The Year 2 Team:

Mrs Webb and Mrs Sandiford

Mrs Macdonald and Mrs Jacobs

Routines:

P.E. - On a Tuesday we have JB Sports coaches come to teach our P.E lessons; on these days we come to school in our P.E kit. Our P.E kit should be:

• Plain white t-shirt
• Black/navy shorts.
• Trainers or Plimsolls can be worn for PE lessons.
• Black/Navy tracksuit bottoms for colder weather/outdoor PE.
• Black/Navy tracksuit top for colder weather/outdoor PE.
• No Football/Sports shirts

Spellings – Spellings will be sent home on a Friday and they will be checked on the following Friday in a spelling test. Spellings will be practised daily in school.

Homework – Homework books are sent home on a Friday to be returned the following Wednesday this is to ensure there is enough time to mark homework and give children appropriate feedback and support where necessary. Homework is a mixture of a termly Topic piece and practical Maths.

At North Somercotes CE Primary we follow the Monster Phonics scheme to support the teaching of early reading.

What is Phonics?
The 26 letters of the alphabet and combinations of these letters make 44 speech
sounds in English. The 44 sounds (phonemes) are spelt by 144 different letter
combinations (graphemes). For example, the sound O is spelt 6 different ways: o
(no), o-e (home), oa (boat), ow (snow), oe (toe) and ou (though).
 

What is Monster Phonics?
Monster Phonics makes learning to read and spell through phonics easier, by
categorising the 44 sounds into 10 categories and each of these 10 categories are
represented by a Monster.  Each Monster is a different colour, and this colour
represents that way of spelling the sound.  This makes learning to read and spell
much easier and more fun.

Why does Monster Phonics improve learning?
The child learns through the assignment of colour and the linkage of the sound, as
well as seeing the colour, creating more ways of remembering the spelling.
The games, songs and activities within the programme continuously reflect this way
of learning, so that structure is constantly seen, heard and experienced by your child.
This consistency is critical in ensuring that a complicated language is learnt in the
most simplistic way. 

High-frequency words are learnt much faster with Monster Phonics. These words
make up 65% of the words used in reading.

1. Once colour-coded, high-frequency words can be taught in easy to learn sets
of similar words. This significantly improves spelling.

2. With colour-coding non-decodable words become decodable. Children are no
longer told that words like ‘they’ and ‘my’ are tricky as they can be decoded.

To find out more about how Monster Phonics works visit https://monsterphonics.com/how-it-works/

Reading

As part of our whole school phonics scheme, we will listen to each child read a Monster Phonics book in Guided Reading groups three times per week. On a Wednesday your child will bring the book home which has been read in their group for further fluency practise. A brief explanation of how to follow the activities is included in the books. Children will be able to feel confident about reading and will be able to read this book with fluency and speed. They will have a good understanding of this book and will be able to talk about it to an adult. Please record these readings in your child’s Reading Record. This book needs to be returned to school the following Monday.

For more information on how to support the reading of Monster Phonics books at home please go to: https://monsterphonics.com/guide-to-reading-monster-phonics-books/

In addition to this book, children will choose an independent reading book to take home as we encourage daily reading and reading for pleasure. This book is will be chosen by your child, they may require more or less support reading the book depending on which they have chosen. Please record your child’s reading in the Reading Record with any comments on understanding and fluency.

To encourage reading at home, each time your child reads their name is entered in a weekly draw where a small prize can be won. 

"Let your light shine so others may see the good that you do."

"Your light is in your heart." - Esther, Year 2

Spring I

“Time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters” – Margaret Peters

This term we are shining light on Mary Seacole.

Mary Seacole is a fantastic beacon of our values. With her caring generosity in the Crimean War, she save thousands of lives. She is humble, only receiving true recognision for her achievements long after her passing.

What can you find out about Mary Seacole in your homework? 

So far this term...

Maths -

In Maths we are continuing to work on Addition and Subtraction within White Rose Maths - you could practise your number bonds at home to strengthen you number fluency!

Power of Reading - 

Our Power of Reading text this half term is: 

Moth by Isabel Thomas

So far we have discussed moths, using lots of interesting adjectives. We have made moth feeders and written instructions to go with these. Next we will be posing some questions for us to research about moths.

History - 

In History we explored the important impact Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole have had in making hospitals the way they are today and influencing the training of nurses. We have compare the achievements of these nurses and discuss the recognition they both deserve. 

Art - 

In Art we will be looking at how we can create shade and texture using pencils, charcoal and pastels focusing on the artwork of Paul Cezanne.