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What are we Learning?

Thursday 28th March 2024

Just like that, we have reached the end of term! On Friday last week, the children all enjoyed making their smoothies. They cut the fruit carefully into smaller pieces before placing it all in a blender and whizzing it up. When it came to tasting time, there were some mixed reviews; some loved them and others decided they were disgusting! 

    

   

Our English work has focussed on the process used when we made our smoothies. We have used our first hand experience on Friday to write our own instructions for what you need to do. The children have all worked hard on these, producing some detailed sets of instructions. 

In maths, we have come to the end of our mass, capacity and temperature unit. We looked at litres and how they are used to measure and then looked at solving problems linked to capacity. 

 

Friday 22nd March 2024

It has been another busy week in Year 2 with lots of learning taking place. We have started to look at instructions in English, looking at the different features that they need to be in. We have ordered instructions and know that they have to be done in a particular order to get to the outcome that you are trying to achieve. 

In maths, we have been looking at capacity. We have looked at the vocabulary of full, empty, half full, half empty and nearly full or empty and used water in different containers to show this. We then found out the millilitres are used to measure capacity and we had a go at measuring out different measurements of water. We all realised how careful we have to be to do it! 

  

In computing, we enjoyed working in pairs to create our own mats for the Beebots. We designed different places that the Beebot could visit and planned and test different routes it could take to move around the map. We then had some obstacles added, making it trickier as we had to avoid them with our routes!

  

Friday 15th March 2024

The weeks are flying past! In English this week we looked at researching our own chosen animal and then having a go at writing a riddle for them. We also looked at what happens in contracted words and how the apostrophe is used in place of the missing letters!

In maths, we finished off our Length and Height topic and then began to look at our Mass, Capacity and Temperature unit. Our focus so far has been on mass. We used the bucket balances to investigate with objects to find out the heaviest and lightest, then moved on to looking at how many cubes an object is equal to. Next, we looked at using grams as a standard unit of measure and how this can look on different scales. 

   

In DT, we were very excited to explore and taste fruit smoothies. We tasted 5 different types. Some of us enjoyed it more than others. After we had tasted all the smoothies, we then decided on the fruits that we would like to use in our own smoothies! 

  

 

Friday 8th March 2024

Year 2 has had lots of fun this week. They enjoyed dressing up for World Book Day and completing the different activities. Mrs Danel and Mrs Cruickshank were very impressed with all of the costumes and Miss Poole was sad to miss out on seeing them all! 

In English, we have been looking at riddles. We have looked at what they are, reading different riddles and trying to work out what they are describing. We have identified the main features and had a go at writing our own for different pieces of fruit. This links well with the work we did on DT, looking at different fruits and vegetables ahead of tasting and then making our own fruit smoothies, something we are all looking forward to!

In maths, we have looked at measuring in metres. We took the metre sticks outside and had a go at using them to measure different objects and playground lines. We worked well in our groups to do this, recording our measurements using the ipads. We have also looked at comparing and ordering different lengths and heights. 

    

Friday 1st March 2024

It has been a busy Science Week in Year 2 with lots of opportunities for the children to enjoy themselves. In our English work we focussed on looking at different famous scientists and finding out about their lives and inventions. We then used the research that we did to create leaflets about them. We also read some information about Tim Peake and his time on the International Space Station, which we then found more about in the planetarium. 

In maths, we have been looking at length and height. We used rulers carefully to look at how to measure the length and height of different objects in centimetres; we looked at using a ruler to draw lines of different lengths and then looked at how long a metre is, identifying objects that were taller, shorter and about the same as a metre.

In our Science Week work we looked at sorting and classifying using liquorice allsorts. We sorted them using Venn diagrams, including using an overlap, and then moved on to looking at how to use a Carroll diagram to sort them. We then talked about how this sorting can be used within our science learning. We observed different fruit teabags over the course of the day, looking at how the water changed over time, and made careful observational drawings of what they saw. In PE we looked at the impact that exercise has on our hearts. We measured our heart rates before and after exercise to see what happened. We discovered that in most cases our hearts beat faster after exercise. 

