Year 2 w/b 28th March
Date: 5th Apr 2022 @ 2:36pm
What a wonderful week we enjoyed to conclude the Spring term. In English, we each wrote a set of instructions for making our pizzas. It was clear that the children had worked hard to include all of the key features from our instructions toolkit, as well as many aspects of Year 2 grammar. Well done Year 2 for thinking so carefully to make each sentence excellent!
Our spelling rule was: adding the suffix -ed. We learnt that, if a word ends in two consonants (e.g. jump, hunt, buzz) then no changes are necessary; we can just add the -ed suffix (e.g. jumped, hunted, buzzed). However, if a word ends in a short vowel sound followed by just one consonant (e.g. pat, nod, nip), you need to double the final consonant before adding the -ed suffix (e.g. patted, nodded, nipped). Our red words of the week were: Sunday, only, would, told, mind, all.
On Monday, we enjoyed our final shape lesson, as we made patterns with 3D shapes. As an extra challenge, we were even able to recognise and create symmetrical patterns! On Tuesday, we began our statistics unit as we learnt how to read and construct tally charts. On Thursday, our lesson focused on creating pictograms; we were able to link this learning to our prior experience of pictograms within our geography weather learning. Within this lesson, we read pictograms, linked them to tally charts and constructed them from given data. On Friday, the children were reading and constructing pictograms in which symbols represented more than one (2, 5 or 10) item. We look forward to completing our statistics unit within the first week of the summer term. Next half term, we will begin to look at time, particularly o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to. Exposure to and discussion of analogue time at home would really help the children to explore time within school.
To conclude our history learning for this half term, we first completed our comparison grids, comparing the time periods within which each of our three queens ruled. This prompted some rich discussions about the progress made across different aspects of life and the changes that we think have been most significant. We then enjoyed a quiz to ‘prove what we know’ about Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II. Finally, we completed our knowledge organisers for the topic that will act as a helpful summary of our learning that we can look back on later in the year to remind ourselves what we have learnt. This history unit has inspired lots of excitement about the Platinum Jubilee!
Within RE, we completed our assessment task to demonstrate our understanding of what Christians believe about salvation. To do this, we first gave a written response to the question: What do the parables of the Lost Son and Lost Coin mean to Christians? I was impressed by the thoughtful responses given which demonstrated a deep understanding of the meaning of these parables. Many children identified God as a loving and forgiving father (like the father in the parable of the Lost Son) who rescues people from sin even when they have made bad choices. He always welcomes us back and celebrates our return because we are so precious to Him. Just like the woman in the parable of the Lost Coin, God is determined to search for those who are lost. Next, we answered the question: How do Christians show their belief in God as loving and forgiving? We drew some pictures to summarise how Christians respond to this loving and forgiving father e.g. saying sorry, forgiving others, spreading the word of our forgiving father, helping those in need, praying for others to be rescued.
Wednesday afternoon was dedicated to Easter as we read the Bible and thought carefully about the events of Holy Week. This discussion also involved time to reflect on the symbolism of the cross and why it is so important to Christians. This reflection time inspired us to create Easter cards, remembering that Jesus died for us and rose again.
We have enjoyed lots of PE this week! On Wednesday, Mutiflex arrived to complete our termly fitness assessments. This involved: a javelin throw; speed bounce; long jump; sprinting and long-distance running. The children worked very hard and were very pleased with their improvement. This session took place within our Forest School slot so Mr Simmons kindly organised a break time activity so that we didn’t miss our Forest School time. We thoroughly enjoyed searching for chocolate eggs within the school grounds! On Thursday, we concluded our Fundamental Movement Skills unit by applying our attacking and evading skills within some games. This involved lots of dodging as well as a new skill – sidestepping.
Our HeartSmart lesson was entitled: That’s What Friends Are For. This lesson was all about saying sorry and offering forgiveness between friends. To begin, we watched a clip from the film ‘Shrek’ where Shrek and Donkey are making up after an argument. Shrek could see that he had upset his friend and needed to apologise. At first, he said sorry angrily and then he corrected himself. We recognised that saying sorry in a meaningful way is more important than just saying it. As long as we’re safe, then forgiveness is the only way to live HeartSmart. However, forgiveness does not mean that you should just let the other person carry on hurting you. If someone keeps on being unkind to you at school, the right thing to do is let one of the teachers know about the problem.
In addition, we completed our No Outsiders lesson for the half term which was based on the book ‘The Odd Egg’ by Emily Gravett. To deepen our understanding, we acted out the story as well as asking and answering a variety of thoughtful questions. How do we know that the duck feels proud when he finds an egg? How does he feel about the ducks teasing him? Right before his egg hatches, how is the duck feeling? Do you think the duck feels proud or ashamed when a crocodile comes out? Some people may say that the duck can’t look after his baby because he is a croc. What would you say if you heard the other birds say, “That’s not a real family”? We recognised that if the duck wants to look after a croc, then he is allowed to. All families are different. As the photos show, this was a thoughtful and enjoyable session.
This week also concluded our computing unit of work for the half term. This half term, our computing unit has been ‘Online Safety’ so has involved lots of discussion to ensure children’s understanding of this vital information is secure and they can relate the information to real-life scenarios. Children have learnt to: explain what is meant by online information; recognise what information is safe to be shared online; explain why we need passwords and what makes a strong password; understand that they need to ask permission before sharing content online and explain why; understand that they have the right to deny their permission to information about them being shared online; say who they can ask for help with online worries; use some strategies to work out if online information is reliable or not.
It was great to have Mr Millward, a commercial drone pilot, visiting Year 1 and 2. He demonstrated the various ways drones can be used. We imagined a scenario where the tide had taken someone far out to sea and the drone was used to deliver buoyancy aids to the exact position of the person struggling in the water. The demonstration ended with a drone sweet drop, which as you may imagine was much appreciated by the children!
Finally, we had a lovely afternoon working with Year 1 to find a trail of eggs hidden in the undergrowth. The aim to find the letters on each egg and discover the message for Easter. Mini eggs were an apt reward for great teamwork and endeavour! As the photos show, this was such fun and it was truly wonderful to see these Year 1 and 2 partnerships as children enjoyed searching for the clues together.
Thank you for your continued support. I hope that you all enjoy a wonderful, restful break and I wish you all a happy and blessed Easter. Mrs Warren and I look forward to seeing everybody back in school on Tuesday 19th April to begin another excellent half term of learning.
Miss Witham
