Summer Term Curriculum Letter – Foss

Curriculum Letter Summer Term 2023 Foss Class 

Dear Parents, 

We hope you have all had a fantastic Easter break and are ready for your child’s last term in Year 2.  By the time you read this letter we will have welcomed the children back into school and have already been out and about on our fairy and hobgoblin trip to the Northwood Trail.  We’re hoping the weather has been kind to us and that the children had an amazing time. 

We are now underway with a busy last term and an important one for your children as they come towards the end of their Key Stage 1 years at Langton. During this first half of the term, the children will have teacher assessments and some more formal papers that will all form part of the portfolio of evidence that has been built up throughout the year. With this in mind, we would be grateful if any absence is avoided if possible. 

Show & Tell Rota 

Show and Tell this term will continue on a Wednesday afternoon with Mrs C, as a class assembly linked to R.E. and part of the speaking and listening/communication curriculum.  This term’s title is ‘Where is a place that is special and makes you feel safe and happy?’ This can be as simple as your bedroom or garden or a place you’ve been on holiday, visit regularly or you have a special connection with. Share a picture of a place that is special to you (a holiday destination, a house, a place for a day out, a historical house etc). This can be a photo or a drawn picture emailed to fossclass@langton.n-yorks.sch.uk  Is it just the place that is special or the things and people within the place? 

Please see the rota below for your child’s time slot. 

Topic/English 

Our first topic this half of the summer term is called ‘Street Detectives’ where we will learn all about our local community, looking at houses old and new and finding out how our streets have changed through the generations. Perhaps past generations of your family went to Langton Primary or maybe they worked in the local shops and businesses? We shall be looking at maps and plans of the village and studying different types of villages and houses throughout the world. Our class text to accompany this topic, is ‘The Bear and the Piano’ by David Litchfield.  This beautiful story follows a bear cub whose talents result in him moving away from his forest to the bright lights of New York City.  We shall be using this book to help has with our descriptive writing, our writing of letters, diaries and persuasive texts. 

In the second half of this term, we will be moving on to a fantastic geography-based topic; ‘Land Ahoy!’ This time we will need to get our sea legs on to sail the salty seas. We shall navigate, investigate and explore the world, just like Captain Cook. Make boats, sink ships, fly a pirate flag, speak like a pirate, write like a poet and then learn about rescues that happen at sea, the brave volunteers and young Miss Darling, rowing her boat across stormy seas.  

Throughout this term, will continue to have our daily, phonics and guided reading sessions.  As always, any extra reading that your child does at home, please record in their reading records as evidence of their wider reading. Our spellings tests will also continue to be on a Friday morning, so children will still bring home new spellings at the end of each week and sometimes their homework books.  Please keep a look out for both in their bags on a Friday. 

Maths 

In our final term of Year 2, our daily maths lessons will help your children recognise quarters and halves and introduce the idea of thirds. Learning to tell the time is a vital skill that the children will also return to this term.  As well as telling O’clock and half past times, the children will learn quarter past and quarter to the hour, followed by recognising the number of minutes past and to an hour. In the second half of the term the children will learn to interpret and draw tally charts, tables and pictograms.  Finally, we shall end the year by looking at some more geometry based on describing position and direction. 

Science 

Our first science topic this term is ‘Habitats around the world’. This topic allows the children to: appreciate the fact that environments are constantly changing, to explore the rainforests, oceans and their problems and to discover the Arctic and Antarctic habitats.  In our second science topic we shall be looking at ‘Plants Growth and Care’. This will build on the knowledge the children learnt last term in our ‘The Scented Garden’ unit of work.  We will continue to observe and describe how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants and find out how plants need water, light and suitable temperatures to grow and stay healthy.  

Forest School/Outdoor learning 

Mrs C will continue to take the children out for their super outdoor learning activities on a Wednesday afternoon.  As we move through spring into the summer months, we’re all hoping that the weather improves, but please make sure that the children have their coats and suitable footwear for that day. 

Music 

Our music lessons this term will focus on a song called ‘Friendship Song’.  This is a song written by Joanna Mangona and Pete Readman, especially for children.  As well as the children listening and appraising other well-known songs based on friendship, they will sing, play, improvise and compose along with this song.  As we move towards the second half of the term, we will be finishing by studying and performing a reggae song for children called ‘Zootime’. 

P.E 

P.E for Foss Class will continue to be on Monday afternoons with Mr Cairns and with Mrs Bowman on a Thursday afternoon.  PE lessons will be outside whenever possible this term, but please can you make sure that your child has shorts as well as jogging bottoms in their PE kits, in case of wet weather and the indoor equipment in the hall being used instead.   

As you can see, we have another fun packed and busy final term ahead.  We look forward to seeing some of you in our Good Work Assemblies on alternate Fridays, but in the meantime please grab me or Mrs C at the start or end of the day if you have any queries.  Alternatively, you can drop us an email at fossclass@langton.n-yorks.sch.uk .  

With best wishes 

Jo Huntriss & the Foss Team