Category Archives: Year 2

Year 2 Go Up Up and Away!

The children have had great fun this week designing, building, flying and evaluating their kites as part of our Design Technology. Luckily no-one actually went up, up and away like Mary Poppins, but great fun was had by all. In other news, we have been busy finishing off our fantastic information texts about the Wright Brothers and have been getting stuck into some tricky addition and subtraction in Maths. It has been a strange and very different half term to the ones we have all been used to…. but the children have amazed us with their enthusiasm, resilience and commitment to learning. Well done Year 2 – we are very proud of you all. Happy holidays everyone.

Taking flight in Year 2!

This week in Year 2, we have been learning more about the history of flight! We have been thinking about the meaning of the word chronology all term and put this into practice in our topic sessions by placing the hot air balloon, the Wright Brother’s plane, the first passenger plane and the first space rocket in order along a timeline. Amazing to think that the flight of the first passenger plane is probably just within living memory of our grandparents… and certainly our great grandparents. How much has changed in recent years! In our English sessions, we have been learning about non-fiction texts. We had a go at being ‘detectives’ and were able to spot sub-headings (often written as questions), labelled diagrams and fascinating facts. We are now in the middle of writing our own non-fiction texts about the Wright Brothers. Did you know that their father asked them never to fly together so they tossed a coin each time to decide who would fly? Orville won the toss on the day of the first actual flight so it was he, not his brother Wilbur, that was actually inside the plane! In Maths we have started looking at addition and subtraction and have been finding fact families from part part wholes and bar models. In Science, we used our socks to explore the meaning of the words stretch, twist, bend and squash…..phew we wondered what the smell was! We also squashed, stretched, twisted and bent our own individual tubs of playdoh into different shapes. In D&T we have been exploring different sorts of kites! Next week we will be designing and making our own diamond kites.  It has been lovely to receive such a wealth of home learning via email and to hear that the children are enjoying using their SPARX log-ins at home! Keep up the good work!

Becoming Scientists in Year 2!

This week, we had a go at being real investigative scientists!  In pairs, we tested lots of different materials to find out which would be the most absorbent. Predictions ranged from the sponge to the kitchen towel to the cloth, but we all agreed that the tin foil would probably be the least absorbent! We enjoyed using the pipettes to drop water onto the table and then tested how well each piece of material soaked it up. We had to make sure that we used the same amount of water each time to ensure that it was a fair test. 

In other news, we have loved writing our version of the ‘Duckie’s Rainbow’ story. Our characters have been over, under, through, in and out of some very interesting places, such as the dark, scary cave, the deep, rough river and the wobbly, ginger bridge! Great use of prepositions, verbs and interesting adjectives Year 2!

This week, the children have had a go at logging onto Sparx, which is an online times tables platform that the school subscribes to. Letters with more information – and details of their own personal log in – will be sent home today. 

Best wishes for a lovely weekend

The Year 2 Team

Year 2 Fly Away with the Wright Brothers

We have been busy bees again this week in Year 2! In Science, we practiced using the new words we have learnt to describe the properties of materials; these included absorbent, waterproof, transparent, opaque, shine, dull, rigid, flexible, strong and fragile. We considered lots of ‘what ifs’….. What if my jumper was made of metal? What if the window was made from cardboard?! We used property words to explain why this was not would be a suitable material for a certain purpose! In English we have written our own class versions of Duckie’ Rainbow. A dino or cat has been over, under, through, along and behind several different things! The children have had great fun writing it and have shown an excellent knowledge of prepositions, verbs and interesting adjectives. In our history sessions we have been learning all about The Wright Brothers who invented and flew the first plane in 1903. The first flight took off and landed again after 12 seconds, travelling 36 metres in total. We marked out this distance on the playground and then took it in turns to run along the ‘runaway’ with our arms outstretched pretending to be Mr. Orville Wright on his first ever flight! Luckily it was probably slightly warmer outside than I we imagine it was in December 1903.

Reminder that Home Learning books will only be returned to you every OTHER week. We have to quarantine them in between going to and from school. Home Learning will still be set EVERY week on the blog. Complete it on paper, email in photos or concentrate on the computer-based home learning during these weeks.

Many thanks – The Year 1 Team

Year 2 go up, over, down, behind, through and accross!

This week we have been finding out about different sorts of words! We have continued our work on adjectives and also learnt about prepositions and verbs! The children had great fun going over, under, in, out, next to, behind, in front and across things and enjoyed thinking of different words for the ways in which we can move around. In Maths we have been continuing to look at Place Value, comparing numbers and representing numbers up to 100 in different ways. We have been very excited to begin our new history unit, ‘Up, up and away!’ We learnt about the story of Icarus who tried to make himself wings to escape from an island! In ICT we have talked about internet safety. This is a really important topic. Please encourage your child to chat with you at home about ways in which they can keep themselves safe online.  Well done Year 2! You have all worked very hard and should feel very proud of yourselves.

Just a few important notices this week:

  1. If your child needs an inhaler in school, please check with the office that you have completed the relevant paperwork and then make sure it is in school in a named bag.
  2. As lunches are now booked ahead online, it would be really handy if you could tell your child what type of meal they are having that day (main meal, vegetarian, jacket potato, packed lunch). This helps us to double check lists and registers in the morning.
  3. A reminder that Home Learning is still expected on a Thursday. As we have to quarantine the books before we can look at them and send them home again, you will only have the book to record in every other week. New Home Learning is still set weekly – during the ‘no book’ week, you can email us pictures or complete it on paper and send it in.
  4. Reading books have been sent home today along with reading journals. Again, these will need to be quarantined so there may be times when you are without a journal at home. You could keep your own log and fill it all in when you get it back.

Many thanks – have a great weekend.