Year 2

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Year 2

Meet the Team!

Lit in Colour

Recommended book list of books by authors of colour

Penguin Books and Lit in Colour state that:

Books create belonging. They help us see each other and understand one another. They shine a light on the world.

It’s vital that the books we read in our formative years reflect the rich diversity of the society we live in.

Here at St. Margaret Clitherow, we have a diverse school community - 55.7% of our school children are from a minority ethnic background. We therefore think it is important that children have access to books that reflect who they are. Attached is a list of recommended reads put together by Penguin Books. You can read the research behind the inclusion of books by authors of colour here:https:// https://www.penguin.co.uk/lit-in-colour/parents-and-supporters

Multi sports festival!

Newsletter:

What a fantastic start back Year 2 have had! We are learning about Easter in RE. The children enjoyed learning through drama by acting out the Easter story at the beginning of our topic. This term, our Science focus is Plants. This week, we observed and described how seeds grow into mature plants by dissecting fruit and exploring their seeds. In Music, we have been learning about British songs and sounds, with our focus this week being on British seaside sounds. Together, we learned ‘My Bonnie lies over the ocean’ and completed actions to help us remember the lyrics and tempo. We have finished our ‘If I were in charge of the class’ poems this week, where the children wrote some lovely, creative poetry! We are now starting a new narrative focus- Stardust. Well done to all of Year 2 for your participation in the Multi Sports event on Thursday, everyone had a wonderful time!

We have had a very exciting Science week! During our first science lesson, we explored magnetic materials, where the children investigation which objects were and weren’t attracted to magnets. They then used this information to determine what materials are magnetic. Finally, they were tasked to try and make a paper butterfly ‘fly’ by sticking magnetic materials to it, and all groups were successful! On Tuesday, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 virtually joined Farmer Fiona to learn how she cares for her sheep, cows and pigs at each stage of their lives. We learned how to describe and compare the structure of a variety of common mammals, exploring seasonal changes and learning what animals and plants need to stay healthy and happy. We then designed and created a class propagator to watch how cress seeds grow over time! In History, we have been having a look at how technology has changed the way we are entertained and organising a variety of technologies into chronological order. We have finished designing our vehicles during Design Technology and today, the children have built them! They can’t wait to decorate them next week. Finally, the children have worked so hard during English over the past few weeks while learning about diary entries, and have just come to the end of writing their very own, where they all did brilliantly!

What an exciting few weeks Year 2 have had! We have been focusing on The Great Fire of London in our English lessons, and using it to write a non-fiction text from the point of view of a rat! The children have enjoyed role playing what the lead up, event itself, and after math of the great fire of London must have been like and using this in their writing. They are looking forward to planning and writing their own diary entries next week. In Maths, we have been learning about measuring length and height. To achieve this, we have had lots of fun with practical activities, deciding what to use to measure the hall, objects in the classroom, and even each other! We have now moved on to mass, capacity and temperature. The children continue to learn about Lent in RE, focusing on forgiveness, where we see this in parables and how we can relate it to our lives now/ what this means for us. We continue to learn about Materials in science, and have been investigating how and why certain objects are better suited to specific materials. During History, Year 2 have been looking at changes in technology, for example how writing has changed in the last 60 years because of the technology available to us. Thank you to those who have already brought in their 4 bottle lids and boxes to make our vehicles in DT (we will start building these next Friday). Please do try to bring them in if you haven’t already.

12.01.24

Year 2 have had a fantastic start to our Spring term! The children have settled in brilliantly and are full of enthusiasm and excitement. They have very much enjoyed learning all about Christmas in RE, and we have just begun our new unit of Revelation, where we have started by acting out ‘The wedding at Cana’. In Art, we are learning about Earth art, exploring how we can use natural materials creatively. Year 2 loved bringing in rocks and looking in the woods for some that we were able to use in Art, creating our very own pet rocks! We have been looking at Materials in Science, where the children started by exploring a variety of materials and studying their properties, as well as discussing their uses. Our new Geography topic is Hot and Cold Places, where we have been learning about the Equator, and the North and South poles, and how a countries location relates to its temperature. The children have been working hard in English, where we have been having a great time learning about ‘The Place value of Punctuation and Grammar’, starting with common and proper nouns. During one of our lessons this week, each child was given one noun and they had to find the other children that belonged in their category with them, grouping themselves as they went. We are coming to the end of our money topic, where we have been working with using coins and notes to solve problems. Please encourage your children to help you work out the cost of shopping to continue their learning!

