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?

History - Neil Armstrong

Our last famous person was Neil Armstrong. We loved learning all about him! After watching real life videos of his mission to the moon, we wrote questions we would like to ask an astronaut, and later in the week we wrote a letter home pretending we were on the moon! 

Famous People Homework!

This week has been our last week on our topic 'Famous Four'. Keep a look out for our work on Neil Armstrong! As part of our homework, we chose our favourite famous person and had a go at sketching their portrait. 

English - Conjunctions

Today we looked at other conjunctions than 'and'. We had some very strange pictures that we had to write sentences about using 'and', 'but' and 'or'!

Year 2's Bits and Bobs Shop!

We have a shop in our classroom selling odd things! This has helped some of us to practise adding amounts together!

Maths - Money

This week we have moved onto money. We recapped how much different coins were worth and then practised adding amounts of money together. We had some new learning too! When the money goes over 100, we can exchange it for a pound! We also practised writing money using the £ sign!

Science - Making Circuits

This afternoon, we learnt about electricity and which objects would need batteries and which objects would need the mains. Miss Dosanjh showed us the things that are needed in a circuit that allows electricity to pass through, but she didn't tell us how to make a bulb light up as this was our mission! We had a go in pairs and by the end of the day, all of us lit a bulb! 

Art - Great Fire Of London

We created fire pictures of houses burning. We used tearing to rip different papers and then used black sugar paper for the beams of the houses as we learnt that houses in those days were made out of wood.

History - The Great Fire of London

Our third week has been all about The Great Fire Of London! We have been wondering how the fire started and finally we found out that no one actually knows exactly, but most people believe it started in Thomas Farrynor's bakery! After learning about what happened, we acted out this event and learnt that something good did come out of this terrible thing....IT GOT RID OF THE NASTY RATS!

Maths - Arrays

This week we have been looking at arrays as part of Multiplication and Division. We know that arrays are dots in a pattern usually a square or rectangle, and we can write number sentences by looking at arrays! 

History and English - Florence Nightingale

Our second famous person is the wonderful Florence Nightingale! We watched a video about why she was famous this week, and then wrote facts all about her. By the end of the week, we wrote our own diaries as Florence Nightingale describing the conditions of the filthy hospital, the soldiers, what we saw and heard and what we were going to do about it! We practised writing commas in lists in our diaries!

Maths Working Wall -Multiplication and Division

Here is our working wall we have been looking at to help us! We have learnt a lot of facts about Multiplication and Division that can help us when we are working out number sentences or problems.

Art - Arcimboldo

Our artist for this half-term is Arcimboldo. We learnt that he used fruit to create pictures of people and faces so we had a go at our own! Can you spot the faces in our pictures?

Science - Fire and electricity

In Science we had a class discussion about how fire was made many thousands of years ago, what light sources they had, how we use electricity now and which was safer. Outside, we watched how quickly fire can spread and we all decided electricity was safer than fire.

Maths - Multiplication and Division

This week we have started a new topic in Maths! We have looked at different ways we can use to work out a times table number sentence and division too. Keep a look out for our working wall! Here, we were working in groups to solve a number sentence by drawings!

RE - St. George's Church

In RE today we have looked at how Jesus brought good news by being a friend. We acted out a story from the Bible and then looked at a church in the UK which helps others. We looked at pictures of Christians being a good friend and how they are following the steps of Jesus.

English - Louis Braille Fact File

After learning all the facts about Louis Braille and why he was famous, we had a go at writing our own fact files! 

History - Louis Braille

We have started our History topic - learning about 4 famous people! Louis Braille was this week and we have learnt so much about this man! Why don't you ask us and we can tell you! In the afternoon we decoded Braille by using the Braille alphabet to help us find the letters. 

Science - Light Source

Today we learnt about what a light source is. We watched a video and then made a list on the board. Look at how many ideas we found!

Maths - Exchanging

Today we learnt about what happens when we are adding and there are TOO MANY ONES! We learnt to count the ones, and exchange them for a ten stick so that it is easier when we count them altogether.

We practised with drawings and using equipment and now we can all add 2 2-digit numbers together!

RE - Peace

This half-term our Christian Value is Peace. This is what some of us think Peace is...

"when it is peace and quiet"

"when two people are fighting and someone sorts it out, that is peace"

"when you hear the birds tweeting"

After this, we went outside to find peace and had a look at some peaceful photos, then wrote down the feelings inside that we were feeling.

New Year's Resolutions!

We welcome everybody back into the new year and hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! 2018 looks busy for Year 2 but we have had a great week back!

