1. Homework A weekly numeracy, literacy or topic- based task will be sent home every Friday and is due back the following Wednesday. The Half Term Homework Menu can be found in the homework book and on the Year 2 page on the school’s website. The children are given an opportunity to share their work to the class before the end of the half term. Parent-Teacher Surgeries We value the support you give your child. Please feel free to talk to us at the end of the day if there is anything about your child you would like to share. Our after school surgery is Wednesday and Thursday. The sign up sheet is in the cloakroom next to the ‘Collected by’ sheet. Clare Kerins and Keeley Rayner William Westley C of E Primary School Mill Lane Whittlesford, CB22 4NE office@williamwestley.cambs.sch.uk office@williamwestley.cambs.sch.uk 01223 832176 The children have made a wonderful start to Year 2 and are hard-working and enthusiastic. This leaflet outlines some of the topics and activities taking place during this term.

2. ICT After learning the skills and techniques needed to create pictures on the computer, the children will design and produce their own African art work. The children will be learning to organise and change the style of text and to present information in various ways. They will use these skills to produce their own information sheet. They will continue to study and practise internet safe ty. R.E. In R.E. we are learning about Islam. We look at daily life, the role of the family, how a Muslim prays and why Muslims are required to travel to Mecca. We also look at the role of Muhammad and the festival of Ramadan. P.S.H.E. We will be looking at our feelings and emotions. We learn how to be a good friend, how we can say no and maintain friendships and how to be a part of a wider community. This often involves role-play to help the children on the playground and in the classroom. P.E. Please make sure your child has a complete P.E. kit in school at all times including warm clothes and outdoor shoes. In gym we are looking at ways of movement using rocking and rolling motions. In outdoor PE we are improving our throwing and catching skills. Art The children will explore painting and printing designs inspired by African art. ‘Portraits’ is the theme in the second half of the term and will include drawing self portraits, looking at work by other artists. History and Geography The wonderful topic of ‘Chocolate’ allows the children to investigate where cocoa beans are grown, how chocolate is made and when it was first introduced to Europe. They will use maps and globes to compare and contrast the geographical features of England and Africa. During the second half of the term the children will focus on using a range of written and visual accounts to gather information about Shackleton’s expedition to the Antarctic. A trip to the Scott Polar Research Institute is currently being organised, details to follow. Science We begin by studying ‘Health and Growth’ and examine how to stay healthy and look after ourselves. After half term, we study ‘Grouping and Changing Materials.’ We will explore the properties of materials, investigate how materials change when they are heated or cooled and develop an understanding of the importance of a fair test. Literacy The children will be completing units of work on poetry, reading and writing instructions and stories with familiar settings. Phonics lessons will take place daily. We will focus on learning spelling rules, alternative phoneme spellings and suffixes and prefixes. Spellings will continue to be sent home every week on Monday (check bags) and will be tested each Friday. Reading - Group reading will take place weekly with an adult and your child will be heard to read individually once a week. Thank you for hearing your child read on a regular basis at home. Please write in their Home-School book as we greatly value your comments. Maths We will be continuing to develop the children’s understanding of place value, addition and subtraction, odd and even numbers and recognising patterns in sequences of numbers. The children will also have opportunities to collect data and make graphs. The children will be measuring the length and mass of items and exploring simple fractions in shapes and small numbers of objects. D.T. In D.T. we will design and make sledges, inspired by the journey of Shackleton. We design tests to see how well made they are and examine using a fair test.