Welcome to Year 2!
The adults working in Year Two are:
Miss Monaghan (Mon, Tues, Wed AM and Fri)
Mrs Butterworth (Wed PM and Thurs)
Miss Nicoll and Mrs Bulbulia will be working in Year Two at various points throughout the week
PE Days
Tuesdays and Wednesdays
Homework
This is set on a Wednesday and is to be completed by the following Wednesday.
There will be a maths paper copy sent home and spelling on EdShed to complete.
Welcome to our class!
Can you use our artwork to find out about our interests, families, hobbies?
School Councillors
In Year 2, our school councillors are Ivy and Jasper. They meet regularly with Mrs Sunderland to discuss how they can help make our school a better place. They enjoy attending meetings with the other school councillors and sharing our classes thoughts and opinions on different things.
Summer 1
Science - This half term we are learning all about plants and what they need to be healthy. This afternoon, we started to conduct our own experiment to see what they actually need to grow and be healthy. The children worked in groups to set up their experiment, taking away one thing that pants need. We are going to observe these seeds over the next few weeks to see what happens. We have also began to plant some seeds and bulbs outside and we are very excited to see what we can grow!
Computing - This half term we are learning about the ISS (International Space Station) and we are looking at how computers help humans survive in space. This week, we pretended to be sensors and collected information about the temperatures around school and then put the information we had collected into Excel to make a spreadsheet. Everyone did an amazing job at reading the thermometers and challenged themselves by using a program they haven't used before.
Spring 2
Geography - This week we used our knowledge of the UK to create our tours to explore them. We enjoyed being tour guides and we worked in groups to decide what to show on our tours. Have a watch of some of them!
DT - We began our work on 'A Balanced Diet'. We learnt about the food groups and used the NHS eat well guide to discuss how much we should have of each group to keep ourselves healthy. We then categorised food into the correct groups on our plates.
Art - We continued with our Expressive Art pathway this week. We used the previous weeks paintings using primary and secondary colours to create collages in our books. We chose parts of our paintings we thought were expressive and interesting and arranged them in our desired ways. We then spent some time looking at each others and commenting on the parts we thought were intriguing.
Geography - We used our knowledge of the countries of the UK and characteristics of them to piece them together. We worked brilliantly in teams and talked about the human and physical features we could see!
PE - We finished our unit on Yoga this week in 'Superhero style!' We explored different superhero poses to music and then spent time using all our skills from previous weeks to create our own superhero yoga poses. Our imaginations were brilliant!
Science - Today, we looked at the importance of hygiene for our health. We discussed why it was important to wash our hands and how it helps to stop germs spreading. We then investigated which is the best way to wash our hands. The children used glitter to represent the germs and washed their hands in three different ways, either with a paper towel, water or soap and water. We found out that the best way to remove germs was by using soap and water. A lot of the children were shocked at the difference between the three!
English - We have been exploring explanation texts. We have looked at the features of them and then used this to create our own. Our topic in Geography is 'Our Country' so we linked our writing to looking after the beaches we have in the UK. We had some excellent pieces of work!
British Science Week
Today, Year 2 took part in an experiment all about time, which is the focus of this years science week. Our question was ‘which biscuits are the best for dunking?’ The children were all very excited to take part in this experiment, as you can imagine, and were very good at resisting the temptation to eat them!
Every child was able to have a go at dunking a biscuit over and over again, while the rest of their group counted the dunks and timed how long it took before the biscuit broke. Our conclusion was, that if you want a good biscuit you can dunk, you need to c for a Custard Cream or Rich Tea. We also found that the worst biscuits for dunking are Caramelised Biscuits.
We finished our experiment by sampling a few of the biscuits
Geography - This week we moved onto developing our geographical skills through using aerial maps and photos. We pieced together four areas of the UK, using our previous weeks knowledge of their charateristics. We then labelled the human and geographical features we could see in these places. Using the iPad, we explored the four areas in more detail by using the 'flyover' tool to see more in depth aerial shots.
World Book Day
What a day we’ve had! The day started with an assembly all about World Book Day and why we celebrate, the children then shared their amazing creations with the rest of the class! It was lovely to see the children present their creations and speak so passionately about their favourite books and characters. After this, the children then voted for their favourites and the votes were very close!
We then had the opportunity to share our books that we brought with reception. All the children thoroughly enjoyed this experience and spoke with such enthusiasm to the younger children.
This afternoon, we were amazed to see so many books laid out in the hall! All the children were so excited to be able to choose two books to take home and share with you. To finish our day, we watched a video of several authors who were challenging us to get curious. Some children had a go at a Hirameki exercise, where you draw what you can see and others designed a World Book Day token for next year.
Here is a snap shot of our day!
PE - Out topic this half term is yoga! We are becoming really confident at holding strong poses and sequencing them together into a ‘flow’. We have linked our poses to different environments and what we would find there such as the artic, desert and jungle. We have also practised our sunshine breathing to help with our mindfulness.
