Year 2 Blog - Starling Class

The children loved the Great Fire of London workshop this week. This was such a wonderful experience to become immersed into the history of this famous, yet catastrophic event. Please take a look at some of the photos from the morning.

Please find attached this week's spellings for next Monday's spelling test (14.10.24). For this week, your child has a handwriting word search (to be completed independently) and a Maths revision activity to refresh their understanding of related number facts which shouldn't take your child too long to finish and complete (the majority of it) independently. As an extra challenge for more stamps, see if your child can creatively practice the related number facts from/within 20 using subtraction in their homework book however they wish.

Please have a look at your child's reading book for this week and encourage your child to keep revisiting it when they can. It's been great to see children are regularly returning their Challenge Tree book each week. These are changed every Friday, if needed, so please remind your child to bring back their book in order to pick a new one out. The challenge is to try and read all 50 storybooks before Year Three.  I have already set Doodlemaths tasks for this week and lastly, don't forget to keep on using Spelling Shed a few minutes at a time. 

Have a great week!

- Miss Jackson

Hello,

Just a quick update about the Partake experience coming up in October.

Please check Arbor to make payment so your child can enjoy the Partake drama workshop - this is an excellent opportunity for your child to join in with some really fun and engaging history, to dress up and find out about life in London a long time ago. So much so that I think they will think they are in 1666 when the Great Fire happened!

This is taking place on the 9th October. We are looking forward to start learning about this historical event, the children have already started asking when we shall be covering this in topic! 

Many thanks,

Miss Jackson 

In case you missed my last email, here is the PDF to the Beaumanor Hall Residential Letter for 2025.

Any questions, please check with either myself of the office.

- Miss Jackson

Please find attached the PDF to the Base One Meeting from Tuesday this week in case you missed anything or need to refer back to any key information. 

Any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Hello, 

It's almost time for the new term to begin! I hope you are all enjoying your summer holidays so far and are making the most of what's left before next week. In preparation, here is a blog with some information to help understand some of the routines expected in Year 2.

Each week on Monday afternoons, we shall have ‘Show and Tell’ to ensure the children can share any of their completed homework tasks or an out-of-school activity/club achievement they have accomplished that week.

Homework book – Due to really good feedback about homework books in the past and your dedication and hard work you showed in Y1, we shall continue these. Please return this book each Monday morning when your child comes into school. This will also help tie into our ‘Show and Tell’ afternoons as the children will have their books back in school in preparation. I shall then mark them and stick in activities for the next week. These will be sent back home with your child on Tuesdays. Don’t worry if you have a busy weekend and can’t do all of the activities every week but please bear in mind that I shall still collect them in on a Monday so that I can stick them in ready for the next week. There will always be a spelling activity, a short ‘Special Homework’ (which varies each week – this might be English / maths / topic or PSHE based or something your child needs to work on individually). Your child should also log onto doodle for Maths activities and to do regular reading. Each half term will begin with the topic menu overview – details on the page to help you. The subject and type of activity changes each half-term but overall these activities enrich what we are learning at school. Our homework tasks are really short and we feel helpful in consolidating what we are doing in school.  

As in Y1, your child will already have a doodlemaths account and so activities will be set regularly for them to complete on here each Friday ready for the following week to have a go at. Sometimes the objective will be returned to several times so you might recognise the assignments again. This is deliberate to help keep learning really fresh! Hopefully you find this a quick and fun way to practise key maths concepts. We certainly notice the impact of this in school. 

Spelling – Within the homework book, I shall print and stick in a weekly spelling activity which links to what we have taught in school that week. Again, returning to this helps children to learn and embed words so this will be helpful support. We touch on these words every day in class as part of our English learning and do daily activities, also. I shall then test your child on their weekly spellings (shared on Monday with the class) on the following Monday. (Our spelling overview for this half term will be on a separate blog post too).  I plan to share the first week of spellings w.b. 09/09/24 ready for our first spelling test  on 16/09/24.

EdShed / Spelling Shed – again, as your child will already have an EdShed account, they will be able to access the same words we have been learning in school. They can play fun games to further develop their spelling knowledge. We know children enjoy this and like playing games and learning. The words will swap over every Monday and children can access this unlimited. Therefore, even though the homework books will not be sent back out on the Monday along with the new spellings set for that week, your child will still be able to practice and view their new spellings via EdShed. Please let me know if you will require a new username/password if lost.

Reading is really important for your child’s progress and we hope this forms the main part of the work you do with your child each week. We will send home reading books each week linked to their phonic knowledge and encourage you to listen to your child read at least 3 times a week but more is fantastic. We use the Reading Journeys as you are used to from Y1 to record your reading at home. Reading Journeys will be provided very soon. New books will be handed out the first week back and on Tuesdays onwards. Therefore, any old books can be returned in the classroom in the ’class returns’ box in the reading corner. Challenge Tree reading books will be introduced this autumn to the children and these will be exchanged on Fridays as and when needed.

Star of the week - We have a lovely class hedgehog who will come to your house for a visit at some point this year for whomever achieves ‘Star of the Week’. We hope he behaves and you enjoy spending time with him.  Star of the week shall commence w.b. 09/09/24.

D.T. Day - We do have D.T. day coming up on October 17^th where we will be producing fruit kebabs in the afternoon. The children shall be learning about different chopping techniques to slice fruit and therefore, we would love it if you were available to join us in the afternoon from 1:15-3:15pm approximately. Please let me know if you can make it.

Please also see the separate blog for key information regarding this half-term’s spelling overview, knowledge organiser which shows our key learning, vocabulary and enquiry questions for our science topic and a ‘Curriculum Map’ which provides an overview of learning in all subjects for this term. Every term there will be a new blog post which gives an overview of these things.  

We have Forest Schools this half-term which will be on a Friday afternoon. Please ensure that your child brings back in waterproof trousers, wellies and a waterproof coat for this. This kit should be labelled clearly and kept on your child’s peg for them to access. We do love going out whatever the weather so children will need to be prepared for all weather conditions! Our P.E. days will be on Mondays and Fridays so please also make sure your child brings in their P.E. kits at the start of term (white t-shirt, burgundy shorts, trainers/plimsoles, jogging bottoms and jumper).

We look forward to seeing you at our Base One meeting on Tuesday 10^th September where we will give you some more information about our routines and curriculum. 

Please do ask if any queries come up,

Miss Jackson