The Enormous Crocodile

Year 2 – Spring 2 - 2015

Start date: 23.02.15 Finish date: 01.04.15

The Enormous Crocodile

During the second half of the spring term the Year 2 topic will be ‘The Enormous Crocodile’. In this topic the children will
be learning how to write their own stories in the style of this well-known Roald Dahl story. We will be reading the book
and watching ‘The Enormous Crocodile’ on DVD so the children can visualise all the characters and settings to help them
write their stories.

How can you help?

This letter will give you some more information about what your child is learning in school so that you can help at home.
If your child finds out any relevant information about any parts of our topic and he/she would like to bring it into school,
it would be lovely for them to do this and then to share it with the other children. For example, information and pictures
about crocodiles and ‘The Enormous Crocodile’ story by Roald Dahl.

You could also:

Read your child’s book with them.
Help your child to complete their maths homework.
Work on your child’s writing and maths targets.
Read books by Roald Dahl with your child and find out about the author together http://www.roalddahl.com
Visit http://www.mrthorne.com/ to help support their phonics work.
Visit http://ictgames.com/resources.html to carry out some math’s games with your child.
Key skills and knowledge – English
During this half term your child will be learning how to write a good story. Throughout the term they will learn about the key
features of stories through drama and by looking at examples of different stories. At the end of this term they will apply the skills
they have learnt to enable them to write their own story based on ‘The Enormous Crocodile.’
See below for the key features,

Key Features of Narrative (stories)

Purpose: To tell and write a story in an interesting and descriptive way
Example: ‘The Enormous Crocodile’ by Roald Dahl
Text Structure
 Opening (start of the story), build up (introducing the characters), problem (something going wrong/happening),
resolution (solving the problem), ending (finishing the story).
Language features  Borrowing phrases
 Time connectives  Descriptive language
 Past Tense  Speech (dialogue)
 3rd Person
Common forms of narrative writing
 Picture Books
 Chapter Books

Key skills and knowledge – Maths

Over the coming half term we will be putting our maths learning in to context and will continue to focus on giving the
children opportunities to apply their skills in problem solving situations.
Here is a brief overview of the areas of maths your child will be focusing on.

 Reading scales (length, weight, capacity)

 Reading and understanding the passage of time
 Telling the time
 Solving problems involving, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
 Number facts (doubles, halving, multiples)
 Money- understanding the pound and pence notation
 Statistics - collection of data and graph work

For each area of learning, your child will be using a variety of resources to help them and they will be learning and
using associated vocabulary.
Maths homework will be sent home every Friday and is to be handed in by the following Friday. This homework will
allow children to demonstrate application of the skills they have learnt. Please ensure you help your child to complete
their maths homework booklet each week. We continue to value the homework and will use it in a variety of ways
within the classroom to support the children’s progress. We will continue to provide models and images to support
them in the homework tasks.
Key skills and knowledge in Design & Technology

Towards the end of the half term the children will be undertaking a DT activity. They will be planning, designing and
making fairground rides, using the ones in ‘The Enormous Crocodile’ to support this. They will be developing the
following knowledge, skills and understanding:

 Asking and answering questions about their starting point and developing ideas.
 Trying out tools and techniques.
 Reviewing what they have done and saying how they feel about it.

Key skills and knowledge in Science

The children will learning about life processes and living things. This will involve them learning about life cycles of
animals and recognising what they need to survive. They will be developing the following knowledge, skills and
understanding:

 Understanding that animals move, feed, grow, use their senses and reproduce.
 Understanding that different animals have different life cycles.
 Recognising similarities and differences been living things and grouping them according to these.

Computing
The children will be using ICT to support the literacy focus this half term they will be using the software ‘Comic Life’ to
make their own comic strip about the Enormous Crocodile and microphones to record their storytelling. They will be
developing the following knowledge, skills and understanding:

 Gathering information from a variety of sources.

 Exchanging and sharing information – to share ideas through sound.
 Presenting their completed work effectively.

Take Away Task (homework)

We would like you to work with your child to help them make their own puppet and then write instructions to tell others
how to make it. The puppet is to be a character from ‘The Enormous Crocodile’ story, for example, the crocodile, the
Roly-Poly bird, Muggle Wump the monkey, Trunky the elephant, Humpy-Rumpy the hippo or one of the children. (see
attached sheet for pictures of these characters) This puppet will be used to support development of story language
through role play in class. These puppets can take whatever form your child would like, for example, a sock puppet, a
glove puppet, a finger puppet, or a puppet on a stick. ‘Keep it simple’ is the motto for this task.
This website will give you some great ideas:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/puppets

We would appreciate it if these puppets could be in school for the week beginning the
Monday 23th March. Your child will then be able to share their puppet with the rest of their class.

Bug Club - http://www.bugclub.co.uk/

Sumdog - http://www.sumdog.com/
P.E.
P.E Days
Bay-Wednesday & Friday
Bramley-Monday & Friday
Acacia-Tuesday & Friday

Your child’s P.E days are the same as last term. Please continue to make sure your child has their P.E kit in
school on these days. Each child needs to have some shorts (as we are doing gymnastics indoors this term), a
t-shirt, jogging bottoms, a jumper and plimsolls or trainers, also if needed tape to cover any earrings.

Y2 Class exhibitions at Inspire Hall @ 9.05:

Bay – 12/3/15

Acacia – 28/4/15

Bramley – 23/4/15

Thank you for finding time to read this information sheet, we hope you find it useful. If you have any queries
or questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher

Class Teachers
Miss Archer, Mr Crook & Mrs Philpott.
 Story Characters

The Enormous Crocodile

The Roly Poly Bird

Trunky the Elephant

Humpy Rumpy the Hippo

Muggle Wump the monkey