   

  

Friday 23rd February 2024

The children have all settled quickly into their new half term, and have coped well with some timetable changes. In our English this week, we have looked at the story of Hansel and Gretel. We have looked at some different versions and thought about the similarities and differences between them. The children have all worked really hard on their retellings of the story, including some lovely vocabulary choices. 

In maths, we have been looking at the 5 times table. We have looked at how to mulitply by 5 and to divide by 5. We have then been putting our multiplying and division skills to the test looking at using the 2, 5 and 10 times tables! We have all done really well at remembering what we need to count in!

In science, we looked at whether the oldest person in our class was the tallest. We discovered that for our class this was not true. We then investigated looking at whether it is true to say that the older you are, the bigger your hand span. We also found out, through our investigating, that this was not true! 

   

  

Friday 9th February 2024

We have made it to half term! We have worked hard in class this week. We have been busy writing our stories about our different thieves. The thieves in the stories have been up to lots of mischief! We have been focussing on making sure that we include lots of description within our writing.

In maths, we have continued to look at multiplication and division. We have looked in more detail at the 2 and 10 times tables, looking at both multiplication and division facts for them. We have seen how multiplication by 2 links to doubling and dividing by 2 links to halving. We have also looked at odd and even numbers and made the connection that when multiplying by 2 the answer will always be even.

  

This week we have had a Skills For Life focus on 'My Voice Matters'. We have discussed the importance of speaking up when something happens that we don't like and looked at the powerful words of 'no' and 'stop'. We looked at different situations and scenarios as a class and looked at how it is ok to have different opinions about these. 

Friday 2nd February 2024

We have made it to February! The children have continued to work hard and to get lots of work done. In our English work we have been looking at the story of 'The Tear Thief'. We started off by looking at the main character and making predictions about her and what she might be doing in different images from the book. Then we looked at her in more detail, looking at description, including using similes. Then we had a go at designing our own characters which next week we will be including in our own stories! We have all sorts of characters, including the candy, banana and cat thieves!

In maths, we have been busy looking at arrays. We used cubes and counters to make some of our own arrays, looking carefully to work out what they were showing us. Next, we used sharing to help us to look at the beginnings of division. We looked at finding out how many groups of the same number could be made and then looked at how we can share a number into a given number of groups. 

  

In PE we looked at how our curved pathways could be moved onto the apparatus. We moved on, over and under the benches and created curved pathways on the wall bars too! 

  

Friday 26th January 2024

The children have been working really hard in Year 2 this week. Our English focus has again linked with our topic work, where we have been learning all about Mary Seacole. We found out about her achievements in her life and how she was treated differently to Florence Nightingale because of the colour of her skin. The children all agreed that this was not fair and should not have happened. They wrote detailed fact files about Mary's life, explaining what she did to help the soldiers in the Crimean War.

In maths, we began our multiplication and division unit. We looked at what is meant by equal and unequal groups and used different equipment to make different groups. We have focussed on how we can match a repeated addition number sentence to an image of equal groups and how this can then be represented using a multiplication number sentence. Our counting in 2s, 5s and 10s skills have come in very handy this week!

   

In music, we enjoyed having the opportunity to use the glockenspiels to accompany our singing of the rainbow song we have been learning. We had to look and listen carefully, so we knew when to play the different notes. Our timing when we play is definitely improving according to Miss Poole and Mrs Cruickshank! 

   

Friday 19th January 2024

It has been a busy week in Year 2, with the children settling in well after last week's home learning. In English, our focus has been on learning about Florence Nightingale. We produced some factual writing about her life and achievements. Then we imagined that we were soldiers in the Crimean War and wrote letters of thanks to Florence, thinking carefully about the changes that she made to the hospitals. 

