Year 2 Curriculum Letter

Welcome Back

We would like to welcome you all to Year 2 and we hope you had a delightful Christmas! Each term, you will receive information about all the wonderful things your child will be learning so that when you ask your child the age-old question – ‘What did you do in school today?’ – you will already know the answer! We have such an exciting curriculum planned and we can’t wait to get started.

Music — Musical Storytelling!

This term in music, our project will be using instruments to tell a story. We will listen to fairy tales and explore how these can be performed. Children will learn how events, actions and feelings in stories can be represented through dynamics, pitch and tempo.

Key vocabulary: soundscape, dynamics, pitch, tempo

History — Icons — Grace O’Malley

This term in history we will be learning about the icon Grace O’Malley and why she is known as Ireland’s ‘Pirate Queen’!

We will travel back to the 1500’s to explore what life was like in the past.
Comparisons will be made between Grace O’Malley and Christopher Columbus.
At the end of the topic will be having a debate about Grace O’Malley’s significance as a pirate.

Key vocabulary: explorer, pirate, seafaring, transport, significance

Design & Technology — Templates & Joining

This term in D&T the children will be learning about textiles. They will have the opportunity to join fabric through a variety of techniques including sewing, stapling and gluing. At the end of the topic, your child will have the opportunity to design, make and evaluate their own fabric product!

Key Vocabulary: joining, fastenings, attach, finishing, secure

Art & Design — Expressive Painting

To begin the topic we will be exploring how artists like Van Gogh paint in expressive, loose ways to create paintings full of life and colour. The children will practise colour mixing and mark making to create an expressive painting.

Key Vocabulary: expressive, primary and secondary colours, brushwork, spiral, swirl, marks, shapes

Geography — What makes up the UK?

This term in geography we will finish looking at the characteristics of the UK. We will delve deeper in to each of the four countries by exploring size, population, physical and human features.

The children will also have the opportunity to go on virtual tours of each of the four capital cities. They will learn about all of their wonderful landmarks.

Key vocabulary: physical features, human features, capital cities, population, landmarks

PE

This term in PE, we will be covering the following sports:

Dance — The children will be learning how to move to a stimulus. We will be linking our dance sessions to our previous history topic of ‘The Great Fire of London’.
Hockey — We will use this to develop our invasion skills.

Religious Education — Salvation

This term in RE we will be learning about why Easter is important to Christians. We will be exploring what happened on Holy Week and how Christians may have felt on each day. By the end of the topic, the children will be able to retell the Easter story.

Key vocabulary: Christianity, Easter, Holy week, Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday

Science — Animals, including humans · Plants

To begin with, we will continue our learning from the previous term.

What do I need to survive?
What types of foods are there?
How much of each food type should I eat?
Why is exercise and hygiene important?

Key vocabulary: survive, Eatwell plate, hygiene, exercise

Our second topic will be plants.

How are bulbs and seeds similar/different?
What does a seed need to germinate?
How can I record the growth of a plant?
What do plants need to stay healthy?

Key vocabulary: germinate, seedling, growth, light, water

Homework

To support your child’s progress in maths, one homework sheet will be sent home every week. The questions on the sheet will be linked to the children’s previous learning. The more opportunities the children get to retrieve previously taught knowledge, the better able they are to apply the skills correctly!

Times Tables Rock Stars (TTRS) is a fantastic game for your child to practise their recall of key multiplication facts. Orca and Narwhal class will be having a competition to see which class has the most minutes played at the end of the term. The winning class will win a rockstar party! There will also be prizes for the children in each class for the most active rockstar. This will be revealed on Friday 13th February!

Please continue to read with your child at home daily, whether they are on Read-Write-Inc or choosing their own books. Sharing stories helps children to develop fluency, strengthen comprehension and develop a life long love of reading. Every page that you read with your child makes a massive difference to their progress.