Your wonderful Habitat projects!

John the Baptist paintings

Nativity!

17.11.23

We have had a wonderful time this week exploring microhabitats around the school grounds in our Science lesson. Children were able to identify a microhabitat, sketch and label it. During History, Year 2 are enjoying learning about the causes and consequences of the Great Fire of London through a variety of historical evidence. This week, we finished writing our persuasive letters to our glue sticks, based off of ‘The Day the Crayons Quit.’ The children were very persuasive and luckily, the glue sticks have agreed to stick around! In RE, we have come to the end of our Catholic Social Teaching and are looking forward to moving on to Advent. We are having lots of fun working with shapes in Maths and learning all about the sides and vertices of 2D shapes before moving on to 3D shapes next week. We wore odd socks on Monday to raise awareness for anti-bullying week and have been reading books related to bullying and friendship. On Thursday, each child wrote a sentence about bullying and we combined them to make a lovely, thoughtful class poem. Finally, we had our liturgical prayer this week and Year 2 did wonderfully! They should all feel very proud of their performance.

27.10.23

Just before half term, Year 2 had a brilliant time creating a 3-D form from clay using the rolling technique. We can’t wait to paint them once they are finished in the kiln! We were very lucky to participate in a West African drumming session, where everyone was able to have a go on a drum and together we created some fantastic rhythms! During RE, we have been focusing on Catholic Social Teaching. This week, we explored the ‘Feeding of the 5000’ and how it reflects Jesus as the light of the world. The children had a great time acting out this story to aid with their understanding! We are enjoying working with ‘The Day the Crayon’s Quit’ in English, and loved our sensory lesson where we smelled a variety of foods and objects to create positive adjectives for our writing. Next week, we will start planning and writing our own persuasive letters! In Science, we have started learning about ‘Living Things and their Habitats’, and ‘The Great Fire of London’ in History, where we started by focusing on evidence and how we use it to determine what London in 1666 was like.

12.10.2023

Year 2 have had a brilliant few weeks! We have very much enjoyed learning a West African call and response song through exploring tempo, dynamics and timbre, focusing on call and response with rhythmic safari sounds. We have continued to learn about animals including humans in Science, and the children have been specifically looking at how animals change and grow over time, as well as looking into what makes a healthy diet. Year 2 loved measuring each other’s feet while investigation growth! Our Black History month focus this year is ‘celebrating our sisters’. During our science lesson this week, we looked at influential black women shaping science, including Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Dr Samantha Tross, and Professor Elizabeth Anionwu. Children chose one woman to draw in action (imagining the tasks she may be involved in), imagine being for a day (what could they do to change the world in this role) and finally think about what questions they might ask if they could meet one of these women. We continue to learn about Continents and Oceans in Geography, where this week we focused on human and physical features, deciding which continent we want to visit most and justifying our responses with features. The children also played a great vocabulary game, where they were challenged to guess each other’s vocab words without using other key words! We have moved on to adding and subtracting in Maths, and have started an exciting new book ‘The Day the Crayon’s Quit’ in English!

29.09.23 Newsletter

Year 2 have had a super few weeks back! We are now in the full swing of our learning journey and we are loving it. The children have been very busy in RE, focusing on Creation and the Bible stories of Noah and Jonah. They created some wonderful stained-glass windows to represent the stories and even had a visit from Mrs Ridguard for a Q&A on Church readings. As our place value topic comes to an end in Maths, the children are growing in knowledge and confidence- some have even come up to teach the class themselves! We have began planning our Crow’s Tale independent writing in English and the class are having a great time using their creativity. We can’t wait to share them with you! In Geography, they have enjoyed building their knowledge of Continents and Oceans as well as the life cycles of animals including humans in Science.

22.09.23 Newsletter

Year 2 have had a wonderful time settling into the school year. In RE, we have been familiarising the bible stories of Noah and Jonah through acting, sequencing and retelling, and reflecting on how this relates to us today. We are excited to be learning about ‘Animals including humans’ in Science, where we have been looking at what we need to survive. Our Geography topic this term is Continents and Oceans, and we have started by focusing on where we are in the world. Year 2 especially enjoyed finding our school on Google Earth! The children have been doing some wonderful writing in our English lessons, focusing on ‘The Crow’s Tale’. A fantastic start back, well done Year 2!