Year 2

Welcome to Year 2

Autumn 1 2019

Its the start of another new year in Year 2 and the children have got off to a great start. We have begun our Muck, Mess and Mixtures topic and so far the class have loved it. It began with our visit to Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester and we are now looking at a range of artists and art skills. Here are some photos of what we saw and did on our trip.

Summer 2 – Multicultural Day

Canada

As part of Multicultural Day in Year 2, we have been learning all about Canada. We’ve looked at how Canada is split up into its provinces and territories and celebrations in the country, such as Canada Day. Most importantly, taste testing pancakes with yummy maple syrup!

Summer 1 - The Disgusting Sandwich

We read the story of 'The Disgusting Sandwich'. We created our own version of a disgusting sandwich and wrote a set of instructions for the badger to follow when he wants a new sandwich filler. We had ingredients such as:

- slimy snakes

- pig's brain juice

- dirty, wet mud

- Cat's eyeballs

The children enjoyed eating them!

Summer 1 - What time is it Mr Wolf?

We have been looking at how to tell the time to the nearest 15 minutes. We began with O'clock, then half past and finally quarter to and quarter past. They worked in pairs to give each other times to make. They knew 12 O'clock was dinnertime and half past 3 was home time!

Summer 1 - Wriggle and Crawl

The children went around our school area to see what minibeasts they could find. They made a note on where they found the different minibeasts. Example noticing a worm in the mud or a butterfly on a flower. 

Then, they carried out a survey to see Year 2's favourite minibeasts. We recorded our results using a Tally Chart, created a Bar Graph showing our results and then interpreted our data by answering a range of questions. 

Summer 1 - Riddles

The children have read a range of riddles and solved them, orally told each other riddles and wrote their own riddles. We learnt the features of a riddle as the week went by. They learnt that riddles needed:

= clues (5/6)

= start with the hardest clues first

= end with the question 'What am I?'

= add conjunctions to extend our clues

= smiles where we compare something to something else

= a range of sentence starters instead of starting with I, I, I!

Can you solve our riddles?

Summer 1 - How to find gold

In English the children have been looking at a book called 'How to find gold'. They responded to illustrations, created a role on the wall for Anna and one for the crocodile, designed maps to help find the gold and wrote a narrative where gold is found. They have enjoyed this book!

Summer 1 - Ramadan

We looked at Ramadan in our RE lesson. We learnt what Ramadan is and could share facts with each other. We designed lanterns with stars and moons. When Muslims see the first sight of the new moon in the sky that is when the festival begins. During Eid Muslims wear beautiful henna patterns on their hand and arm. We created our own henna pattern. 

Spring 2 - Flower art

The children have used a range of media to create pieces of art based on flowers. They had to use their observational skills to create their pieces of work.  We explained the attention to detail. The children used pencil, oil pastels and paint. What fabulous artists we have in Year 2!  Their work is displayed around the school for everyone to see.

Spring 2 - English

We have been looking at a book called Moth - An evolution story by Isabel Thomas and Daniel Egneus. 

We responded to illustrations, decided if we thought the insect was a moth or a butterfly, shared our opinions about moths, looked at language throughout the book, learnt plenty of factual information about moths and wrote a non-chronological report on moths to inform other people. 

2018 - 2019 

Spring Term

This term our topic is Bright Lights, Big City. During this we will be learning all about our capital city, London. We started our topic off with a Royal Tea Party. During this we took part in a tea dance. The children had a great time. Following on from this we will be learning all about the sight of London, the Royal Family and the great fire of London.

In Maths we are continuing our learning on multiplication and division. It has been great to see the children so eager to learn their times tables. Keep it up!

In English we are moving on to a new book unit, 'Traction Man'. During this we will be looking at creating our own short narratives as a play script.

Autumn Term

The children have had a great start to their first term in Year 2. We have spent time revisiting phase 5 phonics as well as basic grammar and maths. We have now moved on to phase 6 phonics and have begun our new English and maths learning.

