Our topic for Term 2 is

'Fire, Fire!'

(part 2)

Merry Christmas

and a

Happy New Year

Stay safe and keep well

See you all in 2022

Thank you so much for all the thoughtful messages, cards and gifts that you have given

to the Year 2 team this Christmas.

A STRONGER bridge for Santa's sleigh!

We used the knowledge we'd gained from making bridges out of paper a few weeks ago to improve our building skills when making a bridge for Santa's sleigh. We were very pleased with our results!

RE

All about Christingles

As part of our RE lesson with Mrs Woollven, we made Christingles. We learned that they are used by some Christian people at church during Advent. They celebrate Jesus being the Light of the World, with the word Christingle meaning 'Christ's light.'

Science - Bridges experiment

As part of our Science topic about materials, we have been thinking about the properties of paper. The children chose which paper they thought was the strongest and used it in different ways to make the strongest bridge possible. 

To make the experiment fair, each group had exactly the same amount of paper, the same amount of sellotape and used the same toy cars to test the strength.

Some bridges were able to hold a lot more cars than others!

After the experiment, we thought about what made some of the bridges stronger than others and what the children would do differently next time.

Over the next few weeks, we will be repeating the activity, but this time making a strong bridge for Santa's sleigh.

Paper Weaving in Art

Linked to our collage unit, we have been weaving with paper to make something very special. 

Great concentration, perseverance and resilience were three qualities that we definitely needed to be successful learners. Lots of us found our task challenging, but we know that is essential in order for us to learn and make progress.

We know that you will be very impressed when you see our final products.

We celebrated Children In Need and getting our next 500 home reads by wearing a mixture of Pudsey clothes and pjs. We were also able to bring a teddy in for the day. We loved our story time cuddling our teddies!

Our Year 2 Garden Plot (part 2)

This week, we have been making the most of the dry weather and planting our spring bulbs. First, Jack and Phoebe spent some time with Mrs Holdaway, weeding and preparing the soil. They worked hard and did a fantastic job!

Next, we worked in small groups to plant our own spring bulbs and then placed our varnished pebbles to mark the spots. We all really enjoyed spending time outside and working together to create a special space.

Throughout the next couple of terms, we will continue to check on and weed our garden plot. 

Henri Matisse

Part 2- Complementary colours

In his collaged images, Matisse placed primary and complementary colours side by side.

We looked at the colour wheel and learned that complementary colours are on opposite sides of the wheel.

The complementary colours are...

red and green

blue and orange

purple and yellow

We have created some complementary colour masterpieces using torn paper.

Art

In art, we are experimenting with different techniques and responding to the work of artists like Henri Matisse. We have looked at his work 'The Snail' and used the technique of tearing papers and arranging them by overlapping. We only used the primary and secondary colours in our work. We worked really hard on our learning. See if you agree.

Second 500 Reading Points Achieved

On Monday 8th November, Year 2 achieved their second 500 points for reading regularly at home. The children have voted for their special treat............a pyjama and teddy day.

Great reading everyone. Keep up the good work.

Guy Fawkes Fact Files

Our English and History learning is again linked this term. We have started off by looking at Firework Night now. We looked at video clips of fireworks and used our senses to discuss what we could see and hear. We linked our learning back to last term when we used adjectives and adverbs to describe fire and used this knowledge to help us describe the fireworks. We then used these ideas to help us write firework poems. Finally, we typed our poems up on the computers using our newly taught word processing skills. The children were all rightly proud of their achievements! Here are a selection for you to enjoy. 

Having looked at Bonfire night in 2021, we have now stepped back in history and we are learning about how Bonfire night came about. Over the course of this term, the children will be writing a fact file about Guy Fawkes. The first step was to research who he was and what he did. The children were wonderful researchers!

Science Paper Investigation

We have been thinking about the properties of materials in Science. We explored some different types of paper, discussed their properties, made predictions about which might be the strongest and then carried out an investigation to find out if our predictions were correct!

Our Year 2 Garden Plot

The class is working together to improve the Year 2 garden plot and make it a beautiful place to sit and take a walk. We are planting spring bulbs and marking their positions by adding a collection of painted pebbles.

As part of our art lesson, all of us, including the adults, have created a colourful design linked to the environment. All the pebbles have previously been part of Mrs Hardwick's pond, so putting them in our garden plot is a positive way to reuse them.

Next week, we will plant the spring bulbs and add our amazing individual pebbles.

Learning about money in maths

In our first money session, we were learning to recognise all the UK coins. Our challenge was to see how many different coins we could find, also looking at their values, sizes, colours and shapes.

We were encouraged to look for similarities and differences.

New words were introduced like heptagon, dodecagon and circular, with comparative language like large, larger, largest.