Class of 2021/22
In Year 2, we have 30 brilliant children who are all kind, caring and loving. We love to learn and find out new things. We have lots of different and unique talents that make us an extremely interesting bunch of people.
Our teacher is Mrs Holmes, and our teaching assistant is Mrs Deyes
Homework and useful links
Spellings will be given on Friday and the children will be tested the following Friday.
Reading books will be changed as and when needed through the week. We encourage you to listen to your child reading at least 3 times a week. We will be hold a reading raffle each Friday. Your child will receive a raffle ticket every time they have read at home and their reading record is signed.
Homework will be given out on a Friday and is to be returned by the following Wednesday. (Homework this term will be a combination of Maths or English tasks).
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https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources
Spring 1
English
In English, we have been enjoying our new text 'Orion and the Dark'. We started by looking at a word cloud with words taken from the blurb and made predictions about what we thought the book might be about. We then discovered Orion, the boy in the story, is scared of lots of different things. We used commas in a list when writing the different things, he was scared of. We then gave a lot of thought about improving the adjectives we use. First of all we took 4 words which were synonyms for the word scared. We then discussed how we can order then thinking about their intensity. After that we took a word wheel and placed 4 different adjectives in the middle. We then used Thesauruses to help up improve each of the words. Finally, we used some of the words in sentences. Some people even included conjunctions to join their sentences! We then moved on to look at the structure of the story 'Orion and the Dark' . We talked about how the story has a beginning, middle and end and the events at each point. We then worked in pairs to plot this on a story ladder. After that, we discussed the other fears of Orion and thought about how we could make up our own stories about Orion. We then planned our own ideas on a story ladder.
Maths
Year 2 have been practising recognising coins and then counting different amounts in pounds and pence. We realised that our multiples of 2, 5 and 10 can help us when counting groups of coins. We have been practising selecting the correct money, comparing totals, and making amounts in a variety of different ways. We are all gaining confidence in our knowledge of the coins and finding totals. We have been finding the difference by using different methods such as using a number-line to count on and back. We thought about how this could help us when working out the correct change. Finally, we put our skills and knowledge to the test by solving two-step problems.
As part of the NSPCC Number Day, we had a fabulous discussion about money and planned how to set up a smoothie shop. We had to budget and be very careful not to overspend!
RE
Our theme for this half term is Good News People. We learnt about Jesus as a young boy and how Mary and Joseph thought he was lost. Jesus had been talking to the religious leaders in the temple. We gave a lot of thought about how Mary and Joseph might have felt when they did not know where Jesus was and how they felt when he was found. Year 2 have also given a lot of thought into how Jesus was a Good News person, how he helped others. We then reflected on how we can be Good News people too by helping others and discussed how this can be sometimes difficult.
Autumn 2
English
In English, we were very excited to hear from Ernie Arbuckle again. He was being very secretive though! He sent us some envelopes with some sections cut out. Inside was a cover for a book. We had to write down what we could see and ask questions about what we would like to find out. It was a great way to develop our prediction skills. We then had a big reveal to find out what the book was. It is called 'Snow Child' and we all enjoyed listening to it and making predictions about what will happen.
Maths
In Maths, we continued to work hard with adding a 2-digit and 1-digit numbers. We are getting good at making groups of ten ones and exchanging them for one ten. We used base ten to help us with this and began to practise recording it in our books.
We have also been practising subtracting two 2-digit numbers (crossing 10). We have continued to use our base ten to support us with this and to help develop our understanding of exchanging 1 ten for 10 ones.
RE
In RE, we all thought very carefully about Big Questions that only God might have the answer to. We thoughtfully shared our ideas and wondered a lot of interesting things. When we asked why Mrs Holmes was born, Eric thought that Gods plan for her was to be a teacher.
We have also been learning about the Holy Trinity. We discussed how one person can be a sister, a daughter and a niece, just as God can be three in one: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We also enjoyed learning the Glory Be prayer.
Science
This half term we have been learning about materials and why they are chosen to make different things. We started by looking at the different properties and worked in groups to label items in our classroom.
