Welcome Penguins to Year Two. I hope that you had a lovely summer with your families and I am very excited to meet you all. This year you will learn lots of new things in exciting and engaging ways and I am sure that we will all have lots of fun along the way.

The theme for this first half term is 'Fire' The information below will let you and your parents know all about the learning that will take place.

English: The children will be learning through the wonderful story of The Dragon Machine by Helen Ward. They will have opportunities to write posters about dragons, information texts and information leaflets, explanations and instructions and descriptions of characters and settings. By the end of the unit the children will have begun to master the use of 

• co-ordination (and, or, but) to write compound sentences.
• writing most statements with accurate demarcation using full stops and capital letters (including proper nouns).
• how to correctly use question marks.

Read, Write, Inc: Phonics will take place daily, following the Read, Write, Inc. scheme. These lessons will incorporate learning phonics sounds, reading and spelling.

Maths: The current unit is addition and subtraction. By the end of the unit the children will have learned to

• recall and use addition and subtraction facts to 20 fluently, and derive and use related facts up to 100
• add and subtract numbers using concrete objects, pictorial representations, and mentally, including: a two digit number and ones /a two-digit number and tens / two two-digit numbers
• add three one-digit numbers
• show that addition of two numbers can be done in any order (commutative) and subtraction of one number from another cannot
• recognise and use the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction and use this to check calculations and solve missing number problems.
• solve problems with addition and subtraction: using concrete objects and pictorial representations, including those involving numbers, quantities and measures and applying their increasing knowledge of mental and written methods solve simple problems in a practical context involving addition and subtraction of money of the same unit, including giving change

Science: The children will be learning about to name and describe the properties of materials. They will learn to 

Observe closely how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.
Make some guided planning decisions.
Recognise when a simple test is unfair.
Make simple predictions (based on observations).
Explore by identifying and comparing the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass,brick, rock, paper and cardboard for particular uses.
Work Collaboratively to explore the world around me and ask simple questions.
Discuss through choosing ways to try to ask and answer questions.

History: The children will be learning about The Great Fire of London

Design and Technology: The children will be designing, making and evaluating their own wheeled vehicles

Religion and Worldviews: The focus will be on Christianity -  What is symbolic to a Christian?  Why do Christians use symbols in their faith?

Computing: This half term the children will be looking at E Safety and Internet Use. By the end of the unit they will be able to say:

• I can follow and understand school rules for staying safe online.
• I can say what information is personal and should not be shared online, with support.
• I can enter data into a computer/simulation game.
• I can navigate a website using links. I can find a website by following links set up by the teacher, by using 'favourites' or by typing into the address bar.
• I can use a search engine to search for given information to answer questions, sorting by text, pictures, sound and video.

Music: The children will learn to sing and play a song through the topic Musical Me. By the end of the unit they will be able to 

• sing/ clap a pulse increasing or decreasing in tempo 
• sing and play untuned instruments at the same time 
• sing and follow a melody by ear 
• play a melody from letter notation 
• choose an appropriate dynamics and timbre for a piece of music
• listen out for particular things when listening to music
• perform with others

PE will take place on Monday and Friday

Gymnastics: Floor

Plan and show a sequence of movements

Use contrast in sequences

Control movement

Think of more than one way to create a sequence which follows a set of ‘rules’

Work on their own and with a partner to create a sequence

Ball Skills

Use hitting, kicking and/or rolling in a game

Stay in a ‘zone’ during a game

Decide where the best place to be is during a game

Use one tactic in a game

Follow rules

Homework, Reading Books and Spellings:

Homework is a little different at the moment as it will all be set online. If there are any issues/difficulties accessing this at home please let me know and I can arrange for your child to use an iPad or laptop one lunchtime at school.  There is no need to hand any work in to the class teacher. For homework I will set weekly spellings online and provide you with two reading books for which you can keep for a week at home. Reading books will be changed once a week on a Thursday. Now that the children are becoming more fluent in their reading please re-read and discuss events, make predictions, encourage the use of expressions and character voices and check for understanding of inferred meaning as this is very important to aid children's comprehension and understanding from Year 2. Penguin class will change their books every Thursday so please make sure your reading book is in school that day. 

There is a star Icon at the bottom of this page called Homework where you can find your weekly homework tasks. You will also find the spellings tab below where you can play games and login to oxford owl to support your learning further.

Please let me know if you have any comments, questions or queries. I am also available at the class email address penguins@parkgate.cheshire.sch.uk

Mr Simon