Summer 2022

Welcome back Year 2! 

We hope that you have had a fabulous Easter break and are ready to be immersed in our new topic, India! 

Mr Howard, Mrs Batey and Mrs Parker are very much looking forward to seeing your creative projects from over the holidays and we can add to our fantastic classroom displays! 

'Courage' is our Christian Value for Summer 1 so start having a think about what helps you to be courageous and brave?  What do you think 'Courage' means? 

Please click on the links below to access our subject knowledge organisers. 

Over the Easter holidays, children were set a challenge.  Children could create:
-a poster with some information about India
-a drawing/painting/collage of an animal from India
-a 'Did you know?' factsheet
-a model or painting of a landmark
- a poem about an Indian animal/ Indian landmark.   
Here are some examples from our Tapestry page:
     

Indian food certainly was well-received in some households!       

In Maths,  children have been learning about the difference between capacity and volume. We have looked at examples of liquids and criteria for what makes a liquid. We have used some basic non standard measurements of capacity and had the challenge of trying to fill 2 containers to the same capacity even if they have different volumes.  Children then looked at solving problems with ml and litres.
 

In PE, children had their first session of tennis with Nick. They used hand to eye coordination and racket skills. On Thursday, we started our unit on athletics and looked the difference between long and short distance running.

At the start of Week 2, children were introduced to our English Text 'Tiger Child'.  They discussed the front cover and posed questions for what the story may be about; they then went on to make predictions.  Will the Tiger Child be friendly or unfriendly?   
     
Children enjoyed reading the story and spotted patterns in the Narrative.  We then used adjectives and nouns to make expanded noun phrases about the characters.  

In the school hall, our India Acrostic Poems are proudly displayed.  We completed our research before the Easter holidays and focussed on particular elements of India.  Children used the poems as a fantastic introduction to our new topic.  

In Art, we started looking at the history of art work from India.  Children focussed on this particular painting and used oil pastels to recreate one of the elements- fish, lady, bird, turtle or face.  The children discussed which colours they could use and why they had a big impact.  We were inspired by the Indian Artist-Padma Shri Sita Devi.  She created Madhubani-style painting.

Art 
In our art lesson, we evaluated our work from last lesson.  Our Art Board is certainly vibrant and colourful which reflects the Indian Art which we have been inspired by. 

Children used their evaluation points to complete Holi inspired elephants. The Elephant festival is held in Jaipur which is a city in northern India. It is usually held on or just before the Holi festival (festival of colours) in March. The people of Jaipur decorate their elephants with vibrant colours, pretty saddle cloths and heavy jewellery. The most beautiful elephant is awarded the winnng prize. Children enjoyed using oil pastels to create bright patterns on their own elephants.  We stuffed them with cotton wool to make them 3D.

We are seeing a lot of progress in the children’s tennis sessions on a Wednesday afternoon. The children are developing excellent coordination and racket skills and are really enjoying their time play games. 

We were very lucky as Year 2 children had the opportunity to work on our Cathedral tiles for the 900th Anniversary.  Lots of schools have been involved in creating tiles to represent their school.  All these tiles will be put together to form a Labyrinth in the Cathedral's Fratry Hall and will be available for the public to visit.  Thank you to everyone involved! 

In Maths, we are continuing to work on our Mental Arithmetic strategies.  Children had great fun playing a range of games to help develop their skills and solve problems.  

Our music could be heard throughout the school as children did a fantastic job playing xylophones and glockenspiels.  They had to count the beats in a bar and think about when to pause.  Our Friendship song sounded amazing with their tuneful accompaniment.  Well done Year 2! 

Children designed their own moving pictures.  They had to think about which mechanism was the most appropriate for their picture and which element would move.  I will add some more photos when we evaluate them after half term.  

Preparations are well underway for our Platinum Jubilee Celebrations!  Well done Year 2!

Summer 2- History Focus (Schools and Homes from the Past) 

Welcome back to our final half term- We have lots of exciting learning planned!
Please click on the links below to see our topic web and knowledge organisers. 

This half term's Christian Value is Perseverance! We are asking children and staff to share photographs to show when they have demonstrated Perserverance.  Here are a few examples! 

We started our Maths work by looking at different ways of collecting and presenting data.  This formed part of our Hall Display as we demonstrated how to use Tally Charts.  We have looked at tally charts and pictograms before using these to interpret the data. 

Our Hall Display 

History
To start our topic, we looked at what a domestic activity was in the past and what it is in the present day.  The children were provided with photographs from the present day, tracking back within living memory.  They began to think about how times have changed and placed them on a timeline. 

CSP  Literature Festival (Week Commencing 13th June 2022) 

Our Literature Festival kicked off in style- superhero style!
We watched a video to show familiar adults reading in extreme places. 

Year 2 were desperate to get on the library bus this morning- so many superheroes and heroines! 
We are sure that they will enjoy reading their new books.   

RSE 
Year 2 started our first session of Kidsafe Full Programme 1 today.  We talked about how we keep ourselves safe; 'yukky' feelings and how these feelings affect our bodies; what situations might give us 'yukky' feelings and the benefits of talking.  Children also played the Trust Game- we have a fabulous class and very trustworthy peers.  What a fabulous first session! 

Art 
Our Art Unit this half term will focus on the artist, Andy Warhol.  We have changed the sequence of our lessons to ensure that we could complete some Supertato Pop Art, leading on from work in the Literature Festival.  Children will find out more about Andy Warhol in the coming weeks.  

RE
Children are continuing to work on their writing so we provided an opportunity for a cross-curricular written piece.  In RE, we are digging deeper into the Creation Story.  We re-capped the 7 days of Creation but thought carefully about the feelings of Adam and Eve- particularly on Day 6 of Creation.  How did they feel on day 6?  What did they see?  What did they think?  Children completed a descriptive piece of writing.  Below, you can read a fabulous example: 

Drama and Singing Workshop 
Year 1 and year 2 had the pleasure of meeting Helen from Stagecoach.  They had a wonderful time performing and learning a little more about Drama.  They developed a beautiful performance with actions and singing parts for 'A spoonful of sugar'.  Hopefully, it rubs off at home and the children tidy up like the Banks' children!

English - How to hide a lion
This morning year 2 have worked super hard creating lion faces and writing sentences using adjectives to describe how the lion was feeling during different parts of the story, 'How to hide a Lion'. We even had a go at acting out parts of the story. Great work year 2!

French
Children in year 2 are working really hard on their French.  This year, we have already learnt some conversational French and numbers to 20.  This week, we tried to identify the French words for different foods.  It was quite tricky but some of the spellings were similar to English so that helped a little bit! 

Quiet Reflection Time 
After the excitement of Transition Morning, Year 2 enjoyed some quiet time in the Prayer Garden.  They then wrote some thoughtful TSP prayers about God's Creation.  They also had some time to reflect on the morning in their new classroom with their new teacher. 

Sports Day 

On the morning of Sports Day, Year 2 designed their own healthy lunch box and made a delicious smoothie!
What a fantastic afternoon we had!  Congratulations to all our wonderful year 2 children who demonstrated resilience, determination and good sportsmanship.  Their positivity shone through and we are very proud of them all! 

Art 
Children continued their art journey by discovering a bit more about Andy Warhol, focussing on his blotted line technique.
They then produced their own works of art using this technique.  Tracing paper was used to print their chosen image onto a piece of card.  Children were very excited to use the inks though they quickly identified that some colours were darker than others and lots of water was needed.  
 

Some children were inspired by guinea pigs, cats, horses, footballers- and even the Rockcliffe School Badge. 
One of our children chose the school badge because it is special!