Summer 1 Week 2

In Maths this week we have been learning more about fractions. We have looked a equal and unequal parts, recognising a half and finding a half. 

In English this week we have continued to look at the story, Handa's Surprise. We have been conducting interviews in role, pretending to be Handa and her friend Akeyo. We have also written expanded noun phrases, using adjectives, about the wonderful fruits that Handa collected.

In Science, we have completed lots of different activities all about the chicks and their life cycle. We learned about how our eggs in the incubator would hatch and found it interesting to learn that the chicks have an ‘egg tooth’ to chip their way out of the shell.

In Geography, we have looked at our topic of Africa and have been using Google Earth and map reading skills to plot different countries on our Africa maps including famous locations such as the River Nile, Congo rainforest and Mount Kilimanjaro.

Summer 1 Week 1

What a fun filled week we have had to start off the summer term!

Our new topic is Africa and the children have loved reading Handa's Surprise. In English we have tasted lots of exotic fruits such as mango, pineapple, avocado and passion fruit. Some of them we thought were really tasty! We had to write about our predictions and we will see next week if we were correct. We have also been writing diary entries in the role of Handa. We have even looked at how to proofread and edit our work!

In Maths this week the children have been continuing to focus on multiplication and division. We have looked at the ten and five times tables. We have used a counting stick to try and remember our times tables and have looked at division number sentences.

In Geography we had an exciting time looking at African artefacts to introduce our topic. We had to think about what we thought they were and what they might have been used for. Some of these items included djembe drums, masks and paintings. We even went on a virtual African safari! It was lots of fun.

What a busy week!

Spring 2 Week 6

What a jam-packed last week! We had a lovely church service led by year 3 on Monday morning where we sang beautifully!

On Tuesday, we had our trip to Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve. When we got there we had a play and then had an introduction talk from Stuart and Bella, they were very funny and taught us some facts about conservation at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve and the different creatures we had there. We learnt some amazing facts like spiders have their legs on their heads. 

Next, we split into classes and 2UW went pond dipping and 2L went minibeast hunting, then we swapped over after lunch. We found some impressive minibeasts includin a big Greater water boatman, a caddisfly larvae and some millipedes and centipedes.

We also really loved having our picnic and playing in the play area. 

Sevenoaks Wildlife Centre is open over the holidays, they have special events or even a holiday club if you want to check them out!

On Wednesday, we wrote a recount of our trip and after school we had the Spring Concert. Our teachers were very proud of how we performed!

On Thursday, we had outdoor learning where we collected firewood, toasted marshmallows and decorated some wooden Easter eggs. In the afternoon, we did some arts and crafts!

Thank you for a lovely term, we hope you have a really love Easter holiday!

Spring 2 Week 5

This week we started looking at our new text, The Tiger Child, which is a folktale from India. We researched some amazing facts about India and used these to write our own non-chronological report.

In Maths, we have been learning the 2 times tables and using this to learn the inverse (division). We have also used the 2 times tables to support us with doubling and halving. 

In Geography, we wrote persuasive letters to Mrs Hood based on our fieldwork last week (after we analysed our data), asking her if we can have a school pond.

We learnt a new song in music, I am the Music Man, which we found very funny and exciting!

We can't wait for a jam packed week next week, going to the Church and Sevenoaks Wildlife Centre!

Spring 2 Week 3 BOOK WEEK!

Wow, what a week we have had! It started with an amazing suprise greeting from the characters of Alice in Wonderland. The children enjoyed a very mad mad hatters tea party all together!

On Tuesday the children were inspired by their visit from Alex Wharton, the author and poet who performed and showcased his many skills for the children. They used this visit to write thank you letters to Alex which we are excited to send off. 

Throughout the week we had some book themed activities, but Wednesday was particularly focused on Mad Maths through stories. The children enjoyed mixing with other year groups and taking part in some exciting maths challenges. They were also dressed in pyjamas for their bedtime stories with Mr Lucas which was one of their highlights. 

On Thursday, the children and staff came dressed as book characters. They all looked amazing, it created such a fantastic atmosphere in school and the children loved telling each other about why they had picked their character. Throughout the day we also had stop, drop and read which the children found highly amusing!

It was lovely to welcome a lot of you in to read with your children on Thursday afternoon, we hope you will come and read with us again soon!

Finally, today, we had our book swap shop, and our reading safari, a lovely opportunity to choose a new book and read with others. 

