Welcome to Yr 2

1. Welcome to Yr 2 Aspen and Sycamore

2. Teachers in Yr 2 • Mrs Kirsty Williams • Mrs Louise Hampson • Mrs Maria Bennett

3. Teaching Assistants in Yr 2 • Mrs Diane Bryant • Mrs Susan Bruce • Miss Laura Bartram • Mrs Michelle Bailey

4. General Information • P.E. kit – t-shirt, trousers, shorts, daps or trainers • Milk – needs to be ordered either on line or by post – forms in office. • School dinners – menus are in the office. • Homework - Daily reading Spelling practise Maths game Termly Topic homework web • Bags and water bottles

5. P.S.H.E • This is the most important subject we teach! • It is a known fact that happy children are happy learners. • Our job is to encourage children’s learning through support, building self esteem and confidence and creating a happy environment through which they learn. • Jigsaw resources

6. Organisation of the Day Structured timetable. • Literacy, phonics, numeracy, science, geography, history, DT, art, P.E., P.S.H.E., music and R.E. covered in the week! • Differentiated work in all subjects according to the ability of the child.

7. Phonics • Basics for reading and spelling • Structured programme – 6 phases • Groups organised according to phases

8. Reading • Reading bands – regular assessments • Reading challenge in the back of yellow reading records. • Guided Reading – children are put into groups and share a text. Discuss text and answer questions. • Through the year we read many different genres: • fiction such as fantasy, traditional stories and adventure stories. • Non-fiction: instructions, explanations, dictionary work and recounts

9. Helping at Home • Techniques when helping with reading: • Use picture clues • Context clues – read ahead to find out what word could be. • Apply phonic knowledge • Helping more confident Readers: • Encourage fluency and intonation. • Developing comprehension skills and particularly deeper understanding of the text, using reasoning. Eg Why do you think that happened? • Share books with your child or read to them. Book talk is important, discuss the characters, what they think is going to happen etc. • Reading is not just about books – there are words all around us – encourage them to read instructions, recipes, newspapers, signs etc.

10. Writing • Important children learn to write in sentences using a capital letter and full stop. • Develop structure including joining words. • Encourage children to say what they want to write, then write, then read it back aloud so they ‘hear’ where punctuation should go. • Children learn to write in different genres e.g. diary, recount, instructions, narrative, non-chronological report, explanation and poetry.

11. SPAG – Spelling, punctuation and grammar • This year there will be a government implemented separate SPAG test. • We will be teaching grammar explicitly during English lessons. • Introducing vocabulary such as; Noun, verb, adverb, suffix, prefix, pronouns, adjectives, past and present tenses. You could help by correcting their speech if they say a sentence which is grammatically incorrect.

12. Spellings • Teach words which can be decoded phonetically and tricky words. • Weekly spellings will support sounds learnt in their phases. • Weekly spellings - children will be expected to practise their spellings at least 5 times a week. • How you can help? • Look, cover, write, check • Calling out the words in different order • Use rainbow writing • Sentences – using each word and encouraging punctuation • Oral testing – this is a different skill • We will be giving 5 spellings but testing on ten.

13. Handwriting • Charlie Writing – cursive print which enables children to join much easier. • Each letter has a story about Charlie! • All letters start from the line. • Children often do beautiful letters in handwriting but do not apply them to their work – it will come! • Handouts

14. Numeracy • Lessons sometimes begin with a mental starter. • Children encouraged to learn their number bonds first to 20 • Doubles of numbers • Counting in 1’s, 2’s, 5’s and 10’s • PLEASE help your child to practise writing their numbers at home. • We now have a maths at home book.

15. Apparatus In activities children are encouraged to use: • apparatus such as unifix , counters or place value cards. • A hundred square (very useful to spot patterns) • A number line

16. How you can help. • Ask your child to work out change in a shop or add small amounts together. • Play shop with them. • Measure quantities when cooking including weight and capacity. • Draw attention to measures on jars, tins and bottles. • Point out different 2-D and 3-D shapes. • Time – have a large clock in their room. • Quick fire 2, 5 and 10 times table questions.

17. Thank you! • Your support is valued greatly. • We are always there if you have any worries or questions. • Thank you for coming.