Year 2 Curriculum
Please take a look at our Year 2 half-termly overviews (below) to see a snapshot of what children are learning in each curriculum area. If you would like to see our 'Whole School Curriculum Overview', click here. If you would like more information about our curriculum or require a paper copy, get in touch via our contacts page.
Autumn 1
Maths
Place value
What is one more/one less?
Which number is tricky to write in words?
How can we use the whole and a part to work out the missing part?
Addition and subtraction
5 + 3 = 6 + ___
Which direction will your finger move on a hundred square if you are finding ten more/ten less?
PE
Games Activities: Ball Skills - Football
Gymnastics - Floorwork
History Topic
Local history- Victorian Brighton
Key questions for topic
Who were the ‘Victorians?’
What was Brighton like in Victorian times?
What was life like in Victorian Brighton?
What was it like to be a child living in Victorian Brighton?
How is Victorian life the same and different to today?
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Art
Painting: Auguste Edouart silhouette portraits
Music - Exploring Simple Patterns
How does music help us to make friends?
English
Poetry: ‘The Magic Box’ by Kit Wright
Create shape poems and share them with the school as a class book.
Non-fiction: 'Our trip to Preston Manor'
Write a recount and share it on the school website.
Fiction: Whatever Wanda Wanted
Write an adventure story
Computing
Online Safety - learning about staying safe online with characters Lee and Kim
PSHE
New beginings: Developing our class community
Mental Health and Well-being
Autumn 2
Music - Focus on Dynamics & Tempo
How does music teach us about the past?
Geography Curriculum Focus
Locational knowledge, map skills and fieldwork.
What are the 4 countries of the UK and the surrounding seas? What are some of the features, geographical features, and capital cities of the UK?
What are the names and locations of the seven continents and five oceans of the world.
How can I use a map to identify my local area (home, school).
What are compass points?
What do the symbols on maps mean?
How can we create a map of our school and grounds?
Where is the best location in my school to put up a poster?
How do fieldwork skills help us to investigate our local area and gather data?
Design (DT)
Seasonal Whole School DT Project
Maths
Addition and subtraction
How can you partition a number to help you subtract?
Can you show me on a numberline?
Money
Is the group with the most coins always the biggest amount? Why?
What different ways can you count the coins? What is the quickest way?
RE and PSHE
Growing Friendship skills & Anti-bullying Week
Keeping Healthy & Safe: staying safe around medicnes and in our local environment
Why do we give and receive gifts at Christmas?
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PE
Games Activities: Invasion Games - Tag Rugby
Dance - Individual and group
English
Non-fiction (continued from previous half term): information poster, class trip
Create an information poster about a local tourist attraction and display it in public.
Poetry: ‘Playtime’ by Michael Lockwood
Create a poem to teach your parents about ‘Opal Play’.
Fiction: ‘Whatever Wanda Wanted’ by Jude Wisdom
Write a journey story and read it to a Year 1 audience.
Science curriculum focus
Are you attractive enough? (Magnets)
Key scientific questions
Can magnetic forces can be transmitted without direct contact?
Do magnets have poles ?
Can magnets attract or repel each other?
Do some materials are attract magnets?
Do magnets have different strengths and can we compare them?
How are magnets used in everyday life?
Computing
We are online learners - learning how to log-on to and use the online learning services the school subscribes to.
Spring 1
Maths
Multiplication and division
Children will recap on making equal groups and adding equal groups.
Children connect equal groups to repeated addition.
Children are introduced to the multiplication symbol for the first time. Children start to learn the 2, 5 and 10 times tables.
Children explore doubling with numbers up to 20.
Statistics
How would you show 6, 11, 18 as a tally?
Why do we draw tallies like this?
When do we use tallies?
Art
Drawing: Animal Poetry Illustrations
Music - Exploring Feelings Through Music
How does music make the world a better place?
RE and PSHE
What do Jewish people think about each new year?
Mental Health & wellbeing: importance of sleep
Careers & Gender
English
Poetry: ‘If I had wings’ by Pie Corbett
Write a new verse for a poem to be performed by the class.
Fiction: ‘The Tear Thief’ by Carol A. Duffy
Write a modern fairy tale and read it to a reception child.
Non-fiction: ‘Wilderness’ by Mia Cassani
Write an information page for a class wiki about animal habitats.
PE
Gymnastics- Big apparatus
Games Activities - Striking and Fielding - Cricket
Computing
We are digital artists - reproducing works of art using a computer
Science curriculum focus
Who would live in a house like this?
