Year Two Updates

Year Two Updates (2021-22)

'5, 4, 3, 2, 1 BLAST OFF!' Topic - Spring 2

Our Space topic has certainly captured the children’s imaginations and they have loved learning about the wonders of our solar system and beyond. The topic started with a bang when an alien, Alf, unexpectedly crash landed in the playground.  From this, the children created the most imaginative adventure stories.  Over the past few weeks, we have also learnt about the advances in technology, including NASA’s historic moon landing. 

Our reading texts this half term have extended the children’s understanding of non-fiction and how we can use features such as the contents page, glossary and index effectively.  The children continue to show fantastic problem solving skills through our maths learning, which has included learning to add and subtract when bridging 10 and identifying and comparing properties of 2D and 3D

shapes.

'Planet Heroes' Topic - Spring 1

The children have been inspired by our ‘Planet Heroes’ topic this half term.  It has been wonderful to see how passionate they are about making positive changes in the world.  We have covered the issue of deforestation, particularly centred on the island of Borneo.  The children were outraged to discover the impact that the production of palm oil is having on the Bornean Orang-utans.  They have thoughtfully considered what small changes we can make every day that will make a big difference to our planet.  

This term has seen the children’s writing continue to flourish.  Whether it was through letter writing to the leading supermarkets, persuading them to stop selling palm oil products or imaginative writing based on the story of the Jungle Book, the children have blown us away with their stamina and independence for writing.  In maths, we have been learning the strategies for multiplication, division and the children are now practising these strategies daily to ensure that they are embedded.

'Amazing Achievers' Topic - Autumn 2

Our ‘Amazing Achievers’ topic this half term has certainly provided much inspiration.  From learning about the brave, heroic actions of Grace Darling to the incredible charity work by Marcus Rashford, the children have reflected on how these individuals have contributed to national or global achievements.   Most notably, the children have really demonstrated a wonderful and thoughtful understanding of how many of these celebrated individuals have overcome discrimination and they recognise the importance of equality.           

In addition, the children have also completed their Phonic Screening check this term and they did fantastically well.  They continue to make great progress with their reading and this is testament to their hard work and the support from home, so thank you for this.

'Around the World' Topic - Autumn 1

What a fantastic first half term it has been! The children have settled into Year Two brilliantly and they are showing what excellent role models they are for other children across the school. It has been lovely to have a little more ‘normality’ in our day-to-day school life, particularly with being able to return to assemblies. It is always a pleasure to hear the children sing together.

Our topic this half term has been ‘Around the World’ where we have learnt about the seven continents and five oceans. We have focused some of our learning on specific areas within both European and non European countries, including England, Italy and China.  The children have produced some brilliant written pieces, both fiction and non-fiction based, and they were particularly  inspired by the Italian story of Pinocchio.

Previous Year 2 activities

The children continue to be fully immersed with all writing opportunities and our learning on various countries around the world has inspired their ideas.  The children have had the chance to act out and write about traditional Japanese tales, create factfiles on famous landmarks from China, construct imaginative Japanese Haiku poems and they have produced superb adventure tales based around a trip to India. Please see the photos above showing excellent examples of their writing.

'We Can Work It Out' Topic - Geography Compass Challenge

As part of our Geography learning we photographed the school environment and challenged our friends to identify our chosen locations.  Consequently, we were able to discuss compass directions, physical and human features and locate these on a map of the playground.  What brilliant problem solvers we were!

Science Egg Experiment

For our science learning we challenged ourselves to make protective cushioning for eggs that were going to be dropped from a height.  In teams, we discussed our ideas, designed the packaging and finally carried out the experiment.  We found out that through a soft but stable packaging none of the eggs broke.