Class of 2020/21
We have 21 wonderful children in our class, who are all enthusiastic and eager to learn new things!
Miss Milnes is our class teacher and Mrs Deyes is our teaching assistant. On Tuesdays we are also taught by Mrs Bates.
Summer Term 2
RE
“The Church is the family of God, the People that God gathers in the whole world. This Church is the communion of Christ’s disciples brought together in Christ its Head by the Holy Spirit. It is the Body of Christ, the Temple of the Spirit. As the People of God, the Church is drawn into Christ’s praise of the Father and Christ’s mission in the world. Religious Education Curriculum Directory
In RE this term we have, learnt that when the apostles received the Holy Spirit they spread the Good News. We reflected on how we could spread the Good News. We also will learnt about the early Christian community and discussed that the Christian community continues today and lives by Baptism, the Eucharist and its mission to love God by loving our neighbour.
We also spent 2 weeks learning about Sikhism as part of our multi-faith week. We had a very interesting zoom lesson with a real Sikh called Manni, he told us lots of information about the 5K’s and the Gurus. Following on from our learning about the 5 K’s, we got creative and made some of the 5K’s.
SCIENCE
In Science we have learnt more about how plants disperse their seeds by wind, water, explosion and animals. We went out onto the field to act out the different ways that seeds travel.
Summer Term 1
RE
This half term Year 2 have been learning about Jesus rising from the dead and discussing how he still lives with us today. We acted out the story of Jesus telling his disciples that he would go back to Heaven but promised them that the Holy Spirit would come. We then learnt that Jesus ascended into Heaven and promised to return and that this gives us hope. We had lots of fun ordering the story of Pentecost and putting ourselves in the shoes of the apostles, we thought about how they would feel when they found out Holy Spirit was promised to them and when it came.
Maths
We have been busy learning all about length and height. The children now understand how long millimetres, centimetres and metres are. They know that there are 100cm in a metre and 10 millimetres in a cm. We had lots of fun measuring the length of the classroom with trundle wheels, measuring the tables and each other with metre sticks and measuring smaller items with rulers. The children have really enjoyed singing and dancing along with Mr Pumpernickle in the ‘Super Movers’ length and height song.
English
The children transformed themselves into authors this half term. Our topic book was ‘Jim and the Beanstalk’, when they came back from the holidays the children were shocked to find a beanstalk had grown in our classroom! There were also some mysterious things being left around by a giant! After much thought we decided to become authors and write a sequel to the story, after lots of discussions about sequels and actions put in place for story maps, we came up with our own characters and items that the giant would want. Once we planned our sequels the children got busy writing them. The children managed to include speech marks, coordinating conjunctions and paragraphs within their stories, they were all fantastic and I really enjoyed reading them.
SCIENCE
A special visitor came to our classroom. We had seen the chicks being born in Reception class and now we are meeting a hen !
In our growing topic we have enjoyed planting lots of seeds. We are observing these seeds closely to see what conditions they need to grow well.
PSHE
As part of our PSHE this term Y2 took part in the NatWest money sense day. As a class we discussed the difference between things that we need and things that we want. We had some fantastic discussion about how best to spend our money.
Spring Term 2
RE
“In the Eucharist we receive him as our life and food, a promise of the eternal banquet of heaven. At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that becomes in reality Christ’s Body and Blood. Catholic faith adores this enduring presence of Christ not only within the celebration of the Mass but also outside it.” Religious Education Curriculum Directory
Year 2 have learnt and reflected on the importance of the celebration of the Mass. They learnt about the readings at Mass and why we should listen to them, and also that at the Offertory we offer gifts to God. They will also appreciate that at the Consecration the bread and wine are changed into Jesus’ Body and Blood.
With the run up to Easter, we have also been talking about Holy Week and the events that take place. Year 2 enjoyed the Stations of the Cross led by Year 6 and also enjoyed creating some Easter art work as pictured below.
Maths
We started the term out by finishing off our unit on shape. We explored counting faces, vertices, and edges on 3D shapes. We then moved onto using our knowledge of tally and pictograms from our statistics topic, to help us to record data that was collected for our census celebrations. As a class we decided to count how many dogs, cats, cars and bikes we could see on a walk around Otley. We initially collected our data in the form of a tally chart, once we were back at school, we then collated that data into a pictogram. We then finished off the term by starting a new unit all about fractions. The children made some pizzas and we cut them into various fractions including halves, quarters and thirds.
English
As part of our DT project this term, the children have designed healthy sandwiches that would be part of a balanced diet. To link with this in English Year 2 have written recipes for these sandwiches. Our recipe writing journey has allowed us to explore using past and present tense, using words with suffixes -ful and -less and writing with bullet points. The children thoroughly enjoyed writing these recipes and got to use them to make their sandwiches at the end of the term.
We have also been exploring homophones and compound words, the children have worked in teams to match these words together.