Art - Today, we started to look at expressive painting and colour mixing. We have started our pieces of art by focusing on the primary colours. We used different tools to apply the paint and next week we will be using secondary colours to explore expressive mark marking. I can’t wait to see the finished pieces!
Geography - Our topic in Geography this half term is ‘Our Country’. This week we recapped our previous knowledge from Year One of locating and naming the countries in the UK. We then explored these countries in more detail, finding out about their characteristics including human and physical features.
Fire of London Workshop!
This week, we finished our history unit on the Great Fire of London by taking part in an outdoor workshop. Alfresco Learning led our workshop in which we looked at how buildings in 1666 would have been made. We then took part in lots of hands on learning by creating our own wattle and dorb walls. We saw some excellent team work and perseverance from the children. We then looked at where the fire started and thought about suitable materials to make a waterproof bakery for Thomas Farriner. Each group chose their own materials and worked together to create a structure, they then tested these with water. It was wonderful to see the children share their knowledge of this historical event with the workshop leader so confidently, and most importantly they all enjoyed getting muddy for a few hours!
Spring 1
DT - We have spent the last half term looking at mechanisms and the features of these such as pivots and levers. We then designed and made our own 'Moving Monster' using these components. They were amazing!
Safer Internet Day - This Tuesday we took part in Safer Internet Day in which we explored how to keep ourselves safe online. We looked at the positives that technology can bring to our lives and how to make sure we are safe when we are online.
English - We have started looking at poetry this week. We looked at the features of a ‘diamente’ poem and then planned our own in groups. We structured it on our pieces of paper ensuring we had thought of appropriate verbs and adjectives to describe the nouns. We had some super ideas!
Blast from the Past Day!
World Religion Day - This week we celebrated World Religion Day in school. In class we looked at the six main religions and listened to some children explain why their religion is important to them. We looked at similarities and differences and then created posters showing our knowledge of each religion in its own section.
History - What happened after the fire? We learnt about the architect Sir Christopher Wren and how he was in charge of rebuilding important parts of London. In teams, we redesigned London ourselves - thinking carefully about making it a safer place and what necessary things it would need to include.
Gymnastics - This week we used our balance and shapes skills from the previous weeks to link together sequences with a partner. We created our own routines and thought about how we could change the shapes and balances in different ways. We then performed them to floor music. They were super!
English - In Chapter 3 of our class text of the 'Baker's Boy' we found out that Will went to the palace to ask the King for help with the Great Fire. We used our new historical knowledge of what was happening in London to write our own letters to the King.
Science - This term we are learning about animals, including humans. Today, we looked at the term offspring and how different animals have their offspring, born live or lay eggs. The children were able to work together to match up the correct offspring to their adult and we then looked at if all offspring looked like their adult. We had some fantastic discussions!
Computing - Today, we continued working in ScratchJr to program our own jokes. The children needed to use the skills they had been taught in previous lessons, deciding how they wanted the joke to play, if when it was tapped or when the flag is pressed and record their own voices using the microphone. Some children went a step further and made their characters move. Here are a few examples.
Maths - Our new topic in Maths is money. Today we did some practical work on choosing coins and notes to make an amount. We got much better at it as the lesson went on!
History - We are learning all about the Great Fire of London! Today, we learnt about the events of the fire and placed these onto a timeline using pictures and keywords.
Computing - This half term we are continuing our work with SratchJr. The children are really enjoying using this program and this week we had a go at making our own musical instruments. The children were able to draw their own instrument and add buttons by drawing their own characters. The children then wrote their own code for each character and recorded sounds for each one. Some children then went on to making the characters move when they were tapped. We have some excellent programmers in the making!
English - Our class text for our writing this half term is The Baker's Boy and the Great Fire of London. We are excited about it as it is a chapter book! We will be writing for different purposes such as creating a diary entry, newspaper report and hot seating characters.
Autumn 2
Christingle Workshop at Tingley Methodist Church - 19.12.23
Maths - We have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes over the last few weeks. At the end of our unit, we used all our new knowledge of faces, edges and vertices to short 3D shapes into groups based on their properties. We did some excellent problem solving and used some lovely language in our discussions.
RE - We have been looking at the theme of 'How we can make good choices?'. We have explored the Ten Commandments that some Christians follow and this week we looked at the Five Pillars of Islam. We worked in groups of 5 to take responsibility for one of the pillars and thought about how to demonstrate our understanding of that pillar through pictures and words.
Geography - We have been learning about different weather patterns in our seasons. We have been recording and observing our weather and have watched some weather forecasts to see how people are informed about the weather. We plotted our own weather patterns onto maps of the UK and had a go at presenting these in groups. Have a watch!
