Welcome to our super Key Stage 1 class for Year 1 & 2 pupils!
A bit about us..
Years 1 and 2 are busy years for our children, especially for Year 1 children, who complete National Phonics tests where they are assessed on their ability to read a range of real and nonsense words using their phonic knowledge.
The class teacher is Miss Barrett and she is supported by Ms Kitching.
Class 2 Curriculum Overview
Our children work extremely hard, but we keep learning fun and engaging, so our children are empowered to exceed. However, whilst excellent progress in English and Maths is important, we also want to develop the whole child, so we strive to develop skills across the curriculum and promote emotional intelligence too. We have continuous provision in our class which builds on our EYFS provision to provide a seamless transition that ensures happy and enthusiastic learners.
To find out more about our exciting curriculum, you can view our long-term plans below or read all about our whole-school curriculum by clicking here.
Things you should know:
* We teach phonics using the ‘Little Wandle’ phonics scheme. Children are taught phonics for 1 hour per day, which includes group reading and writing. Each week, children are given a reading book that matches their phonic ability. They read this book in school 3 times per week. In group or individual reading, we have a different focus for each session: decoding, fluency and comprehension and prosody. We expect children to read this book 3 times a week at home too.
*Each week, children will be sent home ten spellings to learn ready for a spelling test on Friday.
*From Year 2 onwards, children are expected to practise their multiplication facts for 20 mins per week at home on the TT Rockstars app.
Class Two Planning Documents
English Long Term Planning
Y1 & Y2 English Plan Cycle A Y1 & Y2 English Plan Cycle B
Foundation Subjects Long Term Planning
Class 2 Cycle A Class 2 Cycle B
October in Class 2 !
In Art our topic was Spirals. We have been learning about the artist Molly Haslund. She creates large scaled drawings outside using continuous lines. The children used chalks to create spirals on a large scale and even created drawing tools to attach to the chalks in the style of Molly Haslund.
What have Class Two been up to in Super September?
Our First Two Weeks 20.09.24
Class 2 have settled into school routine brilliantly after the summer holidays! We have been working so hard it is like we have never been away! In English our focus text is Peace at Last by Jill Murphy. We have been sequencing the story using large scale story mountains and retelling the story through role play and in our writing tasks.
We have also been extremely lucky to have taken part in our very own superhero multiskills session. Each station had a superhero themed activity. We threw like Thor, kicked like the Hulk and balanced like Spiderman! Mikey was so impressed with our skills and determination. Our behaviour was impeccable as always; we showed true sportsmanship by encouraging each other through the tasks on each station.
What have Class Two been up to?
Our First Three Weeks (22.09.23)
October in Class Two
We have been full steam ahead in Class Two this month as we’ve been embracing our new White Rose Curriculum in Maths. We’ve been using lots of practical resources to help with our learning. Money was a really fun topic-we loved visiting the Class shop to buy and pay for our purchases!
In Design and Technology we were given the design brief to make a strong and sturdy chair for Baby Bear. We investigated strong structures and then worked in teams to design, make and evaluate our own products.
We’ve also celebrated Halloween with a Halloween Movie night and Pumpkin decorating, learnt about a balanced diet as part of World Mental Health Day and had a visit from Crook Fire Fighters to learn about Bonfire safety.
November flew by!
What a busy month Class 2 have had in November! The month has flown by and the amount of progress our children have made is fantastic! Alongside all that hard work has been a lot of fun! Using practical resources in Maths is really helping our learning and the children are becoming really skilled at selecting the resources they need to support them.
We took part in Anti-bullying week, where we developed out understanding of what bullying is and the importance of kindness. We then made art-work inspired by Jackson Pollock to share our messages.
Getting festive in December
What a wonderfully festive month it has been in Class Two! We started with a trip to Beamish to take part in a festive workshop. We listened to a Christmas story by the roaring fire, played traditional Christmas games and made a peg doll. Throughout the rest of the month, we’ve had Christmas lunch, a Christmas disco, made Christmas cards and even had a Santa visit in our class party. We ended December with our whole-school Christmas production ‘Baubles’ and then had ‘Polar Express Day’, where we call came to school in our pyjamas, watched the movie and had hot chocolate and popcorn.
What a start to the year!
It has been full steam ahead in Class 2 this month! We kick-started 2024 with our ‘Fire’ theme and looking at the Great Fire of London in History. In Geography, we have been learning to read maps. Art has been all about working in 3D as an architect. It was fabulous as our parents came into school to help us make our final pieces! It was so much fun! Finally, we have been learning to sew. This is such a tricky skill, but there has been lots of examples of our HEART values on display as the children have shown resilience and ambition as they have tackled a new skill and made their own pouches!
