Year 2 News 14.05.21

We have had another week packed full of learning. This week we have been busy developing our fractions knowledge, finishing our instructions and focusing on our well-being by exploring nature as part of Mental Health Awareness Week.

In English this week, we finished our Talk4Writing unit on instructions based on the book 'How To Wash a Woolly Mammoth'. I have loved reading your instructions. You used all the correct features, and you were very comical too (just like the original book). You have done a wonderful job showing all the things you have learnt in this unit. Well done. It was also lovely to see you using possessive apostrophes in your work too as this has been one of our unit targets. On Thursday and Friday, we began our next unit. This time our focus is poetry. We have unpicked what we think poetry is, and we have explored different poems. It was lovely to hear about your favourite poets and poems too.

In Maths, we continued with our unit on Fractions. This week we have been busy learning all about quarters. Last week we learnt that fractions are all about splitting things into equal parts. With quarters, we learnt that you had to split things into four equal parts. As part of our learning, we have been recognising and identify quarters of shapes and amounts. We used lots of resources to help us with our calculations, and it was wonderful to hear all of the maths talk from your tables.

This week your afternoon lessons have been filled with R.E, History, Science, Geography, Computing, PHSE and a visit from PC Nick. Gosh we have been busy!

Last week, we learnt about Stone Age tools and picked one to have a go at replicating. Using our own drawings and photographs of real Stone Age tools, we spent our history lesson on Monday this week busily recreating them. This took lots of crafting with clay. We tried our hardest to recreate the different shapes of the flint using the clay. We thought about how it needed to show uneven edges and tried to replicate the look and texture that the hammer stone (which Stone Age people would have used originally) would have created. Next week we will finish them off by painting them.

In RE this week we built upon our learning of the Holy Spirit to look at more symbols that Christians relate to when they think about the Holy Spirit. Our discussion was very reflective as we talked about what each image means to us. We then used fantastic team skills to create our own Holy Spirit collage. We added images to best represent what the Holy Spirit means and drew our own versions too.

Micro habitats have been our focus in Science this week. We recapped our learning related to habitats and learnt about what all animals need from their habitat. We were armed with clipboards, recording sheets and magnifying glasses and ventured outside to investigate which minibeasts we could find. We recorded all the minibeasts we saw and then went on to draw an example of a micro habitat.

The story, God's quiet things, was the starting point for our Mindfulness time. We decided that we would have some time for us and be surrounded by nature, the focus of the National Mental Health week. We looked closely at the wonders of nature, and lay down to explore the different cloud formations. We described how we felt of the end of the session, and the most common words shared were being calm and relaxed.

If our hearts were made of paper why might they get crumpled? In Heartsmart we looked at what happens when unkind words are spoken and what affect this has. We demonstrated what happens when unkind words are said by crumpling a paper heart and as we repeated this we talked about what happens to our hearts. We then tried to flatten out the hearts but soon realised that the creases do not disappear. This enabled us to think of the best ways to get help and tell an adult.

R.On Thursday, it was your music and P.E day. This week in music you learnt about an artist called Annie Lennox. As she is our musician of the month, we listened to one of her songs and decided if we liked it or not, and why. Then, as a class, we came up with some adjectives for her voice and for the song. A few examples are: beautiful, calm, relaxing, loud and upbeat. For P.E news, check out Mrs Jenkin's website update.

On Friday, we were visited by PC Nick. How exciting! He came to see us to talk about Stranger Danger. It's an important topic now we are able to go out and about once again. While visiting us, PC Nick talked about the different ways we can keep ourselves safe and how it is important to only talk to adults that we trust. If an adult we don't know talks to us, we must get a trusted adult straight away as they will make sure it is safe. You listened well and I'm sure PC Nick was very impressed with your lovely manners too. After PC Nick left, we moved onto Geography. We recapped the name of the four countries of the UK, and we also learnt about the seas and oceans that surround the UK too. We played a fun game as part of our lesson that helped us learn. After break we moved onto Computing. We logged onto Code Studio and created algorithms that moved our character to the acorn. Good work team.

Finally, we have some exciting news. Over the last few weeks, you have been working hard to read the books from our reading challenge. I am pleased to announce that this week we have given out our first bronze badge! Yippee! I couldn't be prouder. You need to get 10 points to earn your bronze badge, and so many of you are so close now too. Keep reading as I'm sure they'll be more badges being handed out this week!

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend,

Miss P