What Your Year 2 Child Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Year 2 Education(2 Core Knowledge UK)

Designed for use by parents, teachers and home educators, this second volume in the Core Knowledge UK series provides Year 2 children with the fundamentals they need to prepare them for a lifetime of learning. It sets out the elements a parent or educator should look for in a good Year 2 curriculum and introduces activities that can help a child to take the next steps in learning to read and write. Filled with age-appropriate questions that stimulate thinking, What Your Year 2 Child Needs to Know also includes: Familiar and favourite poems - read and recite together from Spike Milligan, Eloise Greenfield, Jack Prelutsky, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edward Lear and more, all beautifully illustrated. Fairy tales, fables and other beloved stories - read aloud from Aesop's Fables, The House at Pooh Corner, The Saga of Noggin the Nog and many more, including multicultural folktales from African, American, Dutch, German, Japanese and Jewish traditions. Familiar sayings - talk about traditional phrases that impart wisdom, such as 'You can't judge a book by its cover' and 'Many hands make light work'. History and geography - an introduction to our world, including ancient Egypt, British history from the Romans in Britain to 1066 and the geography of the British Isles and northern Europe, complete with original maps and beautiful photos. Visual arts - engaging activities go hand-in-hand with learning about colour, shape, texture, portraiture and murals from old masters and modern artists such as Hogarth, Rembrandt, Picasso and Hockney. Music - many musical experiences for parents and children to participate in, along with songs to sing and dance to. Mathematics - interactive and engaging exposure to mathematical concepts and calculations that provide a springboard to later mastery. Science - activities that let children observe, experience and get their hands dirty while exploring the wonders of nature and learning about the work of important scientists.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements. A Note to Teachers. About the Editor. Foreword to the UK Edition of the Core Knowledge Series. Introduction to the UK edition of The Core Knowledge Curriculum for Year 2. General Introduction to the Core Knowledge Series. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.. Reading, Writing, and Your Year 2 Child. Teaching Children to Read: The Need for a Balanced Approach. Learning to Read and Write. Goals for Reading and Writing: From Year 1 to Year 2. What Does a Good Year 2 Programme Do?. What Parents Can Do to Help. Suggested Resources. Literature Introduction. Read-Aloud Activities. Poetry. Traditional Rhymes. If Wishes Were Horses. The Queen of Hearts. Three Wise Men of Gotham. Solomon Grundy. Thirty Days Hath September. Tongue Twisters. Riddle Rhymes. More Poems for Year 2. The Swing. A Good Play. The Frog. Hope. The Pasture. The Owl and the Pussycat. Jumbo Jet. 'Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been?'. I Know All the Sounds That the Animals Make. Rope Rhyme. Ring a Ring o' Roses. Scissors. Cats Sleep Anywhere. The Purple Cow. My Shadow. Table Manners. Aesop's Fables. The Boy Who Cried Wolf. The Fox and the Grapes. The Dog in the Manger. The Maid and the Milk Pail. The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs. Stories. All Stories Are Anansi's. The Boy at the Dyke. Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby. The Frog Prince. Hansel and Gretel. In Which Tigger Comes to the Forest and Has Breakfast (from The House at Pooh Corner). Issun Boshi: One-Inch Boy. Tom Thumb. It Could Always Be Worse. Jack and the Beanstalk. The Knee-High Man. Medio Pollito. The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Pinocchio. The Princess and the Pea. Puss-in-Boots. Rapunzel. Rumpelstiltskin. Sleeping Beauty. King of the Nogs. Drama. The Boy Who Cried Wolf: A Play. Familiar Sayings. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. You can't judge a book by its cover. Hit the nail on the head. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Land of Nod. Let the cat out of the bag. The more the merrier. Never leave till tomorrow what you can do today. Many hands make light work. There's no place like home. Suggested Resources. WORLD HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. Introduction. History: Everyone's Story. The Birth of Civilisation. Egypt: Gift of the Nile. Fantastic Pharaohs and Marvellous Monuments. Hieroglyphics: Picture Writing. A Journey Down the Nile. The Treasures of King Tut. Mesopotamia - Another Gift. A Great Mesopotamian Story. What's a Ziggurat?. A Leader and the Laws. Religions. What Different People Believe. Judaism. The Story of Moses. Christianity. The First Christmas. Jesus the Teacher: The Parable of the Good Samaritan. Easter. Islam. British and European Geography. The Countries of the British Isles. The North is Cold. Scandinavia. Great Explorers: Roald Amundsen. British History. Romans in Britain. Post-Roman Britain. Archaeology. The Vikings. Tall Tales: Alfred Burns the Cakes. Christianity in Britain. Normans in Britain. The Domesday Book. Suggested Resources. VISUAL ARTS. Introduction. People Have Been Making Art for a Very Long Time. Activity 1: Eye spy. Masterpieces in Metal and Manuscripts. Activity 2: Illuminating and decorating 183 A World of Colour. Activity 3: Primary and secondary colours. Get in Shape!. Activity 4: Mini Picassos!. Activity 5: Shape up!. Texture: Oh, What a Feeling!. Activity 6: Texture in text. Looking Good: Portraits. Self-Portraits: A Good Look at Yourself. Activity 7: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall!. Murals: Paintings on Walls. Activity 8: Chalk it up!. Suggested Resources. Where to find the works of art in this chapter. MUSIC. Introduction. Instruments and Their Families. The Orchestra. Great Composers. 