Year 2

Hello Year 2
 
We hope that you and your families are well, and are managing to adapt to the new "normal" way of life. We are missing you all lots and hope to be back together again soon. Below you will find some information and resources to supplement your home learning over the next few weeks. You will notice that some tasks are continuations of last half term's learning, whilst some are new activities.
 
We know that being at home isn't the same as when you're at school - it can be hard to find a quiet spot, but just do what you can and don't forget to have fun too!
 
Thanks to all parents for doing what you can to continue your child's learning while balancing work or other responsibilities. It really will make all the difference to your child.
 
Spring Term Continued...
Below are some resources that you may wish to continue using from the Spring Term.
In English this half term, we would normally be focusing on a specific author. We would like you to pick a favourite author and explain why you like them. You might want to talk about their characters: What do you like about them? What adventures do they go on? If you have read more than one book by the same author, you might want to compare them: How are the books similar and how are they different? We would then like you to create your own book review. You could either write this or record your own video. The 'Litfilmfest' link below provides a great step-by-step guide to create your own review. We'd love to see your recommendations!
 
Many publishers and authors are currently offering their books online for free. There are also many hundreds of children's books available for free in the Amazon Kindle book store if you have a compatible device (phone, iPad or laptop).
 
This half term would also see us creating our own stories. In class, we would normally use strategies such as 'Talk4Writing' to help develop and organise our ideas. The attachment below provides a useful guide for you to try this at home. Again, we'd love to see your finished stories as we know how creative you can be!
 
 
Humanities
 
Our topic would be 'Poles Apart' and we would be answering the big question, 'What do I need for a trip around the world?' This unit focuses on weather patterns in the local area along with comparing weather in different parts of the world. We would also be naming the world's continents and oceans as well as identifying the poles and the Equator. You will find some fantastic PDFs below which will support your child in learning about these geographical concepts.
For maths, we would like you to focus on using the 'White Rose Maths' home learning scheme. This includes very useful video tutorials that closely match how we would teach the topics in class. You will find the link below, including PDF downloads of the accompanying worksheets for each week.
 
Week 5:
Lesson 1 Multiplication sentences using the × symbol
https://vimeo.com/418150502
Lesson 2
Use arrays https://vimeo.com/417922235
Lesson 3
The 2 times-table https://vimeo.com/417922431
Lesson 4
The 5 times-table https://vimeo.com/417922557 
 
Your teacher has assigned some activities on Mathletics that will consolidate the learning undertaken. We would also love each child to continue practising their times tables on Times Tables Rock Stars. The login details for these sites are in the Home School Diary.
 
 
In science this half term, we would be beginning our topic of 'Animals, including humans'. Over the course of the topic, we would: notice that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults. Find out about and describe the basic needs of animals, including humans, for survival (water, food and air). Describe the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different types of food, and hygiene. We invite you to use the Explorify website to discuss you child's prior knowledge. There are lots of engaging videos, pictures and activities contained within the 'Animals, including humans' section.
 
You may also want to use your daily exercise to spot animals in your local area, such as garden birds, mini beasts and pets. You could then discuss the differences between these animals' habitat, diet and behaviour.