Week commencing 1^st of June

Welcome back! We can hardly believe it is the final half term of Year 2, the year really has whizzed by, and we have got a lot of fun to cram into the final weeks.

We have kicked off our new topic: 'Why does England have so many castles?' with a trip to Warwick Castle! Although the children might have mentioned the packed lunch and seeing Sainsbury's as their personal highlights, we assure you the trip had lots of other exciting things to offer. 

The children got to watch a live re-telling of the War of the Roses, see a demonstration of archery, and watch a bird show with falcons, bald eagles and condors. They also got to tour around the tunnels and castle rooms. It was a fabulous day! 

Week Commencing 15^th April 2024

Another fun week for Year 2!

Our Dinosaur topic continued with lots of sketching and artwork. We wrote our own stories of 'The Day the Dinosaurs Died' and noticed that many of our predictions were indeed correct. 

In Maths,  we continued to practise our fractions work, finding fractions of amounts and showing our representations. We enjoyed working in groups to compare different methods of solving fraction questions.

We got active during P.E. lessons with sprints and hurdles! The children have mastered the art of jumping high enough, with only a few knocks and bumps...

During Forest Friday, the children built dens and took part in a wild-life scavenger hunt!

We also celebrated our assembly awards with a year group Pizza Party! Well done Year 2.

Week commencing 13^th May 2024

The weeks are flying by so quickly, and Week 6 was another fabulous week. As part of the Year 2 Enterprise project, the children designed, made and sold their products to their peers and to parents. They raised a whopping £76!! Well done Year 2! The children are now working as a group to decide how they would like to spend their hard-earned profits. Thank you to all of you who bought items from the shop 😄 

As we are coming to the end of this term, the children have been focussing on consolidating prior learning and practising common methods for solving mathematical problems. 

This week was also Mental Health Awarness Week. The children took part in a range of activities and projects targeted to support wellbeing and mindfulness. They worked together on a collaborative art project, played lots of games, and made their own Kindness Bingo card! 

Week commencing 6^th May 2024

Another fun week in Year 2! We made the most of the sunshine this week and got outside to do most of our learning. 

In Maths, we have been consolidating prior learning to make sure the children are really secure in the 4 operations before we move on to the future topics. The children have been able to use different methods effectively and have talked through their reasoning really clearly! 

In English, we have been putting our 'journalist' hats on! The children wrote a newspaper article about the paelontologist Mary Anning and her discovery in 1828! They explored different writing techniques to engage the reader. 

Iin DT, the children have been designing and making products as part of their enterprise project. They have designed 4 different products, made them independently and will be selling them on Friday 17^th May to demonstrate how business and design works.  If they make any profit, the children will choose what to spend their money on.

Week commencing 29.4.24

In Maths, we were learning all about time. We recapped 'on the hour' and 'half-past'. We then looked at 'quarter to' and 'quarter past' and telling the time in 5- minute intervals. The children made their own clocks to help them tell the time and solved a range of time-related problems. Telling the time can be tricky but they kept persevering! Well done, Year 2!

In English, we started our learning on Mary Anning, a famous palaeontologist from the 19^th century! The children did their own research and learnt so much about her fascinating life. We had discussions about why her gender led to her work being dismissed, and how her fame rose over time. The children wrote their own biographies of Mary Anning, and some chose to publish this up in neat. 

We managed to get outside and enjoy some of the sunshine this week! The children engaged in a carousel of different activities related to our current learning. 

Week Commencing 22.4.24

It's been another awesome week in Year 2!

When the children came in on Monday, they discovered some mysterious rocks in the Tuff Tray! The children got to play the role of a palaeontologist, and they tried their best to delicately excavate the fossils from within the rocks! They found shells and skeletons and will be working on identifying the species next week...

The children were then challenged to create a habitat for different species of dinosaurs! They had to think about the different diets of dinosaurs and how to adapt the habitat to the needs of the species. In English, they continued this work by writing Fact Files about their favourite dinosaur. We were so impressed with the presentation of these pieces! 