Our history lesson focus was also on Florence Nightingale, looking at the main events of her lifetime and how these can be put on a timeline. We looked at how Florence was alive at the same time as Queen Victoria but after the Great Fire of London. We talked about how she was born over 200 years ago. We had to look carefully at the dates on the timeline to know where to order the events. 

In maths, we have continued to look at money. We have revisited last week's work, looking at making different amounts of money. We moved on to look at what happens when you don't have the right money to pay for something and how, if you pay too much, you can be given change. We role-played shops, focussed on giving change and working out how much we had spent. 

 

   

Friday 12th January 2024

A Happy New Year to you all and what an interesting start to the term we have had with two days back in school followed by a spell of home learning due to the electrical issues in school. A huge thank you to you all for your support with this. 

In English, the children seem to have enjoyed using the clip Lune et L'autre in their learning. There has been a real focus on their descriptive work, looking at whether words are being used to describe a character's look or personality. The children worked hard to think of their own expanded noun phrases linked to the clip. 

In maths, our focus has been on money. We looked at the different coins and notes that we have in the UK and then worked on counting sets of them using our counting in 2s, 5s, 10s and even 20s! We then looked at the coins or notes that would be needed to make different amounts of money and looked at how the same amount can be made in different ways. Using real or play money seems to have really helped us! 

    

Last Friday, we were lucky enough to have some special visitors to our class to help with our science work. One of our parents came in with her toddler and baby. The children were able to ask questions and see the sorts of things that a baby and toddler can do, really helping to reinforce our work on the human life cycle. 

  

Friday 15th December 2023

Well, what a treat this week has been! The children all did a fantastic job in the Nativity with their singing and acting and are a credit to you all! The Year 2 team are very proud of them all. 

In our Maths work, we have finished off our work on shapes, looking at repeating patterns with 3D shapes. We enjoyed creating our own, both with the physical shapes and images of the shapes on the iPad. In our English, we have looked at commas and how they are used to separate items in a list, and were busy writing about what would be needed for the Christmas dinner and to decorate the Christmas tree.

In DT the children have all been very busy creating their puppets. They thread their needles carefully, persevered with their running stitch and finally decorated and evaluated their puppets. The final results are amazing with photos posted on Seesaw of the finished puppets! 

   

   

 

Friday 8th December 2023

December is going at a fast rate! The nativity rehearsals are going well, and the children are almost performance ready! They are looking forward to putting on their costumes! 

In English, we have looked at the story of Cinderella. We have looked at words containing the soft 'c' sound like Cinderella and palace and words containing the hard 'c' sound like castle and wicked and sorted between the different words and pictures. We have found out about adverbs and how and when they are used and had a go at writing some sentences containing them. Some of us even managed to write some fronted adverbial sentences! 

In maths, our focus has been on 3D shapes and their properties. We have looked at the vocabulary of faces, vertices and edges, understanding what they mean and using them to sort and describe different 3D shapes. 

We had great fun on Thursday at our Y2 Multiskills Festival at a local secondary school using our PE and teamwork skills well in all the games! 

  

 

 

Friday 1st December 2023

Just like that we are in December! The children have continued to work hard this week. The children have all shown determination this week when completing their quizzes, trying hard on what was asked of them. 

In English, we have been looking at acrostic poems. We had a look at what they look like and what is special about them and then thought of some ideas for the different letters of winter. Then we had a go at writing some of our own. We tried hard to include description. 

     

In maths, we have continued looking at 2D shapes. We found out about vertical lines of symmetry, using mirrors to help us check to see if shapes had a vertical line of symmetry or not. We looked at how shapes can be sorted according to their properties, reviewing the vocabulary of vertices and sides.

       

The children have been working hard on the Nativity during our rehearsals. It is clear that they have been practising their lines at home. This week we have been focusing on adding in some signing to some of our songs. 

Friday 24th November 2023

The children have been working hard this week. In maths, we started our new topic of 'Shape'. We looked at recognising different 2D and 3D shapes, going around the school hunting for 2D shapes and building using 3D shapes. We then focused on looking at the sides and vertices of 2D shapes and saying how many different shapes have.