Can you spot whose New Year's Resolution is whose???

Christmas Party!

Thank you for the snacks and drinks that were bought in for our party! We had a great time! It started off with a candy cane hunt around our classroom...

Our Mexican selves!

This afternoon we finished turning ourselves Mexican. We know that Mexican people wear sombreros to keep the sun away from the face during the hot months, and they also wear ponchos as part of their traditional clothing. We designed these ourselves and put them above our pinatas!

Playing in the snow

What a busy and interesting week we've had! First there was a snow day due to bad weather and when we returned, we managed to play in the snow in the afternoon! It was a lot of fun being with our friends in the snow!

Mexico Topic

Our Mexico topic is almost over now and we have learnt so much. From where Mexico is in the world, to their food, sport, learning about their Christmas story and their traditions, we can now tell others all that we know!

D&T - Pinatas

As part of celebrating Christmas the Mexican way, we have learnt that Mexicans use pinatas at their parties during Christmas time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We followed instructions to make our own!

A present for home...

Today we made our Christmas cards for our families. Can you guess what our theme is???

Science - Materials

As part of our Science topic, we took part in an investigation where we had to test which material would be best for different environments when Santa starts delivering presents. We had materials to choose from and tubs of water to test how waterproof a material was. We also had thermometers wrapped in different materials which helped some of us decide which were the coldest and hottest!

Christmas Tree Festival 

Today we went into the church to have a look at all the decorated trees! We even spotted our Nativity scene!

English - Have a read of our Mexican Christmas story!

Nativity Scene

Today we created a class nativity scene for the church. We used play dough to create little models of animals and people. Some of us did this while others painted, and some of us helped with the roof. We decided as a class to make some poinsettia flowers and add this in too to represent the Mexico Christmas story!

MARBLE TREAT!

We finally had our marble treat which was to have a go on the apparatus in the hall! We helped each other through team work and used our bodies to balance!

Maths - Weight

This week we have been looking at weight. We looked at what a gram and kilogram was as well as weighing different items and learning how to read scales!

Anti-bullying Week

In Year 2, we made bullying models by modelling with newspaper and masking tape. We put our models in different shapes and then wrote kind words on them. One afternoon we also watched a video and had hearts. Every time something unkind was said we scrunched the hearts and opened them afterwards. We remembered these words;

Before you speak think and be smart, it's hard to fix a wrinkled heart.

PSHE - Friendship 

We have been looking at friendship. We drew around 2 children and thought about what makes a good and bad friend.

Children In Need

This week was also Children In Need. We all dressed up as Disney characters to raise money for charity. Throughout the day we took part in different activities...

Maths - Length

This week we have been learning about length! We learnt about how to use rulers, trundle wheels and metre sticks correctly, and then had a go at measuring lots of different lengths and heights using the correct equipment.

The Legend of the Poinsettia Flower

We have started to look at the Christmas story...however this is the Christmas story told in Mexico! We watched it being read by the author and then acted out different parts to helps us sequence pictures to then start writing our own books!

Morning work

The children worked exceptionally hard this morning whilst coming into school! They were given a set of numbers to find the relationship between them using add and subtract only. The Year 2 children have thought very carefully about their number sentence learning so far, and showed all the different types they could think of! 

We decided to take a picture to show off our amazing maths work first thing in the morning!

Festival of Remembrance

Today we discussed why we have this day each year and who we remember. We talked about how we remember those who lost their lives in the wars a very long time ago, but also those who are fighting now for us in dangerous places and countries so we can be safe.

We drew around our hands and cut them out to make poppies which were then stuck onto a wreath.

On Friday, the whole of KS1 took part in a 2 minute silence where we placed our remembrance creations for all to see.

D&T - Mexican Maracas

Alongside the biscuits, we also made maracas! We followed instructions to make them, and then once dried we painted Mexican patterns. 

English - Instructions

Here are our instructions about how to make our noisy Mexican maracas!

Cooking - Sombrero Biscuits

Today we practised following instructions to make sombrero biscuits. First we learnt about what sombreros are and then watched Miss Dosanjh make hers. We talked about each instruction and spotted they were all commands! Then we had a go at making ours!

English - Instructions

After making our sombrero biscuits, we wrote instructions.

Maths - Adding and Subtracting on a Number line 

This week we have been looking at adding and taking away on a number line. It was tricky at first but we have got the hang of it now! We have been following these steps on our working wall to get our answers and using a 100 grid to continue practising our counting on or counting back. See if you can complete the ones given by drawing your own number lines at home!

Geography - Mexico