  How did Brunel make a difference?

Our big themes are: Impact, Purpose, Inheritance

This term, the children will be exploring the big question: “How did Brunel make a difference?” To help us investigate this, we will work through a series of mini-enquiries: What is a Historian? Who was Brunel? What is an engineer? How did Brunel make Bristol beautiful? Who else made a difference? Through talk, looking at artefacts and maps and by visiting the Clifton Suspension Bridge, children will develop skills as historians and geographers.

Phonics 

Some children in our class follow the Read Write Inc. phonics programme. Children are assessed regularly and work in groups that closely match the sounds that they need to learn.

Families can support children at home by reading the books that are sent home multiple times across the week so that the children become fluent story-tellers. Children will also have a QR code for the current book that they are reading, which will be given to them on a Friday.

English 

Those children who have completed the RWI programme will be doing daily handwriting, first ensuring that letter formation is accurate and then beginning to join when children are ready. This term’s reading lessons are based on the books ‘Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes and Poems to perform by Julia Donaldson. These lessons will develop children’s retrieval skills and help them to understand new vocabulary. 

All children’s writing lessons will be based upon the books ‘The Dragon Machine’ by Helen Ward and ‘Tom’s Magnificent Machines' by Linda Sarah . These lessons will explore literary techniques as well as grammar, and will provide opportunities to create fiction and non-fiction pieces of work. 

Maths

Across the term, the children will develop their mathematical fluency and reasoning. We will work on place value and addition and subtraction (2-digit numbers – yr2 and 3-digit numbers – yr3). The children will have daily mastering number lessons. Families can support at home by encouraging children to complete short sessions on either Numbots or TTRockstars.

R.E

This term we will be thinking about ’What makes us human?’  We will be trying to answer these key questions:- 

• What makes us special?

• What is the soul?

• What do some people think makes us human?

• What is spirituality? 

• What do some Buddhists do to focus on the inner self?

• Does anyone know what makes us human?

P.S.H.E

This term we will be learning about families and friendships as well as courtesy and manners, change and loss, emotions, developing a growth mindset, healthy diet, looking after our teeth and gender stereotypes.
 

P.E

Our P.E days are Wednesday and Friday.
This term, we will focus on coordination, footwork and static balance on one leg. To apply these skills, we will be doing multi-skills and team-building games.

Science

As scientists, we will be investigating the ‘Uses of everyday material’. Children will learn to identify and compare the suitability of different materials. They will also learn how solid objects made of some materials can change shape by bending, twisting, stretching or squashing them. We will discuss how different materials can be used in more than one thing. We will also learn about the different properties of materials and why a certain material is suitable for its purpose.

Music

On Wednesday mornings, Somerset Music will join us to teach us Samba.

Design Technology

This term our focus will be cooking, particularly nutrition and a healthy, balanced diet. Children will learn about the different food groups, what makes a balanced meal, how to prepare ingredients and plan and create their own balanced sandwich/wrap.

Art

As artists, we will be focusing on painting and mixing media. Children will be exploring primary and secondary colours, using secondary colours for a purpose, using colour in different ways and applying colour mixing skills.

Computing

In our first unit, we will be learning about what a computer is and how it works, including its parts, inputs and forms of technology. Our second unit is creating media- stop motion. We will be learning about animation and creating one of our own. We will also build on our E-Safety, focusing on being safe online, posting online and recognising if posts are true or not.

Home learning

For home learning, children should be doing the following every week: 

• Reading as often as possible - ideally 10 minutes daily. Please make a note of which book and which pages your child has read (older children can do this themselves)

• Practising times tables on TT Rockstars (go into Garage to practise at the right level) 

• Spelling Shed - complete spelling games and assignments (specific words) set by the Kestrel team.

Numbots: https://play.numbots.com/#/account 

TT Rockstars: https://ttrockstars.com/

Spelling Shed: https://www.spellingshed.com/en-gb/

Children have logins for the websites above in their reading records. Please let a member of the Kestrel team know if the children need another copy of their log-in details.