Summer 2

Collective Worship

During out collective worship today we have made links to our RE lesson and some important stories from the Bible. Our statement of the week this week is-

We had a discussion about what we do as Christians if someone is in trouble. The children came up with some thoughtful answers and some children decided to add ways in which they would help someone if they are in trouble. We then had a discussion about any Bible stories they knew when someone was in trouble. The children came up with the story of the Good Samaritan. We read the story from the Bible, and we also listened to alternative story too. If you would like to listen to the story at home here it is for you…

Here are some of the children’s thoughts how how they would help someone who is in trouble, and look after all their neighbors, no matter who they are.

During our RE and collective worship lesson today, we learnt about what the British Values are and unpicked each of the values in groups. We learnt about how we can live our lives through the British Values. We learnt that the British Values are- The Rule of Law, Democracy, Individual Liberty, Mutual respect and Tolerance for those with different faiths and those without faith. We split into teams and looked at cards with each British Value on. The children worked together in their teams to think of examples of how they can live out the value. The children then created a poster to explain what the British Values are and that they can use as a reference as they move into Year 3 where they will extend their knowledge about each of the British values.

RE

Our topic this half-term is ‘The Church is Born.’ We have started our half term off by learning how we can share the Good News of the amazing things that Jesus did, and recapping on some of the Bible stories that we have learnt this year, making some links back to Year 1 and Reception. We wrote letters and postcards to a friend to tell them about all the fantastic things that Jesus did and how he sacrificed his life for us. We also thought about the Holy Spirt, and how it helps us to live in Jesus’s footsteps. Here are some examples from our RE lesson today of what we got up to!

This week we have also started to learn about other faiths around the world and also right here in Leeds. We will be focusing on Hinduism over the next few weeks and looking at how Hindus pray and celebrate. The children created questions about what thy wanted to find out about the Hindu faith. We then shared a video as a class to explore where Hindu’s go to worship and also some important symbols of the Hinduism faith. I am really proud of the children’s wonder about Hinduism in todays lesson and the children even had a go at drawing some Hindu symbols, and telling me they are going home to find out more! Fantastic learning from team Year 2!

Today in our RE lesson we learn about the start of Christianity. We discussed what it was like to be a Christian hundreds of years ago. We also talked about what we thought the role of a Christian is. The children created a group sider diagram with some ideas about what the role of a Christian is. Some of the things the children said were; they should care for people who are sick, give things to charity, treat everyone the same and be role models to other people. They then drew a portrait of themselves and we joined them together to represent that we are all part of God’s Family.

During our RE lesson this week we learnt about the story of Peter escaping from Jail. We watched a video of the story, read the story in the Bible and then retold the story through drama. We also then created cartoon strips of the story and some children wrote a diary entry as Peter in jail. The children were really engaged in the story, and it was a nice way to end our RE learning in Year 2.

English

This half term the books that we are using as our stimulus are Hetty’s Unicorn and The Castle Adventure. We will start off by getting to know the story “Hetty’s Unicorn’ and the vocabulary used in the the story. We are planning to have lots of creative fun – character descriptions, setting descriptions, hot seating, role playing and writing diary entries from the viewpoint of the characters! We will build up our skills of story writing and how to plan and create the parts of a story, including suspense (the most exciting part of a story!) Then, we hope to produce some wonderful stories!

We are having a huge focus on handwriting – so far we are enjoying forming our cursive letters and continuous cursive (joined) letters in a variety of ways – chalk, sand, in the air, on someone else’s back, on our hands, on whiteboards and, of course, we are trying to apply this lifelong skill into our English and non-core subject books, whenever we do writing.

We have also been focusing on spellings. We had a very fun and active Burn to Learn lesson, where worked in groups to collect words from around the field and woods. We showed good resilience to sort them, with some disagreements, into correct and incorrect spellings. When we got inside, we quizzed a friend on our spellings and then wrote a bank of spellings in our book that will really help us with our story writing.

We built on our spelling and handwriting work, by pulling objects out of a bag and writing descriptions of them. We had a unicorn, a rainbow wand, a magic padlock with a tiny key and an invisibility cloak. Year 2’s descriptions were amazing and showed wonderful imaginations – we can’t wait to read their full stories! We applied our spelling work, making sure we looked up words we were unsure of in dictionaries and if we were unsure of how to form certain letters, we went to our new coloured sand tray in the classroom, practised in sand and then ensured we formed the letters correctly in our English books. All of this demonstrates Year 2’s drive to improve, listen to feedback and ensure they build and refine lifelong skills.

