HCH Year 2 Curriculum Overview - Spring 2024

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Year 2 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Year 2 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Contents Art Ballet Découverte du monde Drama English FLAM & French Forest School Harmony Maths Music Science PE PSHE

Key contacts Susie Byers Head of Prep sby@hchnet.co.uk

Rebecca Dauncey Year 2 Tutor rda@hchnet.co.uk

Year 2 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Art In a co-curricular project to reinforce their learning about the extreme environments of the North and South poles, the children will be learning about Ernest Shackleton and his attempt to be the first to lead an expedition across the Antarctic.

The children will make art in response to the story, first creating characters to represent the crew who he selected, then drawing the ship and kit that he needed for his expedition. Students will end the topic by using mixed media collage to create their interpretation of the harsh environment which the explorers encountered.

Ballet This term students will continue to work on their Royal Academy of Dance Primary syllabus. We will build on the foundations learnt in the autumn term and continue to develop our musicality, technique and performance in readiness for our assessment at the end of term.

Achievement with heart.

Year 2 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Découverte du monde History In history this term the children will be looking at the significance of Commonwealth Day, Easter and ‘Fish Day,’ in France. They will be finding out about who Joan of Arc was and as part of Science Week they will be researching Amelia Earhart and the first aeroplane flight.

Geography As part of their geography lessons they will be studying the Earth and its representations, recognising the four cardinal points. They will identify the S & N Poles and situate the Earth’s equator, identify cold & hot areas in the world in relation to the Equator & North & South poles (linking climates and landscapes), identify & name the 6 continents & the 5 oceans, use world maps, atlases & globes to identify the UK & its countries. They will then move on to naming, locating & identifying characteristics of the 4 countries & capital cities of the UK & its surrounding areas. Finally they will situate France & discover Versailles and also discover the countries of Madagascar, Russia, Germany, India, Ethiopia, Spain, Peru, Canada, Japan & Finland - situating them on a map & knowing their flags & capital cities. Throughout this term’s learning they will use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to key physical features, including volcano, vegetation, season & weather.

Drama Space: This unit students will explore a range of topics relating to space: exploring space, rockets, astronauts, planets and aliens. The first half term focuses on movement while the second half term relates to the history of space travel.

Achievement with heart.

Year 2 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

English This term we are continuing our work with ‘Read, Write, Inc’ where the children will be learning and practising phonic sounds each day during English lessons. They then apply these with both reading and writing in rigorous, consistent and high-quality teaching and learning tasks, based on the books they are reading in their group.

Reading Read, Write, Inc. Appropriate to every individual pupils ‘challenge level’ to enable maximum progress.

Assessed half-termly and data used to inform groupings.

Weekly Reading Comprehension Key skills focus: decoding, retrieval, understanding vocabulary.

Reading for Pleasure Weekly 1:1 reading with a teacher & 1:1 reading with an older peer Writing (Read, Write, Inc) Children write sentences based around the book they are reading each week. They practice ‘hold a sentence’ where the teacher tells the children what to write and they use their phonics knowledge to sound out each word. They proofread a sentence and practice finding mistakes and correcting them. Finally, towards the end of the week, the children compose their own sentences to write about a given topic.

Genre

Focus Texts

Assessment Focus

Written outcome

Fiction - Stories on a theme (stories about the wild)

Fox by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks The Tin Forest by Helen Ward and Wayne Anderson The Whales’ Song by Dyan Sheldon and Gary Blythe

Noun phrases and conjunctions of subordination and coordination

Write a story set in a ‘wild’ place.

Non-fiction - Information texts

Follow the Moon Home. A tale of one idea, twenty kids and a hundred sea turtles by Philippe Cousteau/Deborah Hopkinson The Usborne Big Book of Sea Creatures by Minna Lacy

Description writing- using powerful adjectives and verbs

Write a biography

Poetry- Poems on a theme (monster poems)

It’s Behind You! Monster Poems

by Paul Cookson and David Harmer

Revise grammatical terminology and expand noun phrases.

Compose a poem based on one read in class

Fiction - Traditional Tales and Fables (from other cultures)

Hansel and Gretel by Anthony Browne Baba Yaga by Tony Bradman

Identify different types of sentence and study subordination and coordination.

Write a traditional tale.

Non-fiction - Recounts (animal diaries and recounts)

Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French

Explore conjunctions and the correct use of present and past tense

Write diary entries in role.

Poetry - Humorous Poems

Aliens Stole My Underpants by Brian Moses

Revise adjectives, nouns, verbs and use suffixes to create nouns.

Compare poems, write, and perform their own poems.

Spring 1

Spring 2

Achievement with heart.

Year 2 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

FLAM (Français langue maternelle) This term the pupils will keep on improving their reading and writing skills.

They will learn different ways of writing new sounds, read and understand documentary texts, learn poems, , read and answer questions about stories including “Une soupe au caillou” from Anais Vaugelade. They will develop their writing skills by building on the texts we are reading with tasks such as writing the description of a character from the story or imagining what a character will do next.

The pupils will also continue the study of phonics as well as how to write individual letters. They will begin to learn to classify words by learning to recognise nouns, then pronouns. They will also learn to differentiate first the masculine and the feminine and then the singular and the plural.