'Mozart the Wonder Boy'. Music Can Tell a Story. Dramas with Music: Opera. Music Can Make You Move. Jazz. Melody and Harmony. I've Got Rhythm!. Reading and Writing Music. A Few Favourite Songs. The Grand Old Duke of York. Michael Finnigan. La Cucaracha. Billy Boy. Skip to My Lou. Frere Jacques / Brother John. Dry Bones. There's a Hole in my Bucket. What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor? 230 Ten Green Bottles. For He's a Jolly Good Fellow. Michael, Row the Boat Ashore. She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain. On Top of Old Smoky. I Had a Little Nut Tree. Lavender's Blue. Polly Put the Kettle On. Suggested Resources. MATHEMATICS. Introduction. Patterns and Classifications. Numbers and Number Sense. Numbers from 1 to 10. One More and One Less. Numbers for Things in Order. Place Value. Place Value from 21 to 100. Counting to 100. Even and Odd Numbers. Twelve Is a Dozen. Greater Than and Less Than. Activity 1: Before and After. Activity 2: Number Flash Card Activities. Using Graphs. Fractions. Addition and Subtraction. Addition Facts from 0 to 12. Subtraction Facts from 0 to 12. Activity 3: Addition and Subtraction Facts - Try it Yourself!. Practise Your Addition. Addition Facts with the Same Sum. Things to Know About Addition. Activity 4: Dicey Addition. Adding Three Numbers. Subtraction: Taking Away Leaves the Difference. Comparing Differences and Sums. Fact Families. Activity 5: Find The Mystery Number. Activity 6: Addition and Subtraction Stories. Activity 7: A Hundred Table. Two-Digit Addition. Two-Digit Subtraction. Money. Activity 8: Coin Combinations. One pound is 100 pence. Counting in 20p Coins. Counting Money. Notes. Geometry. Flat and Solid Shapes. Activity 9: Simon Says. Measurement. Calendar Time. Activity 10: Telling the Time. Multiplication and Division. What is Multiplication?. Practising Multiplication. Multiplying by 10. Multiplication Facts. Three Rules for Multiplication. Word Problems and Missing Factors. Division. Operations. An Example of Division. Solving Division Problems. Division Words. Division Facts. Division Rules for 0 and 1. Division Word Problems. Picturing Multiplication and Division Facts. Picturing Multiplication and Division Facts with Blank Spaces. Division and Fractions. Suggested Resources. SCIENCE Introduction. Living Things and Their Habitats. The Woodland Habitat.What You're Called and What You Eat. The Underground Habitat. The Desert Habitat. Water Habitats. The Food Chain. Animals and Plants Need Their Habitats, So Be Careful. Extinct but Still Popular: Dinosaurs. Oceans and Undersea Life. The Oceans and the Tides. Ocean Currents. Under the Sea. Humans and the Marine World. The Human Body. The Skeletal System. The Muscular System. The Circulatory System. The Digestive System. The Nervous System. In Sickness and in Health. Take Care of Your Body. Matter: Solid, Liquid, and Gas. Activity 1: Air is Matter. Far Too Small to See: Atoms. Changing States of Matter. Units of Measurement. How Long? How Tall?. How Much Space Does it Fill?. Tablespoons and Millilitres. Temperature: How Hot? How Cold?. Activity 2: Taking the Temperature. Electricity: An Introduction to the Shocking Facts. Static Electricity. On and Off. Conductors. Activity 3: An Experiment: What Conducts?. Safety Rules Around Electricity. Astronomy: Our Solar System. A Star and Nine Planets. The Moon. Constellations: Join-the-Dots Stars. Our Big, Round, Moving Earth. Activity 4: An Experiment: What Makes Day and Night?. Down to Earth. Inside the Earth. The Earth Makes Different Kinds of Rocks. The Earth's Important Minerals. Stories About Scientists. Edward Jenner. Louis Pasteur. Thomas Edison. Rosalind Franklin. Suggested Resources. Illustration and Photo Credits. Text Credits and Sources. Index.

About the Author :
E.D. Hirsch, Jr. is a professor at the University of Virginia and the author of The Schools We Need and the bestselling Cultural Literacy and The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. He and his wife, Polly, live in Charlottesville, Virginia, where they raised their three children.

Review :
'A strong foundation of knowledge gained in the earliest years of education is such an important asset for children, sparking their imagination and providing the cornerstone for their future learning. I welcome the aim of the Core Knowledge books to do just that and I am sure that they will be valued by many parents wishing to help their children do well at school.' - Munira Mirza, Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture 'Creativity, the arts and design are crucial to the environment and life of every citizen. They should occupy a central place in the curriculum at both primary and secondary levels. The new series published by Civitas, giving examples of how the arts and creativity can play a part in the education of every child, is a real contribution to the teaching of these subjects in all our schools.' - Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate Britain