We’re so happy to meet you all and we hope you are excited about being in Year 2. We’ve got some exciting topics to learn about this year, including the Great Fire of London, Pirates and Florence Nightingale! Can you think of something you are looking forward to in Year 2?
Our first English topic is Fairy tales and we have just finished reading Snow White. Today, the children started writing a detailed version of the traditional tale, using stretchy nouns and lots of interesting sentence openers.
Can you remember any other fairy tales you know?
Who is your favourite fairy tale character?
The Great Fire of London
The children have been learning all about the Great Fire of London including how it began and where it happened. Last week, we learnt about what a timeline is by placing events in History. This week, we will be creating some London skylines with raging fire in the background by using oil pastels. We are also lucky enough to attend a drama workshop where the children reenacted the events leading up to the Great Fire and the fire itself!
Can you remember how many days the fire raged for?
We are learning all about different materials in Science this term. We have already sorted materials into different categories, like hard and soft, and tested which material is the most absorbent when mopping up some spilt water. This week, we will be using data loggers to measure how much light can get through different materials, testing their transparency.
Can you remember the scientific word for not letting any light through?
We have learnt so much about pirates this half term including recounting our own pirate journeys, learning about the pirate cruncher, and learning about some famous pirates! Here is 2KD performing our class assembly all about pirates.
Trips and performances
In order to prepare us for our pirate play, all of Year 2 went to see Pinocchio at the Albany theatre. Thank you to the parent volunteers who came along to help!
We also had a Road safety workshop to remind us how to use the Green Cross Code. 2KD are experts at singing the tune and remembering how to keep safe on the roads!
We ended the year with our fantastic pirate play. All of Year 2 worked extremely hard to create a brilliant performance. Thank you for all the support we had with costumes and line practising, it made a huge difference!
Our topic for science this half term has been plants. The children have learnt the parts of a plant and observed and categorised different seeds. We have also completed an investigation to find out the best conditions for plants to germinate. We planted a sweet pea seed in 6 different containers and put them under different conditions including one in the freezer!
Here are some pictures from our ‘Science Week’ when we made a rocket launcher and a lava lamp!
This term, we have started using a range of methods to solve number and measurement problems. The children have been practising methods we have learnt like addition and subtraction on a blank number line but are now able to self select which method would be appropriate to use. They have also been practising their reasoning skills and can tell me how they have found the answer. They are now experts at proving me wrong!
Our topic this term has been Famous Faces and we have focused on one in particular; Florence Nightingale. We have learnt about where she grew up, how she became interested in nursing, and her influence in Scutari Hospital during the Crimean War. We have been using our enquiry skills in history to understand historical artefacts and photographs and we were lucky enough to have a workshop where we got to look at and touch some objects from the past and guess what they were.
Our topic this term has been woodland animals, focusing on NOCTURNAL animals. We read the story of ‘The Owl Who was Afraid of the Dark’ and retold our own stories. My favourite was about Zip the Fox who was afraid of the dark! We have also been writing some non-chronological reports. We wrote one all about bats and one about foxes, learning what these animals look like, what eat, where they live and what they sound like. Here are some pictures from our interesting woodland workshop!
Here are 2KD during their hip hop dance workshop last week. Look at their moves! We have been learning how to improve our agility this half term and the children have been practising a range of skills. We have now started passing back and forth using under arm throws, bouncing balls to each other and starting to use a racket to pass.
As we are nearing the Easter holidays, we have been learning about Christianity as a religion. Today, we sequenced the events of the Easter story, designed our own Easter eggs and learnt where the tradition came from and had our own Last Supper! We are lucky enough to be visiting St. Faith’s Church this afternoon to learn more about the features of a church and why we celebrate Easter.
Because our topic was to do with nature, we have spent a lot of time this half term exploring the nature garden. The children have spotted many different habitats and even some of the animals that live there! Here are some pictures from our adventures.
Our summer term has been filled with lots of fun activities and learning about our carnival topic; ‘Plastic is not fantastic’. Here are some pictures from the term so far…
In our English lessons this term, we have read a variety of different books inclusing Rosie Revere, Engineer, the Lorax and The Pea and the Princess. For our first topic, Rosie Revere, Engineer, we learnt all about engineering bridges. The children designed their own bridges and then compared them to a real moving bridge on our visit to Tower Bridge in London. Here are some pictures from the trip.
For our Healthy Week, we learnt all about how to keep our bodies and minds healthy. We were lucky enough to have a visit from a mindfulness expert and we made a plant-based snack in our Masterchef competition. Here are some pictures from the Daily Mile we took part in, along with millions of other children around the UK!