To keep expanding their vocabulary and add complexity to their expression they will learn key words throughout the term (près, par, bien, chez, mais, et, pour, car, plus, jamais, alors, bien sûr …)

French The pupils will work on their French listening, reading, speaking, writing and grammar. During the half term the pupils will learn new French vocabulary through the unit 4 and 5 of Les Loustics. The topics will be the animals' names, habitats and body parts. We will explore animal idioms using both avoir and être. We will also learn vocabulary about indoor and outdoor activities, music instruments, sports and equipment's and our free time hobbies. The pupils will also develop their cultural knowledge by listening to French stories, by watching different authentic audios and videos and sing songs.

They will develop pleasure in reading and understanding by learning how to read and discovering new sounds ce, ci, ç [s], e=è [ɛ], gn[ɲ], ill/y [j] and introduction of ail, eil, aill, eill, through the alpha’s method. They will apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words and simple sentences.

Achievement with heart.

Year 2 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Forest School In Forest School the children will be focusing on Birdwatching in the first half of term. In the second half of term we will be focusing on learning through Storytelling.

We will also be celebrating all of the cultural celebrations including Chinese New Year, Valentines, Pancake Day, etc.

Harmony (Sustainable Thinking) These lessons are designed to teach children about the Principles of Harmony in Nature and the importance of keeping this harmony in balance. The Principles of Harmony are Interdependence, Natural cycles, Diversity, Adaptation, Health, Geometry, and Oneness. The subject is explored by students through inquiries of learning, reading, and discussing stories, explorative walks in nature, and creative activities. These questions are linked with their syllabus content each half-term and learning is interdisciplinary with Art, Maths, English, and Science subject knowledge development.

This term’s theme will be Nutrition.

Spring 1: Interdependence Inquiry Question: How do animals and plants obtain their food?

Students will explore the food chain and learn about the importance of protecting ecosystems to ensure their natural and healthy operation. They will learn to identify the names and sources of food for different plants and animals in their local environment.

Spring 2: Cycles Inquiry Question: How do plants grow and thrive?

Students will explore ecosystems in depth and how they rely on one another to survive. They will learn about the basic needs of plants and develop an understanding of the sequence of events and their relation to each other for a plant to be able to grow and thrive.

Achievement with heart.

Year 2 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Maths This term pupils will explore the themes of money, multiplication and division, length and height, and mass, capacity and temperature.

During the unit on Money the children will count amounts in pence and pounds, make and compare amounts of money, calculate money, and solve problems involving finding change. For Multiplication and Division, the children will learn to recognise, make and add equal groups, use arrays, grouping and sharing, doubling and halving, and practice times tables. In the unit of Measurement, they will learn how to measure accurately in centimetres and metres, as well as comparing and ordering heights and lengths. In the final unit of Spring term, the children will focus on Mass, Capacity and Temperature. They will compare mass, volume and capacity, measure in grams and kilograms, measure in millilitres and litres, and look at recording temperature.

Music Earth Cycles (rhythm, duration and pitch) This topic uses singing, movement and listening activities to explore rhythm, phrase and pitch in relation to earth’s cycles and the changing seasons. Pupils study Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and create musical and movement responses, and learn four simple songs to sing and notate simply. Pupils create a group piece inspired by the Earth’s cycles which uses an ostinato and strong sense of structure.

Achievement with heart.

Year 2 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

PE In PE lessons in Spring Term 2024, Year 2 children will be focusing on Games and Gymnastics.

In Games, the children will learn and play a number of indoor team Games and build on last term’s successful achievements in the physical skills learnt in Netball and Football. They will now be focusing on their finer skills of targeted throwing and dodging and evading opponents as well as effective communications with team members.

In Gymnastics, the children will be using mats and basic apparatus to learn and explore making key shapes and jumps with their body, including tuck, star and pike jumps. They will also be learning how to safely perform a variety of rolls on mats and work with partners to safely travel in a variety of ways and hold balance shapes. They will start to put together a sequence of these movements to share with each other.

PSHE This term in PSHE we will be exploring the compulsory RSHE topics (relationships, sex and health education). Called Relationships and Changing Me in Jigsaw (the programme we use to support our PSHE curriculum and delivery). We will begin in the first half term with Relationships, which looks at the themes of families, keeping safe – exploring physical contact, friends and conflict, secrets, trust and appreciation and celebrating my special relationships.

In the Changing Me topic, we will look at life cycles in nature, growing from young to old, how my body changes, boys’ and girls’ bodies and assertiveness. The topics are explored in an ageappropriate way, and all lesson plans and resources will be made available to parents at the start of each half term. Each of the lessons is delivered with a mindful approach, meaning there is time for thinking, discussing and reflecting.

Due to the sensitive nature of the topics this term, teachers are encouraged to have an anonymous question box available for the children.

Achievement with heart.

Year 2 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Science Science at HCH is about investigation and teaching children to think like scientists. As technology has developed, it has allowed huge leaps in scientific understanding. Science has a large social impact, as it is enabling people to live longer and travel further, as well as to become socially aware of the impact that people have on our planet and therefore do something about it. At HCH not only do we teach the technical knowledge of science, but we also encourage the moral and social thinking behind the benefits it can bring to our global society and our planet.

Pupils will be taught to: Plan different types of experiments, Identify what equipment is required for each experiment Take measurements Record data and results Use test results to make predictions Present findings and draw conclusions This term the children will studying the topic of ‘Living things and their habitats.’ They will recognise whether things are alive, dead or have never lived, identify different plants and animals and understand how they are suited to their different habitats, including microhabitats, recognise how different habitats provide for the basic needs of animals and plants, understand that animals get their food from other animals and/or from plants and finally recognise that a food chain is made of a series of plants and animals that eat each other and also shows how energy is transferred from one organism to another via food.

Achievement with heart.