Welcome to Class 2

Today I will cover Phonics including Year 1 phonics screening check Spellings Reading Maths Year 2 SATs tests Homework/ Homelinks

Phonics in Class 2 Year 1 Daily phonics sessions - Phase 4 of Letters and Sounds phonics programme. In this Phase, we don’t learn any new sounds; Children learn to blend and segment longer words with adjacent consonants, e.g. swim, clap, jump. By half term, we move onto Phase 5 – the ‘complex code’ – this consists of alternative sounds for graphemes they have already been taught e.g. ai/ eigh/ ay/ a-e In Class 2 we will continue with the system that Class 1 followed, with the little blue books with new sounds in them. **Please read every night!** The new sounds learned in Phase 5 will form the basis for the Phonics Screening Check at the end of the year.

What is the Phonics Screening Check? What if my child does not pass the Screening Check? Standardised assessment of children’s phonetic awareness, from Phase 1 to Phase 5. Consists of 40 words, 20 of them are real and 20 of them are nonsense. I refer to them as ‘alien/crazy’ words with the children. Re-cap phonics (phase depending on what they need to revise) Re-take the check in Year 2. Phonics in Class 2

Year 2 - Phase 6 This phase includes learning new grammar rules, punctuation and vocabulary. Children will need to use and apply; Nouns Adjectives Verbs Suffixes e.g. words ending with ed, ing, less, full, er – walk + ed = walked, say + ing = saying Using past and present tense Different types of sentences e.g. commands, questions, exclamations and statements

Phonics in Class 2 Year 2 will have National Tests at the end of the year, which include a grammar test and elements of everything we have covered this year. Year 2 will also have maths tests, writing and reading tests at the end of the year. More information on reading and phonics can be found on our school website. There are also links on there to access phonics games online at home.

Spellings Spellings will be sent home on a Friday, in the back of the homework book. Children can practise their spellings at the back, and you will be able to see any misspelling of words there. The spelling test will be the following Friday. Spellings reflect phonics or grammar/ spelling rules we are learning at that particular week in class, or any spellings that I have assessed that children are not applying in their writing. Applying the spelling rule is the part that children often find difficult, so any repetition of spellings is down to the child not applying the spelling independently and needing more practise.

Reading Reading in Class 2 consists of both individual reading, and guided reading. Children are listened to individually at least once a week. We will begin guided reading this term – reading in small groups with similar ability. This develops further comprehension skills Children will have a comprehension test at the end of Year 2.

Reading Please read every night with your child, and chat in great depth about the story. Ask questions, questions and more questions! This develops children’s comprehension skills, allows them to start questioning what they read and forming opinions on what they like/ dislike. Books are changed twice a week – Mondays and Thursdays. If your child would like to read other books, please take them to a local library, or charity shops sell them for next to nothing! ***Remember - it’s not a race to reach the top of the reading tree!***

Maths Maths in Class 2 is very visual and practical, before applying our skills and solving problems. We use lots of apparatus including counting blocks for tens and ones (units), 100 square to add/ subtract numbers, and number lines. Lots of new expectations for the end of KS1 (end of y2) this year; Write fractions including 1/3, 1/4/ 2/4 and 3/4s of numbers, lengths and shapes Tell the time to five minutes Record temperatures Counting in steps of 2, 3, 5 and 10 Adding two 2- digit numbers Mymaths – online programme we are starting to use at school and can be used at home

Maths at home Shopping games Set up a mini supermarket in the kitchen and give the children some real money to go shopping with. Change can be the trickiest concept and needs to be taught in ‘real’ shopping activities which can be done really well at home. Measuring Cooking- weighing and following instructions. Measure yourself! – make a height strip. Keep a graph to show your growth! How much have you grown? Measure stuff! – use a tape measure. Tell the time- how long until…? Analogue/ digital time, days of the week, months of the year, dates etc.

Maths at home Number games Board games Snakes and ladders Dominoes Playing card games eg snap, doubles, Dice games Sharing sweets, objects etc. Shapes everywhere Shopping Shape Sort; let your child loose on the packages and sort them into cuboids, cylinders, cubes. 2-D shape pictures and patterns. Which shapes can you draw? You will need a ruler for some of them Picnic or Party maths Preparing food for a group of people is a real problem solving opportunity; how many cups can we fill with one jug, how many pieces of pizza can we cut from each one? A great opportunity to use terms such as ‘half’, ‘quarter’ and ‘double’.

Year 2 SATs tests At the end of Year 2, children are tested on their maths, reading and grammar skills. Maths – includes a range of skills from adding and subtracting 2 digit numbers, fractions of numbers and shapes, times tables etc. Reading – complex reading comprehensions and answering questions related to the text. Grammar – checks children’s skills in identifying nouns, adjectives, capital letters, full stops etc. Writing – assessed by me throughout the year – using a range of skills in their writing

Year 2 SATs tests continued Spelling is a key part of new curriculum – whereby there is a spelling test, but also to get ‘expected standard’ in writing – children should be spelling all of the common exception words correctly and confidently. These are words that you could stick on the fridge and practise throughout the year (as well as being on spelling test). Homework is very important in Year 2- linked to SATs. Please let your child do the work and write me a note if they found it tricky.

Homework Sent out on a Friday, to be returned the following Wednesday (unless otherwise stated). Weekly spellings – sent out Friday for following Friday Maths/ topic related homework will be at the front of homework book Maths homework - online

Home Links Provide support through encouraging your child to read regularly, even books from the library or charity shops. Continue using the little blue books with new sounds in them - encourage your child to read these sounds regularly and re-cap both new and old sounds. Make/ read words out of the sounds using playdough, drawings and sounding out and blending together. Any opportunities for counting, singing songs or practising writing and reading numbers take them! Mymaths – online games and homework.

Any questions?