Year 2 w/b 17th January
Date: 23rd Jan 2022 @ 3:31pm
Our week of wonderful learning began with planning our own persuasive letters. Friday’s drama activity had provided plenty of inspiration to plan the reasons why Jack should/shouldn’t climb the beanstalk and I was impressed with the independence demonstrated during this planning stage. These plans were extremely useful as we began our writing process. Within these letters, we have particularly focused on including questions, exclamations and emotive language as we refer directly to Jack in an attempt to persuade. Each letter is extremely convincing! On Monday, we will finish independently editing our writing with purple pens before publishing our work. I look forward to the opportunity for the children to really focus on their handwriting and presentation as they publish their beautiful writing. I am sure that this will be work to be very proud of – well done Year Two!
Our spelling rule has been ‘adding the suffix -y’. This week, we focused on adding -y when there was a short vowel sound (e.g. run, spot, bag). In this case, we know to double to final consonant before adding -y (e.g. runny, spotty, baggy). We also focused on the red words: every, some, does, mother, climb, said. Thank you for your support with this at home.
In maths, we continued to focus on multiplication. This learning began with writing multiplication sentences based on a picture or repeated addition. We then learned how to use and interpret arrays. Finally, we were introduced to the 2 and 5 times tables. Next week, we will look at the 10 times table and multiplication word problems before progressing to division.
This week, we enjoyed a child-led Forest School session which was a valuable opportunity to observe and encourage children’s teamwork, imagination and exploration. It is always extremely interesting to engage in thoughtful discussions and discover the learning which children draw from these sessions. For example, we particularly enjoyed the discovery that the musical frame could produce different sounds depending on the area of the frame – the higher it was tapped, the higher the pitch and vice versa.
In Geography, we first recapped our learning from Autumn term, locating the seven continents and five oceans. To build on this learning, we learnt about the Equator, North Pole and South Pole and how the climate of a country is dependent on its location; the closer to the Equator, the hotter the climate whereas the closer to the North or South Pole, the colder the climate. To demonstrate our understanding of this concept, we predicted which animals lived in a hot or cold climate, using features such as blubber as clues.
On Monday, we enjoyed our first music lesson of the term. We learnt the song ‘When Goldilocks Went to the House of the Bears’, focusing on singing the song in unison and identifying high and low pitches. Finally, we were able to play an accompaniment on untuned percussion keeping to the pulse of the song.
In RE, we began learning about the Kingdom of God. We discussed the following questions: What could be the actions of a good/bad king? What can we remember Jesus said about the Kingdom of God? What might the Kingdom of God be like? What would it be like if God was King on the earth today? What did Jesus mean by the statement ‘Your Kingdom come Your will be done’? This rich discussion helped us to identify actions which belong in God’s Kingdom and those that don’t. We will continue to build on this understanding throughout the half term.
On Wednesday, we thoroughly enjoyed our enrichment afternoon with Jam Coding. The coaches were very impressed with the knowledge that the children had retained from our computing week and how well they were able to apply this programming knowledge within the session. What an exciting opportunity!
In PE, the children continued to work on their invasion game skills. This session helped children to: catch a ball consistently; move their opponent around the court when playing against them; track the flight of the ball right into their hands; stay light on their feet and be prepared to move quickly; manage their feelings and demonstrate good sportsmanship.
Thursday’s HeartSmart session was entitled: ‘Secret Kindness Agents’. Year Two’s top-secret mission was to do kind things for others in the school without being told or asked. When they had done something kind, children wrote about it on the secret agent card and put it in the secret agent file. At the end of the day, Mr Cotton was able to access the secret file to see how successful the mission had been. He was impressed by all this kindness! Being HeartSmart means looking for opportunities to help others.
In Science, the children planned their investigation into how best to keep a plant healthy. Next week, they will plant the bean seeds; Year Two are very excited about this experiment! Mr Cotton would very much appreciate any small, glass jam/chutney jars if you have any that are spare.
This week we also welcomed ‘Open the Book’ into school. We were mesmerised by their performance of the Story of Creation.
Year Two, you continue to impress me! I hope that you all enjoy a lovely, restful weekend.
Miss Witham