Evan and Oliver’s weather forecast
PSHE - We have been looking at body language in our last two PSHE lessons. We have looked at how we can tell how other people might be feeling without using words. At the end of our unit we demonstrated some different types of body language and got our peers to guess how they might be feeling from observing - can you guess what each one is?
Computing - Today, the children were introduced to ScratchJr! For our first lesson, the children were asked to 'tinker' with the program by choosing different blocks, predicting what they thought it would do, testing it and then reviewing their predictions. All of the class loved their first time using ScratchJr and can't wait for our next lesson!
Art - We have continued with our 'Artists as collectors and explorers' pathway this week. We collected some of our favourite items that we had found during our exploration work the previous week and took these into the hall. We then used different sketching equipment to create some autumn drawings on our own 'paving slabs'.
English - This half term we are looking at traditional tales and how some of have been 'twisted' over time! We are using the story 'The True Story of the Three Little Pigs' which tells the story from the wolf's point of view. We are then 'twisting' the characters to create our own 'Big Bad Pigs'!
English - We designed our own 'Big Bad Pig' characters as we continued with our 'twisted tales' work. We thought of some really interesting ideas to make our pigs different from each other and how we could include their personalities in our drawings. We then labelled the parts we wanted to talk about in our character descriptions.
Author workshop - Today we joined a virtual workshop with the author, Vashti Harrison, who wrote the Little Leaders books. She talked about being an author and an illustrator and then shared her new book ‘Big’ with us. We enjoyed listening to it and learning a really important message of acceptance at the same time. We then had a go at sketching the character - some of us chose to draw her small and some chose to draw her big. We really enjoyed it!
Our art pathway this half term is ‘Artists as collectors and explorers’. Last week we looked at artists who collect items in their environments to create pieces of art work. This week it was our turn to be ‘collectors’! We worked together to collect different things we could find outside and then created pieces of art work - sometimes these were patterns, shapes or actual objects we re created.
Geography - Our topic in Geography this half term is ‘Wonderful Weather’. During our first lesson we thought about all the things we already know about weather and then thought of our own questions about what we want to find out about over the next few weeks. We had some really interesting ones - watch the video below!
Maths - We have been learning to use the column method to add and subtract two 2digit numbers together. We have become really confident in using the method independently and using it to solve word problems.
PE - This half term we are exploring dance in some of our PE lessons. The theme is the ‘Secret Garden’. Our first lesson focussed on learning to create sequences in counts of 8 and putting 4 of these together to create a simple dance. We then partnered up and used our ideas to then work in groups of 4. We performed our dance sequences to the rest of the class - they were fab!
Music - This week we continued learning about West African call and response. We looked at what call and response means and then had a go at doing our own. Here is an example of the children's fantastic efforts at a call and response!
Science - This week we continued our work on habitats and began to look at how living things are suited to their habitat. The children played a game to show what they know about the ways living things survive in their habitats.
The children were encouraged to discuss the features of the living thing that make them suited to that habitat, the needs of different living things and how they can survive in its habitat. After each child had discussed their animal or plant, they then decided which habitat it belonged in and the rest of the group decided if they agreed with their choice. The children had a great afternoon playing this game and didn't want to stop!
Autumn 1
English
Our focus text in English for the first few weeks is 'The Great Explorer'. This ties in with our History topic of Significant Explorers! We will be using this story to plan our own Explorer adventure stories later in the term.
We have been looking at emotions in PSHE and in particular, worry. We made a list as a class of things we could do if we are worried and then spent time creating posters to display our knowledge for the younger children. We made some wonderful ones!
Science - Living things and their environment
Over the last few weeks, the children have really enjoyed using the wildlife garden for our science topic, all about habitats. During our time in the wildlife garden, we have learnt how to recognise things that are living, dead and never alive by thinking about the seven life processes. We then looked at where we could find microhabitats around the school and thought about some of the minibeasts we might find there. This week, the children enquired if all minibeasts like to live in the same places and recorded the information they collected.
Here are a few photos of the fantastic learning they have done so far.
Design Technology - In DT, we have been looking at the mechanisms which make a Ferris wheel work. We then designed our own and thought about suitable materials. During the making process we had to be very resilient when things didn’t always work how we wanted them to. At the end of the process, we had lots of wheels which actually spun and worked as we had planned!
Maths - We have been learning about place value during the first half term in Year Two. We have used lots of concrete resources to help develop our understanding of tens and ones, partitioning and number patterns.
History - This half term we have been learning about significant explorers. We learnt about two polar explorers - Matthew Henson and Felicity Aston. We recorded videos of Matthew’s life and then we compared their explorations in groups. We looked at how clothing, equipment and recording devices have changed between the two expeditions.
All Around the World Day!
Music - This half term we are learning about West African call and response. We have looked at different animals we would find in West Africa and thought carefully about how we could represent these animals using different types of instruments and with short rhythms. Here are a few examples of the fantastic work the children have done so far.