Welcome to Year 2!

PE Days

In Year 2 we have two PE sessions a week:

Maple Class will be doing PE on Wednesday mornings and Friday afternoons.

Holly Class will be doing PE on Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons.

Please come to school dressed in your school uniform PE kit on these days. Thank you.

Year 2 Curriculum Maps

These Curriculum Maps give a quick overview of the learning we will be doing each term during Year 2:

Useful Information About Year 2

Please click on the document below which was shared at our Year 2 Meet and Greet on Wednesday 20^th September 2023. It explains what we are learning, what expectations we have in Year 2 and reminders about attendance, and things your child needs for school.

You can also find the PowerPoint with all the information shared during our Meeting on Thursday 1st February 2024 about Year 2 Reading and Writing Expectations below.

Look at all the Great English Texts we Explore in Year 2

In Year 2 we really love reading a variety of books. Here are the books we have explored in our English lessons so far:

Here are some quotes by Year 2 children about the books we have been learning about in English:

The Queen’s Handbag by Steve Antony

“I liked it when the sneaky swan snatched the Queen’s handbag because he was very cheeky.” – Grace

“I liked the ending because when the Queen caught the swan she was so happy.” – Yussef

The Adventures of Egg Box Dragon by Richard Adams and Alex T. Smith

“I liked when Egg Box Dragon becomes real because he can help people and he helped the Queen get her crown jewels back that are special.” - Maisie

“I liked it when the girl made Egg Box Dragon because she is really creative and imaginative.” – Willow

Wild by Emily Hughes

“I liked the ending of Wild because she got to stay in the Wild at the end because I didn’t like it earlier in the book when the two men took her to the city because she didn’t belong there.” – Charlotte

“I liked the ending because the girl called Wild went back to her own place in the forest.” – Karolina

The Diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine

“It was so funny at the end because the next door neighbour kept saying about her rabbit in the story, and we knew what had really happened. It made me laugh so much.” – Luna

I couldn’t stop laughing at the bit when the Dad goes out at night dressed like a cat burglar to put Thumper the rabbit back in the hutch next door.” – Thomas

“I loved the story and really liked the character Tuffy because he was really cheeky, a  little bit naughty and very funny.” - Nevaeh

We also enjoy sharing a variety of books during our whole class storytime, from A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond, to Roald Dahl stories like James and the Giant Peach.

Year 2 Learning In Action!

Take a look at some of the photos showing the different learning happening in Year 2 this year.

Design and Technology – Puppets of People Who Stood Up for What they Believe in

We are so proud of the puppets we have designed and made. Our design and technology brief was to design and make a puppet of a person who has stood up for what they believe in so that we can use the puppets to tell the story of that person’s life. First we had to decide who we wanted our puppet to be, draw our design and think about what features to include. To make our puppets we had to sew our two hand parts together then cut out and stick on pieces of fabric, felt, googly eyes and other bits of decoration to make our puppets look like the person we wanted them to be. We couldn’t believe how fantastic they looked at the end!

English – Reading our Class Texts with Partners

We really enjoy exploring books in detail in our English lessons and working with our partners to read the texts, developing our decoding and fluency skills. We are using our storyteller voices with great effect to read the stories aloud, using lots of expression, particularly when we see the font get bigger, or the use of italics.

Design and Technology – Indian Fruit Salads

We had a lot of fun designing and making our own Indian fruit salads, which meant picking the fruit we wished to include and using condensed milk, which is often used in Indian fruit salads, to make them sweet, slightly creamy and custardy. We had to practise, using wooden cutlery and playdough, our food preparation skills to ensure we could use the knives safely to cut the fruit using the claw grip and bridge technique to hold the fruit safely as we cut it up. Once we had practised this skill, we made our own Indian fruit salads which we got to eat.

Geography and PE  – Indian Dance Workshop

As part of our Geography study learning and comparing India to the United Kingdom, we not only learnt about the climate, seasons, physical and human features but also about the culture and life in India. As part of this work, we had an extra special PE lesson where we had the opportunity to learn from a dance teacher how to dance in an Indian style. We got to dress up in brightly coloured tunics and wear bells on our wrists. We shared our performance with the rest of the school during our assembly at the end of the day.

