Year 2
English Overviews
Reading Overview

Mathematics Overview & Support
We are proud to work with the Maths Hub for 2020 - 2022 to develop a matery approach when teaching mathematics.
Topics & Overviews
Muck, Mess & Mixtures
Topic Description
Weβre warning you; this is going to get messy!
This half term, weβll have a messy morning to investigate mixtures, from paint and toothpaste to jelly and shaving foam. Weβll enjoy the story of Georgeβs Marvellous Medicine and write recipes, leaflets, lists and stories of our own. Weβll use our science skills to explore everyday materials, investigate soap products and understand why mixtures freeze and melt. Weβll learn how to measure using scales, measuring jugs and cylinders accurately. Weβll taste a wide variety of foods, learn about healthy eating and follow recipes to make some yummy treats including pizza and ice cream! Our artwork will also rely on our mixing skills. Weβll use marbling inks to make unusual patterns, create food landscapes inspired by Carl Warner, paint with ice cubes, model clay into exciting shapes and use a variety of materials to make mixed media collages.
At the end of our project, weβll turn our classroom into a gallery and invite you to view our exhibition. Weβll arrange images from the project into a PowerPoint presentation and demonstrate our messy science investigations. Weβll also design and create our very own mud kitchen to play in. Yuck!
Help your child prepare for their project
Muck and mixtures can be messy and magical! Why not make a variety of fun recipes to reveal how mixtures can come together and change? Trifle, gooey cookies and bread would all be good to try. You could also invent a new soft drink. Mix, shake and stir a range of fruit juices, cordials and sparkling water together and taste each one. Pick the best and give it a groovy name. Alternatively, try making different bubble mixtures to see which make the biggest bubbles!


Topic Overview
Knowledge Organiser
Beat, Band, Boogie
Topic Description
Left, right, left, right, here comes the marching band!
This half term, weβll be stepping in time to the beat and learning all about music. Weβll listen to a music ensemble, identify pulse, rhythm and pitch, and move in time to the music. Leading and following instructions will help us make percussion instruments and weβll also design our own. Weβll learn nursery rhymes including The Grand Old Duke of York and read the story of The Little Tin Soldier. Our bodies will turn into instruments as we try to master the art of body percussion. Weβll learn lots of new songs and write lyrics and tunes of our own. Weβll listen carefully to different sounds outdoors, test our sense of hearing and find out how far different sounds can travel.
You will be invited to our special music and movement event at the end of our project. Practice will hopefully make perfect when we perform our songs and dances with confidence.
Help your child prepare for their project
Music is a universal language. Why not listen to a wide variety of music together? Make a list of the music you have enjoyed, and share it with others. You could also watch clips of brass bands online and listen to the sounds of different instruments. Alternatively, take a βsound walkβ around your local area. Listen for vehicles, voices and natural sounds to appreciate the background noises we often take for granted.


Topic Overview
Knowledge Organiser
Magnificent Monarchs
Topic Description
In the Magnificent Monarchs project, your child will learn about English and British monarchs from AD 871 to the present day and consider how the power of the monarchy has changed over time. They will study six significant sovereigns; Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria and the current monarch, Elizabeth II. Finally, they will choose which of the sovereigns that they have studied is the most significant.


Topic Overview
Knowledge Organiser
Wriggle & Crawl
Topic Description
Put on your coat and wellies and letβs head outside on a minibeast hunt.
This term, weβll head to a wetland or woodland to identify minibeasts in their natural habitat. Weβll write a guide book for other children to use on a minibeast hunt, draw sketch maps of our minibeast hunting area and create minibeast stories and poems. Heading out into the local area, weβll explore trees and bushes to see what lives there, investigate how far and how fast a snail can travel and create a minibeast habitat of our own. Weβll draw delicate sketches of minibeasts, make models from a variety of materials and use microscopes to observe minibeasts up close. Our ICT skills will help us create a minibeast animation and weβll observe a beehive through live webcam footage.
A special assembly at the end of our project will give us the chance to share our knowledge. Weβll create a PowerPoint presentation, use scientific vocabulary to explain what we have learnt, display our artwork and perform our minibeast poems with musical accompaniment.
Help your child prepare for their project
Minibeasts are fascinating. Why not have a minibeast hunt around your local area? Look out for different minibeasts, take close-up photos and use an app or spotting book to identify any unknown creatures. Alternatively, visit a local museum to see if they have any insect specimens on display. Huge moths, colourful butterflies and armoured beetles are all amazing to see. You could also invent minibeasts of your own. Draw, paint or make models of new minibeasts, then give them a name and describe their special features.


Topic Overview
Knowledge Organiser
The Scented Garden
Topic Description
Letβs tiptoe through the tulips together and discover the sights, sounds and smells of the garden.
This half term, weβll visit a floristβs shop or a garden centre. Weβll find out how to look after plants, ask the experts questions and appreciate the flowers. Weβll write an information book about plants, follow instructions, enjoy the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and write stories of our own. Discovering our green fingers will be fun when we plant and tend a pizza garden of herbs. Weβll also learn about the different parts of a plant and create our own βplanting and growingβ action rhyme. Our senses will help us describe and sort a range of smells and weβll make beautifully scented products. Weβll look closely at a wide variety of plants, create detailed, observational drawings and press real flowers to use in collages.
At the end of our project, we will have become plant experts! Weβll create a presentation about plants, share the information books that we have made and design a fantasy garden.
Help your child prepare for their project
Gardens are so special and are an excellent place to visit together. Why not take close-up photographs of flowers and use a plant identification app or spotting guide to find the name of each plant? You could also buy some wild flower seeds and watch them grow. Alternatively, bake recipes containing fragrant herbs and spices! Cheese and chive scones, cinnamon biscuits and lavender cake are all delicious!


