YR 2 Maths

[Orchid12]

Hi,
Quick question for teachers or other parents of yr 2 children. DS started with a new teacher in Sept (same school, but had previous teacher for 2 years). He is saying he is bored with the maths work and has got onto the bad side of the behaviour ladder twice in two weeks for finishing work and then messing about. My questions are:

1. What would you expect a yr 2 class to be doing in maths? (they have just done number bonds of 10, and simple additions such as 36+3).
2. Do teachers normally differentiate grps this early in the term? It appears that everyone gets the same work. Once finished they are supposed to draw or write something while the rest of the class finish.
3. AIBU to be a bit miffed that my son is getting into trouble for finishing quickly and then getting bored waiting for other people to finish? He is now 7 and I wonder if it is a reasonable thing for schools to expect them to be able to sit and amuse themselves quietly for a short period of time. Happy to be told that yes he should be able to do this and I can work on it with him. Thanks

My uninformed opinion is that yes, he should be able to sit and keep himself amused whist others finish (my DD has just started Y2 so that is the only basis for my opinion), BUT, I would also not expect the work to be too easy - I'd suggest just raising it with the teacher, and ask her about the maths, and try and squeeze in something about him being a bit bored/finding it too easy.

DS has just started in Y2. Their work for maths and English is set at 3 or 4 different levels, and they get to choose which they do. I guess they could still run out of stuff to do in theory, but the teachers seem to be pretty good at keeping them occupied.

What's the point in making them sit there?

Mine has extension work with four others in her class. They do the same basics, so say number bonds, but will do them with 100's so 35 and 75, or 46 and 54.

Thanks for the replies. I would expect more of the 100 number bond type work for yr2 so it's good to know others are actually doing this. He was quite put out at being asked what number you needed to put with 9 to make 10!!!

I'm not sure why the policy is that they have to sit and draw once they have finished. I can only see him getting into more trouble as he is not keen on drawing and finds it difficult to come up with ideas and be creative. I would prefer him be given additional, structured work to do and he will fare much better. I will work on learning to sit quietly with him in the interim. I think I will give it to the end of the week and then see if I can ask gently about if he might get additional work to do etc.

Would drawing include drawing numbers? You could suggest to him that he draws more sums. :)

I am really surprised at the idea that 6yos will be expected to sit quietly and occupy themselves. I freely admit that DS has ASD and might therefore be unrepresentative. But from what I see outside of school, many of his peers would be getting into mischief if you didn't give them something to focus on.

Ds class doing number bonds to 20 and in 10s to 100, and money basics (just making amounts with coins, not even change). I assume that's not differentiated. He's not impressed. I would expect him to be able to sit quietly and draw if asked, but would be disappointed that he was asked, when they could easily chuck some harder maths at him like last year's teacher used to. Ds being totally unprepared to stick head above parapet I suspect he's just sitting there sucking his thumb and not telling teacher he's finished.

I suggested DS write himself out some harder sums when he was done - but no that would be drawing attention. He decided he could make some up in his head instead. Might your Ds be prepared to do one of those?

Aw bless him catkind. I also can't help thinking "how hard can it be" in respect of the teacher's having a box of sheets with harder sums in. Surely they're available from higher up the school anyway?

In DS1's school the teacher differentiates the work. From what DS1 tells me, they all start with an intro/explanation of the topic they are going to do that day (last week it was things like addition, subtraction and this week they are doing times tables), and then they all get on with their work.

DS1 gets to practice the same concept but doing addition and subtraction of two and three digit numbers. And when they were doing multiplication, the teacher tested him on all tables from 1 to 10, and as he had a bit of trouble with x9, that's the one she told him to practice. Today he was tested on x11 and x12, and she told him to practice the x12.

As far as I know, the Y2 usual times tables are x2, x5, x10 (those are the ones the other children were practising).

So, depending on the the school and teacher, work can be differentiated taking into consideration the student as an individual. I think that is how it should be.

Every time I read threads like this, they make me realise how lucky we have been with the school/teachers DS1 has had so far, as it doesn't seem to be the rule but rather the exception.