We have started our English lessons off this week by listening to the story of Hetty and the Unicorn again. Whilst the children were listening to the story they thought about questions that would like to ask Hetty about her adventures. They had some super questions and it was great to see the children remembering how to use a question mark. We then moved onto thinking about John and Hetty’s adventure into the woods. We thought about what might have happened on the adventure. As a class, we created a group diary entry of Hetty’s adventure. The children then got into groups and shared ideas to create the next part to our class diary entry as Hetty!

Today in our English lesson we re read the story of Hetty’s Unicorn. As we read the story, we started to unpick the different parts to the story. We learnt how to add the features of a story to a story mountain as a class. We took parts of the story and added to it to the right part of our class story mountain. We then split into teams and created our own story mountain, using the features of the story. The children then took turns to share their story mountains with the class, describing the different parts to the story.

Wow! Year 2 have blown us away with their wonderful drama and freeze framing! They have the most creative minds and wonderful imaginations. We were learning about how to create suspense in a story and used our suspense toolkit to understand how to do this;

Isolate your character in a scary setting
Make your character see or hear something scary
Describe the threat and show your characters reaction
Use dramatic connectives like “suddenly”
Make your character escape!

In the drama part of this lesson, Year 2 created some amazing, imaginative sequences. The children really got into character – we had deep, dark scary woods, a fierce pig, trees that came alive, zombies and ghosts! Here are some of our freeze frames:

Then we went on to draw our story maps of the suspense section of a story, and write that part too with amazing written language from the children.

Maths

Today we have kick started our Maths learning journey by learning lots of vocabulary linked to movement During our math’s lesson we learnt how to move in different directions and applied our skills in different game situations. We learnt how to move forwards, backwards, left, right, half turn and quarter turn. We took our lesson outside and played a game of directing a knight around the castle to get to the treasure. We then split into groups and applied our movement language in a game of sharks and treasure. At the end of the lesson, we got into partners and directed our friend to an x marks the spot on the field to consolidate our movement lesson and use for movement vocabulary.

We have revisited subtraction too. We had word problems and we had to work out the number sentence, use any method to work it our (or any resources) and make sure we wrote the correct unit. This took a lot of problem solving but we got there in the end!

This week we have started our learning journey all about time! Today in our maths lesson we learnt how to tell the time to O’clock and half past the hour. We made our own clock and counted in five-minute intervals around our clocks. We recapped what the minute hand and hour hand are and added them to our clock. We then took our clocks outside and played to match the time to the clock. We also found the times on the clocks we made too. As a challenge at the end of the lesson, we had the opportunity to answer some O’clock and half past the hour word problem questions and found the answers on our clocks.

We built on our maths learning about time. This maths session was fun and active and we played a game of hide and seek clocks. All the times were quarter past and quarter to, which are tricky times to read but instead of giving up, we kept on trying – showing our resilience! After we found all the clocks, we quizzed a friend on reading the times.

We have continued our journey with time today and solved some time problems. The children used their highlighters to pick out important information in their word problems and then worked with a partner to solve the problem. There was some great persevering as some of the questions were really tricky and it was great to see the children using their knowledge from last week to solve the problems. Great problem solving Year 2!

We are focusing on learning the lifelong skill of telling the time. We have been using our number knowledge to estimate how many different actions we could do in 10 seconds, 1 minute and 5 minutes. It was a very active Burn 2 Learn lesson – we did 1 minute of star jumps, 10 seconds of claps and we also linked this to our English learning, particularly our handwriting, and estimated and counted how many times we could write the alphabet in 5 minutes.

In maths this week we have been learning about how to measure in milliliters. We have set a challenge for the children to do at home over the week! We would like them to find different containers, make predictions in millilitres about the capacity of the container and then measure! We look forward to hearing all about your challenge at home over the week! Happy measuring!

We have also been comparing volume and using the language of capacity. The children were very active in this lesson. They loved having a fun, practical lesson so we could cement their understanding of various words and language. They also practised their reasoning skills, they were set a challenge to have a race with a friend to fill up a 2 identical containers – one person had a spoon, the other a cup. Some very good predictions came out before hand and we talked about why the person with the spoon always lost the race! Some of us were so competitive, we just dunked the water under the water to fill it up the quickest!

Today we finished our maths learning journey with Mrs Hemming by completing maths challenges down in the woods. The children has some tricky challenges and they had to apply all the skills that they have learnt in Year 2. After our maths challenge, the children designed a den for Bear Grylls linking back to one of their favorite topics in Year 2. The children blew me away with their design and team work when they created the dens! Bear Grylls would be impressed!

Science

In Science this half term, we are going to be learning all about sound and hearing, seasonal changes and forces and magnets – it’s going to be a busy half term! We are going to do lots of experimenting and focus our efforts on presenting our findings in different ways, linked to our English and Maths skills.

