Year 2
WELCOME TO YEAR 2!
Welcome to the Summer Term in Year 2.
All Things Bright and Beautiful
Big Question: Why is it important to look after our world?
Our Year 2 geographers can already name the continents and oceans of the world. This term, our curriculum theme is
'All Things Bright and Beautiful' and our big question is 'Why is it important to look after our world?'. We will be looking in more detail at the climate and landscapes of the tropical rainforests of South America, the Savannah grasslands and deserts of Africa and The Great Barrier Reef. As scientists, Year 2 will explore the diversity of plant and animal life within each contrasting habitat and learn about food chains and adaptation. We want the children to develop a sense of wonder at the incredible beauty and complexity of life on Earth, and begin to understand their role as protectors of the planet.
Summer Term Information
Keeping cool in a heatwave 🌞🌞🌞
D.T: we designed, made and evaluated bird feeders out of recycled materials. We hope to encourage more small birds to our school grounds and homes.
21.6.22: We had a wonderful time visiting Central library this morning to listen to stories and choose new books. We LOVE BOOKS ❤️ 📚 !
16.6.22: We had a lovely visit to the beach today to make sculptures and to investigate a sea shore habitat.
10.6.22: Andy Goldsworthy inspired clay sculptures. We focused on both shape and texture. After completing our sculptures we walked around and commented on each other’s work.
7.6.22: We took our learning outdoors today. We were mathematicians measuring and scientists investigating which micro habitat woodlice prefer.
Congratulations to her majesty on her platinum jubilee. Here’s a sample of Year 2’s work to celebrate 🎊 🎉
Art Homework. Year 2 have been doing some wonderful Andy Goldsworthy inspired art at hime. Take a look!
Art 1: we began learning about the work of artist Andy Goldsworthy who is known for his work with natural materials. Today we looked at collected material then arranged by colour. We needed to work together to collaborate our ideas in groups.
We visited the pond today to use our senses to get inspiration for our writing. We loved watching the bright, orange fish glide beneath the surface and hearing the rustle of leaves as the wind blew.
What a wonderful world! We spent time appreciating the beauty around. Well done to those children who spotted some litter and took responsibility for looking after our environment.
See below for what we have been up to in previous terms.
Happy Easter from all of us in Year 2🐣
Welcome to the Spring Term in Year 2.
Our cross curricular theme this term is ‘To the Edge of the World’ as detailed on the curriculum poster below. It has a strong historical focus. The key question we will be considering throughout the term is ‘What does it mean to have courage?’ Children will consider this when they learn about the lives of significant individuals from history as well as considering this question in relation to their own lives. Children will learn about and compare the lives of Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong - two well-known explorers who lived in very different times. Children will also consider the contribution of Mae Jemison to modern day space travel. They will learn about Ernest Shackleton when studying our science unit on ‘Animals Including Humans’ and will learn about survival in cold environments.
What do astronauts see when they look through the porthole on their rocket? We used our collage skills to create their views of space!
Collage part 3: We learnt different techniques to make a 3D collage today. We twisted and folded paper in different ways and LOVED being creative!
Immersive Dome. We had a wonderful time visiting the dome today. We watched 2 films about astronauts and the moon landings. It was incredible to feel like we were actually in space! We learnt so much and definitely want to go back again!
18.3.22: Exploring collage techniques part 2- we made a Polar landscape.
St Andrew’s does World Book Day! We celebrated on Friday 11th March. We enjoyed book swaps, we read with Year 6, a visitor came to read us a story, we did a ‘ book scavenger hunt’ as well as having Austen from Central Library come in to share stories and poems. We LOVE to read!
To watch Year 2 sing the Columbus song click on the link below.
Art: We have started to learn about collage. Today we explored Henri Matisse’s ‘painting with scissors’ technique and created collages of the jungle in the Indies where Columbus landed.
Columbus Day
We have had so much fun and learnt a lot about Columbus. We took part in a variety of activities including mapping; making hard tack (ship's biscuits); making sea monsers (the sailors belived monsters lurked in the depths of the ocean); and making headdresses which Native American people might have worn-this helped us to think about their perspective when Columbus and his sailors arrived in their land.