In Maths, we finished our unit on Fractions. The children looked at the equivalence of two-quarters and one-half and put their knowledge to use through lots of practical activities. As we're sure you've heard the magnificent Fractions song from your children, we've included the link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/articles/zmjy2sg (Enjoy!)

Next week, we will be looking at the life of Mary Anning and starting our new Maths unit on Time.

Week Commencing 15^th April 2024

Another fun week for Year 2!

Our Dinosaur topic continued with lots of sketching and artwork. We wrote our own stories of 'The Day the Dinosaurs Died' and noticed that many of our predictions were indeed correct. 

In Maths,  we continued to practise our fractions work, finding fractions of amounts and showing our representations. We enjoyed working in groups to compare different methods of solving fraction questions.

We got active during P.E. lessons with sprints and hurdles! The children have mastered the art of jumping high enough, with only a few knocks and bumps...

During Forest Friday, the children built dens and took part in a wild-life scavenger hunt!

We also celebrated our assembly awards with a year group Pizza Party! Well done Year 2.

Week Commencing 8^th April 

This week, we started our new topic: What happened to the dinosaurs? Our classrooms have been transformed to include dinosaur digs, palaeontology research stations and lots of fun dinosaur themed activities. The children have settled well after the Easter break and are already wowing us with their knowledge on dinosaurs and the pre-historic period. 

We started researching different dinosaur species and wrote some fabulous descriptive paragraphs. In science, we looked at the diets and habitats of dinosaurs, and sketched some very realistic drawings! 

In Maths, we have begun our unit on Fractions. Some of you may already know the words to our famous fraction song - it sure is catchy!

Be sure to check out this page next week to see us investigating how the dinosaurs disappeared...

Summer Term 1

Week commencing 8th April - What happened to the dinosaurs?   

We can't believe how quickly the year has flown by! We have already reached Summer Term. This term, we are looking at the question: What happened to the dinosaurs? The children have already enjoyed our introductory lessons and we have had a fabulous time looking at fossils. Please ensure you check the website for weekly updates and photographs of our learning.

Our PE days continue to be Tuesdays and Fridays. We will be continuing our outdoor learning through 'Forest Fridays'. Please ensure your child has their waterproof overalls in school for our Friday sessions. If you wish for these to remain in school, please send them in with their name on it. We had many items go missing last half term which were unnamed. 

Weekly homework will continue to be sent out on Wednesdays. This will include: 

•  A weekly maths sheet (which we expect to be completed and returned on a Monday for us to stick into their Maths books.)

• A reading book and record

• Pink shared learning book for optional activities (please see attached PDF for choices)

We would be incredibly grateful if you could engage with the weekly maths homework, as this is all in aid of the children's transition to junior school. We saw a huge jump in spelling progress from the children who engaged weekly with the spelling homework from last term, and it would be wonderful to have an even greater engagement for this term's homework. 

As we are now in the final term of Infants, and your child will soon be making the move to Year 3 we are trying to help them in their independence in as many ways as possible. We would love your help with this, so if you could please say goodbye to your child at the end of the path (by the green container) and allow them to go into school independently, this would be excellent. We will still be around for you to talk to but want the children to be prepared for the next steps. 

Thank you for all that you do,

Year 2 Team

Week Commencing 18^th March 2024

The final week of term was a blast! We had a special visit from Mr Holton, who came in to teach us all about Easter. We got to re-enact the Easter story, each of us got to play a different part and we sure had a lot of fun! Afterwards, we got to complete different activities, such as making thoughtfulness dice, creating our own comic strips, and making Easter decorations. 

In Maths, we finished up on our Measurement topic and recapped our understanding of Addition and Subtraction using concrete resources. 

In our outdoor area, we also found a set of mysterious tracks... The children enjoyed coming up with theories and discussing their ideas with everyone else. This resulted in some very creative stories! Our birdfeeders certainly went down well with the local wildlife, and we noticed that there were hardly any seeds leftover! 

