Year 2 Team: Miss A Jones (Class Teacher), Miss H Edwards & Miss S Boyd : Blog items
Date: 9th Jul 2024 @ 4:24pm
And just like that, our journey has come to an end!
We have had another incredible year together full of laughter and joy. You should all be very proud of what you have achieved, showing true grit and determination.
It has been truly a pleasure to teach you over the past two years and I have loved watching you grow into the funny, confident children that you are. I know that you will continue to shine as you move into Year 3 and as you progress through the school.
To the parents, we would like to say a massive thank you for your support over the past year and also for beautiful gifts you have given us. You have been incredibly kind and generous and we are extremely grateful.
From all of us here in Year 2, have the best summer and we will see you in September!
Date: 5th Jul 2024 @ 4:26pm
And that's it, our penultimate week is over, only one more week left of Year 2!
In English, we finished off reading our story, Grandad's Secret Giant, focusing further on developing our understand of the formation of letters and diary entries. We loved writing our final letter to Grandpa. Next week, will focus heavily on transition into Year 3.
In Maths, we finished off our final topic of the year, Position and Direction. We focused on describing turns as well as giving instructions to our friends giving them specific commands whilst using mathematical terminology. Next week, we will consolidate our learning from the year through a range of fun activites.
To finish off our Young Leaders Award, we completed our final step - Action. We decided that it would be a lovely idea to celebrate our Year 6 children on the success of their SATS results. For this, we made the children cakes and sandwiches, serving them juice at the same time in the hall.
In PE, we focused on developing our team-building skills whilst playing a game of rounders on the field. The weather has been perfect or lots of fresh air!
- You can join at Formby Library and take part in person. The librarian will give you a collector folder, stickers, and other special rewards, and help you find books to read.
- Or, take part online by signing up here. Set a reading goal and log your books on your profile. When you reach your goal, you will unlock a virtual badge and certificate. Link: https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/join-in
Reminders
- Children will finish next Friday, 19th June at 1pm prompt.
- Children need to bring their water bottles and hats to school each day, where possible, to protect them from the sun
Date: 30th Jun 2024 @ 2:10pm
Only two weeks left, and what fun we have had!
In English we continued with our story and started by writing a letter to the giants, from Billy’s point of view, apologising for his reaction. After, we created our own cinquains about the giant, as well as important people in our lives!
In Maths, we began our topic on Position and Direction. We explored how objects and people move in specific ways using mathematic terminology such as clockwise and anti-clockwise. Using this language, we moved various objects and mapped out where objects would end up accordingly. Next week, we will finish this topic and will consolidate our learning.
This week, we focused on the difference between the seaside now, and in the past. We learnt about how people dressed in the past, as well as some of the past times people used to enjoy!
This week we finished off our last topic in our Young Leaders Award: Action. We came up with a plan to celebrate and help our school community. Watch this space!
We also had another fantastic week with Kate from Kate’s Krystal. We continued to focus on our self-worth and confidence. These sessions have been fantastic, and we have loved every minute of them!
Reminders
- Please remember hats, sun cream and water bottles where possible.
Date: 30th Jun 2024 @ 2:10pm
Another busy week for us here in Year 2!
In English, we continued reading our story and focused on writing in the past tense. This week, we took on the role of Billy and wrote several diary entries about his experiences both on his scary boat trip and also when he saw the giant for the first time!
In Maths we finished off our topic on statistics creating and interpreting a range of pictograms. To consolidate our learning, we solved problems from a range of graphs. Next week, we will start our final topic: Geometry. In this unit we will focus on position and direction.
Wednesday was certainly a highlight of our week! Our annual sports day took place in blistering heat and with a huge crowd of proud parents! We are so proud of each and everyone of you, showing perseverance and team work when encouraging your friends!
On Friday, we finished our final DT topic of the year: Moving Monsters. We started by investigating different levers and leverages and how they can be used to move various items such as hole punches and scissors. After, we designed our monsters, adding detail before cutting them out and connecting them with levers and paper fasteners. We had some fantastic creations, we hope you enjoy them too!
Reminder
- PE days will continue to be on a Monday and Thursday each week.
- Please, where possible, can we ask that children have hats, sun cream and water bottles.
Date: 21st Jun 2024 @ 3:41pm
We have had another fantastic week in Year 2, and we couldn’t be prouder of all you have done!
In Maths, we continued with our topic on Statistics, developing our understanding of tables and block graphs by both creating them and reading them to answer a range of questions. Next week, we will learn all about pictograms, creating our own and reading them to answer a range of questions.
In English, we continued with our story ‘Grandad’s Secret Giant’. We learnt how the giant had helped save them during a dreadful storm, imagining that we were Billy, we created a vivid diary entry about the frightening experience! The entries were full of exciting literacy features such as adjectives and conjunctions.
In Reading, we explored the Grimm’s Fairy Tale ‘The Shoe Maker and the Elves’, starting by exploring how the illustrations allow us to identify key events in the story before even reading it! After, we answered a range of literal and inference questions about the text. We cannot wait to find out what fairy tale is next.