We went on a listening walk, we chose three different locations around in the school grounds – the field, the woods and near Foundation Stage play area. Linking into to our maths learning on time, we timed 1 minute using a stop watch on the iPad and discussed all the sounds we could hear. Again, to link with our maths learning, we presented the information in bar chart. We then learned about how we hear and how amazing the ear mechanisms are.

We have moved on to build on prior learning of the rotation of the Earth around the sun. We have been learning about how the Earth tilts towards the sun, and how this creates the seasons that we experience in the Northern Hemisphere. We had an active Burn to Learn session, where we worked in pairs to pretend to be the Sun and the Earth! We then used our cutting and folding skills to make a visual aid that shows the placement of the Earth during each season.

Seasonal changes

Year 2 have been revisiting seasonal changes, linking with their English skill of presenting information using bullet points. We had a fun, creative time where we enjoyed learning the Seasons Song (and having a sing and dance), and then we wrote notes and drew pictures on whiteboards whilst listening to the song – learning some key information about Seasons in a creative way. We then transferred this information on to a Science poster, making sure we presented the key information in bullet points. Year 2 are showing their desire to always present their writing to the neatest of their ability, across all work. Great job Year 2!

Art

We are going to have so much fun in Art this half term! Firstly, we will learn to weave with paper to make a Castle Tapestry. Then, we will focus on Sculpture and learn several different techniques of rolling and using paper to create various sculptures – of a castle and an Olympic Torch! After that, we will learn to use a dip dye technique to make an Olympic t-shirt!

Plan – Weaving

We looked at all different ways you can weave and the materials you can use – natural like leaves and twigs, wool, paper, card, old bits of material, rubbish you might find on a beach. We also looked at the ways in which we can weave and different scales.

Do – Weaving

Wow! The children have really impressed us this week with their resilience and perseverance whilst learning how to weave with paper. We linked this into basic DT skills of folding accurately, drawing straight lines with a ruler and cutting accurately to create our weaving boards. Some of us cut the paper the wrong way up, but instead of giving up or getting frustrated, we started again and kept trying until we were happy with our result. The children were active in choosing resources for their weaving, and selected their own colours of paper. The next part was really fiddly and again the children were really resilient and showed great team work to help out their peers when they noticed they were finding it harder. The finished result of our weaving tapestries are so beautiful and individual.

We have now turned out weaving into castle shields! We had to use more DT skills in our Art lesson – drawing around a template, cutting accurately, attaching securely with glue and sellotape and making paper hooks.

Review – Weaving

The children reviewed their own and each other’s work. They were very honest about what they need to improve on and how they could get better at weaving. The shields are all so individual and the children were very impressed with their own and others’ shields!

Plan – Sculpture

We have moved on to Sculpture, using rolled up paper. The children planned out their Olympic torch and specifically thought about how and where they would use rolled up paper. This was the art skill we were practising.

Do – Sculpture

Linking with History, Geography and DT, the children used made paper sculptures using rolled up paper. First, they had to carefully cut out their torch, next they had to decorate it, then they had to make the flames. The one requirement was to practise rolling up paper to create a sculpture – but they could also use a variety of other techniques to make the flames. The children’s art work is so individual and creative. We love it!

Review – Sculpture

The children reviewed their learning and filled in an evaluation.

Computing

In Computing, we are going to be learning the importance of keeping safe online. We have already touched on this earlier in the year but we feel it is an important message that needs revisiting time after time. To begin our learning about this, we are going to have an Internet Safety Talk by a special guest – an Online Safety Officer.

We have been learning all about being kind online and learning how to keep ourselves safe. We have been thinking carefully about different scenarios and what we would do – the main message we learnt was STOP, BLOCK, TELL if anything makes us feel uncomfortable. The children understood this message and approached this with maturity.

During our computing lesson today we had a very special guest, Sarah Lynch! She came to talk to us about how to stay safe online. Year 2 were fantastic with their answers and asked her some wonderful questions. Here are some of the topics that we discussed today-

What is the Internet? ·
Who are my friends online? ·
Who should I chat to online? ·
What should I share?
Who can I chat to online?
Being kind online
Online Games, am I safe? ·
Who do I tell that I am upset?

We hope the children come home and share some of the things that they learnt today, and if you could reinforce some of their learning from today at home, that would be an added bonus!

Geography and History

This half term our Geography curriculum is linked to our topic Medieval Britain.

We have started our topic today be telling each other everything we already know about castles. The children were asked to draw a picture of what they thought a castle looked like and then create questions about what they want to learn about Medieval Britain. We have put the pictures and questions together in a book, and we will add to our book as we go on our Medieval adventure, adding lots of facts along the way! Watch this space!