We then continued to investigate the properties of materials. We wanted to find out if we could change the properties of a piece of fabric. We carried out an investigation by putting drops of water on a piece of fabric and found out that it was absorbent. We then covered a piece of the same fabric with wax and carefully heated it with a hairdryer. We then added water to this. We were delighted to find that the fabric was now waterproof!
Design and Technology
As part of our Design and Technology work, we designed our chairs for baby bear. We thought about all the different features we could include and how to make our chairs strong and stable. We then went on to make our chairs. We learnt how to attach our cylindrical legs to our seats and make a backrest for the chair. We all worked hard and helped each other to create our chairs. We are now thinking about extra features such as arm rests and leg supports.
Autumn 1
English
Year 2 have been enjoying the book ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’ by Julia Donaldson. We ordered the events in the story, drawing a story map and retold the story using actions. We have all been working hard to remember to use capital letters at the start of a sentence. We then focused on different sentence types. We have sorted sentences into statements, questions and exclamations and have written some of our own examples. We have also been thinking about how to describe the characters feeling by using show don't tell. We then focused on nouns and adjectives. We practised sorting nouns into group and then spotting nouns in sentences. We then discussed how we can use adjectives to describe a noun. We used adjectives to describe the characters from our text and came up with some fabulous ideas.
We have planned diary entries by imagining what the old lady in 'A Squash and a Squeeze' would write in her diary about her day. We used our previous work on thoughts, feeling and the use of adjectives to support us in our planning. We wrote our fabulous diary entries
Maths
This half term, we have been developing our understand of numbers to 50. We have looked at different ways to represent numbers using Numicon, Base Ten and Ten frames. We have been looking carefully at the number of tens and the number of ones and remembering that the tens number comes before the ones when writing it down. We have been partitioning numbers using part-whole models with tens and ones counters to make a number and split it into two parts. The children are really beginning to grasp how a number can be partitioned into lots of different ways.
We then moved on to practise using place-value charts to record numbers. We had to think carefully about where the tens and ones needed to be. We then used the symbols < > and = to compare objects and numbers.
Year 2 then started to put their place value knowledge to support our understanding of addition and subtraction. We have started by focusing on fact families and knowing that a part plus a part makes a whole and whole subtract a part makes a part. We have been using part whole models and bar models to support us with our learning,
RE
This half term, we have enjoyed leaning about the promises God made. We listened to and retold the stories of Abraham, the early life of Moses and Daniel and the Lions. We learnt that the people that God chose were both faithful and brave. We all enjoyed using Drama, group discussion and artwork to develop our understanding and to reflect on what we can learn from Abraham and Daniel.
History
Year 2 have enjoyed learning about the explorers Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Matthew Henson.
We started our topic by looking at an old picture of a group of explorers in the South Pole. We thought about what we could see in the photograph. We discussed with our partners about what we thought was happening in the picture and then came up with some questions we would like to ask to find out more. We then learnt about Robert Scott's fateful expedition to the Antarctic and his race to the South Pole. We found out that he encountered many problems and that was just on the boat journey there! We were disappointed for him when we found out that another explorer, Amundsen, had beaten Scott to reach the South Pole!
We then enjoyed learning about the explorer Matthew Henson. Matthew was an African American who in 1909 was one of the first people to ever reach the North Pole along with Robert Peary. We learnt that he was a determined person because even though people thought that he would not be able to achieve his explorations he didn’t let it stop him.
Joseph C thought that “Matthew Henson was forgotten because people didn't treat black people equally so they said that Robert Peary was the first one to reach the North Pole.”
Matthew Henson - Explorer
Science
This half term we have been finding out about living things and their habitats. We started by discussing how we know if a thing is living, dead or never been alive. We looked at the life processes and then sorted different objects into the three groups. As part of our Science work, we went on a minibeast hunt and thought about the microhabitats they live in. We found lots of woodlice in dark, damp woody places and spiders in cool dark dry places. We discussed why this might be. We then moved on to look at where animals (including humans) food comes from. We discussed the processes food needs to go through in order to get to our plate. We followed the humble potato from the field to factory to finally becoming a bag of crisps in the supermarket!
