Year 2 Homework

Monday 23 March: Home learning

Good morning Year 2! Here are your home learning tasks for today. There are some optional challenges too. We will also give you a suggested physical activity and mindfulness activity to help you to keep physically and mentally healthy.

Physical activity: Why not start your day by joining in with the free live PE with Joe video for kids. These sessions will be running daily at 9am.

Mindfulness activity (we usually do these straight after lunch but it can be included at any point in the day): OK breathing – Make an ‘ok’ sign on your tummy and slowly breathe in and out.  This sign is to represent that it is ok to feel different emotions.  No emotions are bad.  Emotions change and you won’t feel like that forever.

Task 1 reading

Here’s the fluency text for this week. The children are used to having these these texts weekly in class and they are aimed at developing the children’s fluency when reading.

1.Read the non-fiction text below based on polar bears (like our class mascot, Snowy, that we have adopted from WWF).

2.Underline and copy out words you are not sure of. Try to find out some of their meanings using a dictionary text or online.

3. Reread the text and record two facts you have learnt about polar bears.

Challenge: write an incorrect fact about polar bears too.

Polar bears

Polar bears are the planet’s biggest land-based carnivores – although they actually spend most of their lives around water and ice (their Latin name means ‘sea bear’). So they’re at particular risk from global warming, which is melting the Arctic sea ice they depend on.

Polar bears generally live and hunt alone, though they can be quite social too. They mainly eat seals – using their remarkable sense of smell they can detect a seal in the water beneath a metre of compacted snow, and from almost a kilometre away.

Adults are strong swimmers – they can swim for several hours to get from one piece of ice to another. Their thick white coat and a layer of fat keep them warm and camouflaged in their harsh Arctic environment.

Words I’m not sure of

Task 2 maths

1. Go on a shape hunt around your house and record, in your home learning book, the different 2D (flat) shapes that you find. For example, a rectangle on the front cover of a book.

2.You could also include their properties – sides and vertices (where two lines meet together at a point).

Challenge: Give clues to one of the shapes to a family member – can they guess the shape?

Task 3 writing

Your spellings for this week are all words ending in ey. Don’t forget to spend some time on Spelling Shed to practise these words. Parents/carers – if possible, please test your children on these words at the end of the week.

key, donkey, monkey, chimney, valley, honey, money, turkey

1.Write questions with half of your spelling words. Then, use the other half to answer the questions. The sillier the better!

2.Underline the spelling words when you use them.

Challenge: Start each question with a different word.

Home learning

20 March 2020

This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework: I can pay and receive compliments to/from people outside of school.

This homework, which links to our recent living and learning statement, is an opportunity for children to discuss the benefits of paying compliments to people. Here are some questions that might shape your discussion:

• How does paying a compliment make you feel?
• How does receiving a compliment make you feel?
• Why is it important to be sensible when paying or receiving compliments?
• Can you compliment people too much?
• Is it ok to compliment a stranger? Is this safe?

Children should be ready to discuss what they’ve talked about at home by Thursday 26 March 2020. It would be even better if children were able to talk confidently about times when they have given, or received, a compliment.

13 March 2020

Our homework this week is Creative: I can show my talents.

All of the children in our school are blessed with an array of talents. This week, our homework, which links to our living and learning statement (I can recognise my talents), gives our children the opportunity to celebrate and share their talents. Children should respond creatively and be ready to show off their talents to their peers as part of their homework review. They could do this in a range of ways:

create a short performance to show to the class
film themselves showing off their talent
make a collage of their many talents
produce a piece of art to show off their talents

There are, of course, many other ways that children could respond. Children should be ready to show off their talents by Thursday 19 March 2020.

06 March 2020

This week the homework is Practice Makes Perfect.

In class, we have been learning about data and the different ways it can be presented. We have looked at pictograms, tally and bar charts.  

The children need to complete the sheets they have been given.

For a bit more of a challenge, we have asked the children to collect some data and then choose how to record it. This is optional.

28 February 2020

This week, our homework is Creative and is helping us to celebrate World Book Day next week.

I can show what I love about reading.  

Children could come up with their own ideas for how to show this, or ideas might include:

• create a labelled diagram of the perfect place to read in
• write a book review
• draw and label/describe a character from your favourite book
• write a letter to an author telling them how much you loved reading their book
• write a one minute speech on your favourite book, persuading others to read it – consider what the most exciting parts are, which characters you love or you love to hate, who might enjoy reading it next and why

Be as creative as you like.

This homework will be celebrated in our weekly homework review on World Book Day itself, 5 March 2020.

07 February 2020

This week, the whole school has the same creative homework, which is due in on Thursday 13 February 2020.

I can show different ways to stay safe, including online.

This week, linked to our Living & Learning, we have been thinking about how to make safe choices, including online. There are many ways, and many different situations, in which we need to keep safe: at home, at school, in our environment and online.

Children should think about the situations where they need to keep safe and who might help them to stay safe. This could be done in any creative way:

• A story
• A poem
• Instructions
• A comic strip
• An advert
• An interview
• A game
• Scenarios

…or any other creative ideas!

The homework will be reviewed as part of our weekly homework review.

31 January 2020

This week’s homework is Talk Time: I know how to look after my mental health.

Next week is Children’s Mental Health Week. In class, after lunch, we have relaxation time where the children choose a mindfulness technique. We’d like the children to learn a new technique from the sheet provided (see below) or teach one to someone at home.

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is about focussing on the present moment.  This is done through a variety of techniques to calm the mind and help manage our reactions to our thoughts and emotions.

24 January 2020

This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework: What is a drug?

This homework, which links to our Living and Learning statement, is a first step in children becoming aware of drugs. There are a few key points you may wish to talk about at home. Children need to be aware that some drugs are helpful, some are harmful, some are legal, some are illegal. Don’t forget to consider that even the legal or helpful ones can be harmful.

Below are some question prompts that could help shape your discussion…

• What is a good definition for a drug?
• What is a drug? What is not a drug?
• Are all drugs bad?
• Why might some people need to take medicines?
• Who can prescribe medicine?
• Who should administer medicine?
• What should you do if you find some medicine?
• Should you take medicine that isn’t yours?

Children should be prepared to discuss what they’ve talked about at home during our homework review next week. This homework should be completed by Thursday 30 January.

17 January 2020

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework:

I can show different ways to make things better.

This homework, which is due on Thursday 24 January, is an opportunity for children to reflect on our living & learning statement for this week: I can make things better.

Children should think about ways to make things better in a variety of different situations and contexts:

• in class

• in a friendship group
• at playtimes
• at home
• with siblings
• out and about (countryside, park)
• the wider environment (recycling)

You could consider…

• Why should we try and make things better?
• How do we do this?
• When should we apologise?
• What is the effect it has on others around us when we make things better?
• Older children might want to consider the benefits of restorative justice.

Don’t forget to be creative! Produce a report or diary; capture photos of making things better; create rules for better games at play times; make a poster about how to say sorry; or, think of your own creative response.

This homework will be celebrated in our weekly homework review.