Year 2 News - 15th December 2023
Another fantastic week in Year 2! We hope you all enjoyed our Christmas performances of ‘Bethlehem Bake Off’, we have loved rehearsing and performing the play for everyone! After the final performance on Friday, we enjoyed a well-deserved treat and Storytime.
Last week, we baked our own cakes for the school’s Bake Sale. The children all made and decorated their own Christmas-themed rice crispy cakes – yummy! At the bake sale, we bought some delicious treats made by other year groups and sang along to some great Christmas songs. All money raised went towards the Save the Children charity.
In English this week, we have started our Christmas unit ‘The Polar Express’. The children all boarded the train and took a trip to the North Pole, on board the train we enjoyed a lovely hot chocolate and Christmas treat while exploring the story. Next week, we will be creating a descriptive piece based on ‘The Polar Express’.
During maths this week we have focused on comparing amounts of mass and distance using words and numbers in lots of different contexts.
In PSHE we have been looking at our strengths, everyone designed their own ‘Ladder to Success’. The children set themselves achievable goals for 2024 using the Ladder. We have also been looking at the importance of relaxation, the children were introduced to different breathing techniques which they have been practising in class.
It was great to see so many Year 2s at the Christmas Story Night, the children enjoyed plenty of wonderful Christmas stories and songs all while dressed in their pyjamas!
Next week we have our Christmas party on Monday, the children can wear their party clothes all day or if they would prefer they can bring a change of clothes with them!
Miss Brooks
Year 2 News - 1st December 2023
This week Year 2 have been working extremely hard, in addition to our usual lesson we are well underway with our Christmas rehearsals for our performances of ‘Bethlehem Bake Off’ which will be showcased on Thursday 14th and Friday 15th December at 9.30am.
In English, we have been learning about the features of a diary entry and have written our own diary entries based on the short film ‘A Cloudy Lesson.’ We are looking forward to publishing our diary entries next week! Every Tuesday and Thursday morning we have also been practicing our joint handwriting – it’s looking good!
During maths this week we have focused on 2D and 3D shapes. We have discussed and named the following 2D shapes; rectangle, triangle, circle, oval and square. We have also discussed and named the following 3D shapes; cuboid, pyramid, cube, sphere, cone and cylinder.
We have loved recapping our Year 1 knowledge of the seven continents in Geography, the children are fantastic at naming the seven continents of the world using our very catchy song! We have also looked at the North and South Pole and the Equator.
On Careers Day we learnt all about what it means to be a physio. All of the children took part in a range of many different activities that helped them learn about the role of a physio and the people they help. Activities included: Bubble PEP experiment (a little water fun), physio assessments, the one-arm jumper challenge, a podcast, some challenging exercises and the balloon experiment (we were all a little tired after this one!).
Check out our pictures from Careers Day below:
I can’t believe that we have been back to school for eight whole weeks! We have packed so much into that time and Year 2 have made a brilliant start to their learning journey.
You will be pleased to know that we have finally finished our Marvellous Meerkat Fact-Files. The children have worked so hard and took a huge amount of pride in their work. They also used their resilience to keep going (even when their hands hurt!). We moved on to learning about the poet Joshua Seigal (he’s not a seagull!)and performing his poem ‘A Classroom Speaks’. Miss Gray’s reading comprehension group have also finished reading ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’. They took the Accelerated Reader quiz for the book and absolutely smashed it! Our Year 2 word count is now an impressive 29,318 words.
In maths, we have finished the calculation section of our Big Maths CLIC and we are ready to start looking at SAFE (shape, amounts, fractions and explaining data). The first area we will be looking at is fractions and we will start by some recapping of skills from year 1.
Our afternoons have been busy learning more about animals in science. We now know that reptiles have dry scales on their bodies and they need a direct source of heat to be able to survive. This is because they are cold blooded animals. We don’t think Ellington is hot enough to attract any reptiles such as crocodiles or chameleons.
In RE with Mrs Redpath, we have explored Islam. We have found out about the five pillars of Islam and we will be doing some more work around this during our inter-faith week, next half term.
Have a restful, happy and safe half term and enjoy some spooky fun on Halloween!
Miss Gray
It’s been a busy two weeks in Year 2!
In maths, we have completed our addition work and are now moving on to learning about subtraction. We have started by revisiting our learning from year 1 and practising how to subtract using a number line.
In English, our fact files about ‘Marvellous Meerkats’ are well underway. We have written our sections about their appearance, diet and habitat and we have made sure that we have included expanded noun phrases to make our work more interesting to read.
We were very luck in history this week…we had a visitor! We are finding our about how our school has changed within living memory. Leah’s mum came in to answer our questions about her experience of being an Ellington Pupil. The children asked fantastic questions and we found out so much from Mrs Henderson. Did you know, the Head Teacher used to be called Mrs Campbell? The children were disappointed that they didn’t have ‘lifty-up desks’! However, the bell we use at breaktime is exactly the same.
Science is exciting too! We are learning about the survival needs of amphibians and we are planning our own mini ponds to attract amphibians to our wildlife garden.
Have a great couple of weeks and keep an eye on Twitter/X for updates about what we are doing.
Miss Gray
We have had a super start to our learning journey in Year 2.The children have really impressed Miss Gray and Mrs Curtis with how they have adapted to our new routines.
We have started using our new maths program: Big Maths and we are getting to grips with the ‘CLIC’ sessions where we practise basic skills. In addition (ha ha!) to this, we have been focusing on place value. We have represented numbers in lots of different ways and revised how to say and spell some of the tricky ‘teen’ numbers.
RWI phonics is back in full swing. Some children, who have completed the programme, are now doing comprehension activities with Miss Gray. We are learning how to retrieve information from a text by scanning for key words and phrases. Our text this half term is ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’ by Jill Tomlinson. Our writing is based on ‘Meerkat Mail’ by Emily Gravett. We have been gathering vocabulary to support us in writing character descriptions of Sunny (the main character in the story).
In science, we have been bird watchers! We are learning what different groups of animals need to survive and we sat very quietly observing the birds in our school grounds. We saw lots, including a very portly pigeon! There were no penguins to be seen and we decided that this was because they are flightless birds who can’t leave their icy habitats in the colder regions of the Southern Hemisphere. We now know that mammals and birds need water, food, shelter and air to be able to survive. This might help us to look after our pets too.
In history, we are learning about how schools have changed over time. We would love to know interesting facts about Ellington Primary School if any parents or grandparents are willing to share?
It is great to be back.
I have a feeling this year is going to be AMAZING!
Miss Gray