Across the whole week, we have also learn the nonsense poem On The Ning Nang Nong, which we performed to the school in collective worship, and have then made up our nonsense own versions which are very funny!

We've also had the opportunity to do three outdoor learning activities, including stories around a campfire and plant scavenger hunts, all linked to our Alice in Wonderland theme!

Have a lovely weekend!

Spring 2 Week 2

Another fun packed week! In English, we have been continuing with our book The Secret Sky Garden. The main characters, Funni and Zoo, love to fly their kites. We wrote instructions for how to make a kite, and then in pairs we made our own and tried to fly them outside! We wrote a recount of how it went using first person and past tense. 

In Maths we have been dividing by grouping and sharing, and used lots of practical resources to support us. 

We had a surprise this week, and finished our Great Fire of London topic by burning down the houses we had made at the start of term in the outside area. It was so exciting! 

In Geography we began looking at our school area and created our own labelled maps. 

19th - 23rd February 2023

We've had a lovely week back after half term and have been impressed by how hard the children have been working. We have started our new unit in maths, multiplication, and the children have been recognising and using the multiplication symbol and using pictures to complete multiplication sentences. 

In English we have started a new key text, The Secret Sky Garden by Linda Sarah. We have thought about the main character and what she is like, and have written diary entries in the role of Funni as well as writing a set of instructions for creating our own secret sky garden.

In Geography we have begun looking at fieldwork, learning what it is and why geographers do it. We were inspired to learn about some of the geographical fieldwork taking place around the world. We can't wait to get out and about undertaking our own fieldwork.

2UW had a lovely morning of forest school where we learnt to tie a reef knot and how to use a drill to create our own beautiful medallions. 2L are very excited for their turn next week!

5th-9th February 2024

Happy half term!

We have had such a fun and jam packed last week of half term this week. 

In English we have written letters to King Charles II, telling him all about The Great Fire of London and asking him for urgent help! We tried to include adverbs in our letters such as urgently and quickly. We also wrote letters to the firefighters who came to school last week to thank them for teaching us and for everything they do to help others.

We thought about how hard it was to put out the Great Fire of London using the leather buckets and fire squirts, as people had to keep running to the river and could only collect small amounts of water. We played a game to reenact this using syringes as a relay race, trying to fill our cups to put out the fire. Well done to the Team 3 winners!

We finished our money unit in maths. Today, we learnt about giving change and the children absolutely loved setting up their own shops and going to others shops and buying things and counting out change. This would be a great game to continue to play over half term with family!

In RE this week we had some great discussions about what matters most to Christians. We used the parable ‘The Pearl of Great Price’: Matthew 13:45–46 to learn that Christians believe that going to heaven is what matters most. We thought about what we think matters most in our lives, and had some very interesting discussions deciding whether money or happiness matters more, being loved or being safe, having a laugh or having a bath and so on. The children had some really well thought out answers.

We hope you all have a lovely and restful half term, please feel free to bring in any learning or stories you write etc for us next half term.

29th - 2nd February 2024

In Year 2 we have been looking at fire poetry to link with our Great Fire of London Topic. The children have thoroughly enjoyed creating phrases to use in their fire poems. We have learnt how to use similes in our writing and how to write in different styles of poetry.

We had lots of fun using our watercolour paint skills from our Art lessons to create a background for our final cinquain poem.

In Maths we have been enjoying our money topic. We have been making amounts of money and buying items from our classroom shop. We have learnt how to make the same value using different coins and notes. We have also become experts at using the greater than, less than and equal to symbols.

Key Stage 1 were intrigued by their talk from the Kent Fire and Rescue Service. We learnt that smoke detectors should be checked every week. We learnt how to stop fire spreading on our clothing – stop, drop and roll. We all know the number to call if we find a fire and to shout ‘fire, fire’ if we need help.

22nd - 26th January 2024

Another lovely week in year 2. In English, we finished reading Vlad and the Great Fire of London and then wrote our own stories of a Vlad and Boxton adventure. We wrote our stories up in neat and turned them into our very own books with a front cover and blurb.

In Maths, we started our money unit. At first, we were finding recognise all of the coins and notes a little tricky, but we have been making a lot of progress. It would be really helpful if we could play with some money at home. We could create our own shop to help us recognising coins, adding money and even giving change. 

In art, we have been looking at the colour wheel and primary and secondary colours. We have used what we know to mix our own warm colours and named them Farrow and Ball style. We then created some fire art. We have also looked at Liana Moran and her use of charcoal to create pictures of buildings. We will be using her techniques to add buildings over our fire art. 