As part of our Young Leaders Award, we looked at the word Perseverance and how this is a quality all good leaders, and as individuals, we should have. We learnt how Gracie, the character in our story, set herself her the challenge of tying her laces, and how with lots of practise and perseverance, she succeeded! To help us remember to keep going even when it get tough, we created our own ‘Stick with it sticks’. These beautiful creations will be a constant reminder to us!
All children showed this skill as part of our talent show prep, practising their various routines during the build-up the first round on Thursday. Here, the children took to the stage in front of their class performing a variety of skills from dance to football. Well done to everyone who took part and of course to the act that went through to the grand finale, in front of the whole school! Year 2 certainly do have talent!
All children were also able to show of these skills in during our PE lessons where they took their time to practise their team work skills as part of the three-legged race! We cannot wait for Sports Day next week for all our parents to see!
Reminders
- Sports Day is next Wednesday, 26th June
- Please can children bring in hats and water bottles each day due to the weather becoming increasingly warmer!
Date: 4th Jun 2024 @ 8:00am
Year 2 – Summer 2 – Week 1
And just like that, we are in the final term of the year, let’s make the next 7 weeks the best they can be!
This week, the children in Year 2 have been completing a series of assessments in Maths and English and we are so proud of the commitment and effort the children have shown and continue to show. Due to being internal assessments, results will not be shared directly but will be indicated in their report towards the end of term.
Next week, in Maths, we will finish of our last topic on Time before moving on to statistics. In English, we will start our new book, a favourite of Miss Jones and a special surprise for the children!
In Music, we began to learn a new song linked to the five oceans. To start, we identified the differences between a chorus and a verse and how chorus’ are repeated throughout songs where as a verse is singular and changes. The children loved singing the song and even came up with some actions for the different verses, check out Twitter for a sneak peek!
In PE, we started our new topic Athletic on Monday, with a special focus on sprinting. We started by identifying the different movements that make up a sprint; high knees, opposite arm to leg movement and large strides. After, we developed these skills by building up to a sprint from a walk, timing our friends with the aim to beat our own score each time!
On Thursday, we had an exceptional morning, with a visit from the wonderful Kate, from Kate’s Krystal’s who will be working with us closely over the next 7 weeks on self-love and self-worth and developing confidence. As well as this, we completed a series of activities in relation to our Young Leaders award. This week, we focused the area ‘Kindness’, identify that all good leaders show kindness and how we should always be kind even when it isn’t seen or recognised by others.
Rainbow Day on Friday was a hit, the children loved riding the horses, completing the obstacle course and of course the school disco. It was truly an amazing day where each and every child was celebrated for being unique individuals!
Reminders
- PE days will continue to be on a Monday and a Thursday for the rest of half term.
- Class photos will be next Tuesday, June 4.
- Water bottles should be brought in each day.
Date: 15th May 2024 @ 2:31pm
Well, we are one week closer to the holidays, and we have certainly had a blast!
We have to start by talking about our amazing school trip which was hosted by the wonderful Southport Eco Centre. Julie, our guide, took us on a detailed tour of the beach and sand dunes where we learnt a wealth of information. We were shocked to learn how much the beach has eroded over the years and how many protected, endangered animals there are. We all agreed that we must do more to protect our coast line such as ensuring we take our rubbish home after every visit!
This week, we also covered our RSE topics, ensuring we recapped prior learning from Year 1 – identifying and using the correct names for the different parts of our body including our privates as well as discussing the word consent. After, we looked at how we have changed over time recognising the similarities and differences between ourselves now, and as a baby this allowed us to explore the life cycles over other animals, with a special focus on frogs.
In English, we finished reading our story, The Last Wolf, and were happy to see Little Red Riding Hood identify how she can help the animals in the forest by replanting trees. We then planned our own letters to other people, real and fairy tale, attempting to persuade them to help out too.
In Maths, we stared our new topic on time, first recapping reading the time to the o’clock, half past, quarter to and quarter past. After, we explored reading time to in the 5-minute intervals. Next week, we will continue to explore the topic on time in more detail.
On Friday, we had our termly Computing Day. This term we developed out uploading skills, focusing on uploading images, text and voice notes to our Seesaw platform, all with a Maths theme.
Reminders
- PE days will continue to be on a Monday and a Thursday.
- Children should bring their own bottle, cap and sun cream to school. They should be, where possible, be able to apply the sun cream themselves as staff are unable to apply this to their face’s.
Date: 10th May 2024 @ 3:36pm
Another week closer to summer, and what a week it has been even though it has only been 4 days!
In Maths, we finished off our topic on Fractions, identifying and finding quarters, thirds and three quarters of given numbers both pictorially and using abstract methods. The children have worked extremely hard at this and have shown true determination. Next week, we will start our new topic, time.