World Book Day

On World Book Day we loved dressing up as book characters from some of our favourite books, and as colours related to the emotions and feelings of the Colour Monster from the book by Anna Llenas. We enjoyed lots of book related activities such as making story spoon puppets of our favourite characters, write about our favourite books, colour in a whole school big outline on the playground of the Colour Monster, and vote for our favourite type of books – fiction or non-fiction.

Science  – Engineering Project: Creating Solar Ovens

In Science we explored how engineers use science to design and make prototypes of technology to solve problems. We were engineers who were working to solve the problem of cooking chocolate without using gas, electricity or flames. We looked at different sources of heat and decided to use the sun to help us cook and melt the chocolate. We then looked at existing solar ovens and used these to help inspire us as we designed our own solar ovens. We then made prototypes of our designs which we tested – although unfortunately, the sun wasn’t strong enough to melt the chocolate as we hoped!

Computing – Programming Blue-Bot Robots Around the Great Fire of London

We really enjoyed exploring Programming using the Blue-Bot Robots, around a grid that shows the Great Fire of London.  We learnt how to create our own algorithms which we entered into the Blue-Bots using the buttons. We had to carefully plan our routes and algorithms to ensure that the Blue-Bot did not go in any of the grid squares that had an obstacle. We tested our algorithms to see if they would work. If they didn’t go according to plan, we then debugged our algorithms, making changes and corrections which we then tested again.

Science – Which material would make the best bridge?

During Autumn Term we have been learning and investigating materials and their properties. We have used our knowledge of different materials and their properties to investigate which materials would make the best, strongest bridge. We then designed, made and tested our bridges to see how strong they were and whether they were capable of staying up without collapsing as we added weight to the bridges. Here are some photos of our investigations:

Christmas

We were very lucky children as Father Christmas made a special visit to our school to check how we were doing and to deliver Christmas presents. Father Christmas knows how hard we are working on our reading and how important reading is, so he kindly brought a story book for each child.

Art – Making Sculptures in the Style of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore

We really enjoyed exploring the art of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. We first explored the many different sculptures they made and we learnt that they were abstract sculptures which often had smooth, curved surfaces. We then had a go at sketching and designing our own sculptures before having a go at making them. Here are a few photos of us making our Henry Moore sculptures and our final Barbara Hepworth sculptures.

Stagecoach Workshop on Value of Kindness

In the Autumn term we worked with Stagecoach. First we explored how to work together as a team and follow instructions by playing parachute games. Then we moved onto our main activity - to learn a dance to the song Top of the World from the movie Lyle Lyle Crocodile to help us remember the importance of our value this term about kindness. We really enjoyed working with Stagecoach and were very proud of our efforts learning the dance.

Design and Technology – Wheels and Axles

In Year 2 we have revisited how we are designing for a purpose and that our designs and end products need to meet this purpose. In Autumn Term the purpose was to design and make a carriage for the King’s jack Russell terrier dog who is fed up of being too small to look out of the King’s carriage and wants a carriage of its own. First, we investigated different examples of the wheels and axles mechanism before designing our vehicles. We then practised using the tools we are going to need to make our carriages like using a hacksaw safely in preparation for cutting the wooden dowel axles, and practised using scissors safely too. Then we made our carriages. Here are photos showing us in action through the making process and some of our final end products.

Computing – Digital Texts

In the Autumn Term we have been learning how to type to create our own digital texts. First we had to become familiar with the keyboard on the Chromebooks. We played games like 2Type on Purple Mash to help us get quicker at spotting the different letter keys. Then we used our developing typing skills to type our own digital texts. We had to learn how to save our work so that we could revisit it at a later time, and so it could be printed too. We are also learning how we can change the colour, size and style of font for our digital texts too. Here are some photos of Year 2 using the Chromebooks to create digital texts and examples of digital texts we have created.