  

In English, we have focused on the story of Rapunzel. We answered questions about the story, ordered the main events and then wrote our own retellings. We tried hard to remember to include lots of description too! 

For our DT work, our focus this week was on sewing! We had to concentrate and focus to thread our needles and then practised the running stitch, in preparation for making our puppets before the end of term! A lot of perseverance and determination was seen by the Year 2 adults and all the children made good progress in the time they had. 

  

 

Friday 17th November 2023

Just like that, it is the middle of November! Time really is flying by! In our English work this week we have been researching different animals and writing our own non-chronological report. We chose to either write a report about an animal of our choice or to write about nocturnal animals. We then worked hard to remember the different features that we needed to remember from the work that we did last week! 

In maths, we have come to the end of our addition and subtraction unit. We have looked at using the greater than, less than and equal to symbols to compare different addition and subtraction calculations. Using our new knowledge of adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers, we were able to find the missing number in different calculations. 

This week has been a Skills For Life focus week, where we have looked at how we can manage hurtful behaviour and bullying. We have looked at what the difference is between hurtful behaviour and bullying and have used the vocabulary of bully, victim and bystander when talking about different bullying situations. The children showed their understanding of who to talk to if they are worried about bullying when they wrote diary entries in the role of August from the book and film Wonder. We have also looked at cyberbullying and what it means, understanding that this is something that takes place online.

In our gymnastics session we had lots of fun looking at how we can link jumps, rolls and balances. We also tried to add our own starting and ending positions to our sequences.

    

Friday 10th November 2023

It has been a busy week in Year 2 with lots of work going on. This week in English, our focus has been on non-chronological reports. We have been looking at a non-chronological report about a castle, discussing and identifying the different features that we can see. We have had a look at how paragraphs and subheadings are used to support the layout of the report. 

In maths, our focus has been on subtraction. We have looked at how we can subtract two 2-digit numbers and what we have to do to be successful with this. We have used place value grids to help us with this, looking at how we can exchange a ten for ones when there is a need to in the calculation. Our place value work from the start of the year has proven to be very helpful.

   

  

In our music session we enjoyed listening to and beginning to learn the songs from this year's nativity. The childrne are picking these up really well and are looking forward to our future rehearsals!

 

Friday 3rd November 2023

The children have settled into the first week back really well. In English, the children have really enjoyed the book Small Knight and George and the Royal Chocolate Cake. They have written letters to the King, written invitations to the villagers and described what we can see. 

In maths, we have continued to look at addition, moving on to adding two 2-digit numbers together using the base 10 equipment to help us. We have looked at what happens when the ones are added together to create a new ten. 

The children were very excited to start our DT project on Puppets. The children were challenged with paper, sellotape and scissors to make their own puppets! It proved a challenge, but the children show perseverance and resilience in their work! We will continue to develop our puppet-making skills as the term develops! 

        

Thursday 19th October 2023 

Just like that, the first half-term of Year 2 is over! The children really have settled in well to their new classroom and routines. A big well done to them all.

In our English work, we have continued looking at the book 'Quest'. We imagined that we were one of the characters in the book and wrote our own diary entries in this role. We discovered that Quest is part of a trilogy and looked in groups at Journey and Return, thinking of ideas about what could be happening. 

  

In maths, we have been looking at subtraction and how number facts that we know can help us in our calculations. We have looked at using our knowledge of number bonds to 10 and place value to help us in our different calculations.

In topic this week, we put our knowledge of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth I to the test by sorting different facts and matching them to the correct monarch. 

Friday 13th October 2023

This half-term really is flying by! This week in our English work we have been looking at the book 'Quest'. It is a wordless book, so we have been working hard to think about what the words could be. We have thought of our own questions based on the front cover, added speech bubbles to some of the images and made predictions about what we think will happen. The children are looking forward to finding out what happens in the rest of the story next week.

