Autumn Term 1

Reading

In Autumn One, the concept for Reading is ‘Comprehension’. During this 3-step learning journey, the Children in Year Two will increase their familiarity with a range of fictional stories (including key stories, fairy stories and traditional tales). They will build upon their Year 1 learning and will learn to discuss, explain and retell a range of a wide range of stories at a level beyond that at which they can read independently.

Writing

The children will revisit from Year One their sentence writing knowledge and skills. They will build upon what they already know by learning that sentences serve different purposes. They will learn that a statement gives information and uses an end mark called a full stop. The children will learn that a question needs an answer and ends with a question mark. They will learn about exclamations being used to express strong feelings and the use of exclamation marks for effect. They will learn that a command gives an instruction, and uses an imperative verb. During each step, the children will complete various pieces of extended writing to apply their new knowledge and skills in different contexts, but they will continually revisit how each sentence type has been used in a range of Paddington Bear stories, as well as in their golden piece. Once the children understand how a range of sentence types can be used effectively within narratives, they will use Boxing Clever to plan, draft, write, edit and publish their own aeroplane themed Paddington Bear adventure story to read to a child in Year One.

Maths

An essential starting point for the children’s Year Two maths understanding is place value. Our Year Two children need to develop a deep conceptual understanding of number and place value, in order to be able to apply their knowledge to solve other calculations efficiently and develop mathematical fluency. During this Autumn 1 maths learning journey the children need to know that numbers in the number system increase in value. They need to know what each number is called, how to read and write it and what it represents. The children will be working with numbers to 100 and therefore need to understand the place value of each digit in a two-digit number (tens and ones). The children will explore this through the use of concrete apparatus, pictorial representations and through more abstract ways, in order to embed learning and enable them to use what they know to solve problems.

Children will develop skills such as: comparing, ordering and estimating numbers. They will learn to use the signs <, > and =, together with the language: estimate, more, less, more than, less than, fewer than, number, numeral, digit, equal to, fewer, most and least. They will learn to find ten more and ten less than any number, by using their place value knowledge and they will learn to partition numbers into different combinations of tens and ones. The children will also learn about shape. They will revisit their Year One shape knowledge to name and identify common 2D and 3D shapes. The children will then build upon this to learn more about properties of shapes, including sides, lines of symmetry, edges, faces and verticies.

Spellings

This half term, the children will be learning different spelling patterns and techniques to help them remember their spellings.

These will include:
• /j/ sound spelt ‘dge’, ‘ge’ or ‘g’
• /s/ sound spelt with a ‘c’
• /n/ sound spelt ‘kn’ or ‘gn’
• /r/ sound spelt ‘wr’
• /igh/ sounds spelt with a ‘y’
• ‘tion’
• /sh sound made by an ‘s’

Science

This half term in science, the children will begin by learning about materials. They will learn to identify a variety of everyday materials and compare their suitability for different tasks, before exploring how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.

History

The Year Two History learning journey begins with the concept of Chronology. The children will learn about the Wright brothers and Amelia Earhart, in order to identify where these people and associated events fit within a chronological framework. The children will use the context of air travel to identify similarities and differences between different historical periods and build upon what they already know about changes within living memory.

Geography

The children will begin the year by learning about simple compass directions. They will then use this new knowledge to I am learning to Name, and locate the 4 countries within the United Kingdom and its surrounding seas.

Design and Technology

This half term, the children will be researching and investigating existing glove puppets. They will explore and compare fabrics, joining techniques, fastenings and finishes ready to create their own in Autumn 2.

RE

In RE this half-term, the children will learn about bread as a symbol. This learning will be contextualised by building upon their Year One knowledge of Harvest, whereby the children will learn how Christians use bread as a symbol at Harvest.

RSHE

This half term, the children will learn about respectful relationships, both within school and in their home lives.

PE

Using the Real PE scheme, the Year Two children begin the year by working on the personal cog in PE. During this learning journey, the children will learn resilience if they don’t succeed the first time and will begin to challenge themselves in their own learning, while developing key footwork and static balance skills. The children will have opportunities to consolidate their learning within the personal cog through their Real Gym work, during which they will develop their balance and travel skills.

Music

The Music this half term focusses on dynamics and tempo. Children will listen to different pieces of music and identify loud and quiet parts of them as well as fast and slow. They will then use their knowledge of these terms when singing songs and playing instruments. They will be able to sing/play at different dynamics and tempos in a piece of music which they compose.

Computing

Computing this half term focusses on the domain of Information Technology. As with all learning journeys, the children will begin by learning how to keep themselves safe online. They will then go on to explore the concept of information technology and how this is used in the wider world.