8th-12th January 2024

We've had another loving week in year 2. Continuing with our Great Fire of London topic, we have learnt about The Plague and have written letters to Londoners in 1665 to tell them that it's actually fleas that's causing it! We also wrote our own fact files about fleas.

In maths, we have been continuing with shape. We have learnt to count the sides and vertices of 2D shape and have begun looking at lines of symmetry. 

In PE, we have started our ball skills unit as well as dance. We've been having a lot of fun pretending to be different creatures in the secret garden. 

We have begun our new art unit, on Friday we looked at the colour wheel and created our own. We then looked at the funny names that Farrow & Ball name their colours and mixed our own and named them!

We're excited to see what next week brings! :)

3rd-5th January 2024

Happy New Year!

What an amazing first (half a) week we have had back at school. We launched our Great Fire of London topic, we started by learning some key facts and then we built our own Tudor houses. We focussed on the idea that they had a larger top part, were made of wood and had black beams. On Thursday we did some role-play, pretending we were in London in 1666. We then wrote a description of what we could see, hear and smell. 

We started our shape unit in maths. We have been learning the names of 2D and 3D shapes and their properties. We have been on a shape hunt and have made our own shapes and been counting the sides.

Week 5: 2nd-6th October 2023

In Maths, the children have been looking at number lines to 100. We have placing tens on the number lines and estimating where other numbers would be based on these. We have been learning the mathematical word; intervals!

In English, we wrote character descriptions of a character of our choice from The Storm Whale. We used adjectives and conjunctions to describe their appearance and personality. We then began researching blue whales and writing notes, we will be using our notes to write a fact file. 

In Science, we looked at food chains. We learnt what a producer, consumer and predator are and created our own food chains in class. We also looked at Lloyd our mantis and discussed what the producer and consumer are in his food chain! 

Week 3: 18th-22nd September 2023

In Maths, we have been continuing to focus on place value looking at tens and ones. The children have also been learning to write numbers to 100 in words with the correct spellings. 

In English, we have continued to read The Storm Whale. We have imagined what Noi would play whilst his dad is out at work, and written a set of instructions for the game, focussing on our use of imperative verbs. We have also imagined what the storm might have been like and expressed our ideas through art and dance, and written our own descriptive storm poems. 

In Science, we drew different habitats and discussed which animals would live in each one. We used magazines to cut out animals and stick them onto the appropriate habitats. 

In art, we have started a project on Andy Goldsworthy, who creates sculptures out of natural materials and is an environmentalist. We will be creating our own sculptures in the next few weeks, so we would be really grateful if children could bring in some natural materials to use such as: bright coloured leaves, sticks, pine cones, acorns, pebbles, rocks, flowers etc. 

Week 2: 11th-15th September 2023

In English, we have begun looking at our new class text, which is a secret from the children! We have used our imagination to create artwork depicting the setting of the story and have described it with adjectives. We have also been inferring characters thoughts and feelings through role plays and writing thought bubbles.

In Maths, we have continued to focus on place value by using manipulatives to make numbers using tens and ones. 

In Geography we have looked at coastlines in the UK. We have described and located them on a map. We have also started to think about the features of a coastline.

In Music, we introduced our key questions which is 'How does music help us make friends?' We listened to different music and did a quiz! We also got to march along to find the pulse and clapped and sung songs.

Week 1: 4-8th September 2023

This week has been a busy and exciting start to year 2! The children have settled well into new routines and have become familiar with new members of staff. 

We had a fantastic day on Wednesday to introduce our new topic 'By the Seaside'. The children enjoyed sitting on their beach towels in the classroom whilst listening to stories, playing traditional beach games, flying kites, creating beach art and learning about different shells and rocks whilst exploring the rockpool.

In Maths, the children have been recapping numbers to 20 and have been using tens frames and counters to represent these numbers. They have been writing numbers to 20 in numerals and words, it would be great if children could practise spelling their numbers to 20!

In English, the children have written a recount of their holidays as well as postcards reflecting on the wonderful beach day we had.

We have spent a lot of time discussing how we are going to ensure our classrooms are a safe and happy environment and also how we keep our bodies healthy and keep motivated.

As mentioned in the year 2 Parent Expectations meeting, the children will be assessed in phonics next week and have their reading books sent home following this to ensure they are all given the correct levels.