Year 2H
Welcome to Year 2 Class Pages: 2020 - 2021
We can’t believe that we have now started our last term in Year 2! Where has the time gone? It only seems like yesterday when we were settling into our new class! We have learnt so much and have grown up a lot since September, but there are still plenty of exciting things to learn before we leave KS1 and venture into KS2.
Our English work starts with persuasive writing, using ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ by Drew Daywalt. We will have great fun and our creativity will be pushed to the limit! We will also be reading and writing our own riddles (we’ll be trying to stump our teachers!) and, towards the end of term, we’ll be learning Edward Lear’s classic poem ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’. Our narrative work will be based on Ronda Armitage’s lovely story, ‘The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch’.
In Science, we will be looking at plants in our Ready, Steady, Grow unit of work. We will be looking at seed dispersal, wind pollination and how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants.
For our Computing work this term, we will be introduced to making music digitally using 2Sequence. We will explore, edit and combine sounds, and think about how sounds can be used express feelings. We will create our own tunes using the sounds we have added. Y2 will also be creating pictures, looking at the work of Impressionist artists and recreating them using the Impressionism template in 2Paint A Picture. We will also be looking at the work of pointillist artists such as Seurat and learn how to recreate pointillist art using the Pointillism template.
In RE we’ll be learning about what happened in the aftermath of Easter. We will be reading stories about the times Jesus appeared to His disciples after the resurrection, His Ascension into Heaven and the events of the Pentecost. During the Pentecost, Jesus blessed the disciples with the Holy Spirit and we’ll be thinking of ways to show that the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts as well.
Topic work will start with the weather. We will learn about seasonal weather patterns in hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles and comparing these to weather patterns in the United Kingdom. After half term, we’ll be ‘going to the seaside’ as we compare the seaside now to what it was like in the past. We can’t wait for that!
In DT we’ll be exploring simple mechanisms, focusing on wheels and axles. We will design and make ice cream vans – perfect for our seaside topic. After all, we can’t visit the seaside without treating ourselves to a cornet or an ice lolly!
As you can see, we’ll be keeping our noses to the grindstone as we try to make this term the best one ever!
Reminders: PE is currently on Wednesdays - children need to bring in their PE kits each week.
Outdoor PE Activities are on a Friday and children need to bring appropriate clothing and footwear for working outdoors
Contacts: If we can help you in any way please do not hesitate to contact us on our class e mail:
Y2H@ourlady-st-gerards.lancs.sch.uk.
Or why not follow us on Twitter by clicking the link below:
Year 2 Overview of Themes 2020-2021
Here we are, all ready for Year 2!
Have you ever wished you could be a fly on the wall to see what goes on in class once we've been dropped off at school? Here's your opportunity to take a glimpse into what we get up to!
Summer 2021
MATHS
We have been polishing up our number skills. We've worked very hard and we're getting REALLY good!
NUMBER DAY
We had so much fun representing numbers - some of us were extremely creative!
ENGLISH
We've had fun creating our own riddles. Can you guess what we are describing? Answers on a postcard, please!
SCIENCE
We germinated some broad beans hydroponically. Together with the sun, they soon developed roots and shoots. We have now taken them home to plant in compost. We've kept one in school to monitor its growth - we're crossing our fingers that we'll see a bean pod or two before the end of term! .
DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY
The focus of our DT work was food - we designed, made and enjoyed healthy rainbow wraps. We managed to include some Maths skills into our work and some aspects of Science and PSHE too. Can you spot the cross-curricular links?
PSHE
We focused our work on health and well-being. During one of our lessons, we discussed ways of keeping our teeth healthy. It's pretty obvious that in Y2H we know how to take care of our pearly whites!
GEOGRAPHY
We've been looking at weather patterns around the world and comparing these to our weather here in the UK. We started by making our very own weather station so that we could monitor and record our weather each day.
ART/ GEOGRAPHY
When we looked at the weather in Tromso, which is in Northern Norway and near to the North Pole, we came across an amazing phenomena known as the Aurora Borealis. We couldn't believe what we were seeing! Now we all want to go to Tromso to see the Northern Lights! In the meantime, we recreated them using chalk pastels. We think we have done a brilliant job. We hope you agree.
Spring 2021
January 5th – March 5th
Little did we know when we returned to school on January 4th that this would be our first day and our last day together for a short while. The next day, all schools were shut to keep us safe from the Coronavirus. But this didn’t stop Y2H! Whether working from home with the support of our parents and grandparents, or in school as children of key workers, we have worked our little socks off. Take a look!
Wellbeing Wednesdays gave us opportunities to step away from our screens, learn new skills, lend a helping hand around our homes, get plenty of fresh air and have lots of fun!
March 8th - April 1st
Hurray! We're back in our own classroom and learning together! What a wonderful time for us to be back - Spring is in the air, it's Lent and we have been busy preparing for Easter.
We've made individual holding crosses. They remind us that Jesus died on the cross for us.
We've worked together for days and days making enough green and purple paper 'twirls' to fill our wooden cross frames for our window display.
STATIONS OF THE CROSS
The whole school worked together to make the Stations of the Cross. Y2H chose to represent the second station, Jesus Takes up His Cross. At first, we didn’t know that Jesus had chosen to carry His own cross to Golgotha, where He was to die. We thought of words to describe this journey and wrote them on little footsteps climbing the hill to the cross. As difficult as the journey was for Jesus, He was comforted in knowing that God was with Him every step of the way. We then thought of the challenges that we face in our lives and realised that just as God was with Jesus on His difficult journey, God is also with us – every step of the way!
Autumn 2020
MATHS
We had fun learning about the properties of 3-D shapes by making models using straws and blutak. We used straws to make the edges and blutak to make the vertices. We had to cut some of the straws to make shorter edges for some of our shapes. Can you spot the shapes we made?
SCIENCE
We found out how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching. As you can see, you can change the shape of a sock in many different ways!
We also identified and compared the suitability of a variety of everyday materials for particular uses. Here we are testing materials for making a bridge for toy cars. We discovered that cardboard is definitely not a good choice!
ART
Throughout the term we have been developing our printing skills using a range of media. Towards the end of the term we used our newly acquired skills to make a print of Saint Gerard's church.
GEOGRAPHY
We have used atlases, globes and songs to learn about the continents and oceans that make up our wonderful world.
HISTORY
One of the highlights of the Autumn Term was learning about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot – we LOVED it! Because these events happened hundreds of years ago we had to use a range of sources to find information.
We produced some excellent pieces of writing as a result of our hard work.
DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY
As Christmas approached, we were very excited to be designing and making puppets. Before starting on the work, we thought it might be a good idea to look at some existing puppets – what fun! Then, realising that we’d eventually have to join materials we decided to investigate which would be the best and the strongest way. We also had to acquire new skills such as threading a needle, keeping an even running stich and even making a double stitch. Next day, we designed our puppets on paper and gathered all the necessary resources. Then it was time to make our puppets – what a busy day!
Take a look at these photos – they show the story of how we made our puppets. Can you recognise who we made?
Nadolig Llawen! / Merry Christmas!
We learnt a very familiar Christmas carol for our school’s virtual Nativity, but can you spot a difference? Listen carefully - we learnt it in Welsh! Mrs Hathaway is ever so proud of us and thinks we have done an amazing job learning the words. On the day of recording three of us were absent so, as a class, we decided to re-record it on their return to school. The sound system wasn’t working on the day so we sang it a cappella!
We hope you enjoy our amazing performance and we wish you all a very happy Christmas.