Welcome to Amur Leopard Class!
This year we have chosen class names of endangered animals in the hope to raise awareness and to help understand the environmental crisis our world is facing. With only around 120 adult cats left in the wild, the Amur leopard could be the most endangered big cat on Earth. The good news is, having been driven to the edge of extinction, their numbers appear to be rising thanks to previous conservation work.
For more information and how you can help, use the QR code below:
Amur Leopard Class is made up of 30 fabulous Year 2 children. Our class teacher is Mrs Ganguly and our teaching assistants are Mrs Salt, Mrs Dowthwaite and Mrs Leese. Every other Friday, we will be taught by Mrs Robinson whilst Mrs Ganguly has her planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time.
On our webpage you will find regular updates on our learning as well as useful information and important dates. Alongside this webpage, you will also have access to our class dojo where we will share regular updates with you so that you know exactly what we have been up to.
Messages from Mrs Ganguly
Hello,
Hope you all have had a lovely Easter break.
Welcome to our Summer 1 term and looking forward to longer days and hopefully more sunshine. We have a very busy term ahead of us dotted with exciting activities for our children.
In the previous half term, our history focused around the Life for children in Victorian Britain. Our learning continues into this term looking in greater detail at the children’s lives and education during this period. We will be having a ‘WOW’ day on Tuesday, the 23rd of April, which will allows children to learn from first hand experiences and fully immerse themselves into their learning. We will revert back to Victorian teaching styles; learning by rote, writing in chalk and completing specific drills in PE. The teaching staff will also try and get into character with a stricter element but obviously with lots of extra fun added in too! On this date, children are invited to come to school in Victorian style clothing. This could simply mean wearing a long dress or black/brown/grey trousers with a white shirt. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. We look forward to sharing this day with the children.
This term our outdoor PE lessons are on Mondays and our indoor PE slot will be on Thursdays.
Please don't hesitate to contact me on dojo or email if you would like to discuss / ask anything.
Kind regards
Mrs Ganguly.
Summer Term 1:
Dates for your diary:
- Wednesday 17th April - Parents' Evening
- Tuesday 23rd April- Victorian day for Year 2s
- Wednesday 24th April - Expert Group Afternoon
- Monday 6th May - Off school for May Day Bank Holiday
- Thursday 23rd May - Last Day of Summer 1
- Friday 24th May - Inset Day
Timetables
Our class book
We will continue our class text for this term is:
The Secret Diary of Jane Pinny, Victorian House Maid (and Accidental Detective)
This book is a fantastic balance of great characters and exciting plot, and packed with interesting, accessible historical facts from the Victorian era woven into the story. It’s FILLED with fascinating historical detail and Victorian trivia – and with a gripping story, a mystery to solve.
Jane Pinny has moved to the very grand Lytton House to be a Maid Of All Work. And being a Maid Of All Work means that she has to do… well, ALL the work, obviously! Cleaning, dusting, scrubbing, washing – there’s SO much to do in a Victorian country house.
But when a priceless jade necklace belonging to the lady of the house disappears, Jane turns accidental detective (with the help of her best friend, a pigeon called Plump…) – can she solve the mystery of the missing jewels before it’s too late?
Our other class book this term will be:
The Lion and the Unicorn by Shirley Hughes
Lenny, a Jewish boy living in London during the Blitz in World War II, must adjust to many changes and find the true meaning of courage when he is evacuated to a large mansion in the English countryside.
Spellings
Our weekly spelling test of Year 2 words takes place every Friday and our first spelling test this term will be on Friday, 19th April 2024.
Your child will also receive spelling practice and tests on words at their phonics level, which takes place throughout the week as part of their phonics lesson.
PE / Forest School
Our PE days for Summer 1 are as follows:
Outdoor PE - Every Monday afternoon
Indoor PE - Every Thursday afternoon
The indoor PE kit should include:
A plain red t-shirt (with or without the school logo)
A plain black sports jacket/zip-up jacket - please ensure these are named
Plain black or navy joggers or shorts (weather dependent)
If your child has long hair please make sure they have a bobble to tie it back in.
Our Summer 1 Curriculum
Maths: This term we will learn about time and data handling in our Statistics topic. Alongside this we will recapping all the maths we have done so far with a particular focus on SATs.
English: In writing, we will focussing on letter writing skills, writing with a stimulus and editing skills with a particular emphasis on spellings.
History: We will continue to look at the 'Life for children in Victorian Britain' and explore fun and interesting facts what was school and life like for children in that era and transport during that era.
Science: We will focus our learning on 'Plants' and observe them in our local environment. We will also be doing lots of investigations and experiments comparing plant growth in different conditions.
Art and DT: We will be focussing on textile art learning tie and dye techniques and also embroidery skills.
Music: Music that makes you dance – How does music shape our way of life?
Computing: Creating media- Digital Music
PE: Outdoor – Throwing and catching and Indoor – Net and Wall
RE: ‘Believing’ strand- How can we learn from sacred books?
PSCHE: ‘Growing up’ strand-including RSE (relationships and sex education).
Knowledge organisers and targets
Reading
Your child will receive a reading diary and a wallet containing 2 books. The first book is a black and white ‘storybook’ – this will be a copy of the book your child has learned to read in their Read, Write Inc phonics group. They will know this book and should be able to read it fluently – this is their book where they can show off their great reading skills to you! The second book is a ‘Book Bag Book’ – this book will be matched to your child’s phonics knowledge. Although they will not have read this book in school, they should be able to read it quite easily. This book enables your child to apply their phonic skills independently and for this reason, this is the book we encourage you to focus on at home.
Each child will also choose a book to share together at home. We promote a love of books and reading at school and would like to encourage this at home. We do not expect children to be able to read the sharing book themselves, but we do expect them to enjoy listening to it, learning from it and talking to you about it!
In order for our phonics teaching to work effectively, it is essential that all books are returned to school. After hearing your child read at home, or sharing a book together, please make sure all books go straight back into their reading wallet / bag so they are always readily available at school. Depending on their phonics group, children will be given new reading books every 4 to 6 days.
Please note: Some black and white storybooks have a space for the child's name. Please leave this blank as these are not personal copies, and will be re-used.
Finally, a reminder that we ask for you to hear your child read at least 3 times each week. Please sign your child’s reading diary after each read and include any comments you would like to make. If your child has read at least 3 times each week their name will get entered into our Reading Raffle!