To end our History lesson, we made links back to our learning before the holidays about the Industrial revolution and how this has shaped the country that we live in today. We took a virtual tour of Leeds to see what it was like after the Industrial revolution, and how Leeds has transformed. As a team, we looked at a selection of pictures of Leeds. We put them into a now and then table, and created bullet points to describe how Leeds has changed. We then looked at important landmarks in Leeds that Mrs Hemming had taken pictures off and located them on a map. For our final activity, we chose a landmark from Leeds, googled it on the IPAD and then sketched a picture of it applying our art skills.

In our History lesson today we have learnt about castles around the British Isles and located some of them on a map of Britain. The children then chose a castle from Britain and researched the castle on the IPAD. They then presented their facts, and sketched a picture of their chosen British castle. We had a great selection of British Castles by the end of the lesson and lots of interesting facts! We are now ready to learn about the parts of a castle next week!

Today in our History lesson we followed the Children’s interests and learnt about the History of the Kings and Queens of England. We learnt about their reign and made links back to periods of history that we have learnt in Year 1 and Year 2. We then worked as a team to order the Kings and Queens of England on a time line, using our class time line of periods of History we have studied. After creating a time line, we choose a King or Queen to research and created some facts about them! Our final challenge of the afternoon was to imagine we were the King or Queen for the day and what we would do! Such a busy afternoon but we enjoyed learning about the history of the Monarchy.

Trip to Spofforth Castle.

We had the best time on our trip today! We loved exploring the castle and learned lots of facts about it from the information boards. We had fun pretending to be servants preparing food! We explored the inside of the castle – all the little secret rooms and we tried to imagine what it would have been like before it was partially destroyed. Year 2 behaved exceptionally well and enjoyed being with each other, exploring, having snack and playing games!

Music

In Music, our focus will be on creating compositions. We will plan them out, using symbols, then use our plans to perform!

Year 2 have been very busy, and active in selecting their resources, to plan out compositions. They have been working in pairs, using the lifelong skill of listening to each other’s ideas, to plan a composition using body percussion. The children were also practising their fine motor skills, to cut out pictures to represent the action in their composition. The children showed they really enjoyed their music. We can’t wait to hear their performances next week.

PE

Today we started our PE learning journey by recapping some throwing and catching skills and also taking part in some team games. It was great to see how much progress the children have made with their throwing and catching skills. We ended the session with a game of hot potato. We added a few hot potatoes to the game to increase the challenge! A great end to a successful PE lesson in the sun.

In PE, we love being active and working with our PE Partner. We have been learning about the importance of warming up before exercise and practised rotating different parts of our body, whilst moving around. We rotated our hips, shoulders, knees, arms and heads! It was a fun experience!

PSHE

In PSHE, we will be learning about a couple of NSPCC campaigns – aimed to keep all children safe. The first one is Pants are Private and the second one is Speak Out, Stay Safe. You can read more about the very important messages that they give at the www.nspcc.org.uk. Later in the half term, linked to our Mini Olympics week, we will be finding out the importance of making sure we have at least 60 active minutes per day!

Pants are Private.

We have been revisiting the important NSPCC message of Pants are Private. The children were active in this lesson – we sang our Pantosaurus song and decorated some pants, whilst discussing the important messages of the NSPCC campaign. This also linked to our fine motor DT skills of careful colouring within the lines and cutting out accurately.

Refugee Week 2021

Year 2 have shown a lot of sensitivity towards this topic this week. They have learned about Refugee week, what a refugee is and they have shown how kind they are and how they can think about other people’s needs and feelings. We linked this important message to our guided reading, and completed a comprehension activity about Refugee Week. We tried to imagine how refugees would feel and we decided that we must pray for others that are so much less fortunate than ourselves. You can see from our faces in the picture below that we took the message very seriously.

NSPCC Speak Out, Stay Safe

We have been learning all about the NSPCC’s campaign called Speak Out, Stay Safe – a very important message. We watched an online assembly with Ant and Dec in it! The main messages were how to keep ourselves safe and if we do not feel safe, to talk to a trusted adult.

Drowning Prevention and Water Safety.

We revisited the important messages of Water Safety. We talked about how to keep ourselves and others safe in open water such as rivers, lakes, lidos and the sea as well as in swimming pools. We designed posters to make sure we fully understood the message.

Thank you Year 2

It is coming to the end our time in Year 2 where we have to say bye to our wonderful children. We are proud of every single one of the children in Year 2, and the resilience they have shown to their learning through another year of Covid-19 restrictions. It has been an absolute pleasure teaching your children this year and they have made our jobs very easy! You are all truly amazing! Thank you for all your hard work and the memories you have given us this year. We hope you all have a wonderful summer, and a well deserved rest!

Love Mrs Hemming, Mrs Baranyai and Mrs Harris xxxxx