Fantastic Fun in February
Wow! What a busy and exciting month Class 2 have had. We started with a wonderful visit from Chartwells to explore the importance of healthy eating. After discussing the different food groups and why each group is important for our body, we were ready to get creative and use different fruits to design our own colourful fruit face plates. Once our designs were completed, we were able to eat the delicious fruits.
In History, we have been exploring The Great Fire of London. We have been learning why the fire spread so quickly, we now know that buildings were made from dry wood and that the houses were close together; this caused the fire to spread more quickly. There was also a strong wind blowing and the water pumps were hard and tiring to use which slowed everything down. We created wonderful illustrations to show why the fire spread quickly across London.
We have had lots of fun completing a science investigation. We had to participate in different exercises to see how this affected our heart rate. We also learnt how to take our own pulse by feeling our wrists, chest and neck. We were surprised to find out that star jumps increased our heart rate the most.
Marvellous March
March has flown over in the blink of an eye! There has been so much learning taking place. We have been learning about the Pride celebration. We designed and decorated T Shirts in bright, rainbow colours to show that we celebrate diversity in our communities.
As part of our career’s week, Mrs Barron talked to us about being a nurse. She showed the class different types of medication and the children were given the opportunity to try some different types of medical equipment. We also learnt how germs interact with disinfectant and saw the germs on their own hands using an ultra violet light.
We had a visit from the NSPCC and met buddy who talked to us about who we could talk to if we needed help and advice. We identified the trusted adults who keep us safe in our lives and we were given NSPCC packs to complete.
Amazing April in Class 2
We had an amazing start back to school after the Easter holidays by visiting Washington Wetland Centre. To start the day, we listened to Ava and she told us how to be ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. This helped us to understand how we can take care of our world and the creatures in it. We loved looking at the different birds in their habitats, including flamingos, swans and ducks. To end the day, we watched the otters being fed and even had some time to play in the play area. Everyone had such a brilliant time!
In History, we have started our new History topic on Grace Darling. We now know that she lived in the Victorian era and we can explain what life was like then in comparison to now. We have enjoyed looking at pictures of Grace and her family and this enables us to discuss what the sources of information told us. Once we developed questions as a class to gather more information about Grace Darling, we then presented what we found out about Grace. We could speak confidently and accurately about Grace Darling.
As part of our work in Geography, we have been learning about the physical and human features of seaside resorts, and using an aerial view to explore this further. We have also looked at similarities and differences between the past and present and how Victorians enjoyed the beach. We can’t wait to use our knowledge of physical and human features when we visit the beach in July!
Magnificent May
So much learning has taken place this month in Class 2. As part of our work in Maths, we have been learning about fractions. We have worked on how to recognise a half and a quarter. Year 2 children have also been counting in fractions. We used pictures to help us understand how many parts made a whole and what each part was worth. Our favourite part was definitely using food to help us understand fractions!
In DT, we have been identifying what a fruit is and what a vegetable is. We have learnt that fruits have seeds. We were able to organise them into two groups. We now know which fruit and vegetables grow underground and which grow above ground.
In Music, we have been learning about dynamics, timbre, tempo and motifs with the theme of space. We have listened to “Venus, The Bringer of Peace” by Gustav Hott. The children created their own visual representations of the music. They considered the size and spacing of the shapes to represent dynamics and tempo as well as colours to convey timbre or overall mood. In addition to this, the children used a range of tuned instruments to copy motifs and create their own using notes C-G.
In Computing, we have used the Skitch app to take photos and annotate our image. The children explored our outside area looking for living things, which is linked to our Science topic. We worked together to annotate the image using arrows and text. We had great discussions on what colour arrows and text we could use and if they wanted to add a background.
June 2024
June has been such a busy month for Class 2. It has been filled with lots of learning and having fun with our friends. We have been learning so much in Maths, including: telling the time, capacity and weight and volume. Year 1 have focussed on telling the time to the nearest hour and half hour and Year 2 have been learning how to tell the time to the nearest five minutes. We have loved using the balance scales to help us compare objects to see if they are heavier or lighter than another object. When learning about capacity, we enjoyed learning that liquid can be measured in millilitres. We discussed whether 5ml was a large or a small amount. We looked at the different containers and and estimated how many millimetres each container would hold. We then measured how much it held together.
We have really enjoyed reading ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’ this half term. As part of our work, have had lots of fun retelling the traditional tale using role play. There were some very scary troll voices! As well as hot seating characters to deepen our understanding of their thoughts and feelings, we were able to create our own alternative endings.
In DT, Class 2 have been practising cutting and juicing fruit. We used a manual juicer to juice the fruit and carefully used knives to cut the fruit in to equal pieces using our fraction knowledge. The following lesson we used our design criteria to decide what would go into our smoothies. Our favourite part was being taste testers! We tested which fruits we would like to put in our smoothies following our design criteria. Pineapple was a very popular choice. The children then evaluated their own and each others smoothies. Well done Class 2!
Archived Class Information
You can view our archived Class Information on our website.