In English, we continued to read our story and found out that the Last Wolf no longer had food to eat due to the forest being cut down and the lack of habitats for his prey. We then decided to come up with solutions to help the the wolf and his friends. Later in the week, we had to help Little Red Riding Hood get home safely, and using the map of the woods, we created our own paths from the Last Wolf's house to her house. We then told our friends the instructions to get home and wrote our instructions using adjectives and adverbs to make our writing more interesting.
In Geography, we explored the coasts of the United Kingdom and itdentified the human and physical features and compared them to the beaches around the world. As well as this we recapped the oceans and seas surronding the United Kingdom.
In Art, we made started out topic on clay and over the course of the afternoon we practised and learnt how to mold the clay, and make various shapes by rolling it into a ball, sausage and other shapes like triangles. This allowed us to create our own models of various things like cats, birds, dogs and even a snail.
Reminders
- Our school trip is next Wednesday 15th May in the moring. Please ensure your child is in long trousers and a sun hat.
Date: 6th May 2024 @ 5:52pm
What another incredible week we have had in Year 2! It is safe to say; the weather has truly made it 10 times better too.
PE has certainly been a highlight of the week due to us getting the climbing frame out! The children worked in groups to practice their balances on a series of apparatus as well as on the climbing frame itself. First however, they started by developing their confidence climbing to certain heights, passing through the frame and dismount, even the most confident children were slightly apprehensive! As well as this, we have been developing of our understanding of Net and Wall games and this week focused on developing our ‘block’, using on knowledge from last week in terms of the ‘ready position’ to stop the ball as it moved towards us from a ‘roll’.
In Science, we explored the different types of plants, exploring fruit, vegetables, herbs and plants we do not eat. We were shocked to learn that you would never find a vegetable growing on a tree! The children then discussed the similarities and differences of fruit and vegetables.
In Maths, we extended out learning of Fractions, and explored thirds, first looking at how it was written numerically. After the children solved a series of questions relating to all the fractions taught so far and spotted that only numbers that belonged to the 3 times table could be split into thirds. Next week, we will continue to look at fractions, finishing off this topic by the end of the week!
Reminders
- Year 2 school trip to take place on Wednesday 15th May. Children should be dropped off at the Lifeboat road entrance at approx. 8:40am ready for our session to start at 9am.
- Please can we politely ask that all children bring a water bottle to school each day and where possible, sun hats.
Date: 21st Apr 2024 @ 8:23pm
And, just like that, we are in our final term of the year! It has been truly a pleasure to see all the children return to school with exciting stories of their Easter adventures! We cannot wait to see what this term has in store for us!
In English, we started our new text, ‘The Last Wolf’ by Mini Grey, and were intrigued to learn that this was certainly not your average Little Red Riding Hood story, it was one with a twist! To help us predict what happens later in the story, we first had to investigate some STAR vocabulary; extinct and endangered, this helped us make sensible, educated predictions about what the story has in store for us. After, we worked on writing a list of rules for Red Riding Hood using contractions to improve our writing. Next week, we will focus on adding the suffixes -er and -est to adjectives to compare later using them for descriptions of the different characters in the story.
Our Maths topic this term is Fractions, and we took this week to connect our learning back to Year 1, building on our prior knowledge, and recognising half whilst simultaneously using the ½ symbol. This week we focused on finding half of given amounts as well as half of given shapes. Next week, we will first look at half in terms of a clock as well as identifying and finding ¼ whilst using the corresponding symbols to match.
In Geography, we connected our learning back to previous topics and Year 1 and reminded ourselves of the 7 continents and the corresponding 5 oceans. This will give us a firm basis to build on when we begin to look at our own coast and beaches and the changes that have occurred overtime.
In Music, we had to say goodbye to the wonderful Miss Dillworth who finished off her fantastic lessons with a wonder practice of our upcoming song for our potential future performance. After, this we also learnt about a fanfare, and how, using tuned and untunes instruments you could build up your fanfare in a group.
We completed 13 laps of our field over the course of the week, in support of the London Mini Marathon. Working together to cheer each other on, we all felt a sense of accomplishment when the last person crossed the finish line!
If you would like to complete extra Maths practise at home, please use this link to access free workbooks covering topics from our Maths learning this year:
https://whiteroseeducation.com/parent-pupil-resources/maths/free-downloads#download
As well as this, there are lots of additional resources on the Learning from Home section on the school website.
Have a wonderful weekend, Year 2!
Reminders;
- There will be a mufti day next Friday as part of the school’s efforts in Uganda, donations of clothes, toys and pencil cases will be greatly appreciated.
- PE days continue to be a Monday and Thursday.
Date: 26th Mar 2024 @ 5:10pm
And just like that, it is the end of the Spring Term!
On Monday, we got into the Easter theme creating our own unique Easter cards. We started by carefully looking at a few designs before creating our own interpretations of chicks to eggs! The Easter theme continued throughout the week with a fantastic, with a fantastic Easter egg hunt and a visit from one very cheeky bunny!
We finished off our DT projects on Tuesday and created some incredible Ferris Wheels, we are so proud of everyone’s hard work and determination in creating their wheels but most importantly we have been blown away by your superb teamwork skills, well done, Year 2!