Topic Overview
Knowledge Organiser
Coastline
Topic Description
In the Coastline project, your child will use maps to learn about the location of the worldβs seas and oceans and keys to learn about map symbols. They will also find out about the directions on a compass. They will learn about the human and physical features of a coastline, including the effects of erosion and how to stay safe when visiting the coast. They will have the opportunity to learn about the work of the RNLI, what happened to the SS Rohilla and about the coastal town of Whitby, including how Captain Cook is linked to the town. They will research the tourism industry and consider what features make a place a successful tourist destination.


Topic Overview
Knowledge Organiser
Religious Education - Love To Celebrate!
We look at six celebrations from across the major religions of the world.
Sikhism
Anand Karaj
Before a Sikh wedding, the bride and groom may have a Kurmai engagement ceremony and receive a ring. Gifts are exchanged and many special preparations are made in the days and weeks before the wedding.
On the morning of the wedding, the bride and groom's family meet at the Gurdwara and share food before the ceremony. The Sikh wedding ceremony is called the Anand Karaj. The Granthi leading the service recites prayers and hymns and the bride takes hold of a scarf that the groom wears over his shoulder. Four wedding hymns, called Lavans are said and then sung. After each Lavan, the couple walk round the holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, which is witnessing their marriage. They also bow to the Guru Granth Sahib to show they agree with the readings. The Lavans act as the binding promises or vows.
Many Sikh weddings are followed by a reception where there is plenty of fun, food and dancing.
Islaam
Jumu'ah
Jumuβah are Friday prayers. Before Jumuβah, many Muslims wash, put on perfume or aftershave and dress in clean clothes. Just after lunchtime, worshippers meet at the mosque to say special prayers and listen to a talk by the Imam. The importance of saying Friday prayers is mentioned in the Qurβan and Muhammad called Friday the best day.
Christianity
Christmas
Christmas is a Christian festival that marks the birth of Jesus Christ, over 2000 years ago. It is celebrated by billions of people around the world. Christians call the period before Christmas, Advent. The word Advent means 'coming' and is the time when Christians wait to celebrate the arrival of baby Jesus and think about the second coming of Jesus that they believe will happen in the future.
At Christmas time, Christians might attend special church services, remember the nativity story, buy gifts for loved ones, eat special food and spend time with family.
Christmas is also hugely popular secular celebration and traditions and stories that don't mark the birth of Jesus are popular.
Buddhism
Losar
The Tibetan Buddhist New Year holiday, Losar, starts on the first day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar, which is usually in February.
The celebrations last between three and 15 days and are a mixture of early Bon traditions and later Buddhist traditions. Tibetan Buddhists may perform rituals and dances to ward off evil spirits, present offerings to Buddha's shrine and hang up new prayer flags during Losar.
Losar is also a family time when people clean their houses, wear new clothes, come together to eat, share in the traditions of the festival and spend time together.
Judaism
Hanukkah
Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights that is celebrated every autumn in November or December. The festival celebrates the victory of Judah Maccabee and his Jewish followers over the Syrian Emperor Antiochus and the miracle of the lamp, which burned for eight days in the regained temple in Jerusalem, even though there was only enough oil for one day's light.
Lighting the Hanukkiah, playing the dreidel game and eating fried foods are Hanukkah traditions that help Jews to remember the story of the Maccabees, the lamp in the temple and the importance of religious freedom.
Hinduism
Navratri
Navratri is celebrated for nine nights and 10 days. Hindus worship a different form of the mother goddess Durga every day, including Lakshmi (the goddess of good fortune and wealth) and Saraswati (the goddess of wisdom). In India, clay statues of Durga are placed in homes, temples and street shrines during the festival. On the tenth day (Dussehra) the statues are paraded in the streets and put into water to disintegrate.
Navratri is a time for new, colourful clothes, good food, dancing and families. However, it is also a time to fast, worship the goddesses quietly and take part in puja ceremonies every day. Navratri is also celebrated as a harvest festival. Many Hindus plant nine different grains at the beginning of the festival to celebrate a good harvest.
P.S.H.E - Personal Social Health Education (Including Relationships & Sex Education)
We follow six key themes in P.S.H.E. that are taught at the same time across the school, below is the specific theme covered.
Being Me In My World
Hopes and fears for the year
Rights and responsibilities
Rewards and consequences
Safe and fair learning
environment
Valuing contributions
Choices
Recognising feelings
Celebrating Difference
Assumptions and
stereotypes about gender
Understanding bullying
Standing up for self and
others
Making new friends
Gender diversity
Celebrating difference and
remaining friends
Dreams & Goals
Achieving realistic goals
Perseverance
Learning strengths
Learning with others
Group co-operation
Contributing to and sharing
success
Healthy Me
Motivation
Healthier choices
Relaxation
Healthy eating and nutrition
Healthier snacks and sharing
food
Relationships
Different types of family
Physical contact boundaries
Friendship and conflict
Secrets
Trust and appreciation
Expressing appreciation for special relationships
Changing Me
Cycles in nature
Growing from young to old
Increasing independence
Differences in female and male bodies (correct terminology)
Assertiveness
Preparing for transition