Welcome.  This term our focus topic will be Explorers.  We will be studying some historical explorers to see how their knowledge and discoveries have shaped the world.  We will be looking at :

* Mae Jemison * Neil Armstrong * Christopher Columbus

Science

In Science we will be looking at 'Living Things and their Habitats,'  with a focus on how animals have adapted.  Children will be able to use their prior knowledge from the Autumn term to deepen their understanding.  We will also explore our school grounds to identify what animals and living things we can find!

English

We will continue our Explorers topic in English.  Our writing will be inspired by the book Oliver and the Seawigs by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre.

All children will have daily phonics or comprehension lesson, following the Read Write Inc. scheme.

To further support our English in Year 2, we will develop each child's handwriting.  We will following the new RWI handwriting scheme, inline with our school's handwriting policy.

Spellings will continue to be our focus.  The children will join in regular lessons following the RWI spelling scheme and build on their progress of learning the RWI Red words lists (high frequency words).

Mathematics

We will begin our term by learning about money.  Then by the 3rd week we will be looking at multiplication and division.

Following the NCETM initiative of Mastering Number, children will continue on this journey with daily lessons.  'Children's chances of success are maximised if they develop deep and lasting understanding of mathematical procedures and concepts.' (NCETM, 2025).

Please continue to support your child's learning journey and focus on counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s and develop this knowledge into times tables success.  Children can now access Times Tables Rocks Stars to improve their understanding.

Please also continue to look at properties of shape, which the children discovered last term.

Week 1

Maths

We have been learning to count money this week in maths.  The children are starting to improve with this important skills.

English

We have been looking at how we use an apostrophe in our writing for example

Oliver's rucksack.

This knowledge will help them during their writing this term as Explorers seem to need many items to explore!

We have also enjoyed the first few chapters of our new book.