Kenya
Year 2 - Spring 2
English
The King’s Soup
Values Books
Kenyan Savannah
Handa’s Surprise
Letter writing
Clay Tile Instructions
Story features
This half term, lots of our work will be
around our topic about Kenya. We will be
going into the sensory room to experience
heat and smells of a Kenyan savannah,
reading the story of Handa’s Surprise,
writing to our friends at the Happy House
and writing instructions describing how to
make a Kenyan clay tile.
We will also be making values books as
part of our Values Story week and
exploring the structure of stories, thinking
about setting, character and events.
We will focusing this term particularly on
making sure we are remembering full
stops and capital letters, spelling words
carefully, using a range of vocabulary
and extending our sentences. See the last
page for a breakdown of our spelling
work this half term.
Geography
We will be learning about the
seven continents and five oceans
and points on a compass. We will
identify these on a map and locate
Kenya as part of Africa.
Science
Our focus this half term in Science is on
keeping healthy. We will start by learning about different
food groups and what constitutes a
balanced diet. Then we will plan and
make a healthy sandwich, choosing
ingredients from different food groups.
We will also be learning about all the
different ways to keep healthy and
finally learning about how drugs as
medicines can keep us healthy.
At home
At mealtimes, discuss the different
food groups on your plate. Have you
got a good balance?
Make your own Eat Well Plate using a
paper plate - draw your favourite
foods from each food group.
We will be focusing on the physical
an human features of Kenya and
then learning about Watamu,
where our Happy House is located.
We will learn about what life is like
in a Kenyan village and then
comparing it to life in Oatlands.
At home
Visit the Happy House website to
find out more about the children
we sponsor https://
www.childrenofwatamu.net/
If you have a globe at home,
identify different continents on the
map and see if you can find Kenya.
You could also use Google Earth to
find Watamu and compare it to
Oatlands. Visit the library and see if
you can find some books to find
out some more information about
Kenya to share.
Kenya
Art/DT
We will be learning about Kenyan artwork,
looking at the geometric repeating
patterns and colours used. We will create
our own designs and then make a clay tile
based on these patterns.
We will paint the tile and then glaze it to
display.
At home
Look at the patterns on different fabrics in
your home. Can you identify any geometric
shapes? Make some salt dough and create
your own design using the same techniques
we are practising at school. You just need
to mix 1 cup of salt, 2 cups of flour and 3/4
cup of water. Mix the dry ingredients and
then slowly add the water. Cook the dough
in the oven at 180 degrees until cooked
through - you can then paint your tile.
RE
We are reading stories about Jesus
leading up to Easter. We will be
learning about how Jesus chose his
disciples, the miracles he performed
and why Christians celebrate Easter.
At home
Read some stories about Jesus at
home and discuss why Christians
believe Jesus was so special. See if you
can remember what Muslims believe
about Jesus and how this is different to
what Christians believe.
PSHE and Values
In PSHE we will be discussing the difference between earning, spending and
saving. We will continue with work linked to our values including activities as
part of Values Book Week. We will be making Values books, and exploring
how we behave and react when we meet someone who is different to us.
As part of our Science work we will also be talking about medicines as drugs
and how these can be dangerous but can also help us.
Maths
We will be starting to develop our
multiplication and division skills
and trying to improve our ability to
recall times tables quickly and fluently. You can
help your child by practising these at home. We
will be starting to learn to count in 3s and to be
able to recall these too. We will also be focusing
on missing number questions (e.g. 35+?=74) and
how to find fractions of different amounts (e.g.
1/2 of 16). We will revisit measures and shape;
can your child name and describe the properties
of 3d shapes around the house? Encourage your
child to look for the different units of
measurement of products at the supermarket.
Computing
We will continue our work on following
algorithms to programme robots. We
will also work on debugging to try and
find errors in our code.
We will also begin to use software to
create pictures and make our own
short animations to share.
Kenya
Phonics, Spelling and Handwriting
Music
All Year 2 children will continue
to learn the recorder using the
Charango Music World
Resources. If you haven’t yet
logged in, please see
information sent home. They will
learn simple musical vocabulary
and begin to read a score.
Mr Greenaway will be teaching
African drumming to Class 8,
learning about keeping a beat
and following different rhythms.
Week 7
We are working on ‘ai’ ‘ay’ and ‘a_e’ this week. Words tend to use ‘ay’ at the end and the
other graphemes in the middle (but not always). We are working on joining these letters
and spelling words such as snail, make, play, came, made as well as trickier words - great,
break, again and said.
Week 8
We are learning ‘oa’ can also be spelled ‘ow’ and ‘o_e’. Remember that ow can be used
in ‘blow’ as well as ‘cow’ so you might need to try both when reading. We have been
spelling words like float, slow, grow, home as well as tricky words - most, oh, both, clothes,
no, so and only. These use the same sound but just use an ‘o’. All are familiar joins.
Week 9
We will be learning the alternative ‘ur’ spellings. Some words have ‘ur’ as in ‘hurt’ and
some have ‘ir’ as in bird. Some words use ‘er’ as in ‘her’, however ‘er’ is also used as a
slightly different unstressed sound at the end of many other words such as ‘sister’ runner’
and ‘father’. We will be learning all these variations this week. Our spellings include: pretty,
sure, sugar, eye, people, Saturday, sister, never and thirty.
Week 10
The most complicated sound of them all this week - /or/. There are numerous ways to spell
this sound so we are focusing on the main ones - ‘or’ ‘oor’ ‘ore’ ‘al’ ‘au’ ‘aw’. Our tricky
words all use one of these sounds - for, door, poor, floor, small, call, walk, talk, caught.
These letter patterns all join in different ways.
PE
We will be continuing to have coaches this
term to support us in our games lessons.
Classes 9+10 will be learning unihock skills,
whilst Classes 7+8 will be starting to learn
football skills. The children will also be taking
part in a gym or dance lesson, developing
different movements and linking them
together to create their own sequences and
dances.
Week 11
A tricky one this week - /air/. This phoneme can be written as ‘air’ as in hair, ‘are’ as in hare
or ‘ear’ as in bear. It certainly helps us with our work on homophones (words that sound the
same but are spelt differently). Our spellings this week are: fair, care, their, where, parents,
Mr, Mrs and scare.
Week 12
For the last week we are learning /ear/. This can also be written as ‘eer’ and ‘ere’. The
main words we are learning to spell are fear, ear, here and tear. Our tricky words are who,
whole, asked, half.