In maths, we have been looking at adding to and across the next 10. We have discovered that knowing our number bonds to 10 really helps us with this. We have used number lines, 100 squares and dienes cubes to help us. 

With Mrs Bennett in RE, we have been looking at the story of The Good Samaritan, thinking about how kindness is shown. Last week we made puppets and this week we worked hard in groups to role-play, retelling the story. We worked hard to use loud, clear voices when we were acting it out for the class. 

   

Friday 6th October 2023

It has been a busy week in Year 2 with lots of learning going on. In our English we have been busy using our dragon characters from last week in our own stories. We have planned and then written our own adventures, thinking about whether our dragon character is kind or mean! We have even had a go at trying to edit and improve our writing.

In maths, we have started a new topic called 'Addition and Subtraction'. We have looked at number bonds to 10 and 20 and used part whole models to think about the different facts that we know. We investigated how knowing our number bonds to 10 can help us with making 100 using counting in 10s numbers. 

In computing, our focus has been on 'IT Around Us'. This week we looked at how a supermarket till uses IT and role played in groups being a supermarket till. One person was the customer choosing items to buy, another was the scanner checking the bar code to find out what the product was, and the final person found out how much each item cost and added up the total cost. We had fun doing this and swapped around the different roles. We all decided that the till at the supermarket is definitely quicker at doing this than we were!

 

  

Friday 29th September 2023

Just like that, September has come to an end! The children have all coped really well in their first month of Year 2. This week in English, we have been looking at the book The Dragon Machine. We have focussed on writing character descriptions, writing some lovely descriptions of the main character, George. We then designed our own dragons and wrote descriptions of them, deciding if they were going to be kind or mean dragons! 

In maths, we continued and finished our unit on place value. We have practised counting in steps of 2, 5 and 10 and been introduced to counting in 3s. We have also looked at using the greater than and less than symbols and how these can be used to compare numbers. 

In science, we have been busy looking at materials. We became material detectives and went around the school, both inside and outside, looking for objects made from different materials. We then discussed why different objects are or aren't made from selected materials. 

  

  

Friday 22nd September 2023

Another week has flown by in Year 2. This week our English focus has been on poetry and looking at nouns, adjectives and verbs. We have looked at a list poem using the structure of adjective, noun, verb and then had a go at writing our own list poems about the rainforest and what we might see. 

In maths, we have been focussed on using number lines to label different numbers. We have used our place value knowledge to look at different numbers and to work out where they need to go. Our counting in 10s has been very useful to help us with this!

In art, with Mrs Bennett, we looked at self portraits and had a go at drawing our own. We used mirrors to help us and looked at the placement of our different facial features. 

  

    

Friday 15th September 2023

It has been a busy week in Year 2.  In our English work we have been continuing with our work on The Paper Bag Princess. We worked hard to order and retell the story.  We have planned and written diary entries in the role of different characters. 

Our maths work focus has continued to be on place value. We have looked at the tens and ones in different numbers and looked at how they can be partitioned in different ways. We have enjoyed using equipment to make the various numbers. 

In PE, we enjoyed working as a team to play different games. We had to cross the swamp in our groups using the stepping stones without anyone falling in the swamp! We then had to collect items, to make a given total from the Treasure Island in the middle. We used our communication skills well to get to the other side.

 

 

Friday 8th September 2023

Welcome to Year 2! The children have had a fantastic first few days in Year 2, settling in well to their new classroom and routines. A huge well done to them all!

In our English work we have been using the story of 'The Paper Bag Princess'. We have predicted from the front cover what we think it will be about, read through the story answering questions and have thought about a diary entry that the main character might write. We have all been enjoying this story so far!

In our maths work we have started our topic on Place Value. We have begun looking at the value that each digit has in 2 digit numbers and have used different equipment to represent numbers in different ways. We looked at how grouping into and then counting in tens can help us. 

   

   

Despite the hot weather, we have also had two fun PE lessons, looking at dodging on Tuesday and team building on Wednesday, playing lots of games to help develop these skills.