Year 2

Welcome to Year 2's Class Webpage!

On our page you will find a variety of things that we have done over the year across all areas of learning. The newest posts will be published at the top so please make sure you scroll down so you don't miss a thing!

We hope you enjoy looking at Year 2!

Important Dates:

Tuesday: every second week on this day children will have their times tables test.

Wednesday: hand in date for homework and spelling test

Wednesday and Thursday: these are our PE days. Please ensure children have an indoor and outdoor labelled kit and jewellery is removed. We will aim to hand out spellings on Thursdays.

Friday: new homework is handed out as well as times tables every second week.
 

Reading:

Please ensure your child reads at least three times a week at home with an adult and the reading diary is signed. We check diaries regularly and children are allowed to move their face on our chart. If children read three or more times in a week they receive 1 house point on Friday.

You can help your child to read by...

- Guiding them to break down longer words so that they can be decoded 

- Asking them what has happened so far before continuing to read

- Encouraging your child to predict what may happen part way through and how they might know this

- Asking your child questions about characters' feelings, emotions and thoughts

2017-2018

Graduation!

Today was the day we were going to graduate from Year 2 before we move onto Key Stage 2! All the adults have been really proud of how hard we have worked this year and the achievements we have made. We created our gowns and hats and celebrated in the afternoon. 

First we were presented with our scrolls, and then we went onto the field to throw our hats in the air to mark the end of Year 2. We came back and sang a graduation song before having a little party. We also took lots of photos with the decorations we made for our classroom! We hope you enjoy looking at our pictures.

Sports Day!

We had a great morning taking part in Sports Day! We showed brilliant team spirit for everyone in the class as they completed track and field events!

Year 2's Outdoor Pursuit Centre Trip!

The sun was shining this morning and we were all looking forward to our school trip! When we arrived we took a selfie in our allocated field area!

D&T - Amazon Rainforest

To finish off our rainforest work, we worked in groups to create our own models! We collected natural materials, painted the different layers and put it all together to make our own Amazon Rainforests!

RE - Hannukah

Today we learnt about another Jewish festival called Hannukah. We listened to a story about it and why it is celebrated, then used drama to act it out!

Year 2's Peru Day!

We decided to have a Peru day to end our week learning about Paddington in Peru before he moves onto his next stop. We had such a packed day full of things to learn and do! First we had a photo of our fantastic costumes - the adults were really impressed!

Fruit Tasting!

As part of our learning about Peru, we took part in tasting a variety of fruits. We all developed our Christian value this half-term 'Courage' and were really brave to try fruits we've never had before!

Geography - The capital city of Peru is Lima!

Today we looked at the capital of Peru which is Lima! We saw both parts of Lima and talked about what we could see, what was the same and what was different compared to where we live.

A special visitor!

Somebody from the class decided to bring in Paddington to show to us. He still had his tag on too!

RE - Passover

Today we learnt about the Jewish festival Passover and why this is important and celebrated for Jewish people. We listened to a story, watched a video and then got into groups to act out different parts to the rest of the class! 

Geography - Peru

This week we have been learning about Peru! We found our own facts from books and wrote fact files trying to include sub-headings too! 

Geography - Paddington All Around the World!

Since being back from our half-term holidays, we have been really busy in Year 2! We started off by learning about Paddington, where he was from, his family and more! We wrote fact files about the bear!

Art - Henri Rousseau

To finish our topic 'Where The Wild Things Are', we have looked at an artist whose work links in with our learning. He is famous for the picture below - 'Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!)'.  We talked about what we could see and the colours he had used. We then practised our cutting skills to layer pictures of grass, branches and twigs before hiding our own tiger! Can you spot them in our pictures?

Art - painting patterns

We have finally finished making our masks and they look brilliant! Today we painted our patterns on the mask. Can you guess who is who in Year 2???

Science - Investigating rocket gliders

Today we made rocket gliders ready for our investigation! We made them in a lot of different ways to see whose went the furthest. We also got some maths in too by measuring the distance our rocket gliders flew using metre sticks!

Growing and Planting

Here are our plants and flowers that have grown over the last few weeks! We are going to take our sunflowers home over half-term to look after.