We finished off our diaries on Wednesday and what fantastic pieces they were! We cannot wait to start our next book, The Last Wolf, by Mini Grey!
It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to the wonderful Miss Lunt who has supported us all throughout the last year. We will forever be grateful for help and kindness and wish you all the best in your new role as a counsellor for children.
From all of us here in Year 2, we hope you have a wonderful Easter break full of love and laughter. We cannot wait to see you in April!
Please don’t forget to utilise the Virtual Classroom attached to this blog!
Reminders
- Our PE days will not change in the summer term and will continue to be on a Monday and Thursday. Please ensure your child comes to school in their PE kits on these days.
- As we approach the summer months, please can we ask that your children come to school with a water bottle and where possible a cap.
- Children can, if they wish, wear the summer uniform when we come back. Please refer to our uniform policy for more information, should you need it.
Date: 24th Mar 2024 @ 9:12pm
And just like that, we finish our final full week of the Spring Term!
In Maths, we explored both weight and volume, starting the week by carefully measuring various items from around the classroom ensuring we were using the correct units, grams. After, we added weights together, to work out the total mass of various items which in turn allowed us to compare items using the terminology; heavier, lighter, and equal to. By the end of the week, we had begun to investigate volume in more detail. We compared various amounts describing and comparing them by stating whether they were full, nearly full, half full, nearly empty, and empty. We loved getting hands on for this working together carefully so not to spill the water!
In English, we began to plan for our final piece of writing, a diary entry written as if we were there during the blitz! We carefully discussed what we wanted to include in each paragraph and identified things that could be happening around us. To support us without writing further, we learnt about adverbs, and how they are used to describe verbs.
This week we had our penultimate recorder lesson, a lesson that will be sorely missed after the half term! This week we performed for our peers and demonstrated the skills we had developed over the past few weeks. We cannot wait for our final lesson, next week.
We loved our DT lessons this week, where we finally saw our creations and designs come to life. Working closely in teams, and using stiff cardboard, we carefully cut out the different pieces required to make our wheel and base. Using masking tape, we carefully constructed the main elements, which was a lot hard than it looked! Next week, we will connect the wheel and base before finally adding out pods to create the finished product. Watch this space!
From all of us here in Year 2, we hope you have a wonderful last weekend before half term begins!
Reminders:
- Year 2 will continue to work in the portacabin until we return after Easter.
- The KS2 Easter Service (led by Year 3) will be at St. Peter’s Church at 9:20am on Thursday 28th March.
- Thursday 28th March is the end of term and a 1:00pm finish
Date: 11th Mar 2024 @ 4:56pm
Where did that week go? Another fantastic week here in Year 2, well done everyone!
On Monday, we had the wonderful Miss Dilworth support our learning of the opera, The Magic Flute. We have loved listening to, and learning the various songs, creating our own interpretations using a modern twist. As well as this, the incredible Ms McCardle was in teaching us how to play the recoder with accuracey and confidence. We cannot wait to show you all our interpretation of 'Hot Cross Buns' although, we are sure you have heard us practice!
In Maths, we continued to explore our topic, Measurement. We continued to carefully measure a range of classroom items. After, we compared them using words and symbols ensuring we used the correct mathematical language; shorter, longer, taller and equal. We soon discovered that measuring accurately was a lot harder than it looked but recognised the importance of this skill.
In History, we learnt all about the wonderful Queen Elizabeth II, a monach from our life time. We learnt about her family history and some of the different challenges she faced over the years such as the world war as a princess! I think we can all agree that this is one of our favourite lessons each week.
On Friday, we completed a range of computing lessons. We started by first desigining and writing our own story before using a variety of apps to replicate it. To help us, we used our favouite story (some from world book day last week) carefully writing the sequal to it! Who knew we had so many authors in class? After, we used the internet to insert pictures to make our story come to life.
As well as this, on Friday, we marked Red Nose Day, carefully discussing its importance and the reason as to why people still fundraise all these years later. We all agreed that fundraising is key to support people in our country and abroad.
Have a wonderful, restful weekend!
Reminders
- On Monday the children in Year 2 will be taught in the Portacabins, please can the children be dropped of at the ramp at 8:40am.
- Recorders need to be in school each Monday.
- Log books need to be in school each Monday.
- PE continues to be on a Monday and a Thursday.
Date: 11th Mar 2024 @ 4:41pm
What an incredibly busy week we have had full of incredible events!
In Maths, we started our new topic, Measurment. We started by recapping our previous learning, carefully using rulers to measure given items ensuring we started on zero. We will continue to explore measurement over the next few weeks.
This week, the children have worked incredibly hard to complete assessments to showcase their learning so far this year. Our school value of Hope was certainly achieved by all, as they tried their best and were determined to complete their assessments to the best of their ability
On Thursday, we saw stories brought to life as part of World Book Day. It was wonderful to see so many fantastic charcters and costumes in class with a love for reading shining through. The teachers of course got involved, creating a fun an interactive 'Masked Reader' competion. As a class, we carefully looked for clues as to who the reader was and also, what they were reading, it was a lot harder than we thought (even for the teachers in class!). We loved completing a series of activities throughout the day and loved creating our own scrapbooks about our characters.
