Author: Mrs Taylor

Year 2 have been learning about all things money this week during our Me and My Money week.

This learning forms part of our Living and Learning curriculum.

At the start of the week, we had lots of questions about money.

What money do we use?

In maths, we identified and compared the different coins and notes we use in this country.  The children were keen to share other currencies they’d used in different places around the world.

Why is money an important part of people’s lives?

We thought about this in our weekly circle time.

Money is important because…

It would be confusing without money. 

People use money to buy the things they need to survive like shelter, food and water.

You can donate to charities.

You can save for something expensive.

Long ago, people didn’t have money and they had to swap things.

Now, money makes things fair.

What is the difference between needs and wants?

Year 1 and 2 worked together to learn what is a need and what is a want. We realised the link to our basic needs learning in science recently.

A need is food as you need this to survive.

A want is a Lego set as you can survive without this.

How do people use money?

People make different choices with their money.

Some people choose to donate money. On Monday, Steph from St Gemma’s Hospice, our current school charity, shared how our donations of £1500 have helped the hospice.

This week, we’ve been donating money to St Gemma’s Hospice by bringing any spare 1ps and 2ps to make a penny trail at the end of the week.

Where does my money come from?

We thought about where our money might come from and how that would change as we get older and have a job.

Help at home: discuss this learning with your child at home to consider how they use money and why money is important.

This half term, Year 2 have been busy learning all about animals including humans and what they need to survive.

We’ve learnt lots of knowledge about different types of animals and if you remember from our class assembly, they all have the same basic needs – air, water, food and shelter.

Here is the key vocabulary we have been learning.

More recently, we’ve been learning about humans in particular and how humans need to keep healthy as well as having their basic needs.

Help at home – the BBC website has some great videos to summarise the different types of animals and their basic needs. Choose some to watch with your child to discuss this learning.

For the last two weeks in our Living and Learning lessons, we have been learning about respecting others and respecting ourselves. This is part of our relationships education.

What is respect?

Respect is where you consider the feelings of others and treat them as you would like to be treated.

Who should we respect?

Everyone! Even if someone is very different to you or has different thoughts, likes or beliefs to you, we should still respect them.

We recognised in the class that we have some similarities but also lots of differences. This makes us all special!

I am the same as Hannah because we both have blond hair.

I am different to Hadeed as we like to play different sports.

I am different to Kitty as I can speak a different language.

I am the same as Raffi as we both have a brother.

Next week, in our circle time, we will carry on this learning and think about what is special about each of us.

Help at home: read this story with your child to think about all ways we can be different.

We are very proud of all the children after performing their first Year 2 class assembly so well this afternoon.

It’s a lot different performing to a full hall than in our rehearsals and there were a lot of nerves.

All the children have learnt their lines, actions, song words and they have used their oracy skills today to help to share our learning.

Thanks to all the adults who were able to come and watch. We hope you enjoyed it.

Well done, Year 2!

Recently, Year 2 and 3 welcomed Leeds Diving as part of their talent in diving programme.

If your child is interested in learning to dive, please see the information and requirements below.

This week, we welcomed James and Oli from Leeds Diving. They came to visit Year 2 and 3 as part of their talent in diving program to unearth the next generation of world class Olympic divers in Leeds.

The children took part in lots of different exercises, including jumping, agility, flexibility, strength and speed, while James and Oli looked to see who may
have the right characteristics to be world class performers.

Well done to Sophie, Isla and Ailie who have been invited to take part in the second phase.

Thank you to those parents who were able to join us for our watch us while we work session this week. It was lovely to see so many.

Here’s a summary of what we covered and how we are encouraging the children to become more responsible for their learning at home.

Spellings – use the spelling guide for ideas to help with learning weekly spellings.

Daily reading – we thought about some of the reading skills the children are learning in Year 2 (fluency, prosody (using expression in their voices), retrieval, interpret and learning new vocabulary). Reading needs to happen daily to build up these skills. A brief note in their reading record books is needed after reading at home. We will continue to monitor the use of e-books at home. Please alert us to any access issues.

Maths – our number tennis games included counting in 2s, 5s and 10s and number bonds to 10 and 20. Play these when you’re in the car, walking to school or making breakfast. Hit the Button is a great online game to build up the recall of these facts.

Numbots certificates are awarded every Tuesday and it’s great to see children already achieving their next levels in Year 2.

Finally, here’s the help at home section of the website.

Please get in touch if you need any further support with your child’s learning at home.