Year 2 have had a busy and fun start back to the last half -term.
We have had a lovely last week of half-term! We spent time designing, sewing and decorating puppets. These designs were inspired by the Anthony Browne story Gorilla, where a toy comes to life. Year 2 designed their puppet to look like their favourite animal. We have been working very hard and showing great resilience when practising our sewing skills. The children were very imaginative with their decorating and the results were fantastic. We also really enjoyed celebrating the Jubilee with patriotic craft activities and a delicious picnic with sandwiches and cakes. Have a wonderful and relaxing half-term!
It has been a busy week in Year 2! We have been very proud of the children’s excellent focus and positive attitudes during their SATs. Well done, everyone!
In maths, the children have been using their subtraction and addition skills to answer word problems, using RUCSAC to help them work out what the question is asking. In English, they completed their writing about zoos, looking at both sides of an argument: are zoos good or bad? They had some excellent reasons for and against, and used sentence openers effectively to organise their writing. In history, the children learnt about, and experienced, life in school as a Victorian child! They had their daily Reading, Writing and ‘Rithmetic (The 3Rs) lessons where they practised their handwriting and numbers on chalkboards and read the rules of the classroom. If children did not behave, they experienced writing lines, wearing the ‘Dunce’ hat and being threatened with the cane! I think it’s safe to say that the children are glad to be in schools nowadays!
Year 2 have started the summer term off brilliantly! We have enjoyed looking at the stories of Anthony Browne. He writes picture books and the detail in his books is amazing. We started with the story of Zoo and wrote a character description for the character of Dad. We used some ambitious words with suffixes. For example, disrespectful, thoughtless and meanness. In history, we have enjoyed exploring the Victorian era and learnt some facts about Queen Victoria. In DT, we made our sandwiches and really enjoyed eating them!
This week, Year 2 have created their own magical setting for them to jump into, inspired by Mary Poppins. We thought about what activities we would do, what food we would eat and how we would be feeling on this adventure. We then used this plan to create a diary entry documenting this magical day out. In maths, we have continued to look at multiplication and applied these skills to answer word problems. Year 2 have enjoyed learning about India, we have been listening to Ravi Shankar and creating artwork inspired by Akbar Padamsee’s landscapes.
Year 2 really enjoyed World Book Day this week! We read lots of stories and shared our favourite ones with the class and in assembly. In geography, we continued with our London topic. We sorted pictures into LONDON and NOT LONDON and gave reasons for our sorting. It led to some very interesting discussions about diversity, migration and culture. In English, we continued with Mary Poppins and wrote a set of magical commands! We also finally made a start on our moving vehicles.
Year 2 has had a busy start to this half of the term! The children are thoroughly enjoying our new class reader, 'Mary Poppins', and have done some excellent work in English linked to the book. They read the letter, sent from Jane and Michael Banks, to Mary Poppins, advertising for a new nanny. They explored the ideas, language and sentence types used, and then came up with their own requirements for a new nanny. On Thursday, they wrote their own letter to a Nanny. Here is an extract from Toby's letter:
You are wanted for two strong boys who live in a lovely house in Sheen. You must have the best video games, the largest TV and the greatest Fifa mobile. As well as this, you have to be cool, witty and amazing! Don't be unpleasant, rude or unfair.
In maths, the children learnt how to use arrays to write repeated addition sentences and multiplication sentences. In geography, we read 'Coming to England' by Floella Benjamin and discussed how she might have felt, leaving her home country of Trinidad, and arriving in England. The children had a colour-filled art lesson where they learnt about primary, secondary and tertiary colours. They mixed colours to create new colours and experimented using their paintbrush in different ways: stippling; creating dots; and using long and short strokes.
They are very much looking forward to continuing reading Mary Poppins in English, and making their cars in DT next week!
