If you have any questions, you can email Mrs Howe at d.howe189@middlestonemoor.durham.sch.uk
Welcome to Year 2
Our class teacher is Mr Howe and our teaching assistants who support us with our learning are Mrs Conlon and Miss Nutter. We work collaboratively with the mixed Year 1-2 class so you may also be supported by Mrs Porthouse too!
We start our morning with a ‘Flash Back 4’ which includes four maths questions based on concepts we have learnt before. Completing these each morning allows us to apply our existing knowledge of the Maths Curriculum, embedding this knowledge in our long term memories. We discuss our answers and share the different strategies we have used to solve the problems.
After registration, we have a 45 minute English lesson which includes a mixture of learning basic skills in punctuation and grammar, reading a range of texts and stories and also applying our skills in our independent extended writing. We let off some steam by joining in with a ‘Wake Up, Shake Up’ before moving to our next activity. Learning to read and spell is vitally important at this stage which is why we have a 45-minute phonics session every day after our English session. We follow a programme called ‘Sounds-Write’ to teach the children how to read and spell. These sessions include a range of different reading and spelling based activities including word building, reading, writing and dictation. Reading books are closely matched to what is taught in these sessions. Each Thursday and Friday morning we have an assembly in the hall. We especially look forward to our Friday awards assembly when our ‘Class Star’, ‘Good Learner’ and ‘Head Teacher’s’ awards are announced! At 10.30, we have a well-deserved break for 15 minutes when we play outside and have fruit as a snack.
When we return from playtime, we wash our hands before returning to the classroom. This is when we have our Maths lesson. We use the ‘White Rose’ planning and resources and our lessons include ‘Varied Fluency’ activities when we practice applying our basic skills progressing to ‘Reasoning and Problem Solving challenges. Lunch begins at 12.00pm and we eat alongside our friends in the hall and spend the second half of our break playing outside.
After lunch, we begin the afternoon with a 30 minute whole class reading session or phonics session. We then enjoy lessons from the wider curriculum including Science, History, Geography, Computing, Art and Design, PSHCE, RE and PE. Currently, our PE day is a Wednesday so the children need to come to school dressed in their PE kits (earrings must be removed for safety reasons!) Throughout the afternoon, we will allocate some ‘IPad’ time for the children to complete some of their Lexia minutes. Lexia is an online reading based programme which supports children with their reading and spelling. This is also accessible from home and ideally we like the children to spend 40 minutes per week completing their Lexia tasks. If you have any difficulties accessing the programme at home, please do not hesitate to get in touch and we will try and resolve any issues. We also listen to the children read their reading books at least once per week in school – please make sure that reading folders, books and diaries are in school every day.
As the day draws to a close, we have a calming handwriting session followed by a ‘Polysyllabic Words’ session which is a focussed spelling session. We end the day by sharing our class story and announcing who is our ‘Champ of the Day’. Our ‘Champ’ is someone who has stood out for all of the right reasons that day. The champ is awarded with a medal to wear in school the next day and a trophy to display on their desk.
Home Learning books are sent home each Friday which contain high frequency words to practise reading and spelling at home. High frequency words are those which appear often in texts and are often tricky to read and spell. These words are customised for each individual child and once they can confidently spell those in their diary, they will be given new ones to learn. A very important part of the curriculum is learning our 2, 5, 10 and 3 times tables. Please use the ‘TT Rockstars’ website to practise these which can be accessed both at home and at school. This is a highly motivating game which supports the development of times table facts.
Reading books are changed every Friday though please remember to have these in school every day so that we can listen to the children read in school too (as mentioned above.) Try and read as often as possible at home (5 times per week would be fantastic!). Please sign your child’s diary every time they read at home (no more than once each day). We will not sign the diary when we listen to children read as we keep our own records in school. You do not need to read the entire book every time, little and often works best so even a few pages every night would have a great impact. When your child has read and had their record signed 70 times, they will be able to choose a book to keep as a reward.
We love hearing about what the children enjoy doing outside of school to share their experiences, achievements and successes. We have allocated some ‘sharing time’ every Friday afternoon when the children can share any experiences or news with the class. In order to reduce things being brought in from home, you may email me with any photographs/information which I will happily share with the class.
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