Topic Summary
Would you rather live in the United Kingdom or China?
Get your plane tickets at the ready, Year 2 are flying to China! The children will explore the landscape of China and see what the similarities and differences are between places in the UK and the other side of the world. They will think about human and physical features of these two places, as well as their very different weather patterns!
The topic will conclude with a debate about where they would most like to live, and why.
In the topic we will be teaching the children the following key concepts:
- Respect – Why is it important to respect different countries and their cultures?
- Tradition - How do our traditions compare to those of other cultures?
- Identity – How important to our identity, is the place we call home?
- Comparison – What can we learn from making a comparison between The United Kingdom and China?
Visits / Experiences
- Monday 10th November - Theatre Production of Sleeping Beauty
- Friday 14th November - Children in Need Children
- Friday November 28th - Author visit from Philip Kavvadias
- Wednesday 10th December - Christmas Fayre
- Friday 12th December 2:45pm - Year 2 Carols
- Tuesday 16th December - Christmas Jumper Day and Decorations Day
Subject Information
English
We use two traditional Chinese tale “Dream of a Butterfly”and “The Great race” to explore the range of objectives detailed below. In December we will be using “Kid Christmas” by David Litchfield as our Christmas text.
- They will continue to practise punctuation we have already learned (full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks and question marks). The children will also introduce new punctuation such as commas for lists, apostrophes to show when words have been shortened and apostrophes to show possession.
- They will learn how to write different types of sentences, for example, statements, exclamation sentences, commands and questions.
- They will continue to practise using our descriptive writing by adding adjectives in front of nouns to form noun phrases and adverbs with verbs.
- The children will practise using the present and the past tenses correctly and consistently, ensuring the appropriate tense is chosen to match the meaning and intention behind the sentences.
- They’ll continue to introduce and practise a wider range of conjunctions in order to extend our sentences (for example or, and, or but) as well as conjunctions to vary our sentences (for example, when, if, that or because).
- We will increase our stamina for writing by practising speaking out loud, sentence by sentence in order to ensure our writing is carefully thought out.
- We will check our writing carefully, re-reading to check it makes sense, looking out for mistakes, for example in spelling and punctuation.
- We will think carefully about who we are writing for (our reader) and try to match our writing to suit this. We will also practise reading our work out loud, altering our voice as we do so in order to use expression.
Key Texts
- Dream of A Butterfly
- The Great Race
- Kid Christmas
Maths
This half term we will focus on addition and subtraction. We will use practical resources and pictures to build our understanding as well as working with numbers alone. We will:
- Ensure we can recall and use addition and subtraction facts up to 20 fluently.
- Use facts we know to derive facts up to 100.
- Add and subtract two-digit numbers and 1s.
- Add and subtract two-digit numbers and 10s.
- Add and subtract 2 two-digit numbers.
- Add 3 one-digit numbers.
- Understand that addition can be done in any order but subtraction cannot.
- Recognise the connection between addition and subtraction.
Science
This half term the children will be looking at Humans and what we need to maintain good health such as: exercise, diet and good hygiene (including looking after our teeth).
The children will also investigate the properties of materials. They’ll identify, name and group a variety of everyday materials based on their properties.
Geography
We will review our place in the world, zooming out to explore the poles and find China. The children will then compare the UK to China, focusing on human and physical features and weather patterns. They will identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the equator / North and South Poles. The children will conclude with a debate about where they would most like to live and why.
PSHE and Music
In PSHE the children will will continue or work on relationships, looking at the roles of different people in our lives as well as how we can respect those around us and ourselves.
During our music lessons, the children will be learning about rock and roll music from the 1950’s. They will be using their voices expressively to sing and perform “The Rockpool Rock”. They’ll play unturned percussion instruments with a steady beat. Towards the end of the term the children will be listening to a live rock band. We will also learn a range of traditional Christmas carols and modern Christmas songs.
Art
In Art this half term the children will learn to create and mix their own colours using the 3 primary colours. They will be looking at the artist Jackson Pollock, focusing on warm and cold colours. They will use the artist as inspiration for their own textiles work, applying different techniques to fabric including Brusho dye and tie dye.
Computing
In computing the children will look at data handling. We will use the international space station to explore a range of different means to read, understand and use data. We will learn how important data and information technology is to support human development.
If you would like any further details about this half term's curriculum in Year 2, please speak to your child's teacher.