Year 2 Newsletter

 Whilst it might nearly be the end of term, year 2 have certainly not slowed down! 

In our art and geography lessons, we have been looking at Uluru (Ayer's Rock). We used our printing skills to print our own landscape picture of Uluru.  

In Science we have been testing materials for different properties. We have looked at absorbency, waterproofness and stretchiness. We've enjoyed being scientists and conducting fair tests.  

Year 2 Newsletter

Last week year 2 were finally able to show off their well-rehearsed singing skills at the Bishop's Stortford's Year 2 Music Festival. 

The children have worked so hard, practicing their songs and wow, didn't it pay off!?! For those that were able to come and watch, we are sure that you'll agree that the children were absolutely amazing!

They performed 'water' themed songs as a choir with two other schools, which was no easy feat as they had to make sure that their actions were synchronised and that they kept in time to the music.  

They also performed their very own class song too. They had the audience bobbing along in their seats and no one left the auditorium without a huge smile on their face. 

All the teachers in Year 2 would like to say a massive well done to the children! You were so professional and did a brilliant job! 

Year 2 Newsletter

Last week the children were immersed in our topic of Australia. 

In art, we have been looking at how the Aboriginal people of Australia use natural materials to create beautiful dot work pictures. They used their art work to tell stories. We created our own of Australian stories using the Aboriginal symbols and we also tried printing Australian animals with ink. 

In our geography lessons we have been learning about the Great Barrier Reef. We looked at maps to find out where it was and we imagined we were fish swimming in it. We discovered that it looks quite different today to what it looked like 20 year ago. We found out about pollution and global warming and how it is affecting the reef. 

In writing we are using The Day The Koala Could for inspiration and we are writing our own ending to the story. We thought about what could happen next through drama and we acted out different scenarios. We used these ideas to help us plan our story ending. This week we are going to be writing it. 

Year 2 Newsletter

 

Year 2 have had a very active week! 

We took Maths outside this week and practiced our half turns, quarter turns and explored going clockwise and anti-clockwise. It was great fun giving each other directions on what to do.

In RE we have been exploring Islam and looking at how Mulism's prepare for prayer and what they use when they are praying. We looked at the ritual that they do before hand and copied the different movements.

In Science, we went outside looking for mini-beasts. We couldn't believe how many slugs we found under the logs in the forest or how many ants were hiding in the grass. We discussed their different habitats too. 

In Music we have been learning our songs for the music festival. Today, we impressed our teachers with the songs that we have learnt so far. Keep up the learning at home too, it's really helping!

Year 2 Newsletter

 

This week year 2 kick-started their new topic with a trip to Australia in 1770. We travelled by boat and imagined we were convicts who had been caught and sentenced to 7 years in prison in Australia. We found out that many people couldn't afford to get home and so made a life there.

In writing we are looking at letters from unhappy crayons, inspired by The Day the Crayons Quit. we began by playing the emotions game. Our teacher gave us a word (for example, annoyed or excited) and we had to show that emotion on our face. 

We then imagined how each crayon was feeling in their letter using the feelings words from earlier in the lesson. We roleplayed as the crayons and our partners interviewed us.

In our World Views lesson we explored how different colours depict different moods. We discussed how different colours make us feel different things. We were given feeling words and we mixed paint to create a colour that reminded us of that feeling.

Year 2's World Book Day

 Year 2 had a fabulous World Book Day. 

We started our day off by having a quiz with Bellatrix Le Strange, the Snow Queen and Cruella De Vil. Then we introduced ourselves as the characters that we had come as and the word that we had chosen to describe them.

We then travelled to Narnia to meet the terrifying Snow Queen! She told us her story and we discovered just how deceitful she really was!

Then we explored the book 'Inside the Villains' and talked about what makes a good villain. We then designed our own giant and made it as terrible as we could. 

Throughout the day we shared our favourite books and enjoyed lots of new ones too! 

Year 2 Newsletter

Wow! Year 2 have had another fabulous but very busy week. 

In music, we are learning the song 'I wanna be in a rock band' and we have been exploring rock music. We have learnt the lyrics to the song and now we are learning how to play the glockenspiel. 

