Year 2 News 

Maths Games 

In Year 2, we have a great time engaging in maths games to reinforce our number skills. These games are often played in pairs, providing students with an enjoyable way to review and practice concepts covered throughout the week. Recently, we have focused on strengthening our understanding of place value through various games.

We encourage you to ask your child about these activities, and we hope they can share some of their favourite games with you, helping to further support their maths development at home. 

Below, you'll find links to some of our favourite Michael Minus maths games from the start of Year 2. 

We hope you enjoy playing these together as a family! 

3 Guesses - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZtElpQNWt0 

5 Moves to 100 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49Yx8CfcdHk&t=5s 

Double Hat Trick - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30ird_abq-w&t=91s 

Greater Than - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt0GEswfkfc&t=1s 

Please also have a look at this website which is an excellent tool to support children’s understanding of place value: 

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/arrowCards/  

Literacy - Word Work and Handwriting 

Each morning, Year 2 students have been thoroughly enjoying their literacy block. We’re providing multiple opportunities for them to engage with phonics sounds, which supports both their reading and spelling development. 

As part of our daily phonics instruction, which follows the SMART Spelling approach, Year 2 students participate in Word Work. Using materials like stencils, magnets, letter tiles, and stamps, the students creatively strengthen their understanding of weekly sounds. 

So far in SMART Spelling, we’ve focused on sounds such as /ur/ (making the ‘er’ sound, as in fur), /ow/ (making the ‘O’ sound, as in snow), /y/ (making the ‘E’ sound, as in pony), and /dge/ (making the ‘j’ sound as in bridge). 

Our literacy block also incorporates handwriting, where we spend a short amount of time focusing on and improving our letter formation and handwriting. 

Literacy - Writing  

In Year 2, students have been exploring letter writing. They’ve enjoyed drawing names from a hat and writing personal letters to their classmates. Last week, they also received a secret pen pal from another class! They’ve been writing anonymous letters to share just a little information about themselves. 

We will continue with this activity, and over time, students will try to guess the identity of their mystery pen pals as the letters reveal more details. 

Year 2 Assembly

Every Friday afternoon, Year 2 students gather for a special Year 2 Assembly. 

During these assemblies, we celebrate students from each class who have excelled in reading or demonstrated one of the PYP Learner Profile attributes. We acknowledge students for being Caring, Knowledgeable, Open-minded, Principled, Reflective, Balanced, or for exemplifying qualities of a Thinker, Risk-Taker, Inquirer, or Communicator.