Year 2 w/b 21st March
Date: 27th Mar 2022 @ 8:59pm
Year Two have, once again, worked wonderfully this week. On Monday, we reminded ourselves of the features of instructions as we explored some example texts in order to create an instructions toolkit. Having remembered that command sentences are a key feature of instructions, we learnt that the verbs used in these commands are known as ‘imperative verbs’. This prompted the return of one of our favourite games – verb charades! Following this exploration, the children wrote their own command sentences using imperative verbs, challenging themselves to make their sentences more exciting by including adverbs, conjunctions and adjectives in the commands. On Tuesday, our model text was revealed. We realised that this model text was a set of instructions for making slime! We picked out some ambitious vocabulary from the model text (transparent, consistency, viscous, flexible, knead, vibrant, vivid, durable, disastrous, experiment, precisely) and found synonyms for each word so that we could understand the meanings of the new vocab. On Wednesday, we enjoyed our ‘analyse’ day, picking out the following key features from our model text: questions, exclamations, commands, imperative verbs, adverbs, adverbials of time, conjunctions. On Thursday, we worked as a class to ‘box up’ the features of instructions to create a basic whole class plan. This plan will help us to write our own instructions next week to explain how to make pizza!
Our spelling rule this week has been: o spelt ‘a’ after w (e.g. wash, want, wander) and qu (e.g. quarrel, squash, quantity). Our red words of the week were: Saturday, could, says, were, small, want.
In maths, we continued our work with shape, focusing this week on 3D shapes. On Monday, we were counting and describing the faces of 3D shapes which involved the discovery that a curved surface on a 3D shape is not classed as a face. On Tuesday, we identified edges of a 3D shape as the line where two faces meet. On Thursday, we learnt that vertices on a 3D shape are where three or more edges meet, using the number of vertices to help describe the properties of 3D shapes. On Friday, we sorted 3D shapes based on their properties. Next week, we will enjoy our final shape lesson on Monday before moving on to some statistics work.
In history, we learnt about our current queen, Queen Elizabeth II. It was exciting to be able to watch some actual footage of a monarch, as we watched clips from the coronation and jubilees. We are now very excited for the Platinum Jubilee this year! As part of this lesson, we worked as a class to write a letter to the queen. Once we have proofread this letter, we will send this to Queen Elizabeth herself. How exciting!
In RE, the children were able to retell the Parable of the Lost Son verbally, and then through pictures to create a ‘hidden meaning box’. To place inside this box, the children wrote about the meaning of the parable, concluding that this parable teaches us all about forgiveness, just as God forgives us.
In PE, we refined our attacking and defending skills as we worked specifically on our dodging skills. As this was a shorter session due to our Thursday church visit, we particularly enjoyed applying these skills within some favourite games – ‘steal the bib’ and ‘stuck in the mud’. This was such fun in the sunshine!
One of the highlights of the week was our pizza making! On Tuesday, we conducted a taste test, using cocktail sticks to taste and score a variety of topping combinations to help inform our pizza designs. On Wednesday we made pizza! This involved a carousel of activities: designing the pizza boxes; chopping the toppings using a claw grip and bridge hold; making our pizzas. Next week, we will evaluate our pizzas.
On Tuesday, we welcomed Open the Book who shared the Easter story with us through drama. They focused on the events from Palm Sunday through to the last supper, Jesus’ arrest and trial, his crucifixion and ultimate resurrection on Easter Sunday morning. Open the Book have organised an Easter trail around Sandbach for families on Saturday 2nd April. This is a free event, and more details can be found on the poster outside school and on the flyer to be distributed in book bags next week.
This week, we were also delighted to return to Church twice this week. On Thursday, Year One and Two enjoyed a service all about Palm Sunday. It was lovely to see so many of you in Church on Friday after a wonderful walk together in the sunshine. It was indeed very emotional to hear the children singing so joyfully together once again.
Well done Year Two; I can’t wait for another wonderful week to conclude the Spring term!
Miss Witham