Science
In the Spring term we have been studying a unit called Animals, including humans. The children have learnt that all animals have offspring which grow into adults, We have researched different animals and described the changes to animals as they grow. We also matched animals and their babies.
Next we found out about the basic needs of animals, including humans, for survival (water, food and air). We have talked about the ways that different animals meet their basic needs and we also had the chance to ask questions about our favourite pets and researched the answers.
We have enjoyed exploring healthy eating and described the importance for humans of eating the right amounts of different types of food. We have learnt the different food groups. The class have also investigated a food diary and used their observations and ideas to suggest improvements to their diet.
During Science Week we investigated mouldy bread and also enjoyed learning more about forces. We had a lot of fun flying a kite across the field to observe air resistance.
DT
This term in DT we transformed ourselves into healthy eating super stars and designed a sandwich that could be eaten as part of a balanced diet. We have learnt all about balanced diets and the types of food that belong in each food group. Again, using our prior knowledge of tally charts, we collected some data about people’s favourite sandwich fillings. Once the data was collected, we then presented these in the form of a bar chart. Now knowing popular sandwich fillings, the children set to work designing their sandwiches. Once they were designed, we then made the sandwiches, and the children were delighted to eat them once they got home. We then evaluated our sandwiches by thinking about what went well and what we could do to improve our designs.
Spring term 1
RE
In RE this term, we have been exploring miracles that Jesus performed, through this we have learnt that Jesus can change sadness into joy by reading the story of Jairus’ daughter. We have also learnt to always remember to thank Jesus for his help through the story of the ten people with leprosy. We have also discussed ways in which Jesus used his power to help others and reflect on the importance of these events (Jesus feeds the 5000). Our unit this term has allowed us to reflect on the miracles Jesus has performed and know that through these miracles Jesus was spreading the good news of God’s love to all.
Maths
We started this term off learning about multiplication and division. We started off this topic by recapping making equal groups and adding equal groups. We then moved on to put this knowledge into practice and started to use the multiplication symbol in multiplication sentences, use arrays and make doubles. Due to the children being fantastic at Times Table Rockstar’s they were all able to make the connection between making and adding equal groups to how we solve multiplication sentences.
The division section of our unit had us making equal groups, sharing them out and grouping them together. We then looked at dividing by 2, 5 and 10 and at the connection that odd and even numbers have with dividing.
We have also moved on to look at shape this term. Again, recapping on what they have previously been taught in year 1 we started by reminding ourselves of the names of 2D and 3D shapes. We have then gone on to explore properties of shape such as, how many sides and vertices shapes have. We have also covered lines of symmetry and the children have had ago drawing shapes with vertical lines of symmetry.
ENGLISH
This term in English the children have retold the story of the Tadpole’s Promise and created their own version. The children chose two characters to write into their stories. Throughout this unit of work, we have covered a wide range of grammar and punctuation skills. We have explored apostrophes and their many uses for example, to use one to contract two words together (e.g., do not – don’t). The children included dialog in their stories, so we looked at how to correctly use speech marks. The children have also included expanded noun phrases to describe in detail the setting of their stories.
We have also continued to work through year 2 spellings each week, I have seen an increase in the number of children receiving 10/10. This is fantastic to see and just goes to show all that hard work practising is paying off.
Science
In Science this term we have been identifying and discussing the uses of different everyday materials. We have become familiar with how some materials are used for more than one thing or that different materials are used for the same thing. We have investigated different materials that can be recycled. We investigated different types of recycling and found out how plastic and paper are recycled. Over the course of the term, we classified items made from different materials and recorded some of these items that we recycle at home. We also enjoyed learning about John McAdam, an inventor from Scotland who developed a useful new material and new process to build roads.
topic
We have explored and identified hot and cold places around the world. Using our newfound knowledge of the equator, we have been able to locate hot and cold countries and continents around the world. We can now describe features of a hot or cold place and explain how animals have adapted to live in a hot or cold place – we have produced some interesting fact files about a chosen country or continent alongside some very informative posters about a chosen animal and how they have adapted to live where they do. We know how to correctly pack for a hot or cold holiday.
Pshe
This term had us celebrating children’s mental health week, this year’s theme was ‘express yourself’. We have had discussed many ways in which we can express ourselves. We also recognise how wonderful it is that we are all different and that it is okay to express ourselves differently from our friends. We have also been able to express ourselves through dancing to some wonderful Disney songs as part of our PE.
Autumn term 2
RE
This term we have learnt to appreciate that there are many things about God, that we are not able to understand and these are called mysteries. We have explored that there are three persons within God and we can think about him in different ways. As December approached we discussed that Advent is a time to prepare for the birth of Jesus. Through the story of The Shepherds and The Three Wise Men, we were able to talk about Jesus coming for us all. We acted out the stories using simple words and actions.