Finally, in the afternoon, we boarded the Santa Maria and set sail from Spain for Asia. We headed West trying to find a quicker way to Asia, however little did we know that N America lay in the way! On board ship we took part in lots of ship chores and eventually we sighted land. We came ashore and met the Native American people who were very freindly and let us try lots of new foods (peppers, pineapple, tomato, potatoes, avocado, papaya and cocoa). We did not speak the same language so communicated with gestures.
Year 2 are the finest authors in the land. They have worked so hard to write their own story books. Through writing they have been on adventures through the jungle, under the sea, to Antarctica or even to outer space. You can have so many wonderful adventures through stories! Here they are proudly showing their finished books 😊
NSPCC Number day. We had a fun day of maths activities as well as learning about how the NSPCC help children to stay safe and happy. Our favourite activities were hunting for numicon and sorting it into odd and even piles. We then worked in pairs to investigate what happened when we added odd+odd even +even and odd+even.
What are the most important items needed for survival in Antarctica? We used our oracy skills in groups to rank items in order of importance.
We love to visit our school library every Friday.
Look back at Autumn 2021 in Year 2...
Merry Christmas from Year 2!
Away in a manger.
This term our topic is 'From Land's End to John O'Groats'. Have a look at our curriculum poster below to see what we will be learning when we take our 'bus' from Land's End all the way to John O'Groats.
Here is a copy of the letter and poster about what we will be up to this term.
13.12.21: What a wonderful ‘Great British’ cookery day and party we’ve had. We made cucumber sandwiches fit for the Queen, scones, iced biscuits in the flags of the United Kingdom and made smoked salmon and cream cheese. Yummy!
Ukuleles: we hope you enjoy our song ‘Row row row your boat’!
A sailor went to sea sea sea!
Castle homework: Year 2 were challenged to draw or make a model of a castle with at least 4 defensive features. I think you’ll agree that they have excelled themselves. These castles are AMAZING!
25.11.21 Austen from Central library came in today to read us some stories, share information about the library and to leave us a pile of books to enjoy 😊
Children in Need walk. We walked ‘ from Land’s End to John O’ Groats’ and raised OVER £600 with some money still coming in- an AMAZING effort from everybody 😊
10.11.21: Have you ever wondered what happened in the Great Fire of London? Well look no further and read our non-chronological reports all about the fire!
3.11.21: We have been celebrating the similarities between us. Look at some of our super similarity shields!
2.11.21:Inspired by the London landmark Tower Bridge, we investigated the strongest shape to make a bridge out of just a piece of paper. We were surprised about how strong just one sheet of paper can be if you fold it!
Poetry
We love poetry in Year 2 and have had a brilliant time studying and being inspired by poems written by some great British poets including Michael Rosen, A A Milne and Christina Rosetti.
We also were inspired by Roger McGough's Sound Collecter poem on National Poetry Day and wrote and performed a class poem called 'The Sound Collecter at School'.
Our Year 2 Poetry Anthology. The purpose of our poetry writing was to entertain. We hope that you enjoy them!
28.9.21: Today we learnt about properties of materials. We sorted Mrs Boyle’s rubbish then decided why different materials are used for different purposes.
24.9.21: Today we had our 1st ukulele lesson. We learnt about about plucking and strumming. We also learnt to play a tune using GCEA called Greedy Caterpillars Eat Alone!
We enjoyed taking the ‘bus’ today from Land’s End to Camborne where we learnt to use clues to find out about the 1st steam locomotive which was invented by engineer Richard Trevithick.
We have been having so much fun in our poetry work where we are studying poetry by some of our great British poets. Here are our performances of 'I’m Just Going Out’ by Michael Rosen.
I'm Just Going Out!
I'm Just Going Out!
I'm Just Going Out!
I'm Just Going Out!
I'm Just Going Out!
I'm Just Going Out!