In English we are doing a book topic based around the theme of teddies. This will lead up to us writing our own stories.  The children brought in their teddies to show everyone in the class and explained why it was so special to them.

In maths we are covering numbers to 100. This includes using a range of equipment to represent numbers and being able to partition.

We have also started our first cornerstones topic which is called 'Muck, Mess and Mixtures'.

Our engage for the topic was a messy art afternoon. The children investigated a range of media including cloud dough, paints, pastels and tissue paper.

2017-18

Gardening Project

The children are thrilled with their new playground and get excited for playtimes now. The playground is so colourful with all the plants and flowers they planted. Our minions watch the playground when we are learning. The sandpit is nearly big enough for a full class to play in. The new equipment gives us hours of fun. We are looking forward to the garden party on Thursday 12^th July. We hope you can all make it!

Mr Underbed

We have tried out our first Power of Reading unit and it was a great success. The children were engaged throughout, produced some good mini pieces of writing, but most importantly improved their speaking and listening skills.

Here is an example where the children had to work in pairs to create a conversation between Jim and Mr Underbed. What could they be saying to each other? This was based on what we had read so far.

Sports Day!

The children had a great time today taking part in a number of races.

The races were:

-       egg and spoon

-       sack race

-       running race

-       long jump

-       triple jump

-       javelin

They all did exceptionally well and were all winners. They were made up with their own personal certificates made by Miss Whealing.

Floating or sinking? – materials

The children have learnt all about materials and their properties. The children were set a task to collect a range of materials to build a boat that would float. They had to design, plan, make and evaluate their boats. Most of their boats were a success and floated.

Minibeast Morning!

Thank you to Georgia’s Ark for a fantastic minibeast morning where the children got to hold, stroke and learn all about a range of minibeast in different environments.

The children learnt lots of facts and created detailed posters which are displayed in the classroom. We learnt about the importance of pets being for life and not just a few months or a year.

Pirate Day!

A big thank you for all the effort you made with their pirate costumes, your own pirate costumes and attending our pirate morning. Well done Miss Egan for organising such a great morning. Both the children and the adults had lots of fun!

The children had speaking parts which explained a snapshot into the topic all about pirates.

Next, the children sang sea shanty songs.

Then, made some pirate crafts. Children could make: a pirate treasure map, a pirate mask or a pirate flag.

Lastly, our treasure hunt. The children worked hard to solve the riddles and break the treasure chest code to win the treasure. Well done to the winning team and their pirate helpers. You worked as a team resulting in winner the gold!

Poetry

With Miss Egan the children spent Spring term looking at poetry on a theme. 

They:

- learnt poems off by heart to recite

- learnt expressions

- learnt how to change their tone of voice

- learnt how to use actions to help recite a poem

- Changed parts of a poem

- Performed their own poem

- Repetitive language

Riddles

In English we learnt how to write animal riddles. 

Can you guess which animal we are?

Jessica's riddle

Eniola's riddle

Eric's riddle

Owen's riddle

Layla A's riddle

Evie's riddle

We are so impressed with all their riddles. It was very hard to pick just a small sample. 

Kandinsky

In art we are looking at the excellent work of Kandinsky. Most of his work is abstract art. We have been looking at his work called Concentric Circles. We learnt how to mix primary colours to make secondary colours, how to tint colours and how to shade colours. The children have worked very hard over the last 3 weeks producing their piece of art. We hope you like them!

Maths

We are learning to tell the time. This is an area the children find very hard. So far we have learnt:

- O'clock

- Half past

- Quarter past

- Quarter to

This week it gets very tricky because we are looking at 5 minute intervals. 

Easter egg hunt!!!

What a great way to end the term. In maths we have been learning about fractions. Each child picked a fraction question to solve.

Then, they had to fine their number hidden around the playground. Some were easier than others. The number on their egg related to what prize the child received.

The children had lots of fun and worked together as a team.

Happy Easter everyone!