We enter the world of animal adaption, variation, food chains and habitats to explore and answer this question.
Key scientific questions
Can they match certain living things to the habitats they are found in?
Can they explain the differences between living and non-living things?
Can they describe some of the life processes common to plants and animals, including humans?
Can they decide whether something is living, dead or non-living?
Can they describe how a habitat provides for the basic needs of things living there?
Can they describe a range of different habitats?
Can they name some characteristics of an animal that help it to live in a particular habitat?
Can they describe what animals need to survive and link this to their habitats?
Can they explain that animals reproduce in different ways?
Spring 2
Maths
Geometry: properties of shape
Can you see any pentagons?
Can you see any octagons?
Can you see any hexagons?
Fractions
How can you use your answer to a half of 4 to help you work out a half of 40?
How many equal parts are there if you have split a whole into thirds?
Music - Inventing a Musical Story
How does music teach us about our neighbourhood?
English
Non-fiction (continued from previous half term): ‘Wilderness’ by Mia Cassani
Write an information page for a class wiki about animal habitats.
Poetry: ‘Rathers’ by Mary Hunter Austin
Combine art and poetry to create a page for a class book.
Non-fiction: ‘Handa’s Surprise’ by Eileen Brown
Write a story with a cumulative pattern and publish it on the school website.
Computing
We are games testers - learn how games follow sets of instructions and improve simple games
PE
Games Activities: Ball Skills - Basketball
Dance - Group and partner work
Art and Design (DT)
Painting and Sculpture: Whole School Art Project
Design
Whole School Book Week Project
RE and PSHE
What symbols do Christians use at Easter?
Good to Be Me: celebrating our unique selves
Global Citizenship
Summer 1
Maths
Length & Height
Can you count how many cm the ______ measures?
How does using a ruler help us to compare objects?
Goemetry: Position & Direction
Use the words ‘forwards’, ‘backwards’,
‘clockwise’, ‘anti-clockwise’ and ‘quarter turn’.
Computing
We are researchers - during this unit children retrieve digital content from the web with a particular purpose in mind.
P.E.
Games Activities: Striking and fielding games - Rounders
Athletics: running, jumping, throwing and skipping
Music - Music that Makes You Dance
How does music make us happy?
English
Poetry: National competition - write a poem and enter it into a competition.
Fiction: ‘The disgusting sandwich’ by G. Edwards - write a ‘disgusting’ story and read it to a Y1 audience.
Non-fiction: Recounts, letters and instructions - write a range of non-fiction work based on a trip and other real experiences.
Art
Sculpture: Wire flowers/plants
Science curriculum focus
How did that blossom become an apple?
Key scientific questions
What do plants need to grow and stay healthy?
How do plants start their lives?
RE & PSHE
How do Jewish people pray?
Loss of a pet- coping with big feelings
Feeling Good Feeling Safe; protective behaviours
Where do we live? Do we live on the coast?
What animals live in Asia, China and Sanya?
Do people go on holiday to Brighton, China and Sanya?
Where do they visit? What do they see?
Summer 2
Maths
Time
Which is the hour hand? Which is the minute hand? How do you know?
Where does the minute hand point to at half past? Can you see that the minute hand has travelled halfway around the clock?
Can you show me _______?
Mass, Capacity & Temperature
What is the mass of the ______? What would two _______weigh? How could you tell is something was lighter or heavier than 10g? How much heavier is the ______ than the ______? How could
you work it out?
Computing
We are astronauts - create backdrops and write simple algorithms
RE and PSHE
Why do Christians pray?
Changes: moving up to KS2
RSE: What makes a friend?, celebrating my brilliant body and naming male and female body parts
English
Non-fiction: Recounts, letters and instructions (continued from previous half term)
Write a range of non-fiction work based on a trip and other real experiences.
Poetry: Becoming a summer
Exlpore the poem ‘Becoming a winter’ by Pie Corbett and create a summer version. Perform your poem over images.
Non-fiction & Fiction: Insects matter (3 weeks)
‘Bug Hotel’ by Libby Waldon
Build understanding of how important insects are while honing our writing skills.
History Curriculum Focus
How did the ancient fishing village of Brighthelmstone become Brighton, our city by the sea?
Who was Magnus Volks?
How did the railways change Victorian life in Brighton and England?
What is their impact on Brighton today?
PE
Swimming
Athletics - Sports Day Practice
Music - Exploring Improvisation
How does music teach us about looking after our planet?