In science, we are learning about plants and what they need to grow. We are conducting an experiment to find out the answer by planting seeds and giving them different conditions to see which grow best. Here we are in action:

Our new topic is castles and our big question is: 'Is a castle a great place to live?'
To kick start this new learning, we transported back to medieval times and learnt all about the people who lived in castles. We met a lord, a knight and a blacksmith. They told us all about their jobs and showed us where in the castle they lived. Most of us wanted to be lords, as we would be able to tell everyone what to do but some of us wanted to be knights so that we could be brave and protect the land.

Year 2 Newsletter

Over the last few weeks, Attenborough and Greta Class have been busy rehearsing for their production of Fire Fire, which will bring all their learning about the Great Fire of London to life in a memorable event. We have been so impressed with how well the children have learnt their lines of dialogue and lyrics in only a short period of time. They are rehearsing with confidence and flair and they are very excited to perform it next week! 

English:

In our English lessons, we've been writing instructions on how to wash a pet rat. We looked at pictures and videos to learn about what rats look like and how they move and we used drama to imagine the steps that we would take to wash our rat. We created a class plan and thought about the language we would need to use.

First we put on our protective clothing. We thought we’d need a flea-proof suit, a bite-proof mask and some thick gloves. Then we tried different ways of catching the rat. We thought the best way was using food and a cage. We imagined our partner’s hands were the rat's paws and filed its nails and polished them with an ear bud. We used a cloth and soapy water to wash the rat’s fur and a brush to comb it. Finally we cleaned the rat's teeth with a toothbrush. We were careful not to get bitten!

After we'd created a plan, we put all the writing skills we'd been learning over the last few weeks into practice and wrote our own set of instructions independently. We all worked really hard! 

Maths:

In Maths, we've been learning about money, including coin values, addition with money and finding the difference. We used Cuisenaire rods to help understand the concept of finding the difference.

Science:

In Science, we've been learning about how regular exercise helps us to stay fit and healthy and the impact exercise has on our bodies, from strengthening our bones and muscles, to boosting our energy levels, to increasing our heart rate. We also learnt that our bodies need lots of sleep and rest in order to grow and repair. 

Year 2 newsletter

This week it is UK Parliament Week which is a celebration of people power – everyone to have their own voice. We looked at individual liberty. Individual liberty means each of us having the freedom to make our own choices and do what we want - within reason. We must respect the rights of others.

We had a class debate to exercise our right to individual liberty. The debate statement was: "Animals should be set free from zoos."

First we decided whether we agreed or disagreed and we discussed our ideas with people who shared the
same opinion as us. We were very passionate!

Each side took it in turns to share their opinion, either with a new idea or building on an idea from the person before. We were all reflective, open minded and listened carefully to what others said. Everyone was able to communicate their ideas clearly and coherently.

 

No:

No! Zoos are good for protecting animals. It means we can keep all the endangered animals safe from poachers.

I disagree because if we let all the animals go back to their homes they wouldn’t actually have anywhere to go to as their habitats are being destroyed.

Yes:

I agree because animals should be able to individual liberty like people. It’s not fair that they don’t get to choose where the live.

Yes, I think they should. The zoo keepers choose their lunch every day and I would hate that. They might even like the food that they’re given. They should be able to catch their own food.

In Science, the children have been learning about the importance of  exercise and how exercising daily helps us stay strong and healthy. We learnt how to measure our pulse by placing two fingers on our wrist, neck or temple. It was tricky to feel it, so we had to sit very still and quiet. We measured our resting heart rate and then predicted whether our heart rate would increase, decrease or stay the same after walking and running on the spot. We completed the experiment and concluded that exercise increases our heart rate and therefore strengthens our heart muscle.

    

Year 2 Newsletter

 In year 2, we have been enjoying our history topic that is all about the Great Fire of London. We have looked at what the houses were like in 1666 and we drew our own.

Did you know that the houses were built with different levels with the bottom level being the smallest? This was so that more houses could fit in. They got bigger as they went up and the bit that sticks out is called a jetty. 

We used black pen to draw the outline and then created the beams using black paper. We also learnt that windows in 1666 were very expensive because they were made out of lead. As they were so precious, if someone moved house then they would take their widows with them!

After we had created our houses, we used poster paint to experiment with different colour mixing to create the fire. We looked at images of fire and saw that the inside of the fire is much lighter than the outside. We created the fire effect by adding a tiny bit of red to our yellow for each layer of our fire.

We think that you'll agree that the image of the fire that we have created looks great! Imagine what it would be like to be amongst all those burning houses!