Welcome Penguins to Year Two. I hope that you had a lovely Christmas break with your families. 

The theme for this half term is 'Pirates'. The information below will let you and your parents know all about the learning that will take place.

English: The children will be learning through the wonderful story of The Pirates Next Door by Jonny Duddle. They will have opportunities to write character descriptions of pirates including questions to the pirates, write descriptions of imaginary treasure islands using noun phrases and expanded noun phrases, write a mini recount (diary write) about a day in the life of a pirate and write the complaints from the residents write messages to go in bottles to the pirates from the residents/Matilda to say thank-you/sorry.  By the end of the unit the children will have begun to master the use of 

• commas to separate items in lists
• writing statements, questions, exclamations and commands appropriately. 
• use of exclamations marks for effect 

Reading: Reading or Phonics will take place daily, following the Read, Write, Inc. scheme. These lessons will incorporate learning phonics sounds, reading and spelling.

Maths: The units covered will be Multiplication & Division, Statistics, Properties of Shape and Fractions. By the end of the unit the children will have learned to

• recognise, make and add equal groups
• multiply using different methods by 2, 5 and 10 e.g. arrays, pictures
• share and make groups equally
• divide using different methods by 2, 5 and 10
• recognise odd and even numbers
• use tally charts, pictograms and block charts.
• recognise, name and describe 2D and 3D shapes using mathematical language

Science: The children will be finding out about the life cycles of plants and animals 

Geography: The children will be finding out about Mexico and comparing it to life at home.

Art: The children will be developing their skills in printing in a Pop Art Style.  

Religion and Worldviews: The focus will be on 'Judaism'  

Computing: This half term the children will be looking at Word Processing. 

Music: The children will learn to sing and play tuned and untuned musical instruments linked to contrasting landscapes - city, countryside and seaside. 

PE will take place on Monday and Friday

Rugby Tots and Gymnastics

Homework will continue to be set every Friday. It will be set on Google Classroom and should be returned by the following Friday. MyMaths is an online site that is used for some maths based activities from Year 2 to 6.

Reading books will be changed every Friday. Please ask your child lots of questions to develop their comprehension as this is very important at Year 2. 

Any questions please let me know either at the door, make an appointment or via email at penguins@parkgate.cheshire.sch.uk

Mr Simon