On Friday, we recognise International Women's Day by first recognising several inspirational women from past, and present, disucssing their contribuitions to society and their impact on our lives today such as Michelle Obama, the first black first lady, and Marie Curie, the pioneer of radiation and x-rays as we know them. After, we created bouqets for the inspirational women in our life, at school and home.
As well as this, we celebrated British Science Week, by creating our own biodegradable plastic. Working together, we mixed a series of everyday products together before Miss Jones carefully heated it. We watched as the opaque liquid turned translucent. After, we poured into on a plate to cool over the weekend. We cannot wait to see how it turns out!
Reminders
- Log books to be returned each Monday.
- Recorders to be brought to school every Monday.
- Please, where possible, can children bring their own water bottle to school.
- PE continues to be on a Monday and a Thursday.
Date: 28th Feb 2024 @ 9:21am
Another fantastic week here in Year 2! Although we are not sure how it is already March…
This week we have certainly shown our school value ‘Imagine’ whilst being creative in both DT and Science. In DT we look at the various materials we could use when we create our own Ferris Wheels. In groups we eliminated materials such as cocktail sticks as we agreed they would not be strong enough. After, we selected which materials that would use such as basal wood and yoghurt pots discussing how we would gather these materials for future lessons. In Science, we created our own greenhouses, with our partner. It was very tricky but we preserved and successfully planted a range of beans in our greenhouses!
In English, we continued without book, ‘Major Glad and Major Dizzy’. This week we took on the characters personas and ventured under the floorboards! We imagined what we could see and what we could hear under there and all agreed that someone needed to give it a good dust! After, we created some incredible writing based on what we could sense under the floorboards.
In Maths, we finished our topic on Multiplication and Division by exploring multiplication and division involving 10. Next week, we will be securing our number fact knowledge as well as completing a range of in-class assessments.
In History, we continued to learn about the incredible queens from British history. Building on our knowledge from last week, we focused on Mary I and created our very own fact files!
We have been incredibly lucky this week to have two music lessons! As usual, the wonderful Mrs McCardle from Sefton Music Services was in and this week, we began to practice our final piece, Hot Cross Buns! As well as this, we had the wonderful Miss Dilworth from Formby High School who over the next few weeks will be working with us on the Opera, ‘The Magic Flute’. Over the next few weeks, we will build up our acting skills and maybe even learn a song or two!
We also started our Yong Leaders Award this week. To start, we focused on identifying the qualities of a good leader and all agreed that they must be kind, listen and persevere even when things prove to be a little bit tricky! Over the next term we will continue to home in on these skills, developing our own, and our peers, along the way.
Reminders
- PE Days continue to be on a Monday and a Thursday.
- Please ensure your child has a recorder in school each Monday, we do not have spares. Recorders can be purchased on School Spider.
Date: 21st Feb 2024 @ 12:59pm
And just like that, we are half way through the year!
The children have had an excellent start to the second part of the Spring Term and have persevered in everything they have done.
In English, we started the week by exploring the STAR vocabulary that we would find in our new story; ‘Major Glad and Major Dizzy’ by Jan Oke. We discovered that some of the vocabulary was quite dated, which means that it was used more frequently in the past, to help us understand the words further we found words with the same or similar meaning. Later in the week, we explored progressive verbs and using the images in the book to write a series of sentences to describe what was happening on the different pages.
In Maths, we continued with our topic ‘Multiplication and Division’, exploring the 2, 5, and 10 times table. The children also explored doubling and halving numbers linking this to their 2 times table. To finish the week, we explored odd and even numbers identifying how they link to the 2 times table. Next week, we will explore the 5- and 10-times table as well as dividing by these numbers. This will be our last week on Multiplication and Division.
In DT we started our new topic, ‘Mechanisms: Fairground Wheel’. The children started by exploring a series of images of objects with wheels and identified how the wheels were attached as well as what they needed to move and rotate. After, they were introduced to their project, they are going to make their own Fairground Wheel! Looking at a series of fairground wheels, the children identified the different parts; a wheel, pods, seats and an axel, to name a few. They then began designing their own, labelling it carefully.
In RE we commenced our study of Easter and discussed how Easter has many symbols such as the cross, Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny which represents it clearly. We discussed how the Easter story itself starts much earlier than Easter weekend and started by breaking the story down into smaller chunks. This week we focused on the middle part of the story, The Last Supper. We reflected on the story and identified that the symbols we can take from it are; bread and wine, which symbolise Jesus's body and blood.
Reminders
- PE days continue to be on a Monday and Thursday, please arrive at school in your full PE kit.
- Recorder lessons take place every Monday, children need to bring their own recorder to school each week. Unfortunately we do not have spares, if your child does not have one, they will not be able to take part in the lesson. Recorders can be purchased on School Spider.
Date: 1st Feb 2024 @ 5:20pm
And just like that, we are in February! Where did January go?