Maths
This term we have moved on to adding and subtracting 2 digit numbers. We started with not crossing the 10’s and then moved onto crossing the 10’s as we built up our confidence. We used a range of methods within addition and subtraction, the hardest we found being column addition and subtraction.
Mrs Bates has taught us to recognise notes and coins, counting with notes and coins, and finding the difference between amounts. Alongside this she has taught us how to collect data using a tally chart.
English
This term we have been looking at a new book called ‘The Journey Home’. Throughout this unit of work we have learnt about the issues of conservation and explored whether we can escape the issues that our endangered animals face on a day-to-day basis. We had lots of fun creating informative fact files on endangered animals as well as writing short persuasive pieces on why we need to save a particular endangered animals.
Science
This term we have continued with our topic on living things and habitats. We have been focusing on habitats and had ago making mini beast and small creature habitats ensuring we have provide for the needs of living things. We enjoyed acting out food chains by playing a game of rabbits and foxes. The rabbits had to find food and shelter whilst the foxes had to chase them down their burrows.
Topic
History & Art
Our history this term has had us learning about different churches that we have in Otley. Our 3 chosen churches were Bridge Street Church, Our Lady and All Saints Church and All Saints Church (Otley parish church). We explored when they were built, the reasons behind them being built, and who donated the funds to build them. We also investigated the materials used to build the churches and learned about stained glass windows.
Using our Art skills and knowledge about the materials used to build the churches we explored ways in which we could replicate the brick work, and create our own stained glass window. We decided that printing gave off the most effective look and used collage to crate a stained glass window look.
PSHE
This term we have been learning about mental health and emotional wellbeing. This has included recognising who our VIP’s are and why they are so important to us. Understanding how to be a good friend, how to be a leader and how to have a growth mindset - we have explored ways of doing this using the 7 habits tree from our leader in me scheme of work.
We have also participated in voting for two representatives from year 2 to be part of the school council and also two representatives to be our healthy eating ambassadors. We were really excited to be able to participate in a democratic process.
Christmas
Christmas in school was extremely festive and we had lots of fun. All the children in Reception, Year 1 and of course ourselves all worked extremely hard to produce a very entertaining and fantastic nativity called ‘Lights Camel Action’. We also attended a fun filled Christmas party, enjoyed a jampacked games afternoon, became budding artists making Christmas crafts and calendars and of course we loved eating our yummy Christmas dinner.
Autumn Term 1
RE
In RE this term we have been thinking about how we are all chosen by God and given special gifts and how we can thank God for those gifts. Through this we have explored some stories including, The story of Baby Moses in the Nile we enjoyed acting out the story and were eager to read the story lines together. We have also listened to the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den and we had a class discussion about courage, bravery and trust. The final story we looked at was the story of God choosing Abraham we had a great time retelling the story using simple actions and phrases. Through this we are able to explain the importance of Abraham trusting God to guide him. Our unit this term has made us think about similarities between God’s chosen people and the way we live our lives.
Maths
We have been understanding place value, exploring money, addition and subtraction and statistics this term. We are able to identify ten’s and one’s within two digit numbers and represent numbers using a range of resources such as, base 10, numicon and 10 frames. We can also compare the value of numbers using inequality symbols.
We have also been busy practicing our times tables which include 2’s, 5’s, 10’s and 3’s. We have really enjoyed practising weekly with Times Tables Rockstar’s and are all working really had to reach the next level of fame!
English
At the beginning of September, we received a letter from one of the 3 little pigs asking us to write a leaflet to teach the towns folk about wolves. We have been busy determining which parts of the letter are fact and which are fiction. We have been using non fiction books to research information about wolves; we collected this information in the form of a spider diagram. Next, we have written up plans, edited them and finally written them up into a leaflet. We have sent off copies to the little pigs hoping that the towns folk will now be more informed for the future.
Science
In our unit, living things and their habitats, we have been exploring the differences between living and non-living things and the characteristics of living things. We also understand how living things are suited to their habitats and have thought about dependency and food chains.
Topic
We have been investigating Continents and Oceans in Geography this term, following Izzi on her adventure across the world as she shared her knowledge about the names of all the Continents and Oceans, where they are situated on the world map, which countries belong to which continents and which animals live in each Ocean.
PSHE
This term we have been looking at Physical health and wellbeing and answering the question: What keeps me healthy?
We have learnt about the importance of eating well, physical activity, sleep and rest. We have also talked about and identified people we have in our lives who help us to stay healthy and well and about basic health and hygiene routines. The children have produced some colourful 5-a-day rainbows and used them to choose what food we should eat at meal and snack times.
Homework and useful links
Spellings will be given on Mondays and the children will be tested the following Monday.
Reading books will be changed weekly on the day that your child has been allocated (Monday, Wednesday or Friday).
Homework will be given out on a Friday and expected back the following Friday. (Homework this term will be a combination of Maths or English tasks).
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