Enjoy a fun-filled 2 weeks and see you for Summer Term!

Week Commencing 11^th March 

Another week of fun and excitement in Year 2! 

This week, both classes had a special trip to St Mark's Church to learn about how Christians celebrate Easter. We were given a wonderful tour of the church and got to go on a scavenger hunt inside the building. The children were amazed to find out that the church was built before the Great Fire of London! The walk there and back was full of excited chatter and the children made lots of excellent observations about the local area.

We also had a visit from Safety Seymour and learnt about the dangers of Carbon Monoxide. The children are now experts in how to stay safe in different situations and were taught how to test the Carbon Monoxide alarm. 

In the outdoor classroom, the children put their creativity to the test by designing and creating their own birdfeeders. Different groups of children decided to make varying types of feeders, and now we are going to be watching closely to see which feeders are most popular with which species of bird. If you've had a chance to look at our tree, you'll see the birds certainly won't be going hungry any time soon! 

Week Commencing: 4^th March

This week has been full of excitement. We've managed to get outside (in between the rain showers) and have enjoyed making physical maps of our local area. The children used resources to represent their journey to school, and we then took turns 'travelling' on each other's maps. 

We continued to work on our measurement topic, and have progressed on to Weight and Mass. The children used recipe cards to make their own treats in the Mud Kitchen Cafe and had to use the scales to ensure their recipe was accurate. 

After lots of hard work, the raised beds were finally weed-free, just in time to make room for our wonderful plants! The children are eager to see how the plants grow and bloom.

Of course, World Book Day had a big feature this week. The children came in dressed up in PJs, costumes and their own clothes and enjoyed a range of activities throughout the day. We had lots of guest readers come to our classes and read their favourite stories, and the children even got to bake the famous Honey Cakes from the book, 'Hugless Doughlas and the Great Cake Bake.'

Week commencing 26th February 2024

The weather has been a little nicer to us this week and we have enjoyed even more time learning outdoors! The children have really begun to take things in their stride, coming up with some great ideas for their own learning.

In English, we have read our book: ‘Wild’ by Emily Hughes and found out it was all about a girl who moved from living outside to inside. She didn’t really know how to live inside though and so the children have written some fantastic letters of advice, teaching her how to brush her teeth, how to look after her toys and even how to eat with a knife and fork!

In maths we have continued measuring in cm and m. The children have used rulers to measure lots of things in the outdoor classroom and have used their knowledge of addition and subtraction to find out the exact differences between their heights. They were eager to measure us too and found out the Mrs Holton is 3cm taller than Miss Forbes.

In Geography, we have begun exploring our local area using maps and aerial photos. The children began the week creating their own maps using symbols and have progressed to create physical and written maps of our local area – obviously Sainsbury’s had to be included!

The children have become really creative this week, enjoying lots of hands on activities, they even came up with the great idea to create a bug hotel, which is already home to a woodlouse, a snail and lots of worms. We have also been getting the beds ready to plant our very own plants next week!

Week commencing 19th February 2024 - Could you survive in the wild ?

This week we started our new topic: Could you survive in the wild? Although the weather has been against us, we have powered on through and have spent so much time outdoors. However, those torrential downpours proved too much, and we had to take cover in the classrooms until it passed!

In English, we have started looking at our new book: 'Wild' by Emily Hughes. We have predicted that it is about a girl who lives in the wild, but we'll find out more next week. 

In Maths, we started our measurement topic and have measured anything and everything! The children have been incredibly inventive with their measurement tools and enjoyed comparing their heights.

In Science, we have explored lots of plants and wildlife. The children have been introduced to the names of plant parts and have been weeding the beds ready to watch our own plants grow! We have also found lots of interesting wildlife; caterpillars, newts, ladybirds and lots of worms (which have been great for our compost bin!)

It has been so great to see the children's independence grow as they take ownership of their learning, engaging in lots of fun provision activities as well as teacher-led learning.

Come back next week to see us planting, map-making and knot-tying!