As always, we have worked incredibly hard in Year 2 this week and have shone in everything we have done.
This week in English, we focused on writing in the past tense. We learnt the different spelling rules for adding the suffix – ed and identified a range of verbs that are irregular and do not follow these rules. As we move into next week, we will build up to our ‘Big Write’, an adventure story with their own characters and destinations.
In Maths, we continued to explore multiplication with a special focus on arrays. The children explored the different multiplication sentences they could write by identifying the different rows and columns in the array. After, they created their own! As well as this, we focused on making equal groups by grouping objects together. We started by using counters, practically, before moving on the grouping using pictures. Next week, we will continue with our topic, and will be exploring dividing by 2 and 5 as well as the 2- and 5-times table.
In RE, we continued to explore the various stories of Jesus. This week, we looked at his first miracle, turning water into wine. We loved this story and worked together, using role play, to recreate the story before preforming them for our peers. It was so much for to recreate, adding actions and voices along the way!
In PE we continued with our fitness topic and this week, we had a plank off – something that has been highly requested – it was amazing to see so many children hold the plank for over 2 minutes but we did have two incredible super stars who managed to plan for an incredible 7 minutes! Well done, everyone!
In Art, we continued to explore texture, using the primary colours, and discussed how this adds more detail to our art work.
In PSHE this we focused on identifying things that made us unique and how that is something to celebrate. As a class, we discussed how highlighting these differences, in a negative way, can have serious consequences and make our friends feel a range of emotions. We all realised that it was important instead to celebrate our friends’ differences, and just like Reverend Anne said in assembly, be someone else’s light – brightening up their day.
Reminders
- Our school trip is next Tuesday. Please can children bring a disposable water bottle to school on this day.
Date: 26th Jan 2024 @ 4:38pm
What a magical week we have had this week, full of laughter (lots of singing) and fun!
Monday brought recorders, an what fun we had there! We love it when Mrs McCardle comes into school and have been working hard on practicing where we place our fingers to produce different sounds. We cannot wait for next week!
In English, we have worked hard to develop our use of adjectives. We focused on describing the dragons in the story, and our own characters describing both their physical features and their characteristics. As well as this, we started to develop our understanding of expanded noun phrases to add extra information. As well as this, we focused on writing in the past and present tense, remembering that if it is in the past, it has already happened and identifying how we change our verbs as a result.
In Maths, we started our new topic, Multiplication. We started by connecting our learning back to Year 1 and recapped how to identify the different groups, as well as how many were in each group. After, we explored the multiplication sign, and talked about how it means, lots of or groups of. This allowed us to write our own multiplication sentences for various pictorial and abstract questions. We also learnt how, unlike addition, you cannot flip the numbers round as it has a different meaning. It was mind blowing for some!
In Art, we explored colouring mixing. We started by using water and the prime colours, mixing them and seeing the results. We saw how the colours mixed to create secondary colours and how by adding more or less on a specific paint allowed the shade to change. After, we went on a nature walk, collecting a range of natural objects, to use as inspiration. We worked hard to look at the different textures and discussed what resources we could use to replicate this. Using the prime colours again, and black and white, we used a range of martials to recreate the different objects.
In PE, we continued to focus on developing our team work skills. We worked first as a whole class, then in small groups, to pass a hoop around the circle, timing ourselves as we went. To make it more challenging, we donned blindfold (our jumpers) passing the hoop round the circle again but supporting our friends as we went. It was so much fun, a true highlight of the week!
We ended our week with a fantastic multi-sport taster session for a new club, starting after half term, which allowed us to practice a range of different sports.
Reminders
- Our school trip is on Tuesday 6th Children will need to bring a water bottle to school but packed lunches will be provided.
- Please, where possible, ensure your child’s water bottle is in school.
Date: 19th Jan 2024 @ 8:13am
We have had another fantastic week in Year 2!
Have you seen the dragon yet? Year 2 are obsessed with finding the sneaky dragon hiding in school. To help, we created wanted posters, using a variety of expanded noun phrases to describe what it looks like as well as how it moves. Unfortunately, Mr Essery didn’t believe us when we told him so to ensure he was on board we all wrote him a letter encouraging him to look out for it and to help us find it!
In Reading, we continued with our story, The Dragonsitter, and were shocked to learn that the dragon ate the rabbit. We focused on developing our comprehension skills, using highlighters, we identified the answers in the text before attempting to write full sentences to answer the questions.
In RE we learnt about another incredible miracle Jesus performed, Feeding the 5000, talking about how sharing is important in any situation. We discussed how by Jesus blessing the food, he was able to feed everyone and have enough left over to share further. After we used our flow thinking map to retell the story in more detail.
In Geography, we learnt about the weather and climate in Kenya and compared it to ours. After we identified what clothes we would need to take as well as what items we would not need to take such as a woolly hat!