Our achievement!

We were all surprised in assembly this week when we received a certificate for persevering and keeping focused during our quizzes!

END OF SATs QUIZZES CELEBRATION!

To celebrate the end of us working extremely hard the last few months to remember our learning and apply it too in our work and quizzes, we all took part in a teddy bear's picnic. It was brilliant weather and we all had a relaxed and fun time! 

D&T - Making masks

Today we started the process of making our masks. We had balloons to cover with newspaper and runny glue also known as paper mache. Once these were dry we began painting the background colour of our chosen animal and the eyes. We can't wait to see the final result!

English - Animal Poems

This week we have been looking at animal poems. We have followed the rhythm of 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' to create our own animal poems using our knowledge of animals over the last few weeks. Here we are performing them to the class!

Science and Art - Animal Masks

This week we have started to design our animal masks. We have been looking at the patterns on animals' skin from last week and then decided on our own animal. Using shading methods, we coloured in our masks ready to copy onto our masks next week!

Art - Animal Printing

This week our project has been to look at animal skin and then create our own by using printing techniques. We started off by looking at different types of skin and talking about the patterns we could see. Miss Dosanjh then showed us how we could create each one by using different methods like...

- printing with stones and rocks

- using art straws to create stripes

- painting bubble wrap 

- painting the bottom of corks

and using rollers and other printing equipment

Here are pictures of our process and the end result! 

Growing and Planting

To end the week off we have started planting in Year 2! We have planted a sunflower each to begin our sunflower race as well as climbing beans, peas and courgettes. 

An update for our caterpillars and tadpoles...our caterpillar died and we luckily had a replacement one which has now escaped! The tadpoles have grown with very few left, so hopefully we start seeing back legs growing soon!

Science - Classifying animals

This week we have learnt about the different groups animals can be put into. These are mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and fish. We have also discovered animals can be put into groups depending on what they eat. These groups are called omnivores, herbivores and carnivores.

We have taken part in a lot of group work to sort animals into groups, typed fact files on the computers about animals and the groups they belong to, and written information booklets too!

Maths - Measuring capacity and reading temperatures

We have moved on from time now and have started to look at measuring! Today we learnt what liquid is measured in and how to read a thermometer. The class was split in half so that half of us practised reading scales on measuring jugs and cylinders, while the other half searched around the school for hidden thermometers with different temperatures!

Science - What is needed to survive?

This week we have been having some great discussions about what animals and humans need to survive. Some of us had some interesting ideas! We were put into groups to create a poster of the things we thought would be needed to survive and then presented it to the class!

Maths - Time

After our fantastic fraction work, we have moved onto telling the time. Most of us can now tell the time to the 5 minutes on a clock and recognise the past and to side on a clock! Why don't you quiz us and ask us to tell the time on the clock?

We also had a go at taking part in different activities and recording the time in minutes and seconds on a stopwatch. We tried comparing times to see which activities were the quickest and slowest.

Fraction homework

I am astounded by the level of practical fraction homework that has been handed in to me! They have been put all around our room and we have been pretty much fractioned out! Well done to everyone who completed their homework!

RE - Judaism (Mezuzahs)

This term we are looking at Judaism. After looking at synagogues and learning about the inside and outside of this place of worship, we have moved onto Mezuzahs. These are very special to Jewish people and they are cases with a special prayer put on the right hand side of a door frame. Jewish people touch this before they enter the room to remind them that God is with them.

We made our own and wrote our own prayers. Why don't you look out for them when you pass by the Year 2 classroom! 

Science - Tadpoles and Caterpillars

A huge thank you to those children and parents who have brought in tadpoles and caterpillars for us to see how they transform over the next few months! We are very lucky to have written about their life cycles and now see it in action! Keep checking for updates about how they are growing.

Maths - Fraction Working Wall

Here is what our fraction working wall is beginning to look like. You can use this to help you with your homework!

Science - Life cycles

We have all enjoyed our Easter holidays and have returned back to school ready to learn! This week we have been looking at life cycles. We drew our own life cycles and wrote about them too! We have been concentrating on using a lot of different words in our work. Some of us helped to make our display for our topic too!

