Year 2 w/b 16th May
Date: 20th May 2022 @ 5:13pm
I am so proud of Year Two’s determination, enthusiasm, positivity and hard work as they have endeavoured to ‘prove what they know’ this week. They have worked very carefully, using their arithmetic strategies, searching for key words to underline and applying the Year Two spelling rules. They truly have proved that they are wonderful Year Two learners! We shall look forward to a special treat on Monday afternoon.
In our busy week, we were able to squeeze in two rather exciting English lessons. We discovered that our final ‘write’ of the half term would be…a letter to Queen Elizabeth! How exciting this will be! On Monday, we reminded ourselves of the structural features of letters by exploring a variety of letters with a partner. As a class, we then used our findings to construct a toolkit. We decided to add some additional language features to our toolkit to make our letters outstanding! After looking for these features in a model text, we used ‘boxing up’ to demonstrate our understanding of the structural and language features required in a letter to the Queen. This formed our planning format to use later in the week. When planning, we discovered some traditions for writing to Queen Elizabeth, such as opening with ‘Madam’. In our plans, we included: information to share about ourselves, comments and congratulations relating to the Platinum Jubilee and any questions that we would like to ask. We can’t wait to write, publish and then post our letters to Buckingham Palace!
In addition to continuing to practise our arithmetic skills, we enjoyed a ‘maths detective morning’ on Friday. Our mission involved a variety of reasoning and word problems! Magnifying glasses were used to identify ‘clue words’ in the questions and then clipboards were needed for our working out. What super detectives Year Two are!
In RE, we completed our assessment task for our ‘Discipleship’ unit. We answered the questions: Why are promises made at infant baptism? Why do Christians choose baptism? These responses were thoughtful and demonstrated a clear understanding of the significance of baptism to Christians.
In history, our focus was sources of information: How can we organise sources into different criteria? How can different types of sources be useful for different things? Which sources could tell us how people were feeling at the time of the fire? Which sources tell us about the equipment they used? Which sources would be useful for finding out about what London looked like after the fire? This was also a great opportunity to find out more about Samuel Pepys and his diary – a crucial source of information!
We have enjoyed two DT lessons this week. On Wednesday, we researched and explored linkages and levers. Using split pins, we made some of our own. This was a great opportunity to experiment with linkages by varying the materials used, the measurements of the levers and altering the width and length of card. We practised cutting the strips to size, creating holes safely using plasticine and creating pivots with split pins. Therefore, when we began our ‘make’ stage on Thursday, we had lots of knowledge to refer to. We created our monster heads and our join. Next week, we will finish our linkages and add decorations!
On Wednesday, we enjoyed a wonderfully sunny morning outside for Forest School and PE. After a few weeks focused on finding bugs, Mr Simmons decided it was time to apply this knowledge and make bug houses! What fun we had! In PE, we continued to work on our striking and field game skills with Multiflex but, this time, using tennis rackets. It was great to see how the children’s accuracy has improved.
Our HearSmart lesson was entitled ‘Sun Safe’. We discussed things that we would need to take on a trip to the beach to keep us safe in the sun. The sun is very powerful and radiates invisible UV rays that could cause damage. This doesn’t mean we should spend the summer inside, we all benefit from being outdoors, but it does mean you should always be prepared when out in the sun. We created posters to display the five ways to stay safe in the sun: slip slap slop; wear a hat; protect your face; spend time in the shade; drink up. You may wish to watch this clip with advice for staying safe in the sun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UWvqNeqX6E.
In science, we used the data from our nature surveys to create block diagrams and pictograms. This was a wonderful way to apply our statistics knowledge from our maths lessons in an exciting context.
To end the week, we enjoyed learning the numbers to 10 and a variety of greetings in Spanish.
Year Two, I am so proud of you all for your hard work this week. Enjoy a restful weekend and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday.
Miss Witham