In PE. We continued with our two new topics, Fitness and Team Building. During fitness, we focused on jumping for longer periods of time, increasing our stamina each attempt we made. We discussed how being fit isn’t just eating well and running around, instead it is developing our breathing and stamina in a variety of exercises. In Team Building, we were given different animals, and working together, we had to find each other without speaking. The children focused on how the different animals moved as well as the noises they might make.
We ended our week on a high with a fantastic visit from the Confucius Institute at Edge Hill who delivered an excellent workshop to explain all about Chinese New Year. In addition, we were thrilled to have the opportunity to make Chinese Lanterns.
Reminders
- Our school trip is on the 6th February 2024, please see School Money for payment instructions
- Our PE days will contine to be on a Monday and a Thursday
Date: 10th Jan 2024 @ 1:26pm
Happy New Year! We absolutely loved seeing all of the children’s happy, smiley faces on Monday morning and hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas break.
This week, we were shocked to discover some mysterious footsteps and some unusual eggs! We knew we just had to investigate further and find out who they belonged too. To help up we carefully wrote some descriptive sentences for other people in case they had left them by accident. After, we made our first prediction as to who they belonged too, we had some great ideas from dinosaurs to the Easter Bunny! Later in the week, we learnt that they belonged to a…dragon! We were so shocked to learn that they might still be in the school and Mr Essery had found them on the cameras! To stop other classes getting eaten we decided to make some posters using commanding language!
In our Guided Reading lessons, we found out that we were going to read a book called, ‘The Dragonsitter’ by Josh Lacey. To help us, we started by looking at some of the new vocabulary we might encounter, matching the definitions to the word and writing them on our writing bookmarks to help us remember them in the future! We cannot wait to find out what happens in the first chapter!
In History, we started to explore our new topic, ‘Is Kenya really that different to the UK?’. To start with, we created our own circle maps, identifying our prior knowledge, before recapping what we had learnt in previous topics by naming and labelling the different continents and oceans on a map. After, we identified where Kenya and the UK was and were shocked to see how far away it is compared to us.
In Science, we also started a new topic on Living Things and their Habitats. To help us with this topic we first had to identify the difference between living things and dead things.
All children across the whole school are encouraged to read each day both in and out of school. Some additional recommended Reading at Home resources can be found here.
We are so proud of how you have returned after such a long break, have a lovely weekend!
Reminders
- Please note that our PE days are now a Monday and a Thursday.
- Recorder lessons take place every Monday, please bring your recorder to school, they will be returned after the lesson.
Date: 19th Dec 2023 @ 11:02am
..and just like that, it is the end of 2023!
I am sure we can all agree that it it has been a wonderful term, full of fun and laughter! We have had so many incredible memories to look back on and so many to look forward too.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your generous, thoughtful gifts, who knew you listened to us just as much as the kids do! Thank you from everyone in team, Year 2.
It is with a heavy heart that we have to say goodbye to the fantastic Miss Martin who is leaving us for a new and exciting adventure. We have been very lucky to have had the pleasure of working and learning with her over the past two years and have so many magical memories with her. Everyone in Year 2, children and staff, wish her every luck in her new role and know that she will come back to visit us soon!
From all of us here in Year 2, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Date: 10th Dec 2023 @ 4:14pm
And just like that, we have completed the final full week of school for 2023! What an incredible half term we have had.
On Monday, we loved taking part in the annual, traditional house sing along. Here, we joined forces with other children from our different year groups to learn a variety of Christmas classics. After a short practice period, we loved performing our songs to the rest of the school, a truly wonderful tradition. A massive well done to the winning house, Luke!
On Wednesday we had our traditional Christmas Dinner, and Tim did not disappoint! The music was blaring, and the roast potatoes were excellent, we had a wonderful festive lunch with our friends pulling crackers and wearing party hats, if we hadn’t been feeling festive before we certainly are now!
On Thursday, the wonderful Think Tank, supported by Miss Mcvey, organised our annual Santa Dash, with a twist! Just like our world book day, we sprinted around the school in small groups to decipher a variety of clues and work out which teacher was dressed up with the red nose! It of course was... Miss Jones, who was also Mistletoe. A huge thank you to Miss Mcvey for organising such a fun event.
In Maths, we revised our number bonds to 20 to work out some festive colour by number, it as a lot trickier than we thought however, we all perservered and made some incredible art work as a result!
We completed our final Phonics lesson of Year 2 this week and are extremely excited to start our Pathways to Write after Christmas and cannot wait to read our first text; Dragon Machine.
We finished off our History topic on The Great Fire of London and have loved learning about its causes and effects both short term and long term. We loved learning about Samuel Pepys and his diaries. We discussed how this was a good, reliable source of information for historians to use whislt also exploring a range of additional resources such as artefacts and paintings.
We ended our week on a high celebrating Christmas Jumper Day with a fantastic Christmas Party. It was wonderful to see so many festive jumpers and Snowflake our elf got in on the action too. The children have had so much fun playing games with their friends, a truly festive day.
Reminders
- Please can all books be returned to school before the end of the year.
- School closes at 1pm next Tuesday 19th
- Please can all school books be returned to school before next Tuesday.