Maths - Fractions

We have spent a lot of time this week looking at fractions. We have been working with halves, quarters, thirds, two thirds, two quarters and 3 quarters. Shapes were what we looked at first and we can now find fractions of shapes! Slowly we have moved onto finding fractions of amounts and numbers. We have used practical objects before moving onto written methods!

Science - Senses Walk

Today we looked a little more at senses. We discussed why animals use different features on their body so that they can use their senses and then we pretended to be animals to spot living things and hear all types of sounds!

Time for Easter!

We are all ready for Easter! Have a look at some of our Easter competition entries as well as what we have made for our families!

Drama - Rapunzel

This week we are looking at the traditional fairy tale called Rapunzel. To start this off, we were put into groups and acted out different parts of the story! We really focused on expression. Later on in the week we are going to plan our Rapunzel stories but change the ending to our own! Some of us will use the learning from Warwick Castle in our story endings!

D&T- Making Shields!

Today we started designing and painting our shields we brought back from Warwick Castle. We had a look at what these designs were called...'Coat of Arms', and also had a look at the sorts of things that would be painted on shields and what they meant.

We chose the pictures we wanted, designed in pencil and started painting and colouring very carefully!

Comparing Shapes!

Today we were comparing 2D and 3D shapes. We found finding things the same really tricky because 3D shapes are all so different!

2D Shapes!

We have been learning more about shapes, and after our symmetry work, we tried making 2D shapes on the iPads! We were challenged with regular and irregular shapes.

Making Beanstalks

This afternoon we decorated our room with beanstalks! 

Maths - Symmetry

Today in Maths we learnt about symmetry in 2D shapes. We have been learning about regular 2D shapes such as a circle, triangle, rectangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon and octagon. If you fold a shape and all the corners and edges match, this is a line of symmetry. There should be the same shape on both sides.

Warwick Castle

As part of our topic Traditional Tales and Castles, we went to Warwick Castle on the 7th of March. We had a great time. Scroll down to see what we got up to!

WORLD BOOK DAY

Today was World Book Day and we celebrated by dressing up as a book character. We had a lot of Harry Potter's, princesses and heroes!

English - Jack and the Beanstalk

Our new topic is Traditional Tales and Castles! To start this topic off, this week we...

- have looked at the story of Jack and the Beanstalk

- watched a story being read to us

- acted out the story in groups

- wrote the story independently using commas in lists, conjunctions, apostrophes and much more

- watched 4 giants and described them using powerful adjectives

- drew our own giants and described what they looked like using powerful adjectives

WHAT A LOT OF WORK IN ONE WEEK!

Collective Worship - Hope

This half-term our Christian Value is Hope. We talked about what Hope was and thought about what our hope would be for today, tomorrow or the future. We made hope kites for our new display!

History - Class Assembly

This week we performed our fantastic learning to our grown ups who came to watch our assembly! We had scenes explaining the life of Louis Braille, showing what happened in the Great Fire of London, describing what Florence Nightingale did and lastly exploring the moon with Neil Armstrong! 

Thank you to everyone who came to watch the assembly and for the wonderful feedback too!

All the adults were proud of what we have achieved this half term! 

Art Focus - Mark Fuller 'Rain'

This week we completed our art work for Art Focus. The theme this year was 'ArtStorm' and for Year 2, our topic was rain. We focused on an artist called Mark Fuller and looked at his work. Some of us spotted that he used different shades of blue, he used different shapes in his art work and always made sure there were raindrops showing ripples! 

We created our own interpretations of his art work. We used ICT, oil pastels, colouring pencils and paint!

RE - Gospel

We have now finished our topic all about Gospel (good news). We have learnt that Christians believe Jesus brought good news to others by being a friend, forgiving others and through prayers.

To end our topic, we thought about what mattered to us the most and wrote these in oysters, after listening to a parable where a man gave up everything for a pearl he had found! 

After that, we created candles and wrote prayers in flames to thank God for the good news he has brought into our lives...

 Can you spot what our candles spell?