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We went on a class scavenger hunt this morning to get to know our room better. Children had to find some really random items such as: a frog (he's called Uncle Fredaricko), a plant pot, a whiteboard pen, a tray, a huge book about jets and a gluestick!
We enjoyed exploring the books in our Reading Area. Sharing a book with a friend is great fun!
We are learning a song about the Great Fire of London. While Mrs Crowther plays the ukulele, we are going to try to sing as well as sign. If you want to practise at home, here are the lyrics...
We just started to learn this song and some members of the class wanted to share it with you! Some verses are a bit tricky but listen carefully and you'll hear some lovely two-pert singing towards the end - so impressive! We will post another video when we are more confident with the words. Enjoy!
Year 2 wowed everyone in celebration assembly today. Our speakers communicated the information clearly and confidently and the singing, well, it was out of this world! So many members of staff fed back how moved and impressed they were by our song. To learn a two-part song and BSL signs in such a short space of time is incredible; these children are seriously talented! Here is the video of our final rehearsal; the improvement since the last video is plain to see...
As part of our science learning throughout the year, we are going to keep track of the changing seasons. We went to look for some early signs of Autumn. Despite the warm weather, when we searched, there were lots of autumn treasures to be found...
We have been reading and learning from our wonderful selection of non-fiction books all about The Great Fire of London (we even used our mini magnifying glasses to help us to concentrate!). We created freeze frames of something we read about. For example, you may see a picture of someone firing a water squirt next to someone holding a leather bucket. Have a look at our pictures and see if you can work out what we are showing...
Over the half term, we are learning about printing (leading up to our tile screen printing). We started by printing with things we had around the classroom - anything from numicon to carrots! Some children were naturals at creating patterns and mixing colours and shape - others simply had fun learning how colour is transferred as we print.
We were a bit naughty in Year 2 today - we wrote on the tables! We drew number lines from 0-10, then 0-20 and finally 0-100! Together, we placed conkers where we estimated certain numbers would go. Children challenged each other and worked so well in pairs and tables. Co operation, teamwork and, most importantly, great progress and great fun!
(Don't worry, Mr Simpson, we wiped it all off after the lesson!)
On December 15th (8 weeks away!) we are putting on a Christmas Nativity called Prickly Hay. This year's nativity has a Hoe Down theme (think cowboy hats, checked shirts and line dancing). We can't wait to get started next week. Here are the lyrics in case you want to practise at home.
To learn how to see both sides of an argument, and to explore people's feelings linked to the Great Fire of London, we played Conscience Alley.
We read a great book by Naomi Joslyn called Molly McDrew and the Great Fire of London last half term. As we closed the half term learning about writing letters, we decided to write to her. This morning, the first day back, we were delighted to receive this lovely email which answered all our questions. How exciting to hear from her! Here is the letter.
This afternoon, we enjoyed a skipping festival session with Katie. Despite some children feeling really nervous, it was wonderful! We had some magical moments of progress as well as a chance to see some of our more confident skippers. I was so proud of our super listening and respectful behaviour. (Excuse the blurry photos -taking photos of skipping is really hard!)
We played a dice game to find out more about David Hockney! Ask you children how to play - it's was so much fun!
Lorna, a professional dancer, came to teach us different ways of moving to music in the hall. It was hard not to sing along to her cool music as we moved! It gave us a taste of different ways to stretch, move and use our imaginations!
Thank you so very much to all the families who could make the Reading Session this afternoon; I really hope you had fun and got small taste of life in Year 2! Active learning and making reading and comprehension activities enjoyable are really important.  It was so much fun having you with us and the children coped so well with such a full classroom. Here are the slides I talked around if anyone would like to see them:
In maths lessons, Year 2 children are great at getting any equipment or resources they need. Today was a good example of that. Children in Year 2 are really co operative. Our Study Buddies are so helpful and really good at explaining things.
Philip McHugh - who just happens to be Hugo's daddy - is an extremely talented artist who specialises in creating art on glass. We took a look at several of his pieces and talked about what we could see. Listening to Philip talk about how he creates these pieces was really fascinating. The theme of the afternoon was COLLABORATION. Children worked together to create a collage and we all worked together to create these two portraits on perspex. It was a wonderful afternoon and we are so very grateful for Philip for coming to talk to us.
A big thank you to Mrs Orme for taking these lovely photographs from our dress rehearsal this afternoon. The wonderful set, decorated by Rosie's daddy Richard Hirst, sparkled in the stage lights and set the scene beautifully - THANK YOU! The children were really nervous performing in front of an audience but they really shone! It was a great dress rehearsal - we're ready to perform for our families now on Thursday and Friday!
Today we thought about weather forecasts, designed our own symbols to represent the weather and talked about seasonal changes.
In small groups, Miss Simpson led the children in a cloud hunt. They learned names for different types of clouds - luckily, there were lots to be seen!
It was our turn to share our learning in Celebration Assembly today. Here is are the slides we shared.
Tuesday 16th January 2024 YEAR 2 CHURCH VISIT
We went to learn more about prayer with Rev Trish and Rev Nick at St Mary’s Church. In the three sessions we used candles and artwork to inspire prayer; we used Lego in water to focus our thinking about what to say thank you, sorry or please and finally, we learned what The Lord’s Prayer means and thought about why it is so special to Christians. It was a great way to finish our topic about How and Why People Pray.
Abby—When I put my Lego in the water, I thought about something I was sorry for.
Charlie—It was good being in church and the seats were comfortable!
Mollie—We lit a candle and said a prayer for peace.
Our recorder lessons got off to a wonderful start today as we learned to play the notes B and A. Here are some videos of our first performances. We are still learning how to hold the recorder properly with two hands. What a talented class!
Wow! What a start to the week! Micheala from a company called Lion Learners came to introduce us to some of her friends! Take a look...
We'd love you to listen to us singing a song that's really helpful in remembering the seven continents.
This week's piece is called Joe, Joe and we're playing B, A and G!
We had so much fun in Forest School. We played Hide and Seek, had a story and and snack, and ended by making incredible bird feeders. Year 2 listened carefully and had a really good time. We can't wait for next Tuesday's session!
These videos will help you to see how we work different types of calculation out in maths. A huge well done and thank you to Dax, Sadie. Alfie, Hannah, Thea and Abby for explaining your thinking so clearly for us all.
AbbyAlfieDaxHannahSadieTheaWe enjoyed another (VERY MUDDY) Forest School session this morning. We made dens for the bears we found on our bear hunt!
As we approach the Spring Concert, our recorder lessons are going so well. Incredible progress, Year 2!
A huge thank you to Rachel, Jackson's mum for coming to talk to us about her love of science. We learned about acids and alkalines through mixing solutions. The purple cabbage water was our indicator and they turned different colours!
In science this afternoon, we were learning about microhabitats. A micro-habitat is a very small habitat which supports the survival of tiny animals or plants. For instance, a rockpool or a rotting log. A large habitat contains many different microhabitats. A microhabitat can be as small as a fallen branch or the space under a stone. Armed with pooters, dishes and magnifying glasses we set out to explore the microhabitats in our school grounds and found so many minibeasts! Take a look...
Watch as the drama unfurls - the Great Wave is just about to crash into the three Japanese longboats. You're in for a bumpy ride!