- School will resume on Monday 8th January 2024.
- PE days for Year 2 after Christmas will be on a Monday and Thursday.
Date: 10th Dec 2023 @ 3:55pm
Another week down, and one more full week to go until the Christmas festivities can truly start!
In Maths, we have been looking at our final topic of the term, Shape, and have worked hard to connect our learning back to Year 1 to recall the difference between, and the names of, 2D and 3D shapes. After, we learnt how to count the sides of different shapes, marking off each side to ensure we only count the sides once. This proved a little tricky for some irregular shapes. Next week, we will explore vertices and practice counting them before moving onto looking at 3D shapes in more detail.
In RE, we re-enacted the Nativity story, which proved to be a lot funnier than we all thought with some superb acting by all involved. Afterwards, we reflected on how the different people from the story may have felt at different points such as when Angel Gabriel appeared, and how these emotions have a big impact on the story.
In History, we started to investigate our topic ‘The Great Fire of London’. We were presented with a series of clues and working together, we had to identify where, when, how the fire started as well as for how long. We had some great answers and loved learning more from the curators of the World Museum.
This week we also completed Computing Day, where we all became epic coders. Using the Scratch app and BookCreator we completed a series of challenges and programmed scratch to move as well as debugging previously developed programmes. It was brilliant to see our computer literacy develop, adding in pictures, voice clips and writing to add more detail. We ended on a high as well with a quick go on our Class Dojo Island, a firm favourite here in Year 2!
One more week in school before you all can truly enjoy the festive break, have a wonderful weekend, Year 2!
Reminders:
- Friday 15th December – Christmas Jumper and Party Day
- Tuesday 19th December – School Finish @1pm
Date: 29th Nov 2023 @ 2:18pm
The holidays are coming...
Friday brought festive cheer to all, here in Year 2! We were delighted to see the wonderful, festive decorations around the classroom on when we arrived at school, as well as a very cheeky elf! We could not believe our eyes when we saw what the elf had been up to, and cannot wait to see what they get up to over the weekend! We have been given the task, over the next few days, to name our elf and must all write a letter to Father Christmas next week, to let him know who is with us in class!
The fun didn’t stop there though, as that morning we ventured to our Christmas Extravaganza, organised by the wonderful Team TSP. We loved getting involved in all the fabulous activities, playing games and winning prizes with all our friends. The main event though was meeting Father Christmas, who gave us an early, sweet treat! What a fantastic start to the festive season we have had!
Christmas was firmly on our mind at the start of the week as well, when we travelled back in time to the very first Christmas in RE. We carefully explored the Nativity story and worked hard to retell the story. We also blew Miss Jones socks off as we all remembered that the Wise Men didn’t come until a while after Jesus was born, on the 6th January!
We have been working practically in Maths this week to finished off our final addition and subtraction topic; balanced number sentences. Using counters, tens frames and part, part, wholes we worked out how many more we needed to make them equal. Next week, we move onto our topic, Shapes and will start by revisiting 2D and 3D shape properties.
We finished off our DT project this week and made our final structure, Goldilocks chair. We connected our learning back to last week and identified that we needed to make our chairs stable and strong. Using paper and tape, we created our masterpieces!
Reminders
- Please can children come to school with a coat, especially in these colder days!
Key Upcoming Dates
Wednesday 13th December – Christmas Dinner Day
Friday 15th December – Christmas Jumper and Party Day
Tuesday 19th December – School Finishes at 1pm
Date: 24th Nov 2023 @ 4:45pm
What a fantastic week we have had!
This week in Maths, we have focused on subtracting 2-digit numbers from 2-digit numbers by exchanging tens for ones using Base Ten. It has been a tricky concept to get our heads around, however, with perserverance we have powered on have not given up. Next week, we will recap this concept once more before moving onto our next topic.
We started our DT project this week by first understanding stability. To do this, we used a card and plastercine to determine which shape would stay on a peice of card, tilted, at the highest point. We soon figured out that sphere would not stay on the card for very long as it had not flat faces, however, the pyramid was the best shape! We talked about how this is because it had more points touching the card. After this we looked how we could make resources stronger and stiffer in order to reinforce our structures and make it more stable. We identfied that a cyclinder was the best shape for this, testing our theroy by piling books onto top with the results showing that the cyclinder could hold an incredible 34 books compared to the cuboids 13! We then took this once step further by investigating if more 'legs' made or structures more stable, and, we were right! Together, we found that the more legs we had meant the more books we could support. Over the next few weeks, we will use this knowledge to build Baby Bear a new chair.
We finished off our Science topic this week, by investigating which material would keep Humpty Dumpty safe and also be comfortable to wear. Using a mixture of materials, we dropped Humpty (a boiled egg) from a great height and found that the soft material such as fabric protected our egg, and was comfier, compared to wood and metal!
In PE we have focused on developing our breathing in Yoga and have loved making different shapes based on animals around the world. We cannot wait to carry on this topic over the next few weeks.
You have all worked really hard this week Year 2, well done!