It is a very important time in Year 2 at the moment as the children are preparing very hard for their SATs. This week we have been focusing on fractions and finding fractions of a shape, set of object and an amount. 

Last week was a very fun, creative week in Year 2!

On Thursday it was book week and we all dressed up as monsters or mythical creatures from our favourite books. Year 2 looked fantastic and they all had a great day!

Throughout the week, Year 2 read the book ‘The Singing Mermaid’ by Julia Donaldson. We found out that the mermaid had been lied to by Sam Sly and kept in a horrible, small fish tank. As a class, we wrote letters pretending to be the mermaid to tell the sea creatures what had been happening.

We also sketched some fantastic mermaids and used watercolours to improve them. We used sponges to make a watery back ground and our master pieces were complete! Come and chec

Year two have begun learning about Sea creatures and all living things under the sea.

As a class, we read the collection of poems called ‘commotion in the ocean’. We looked at how the poems were structured and what we thought made a good poem. We also learnt some off by heart and performed them to the rest of the class.

We learnt about using our voice and including actions to make it more interesting. Then we wrote our own poems about sea creatures. Come and check them out!

This week we have been looking at instruction texts in year 2. We found out that if we need to know how to make or do something, we need to read instructions to tell us what to do. We wanted to make our very own pirate cutlasses so we needed to read some instructions to help us. First we had to put back together some instructions that had been cut up. This helped us to understand each of the sections in an instruction text. Then we followed the instructions to make our own swords. We are looking forward to be able to use them on our upcoming pirate day!

Year 2 came back from lunch to find that all of Pirate Pete’s treasure had been frozen! They were given then task of finding out how they could melt the ice quickly to give the treasure back to Pirate Pete. We had lots of liquids to choose from including vinegar, salt water and hot water. We then chose from a selection of tools to administer the liquids including paintbrushes, pipettes and our own hands.

We made sensible predictions about which material and tool would melt the ice the quickest. We found that hot water and a paintbrush got us to the gleaming booty the quickest!

How do heavy things float?

We decided that only light things float, but then we thought about boats. How do they float?

To investigate we made our own boats out of play dough and changed the shape to see if certain shapes helped it to float. We found that if we made the play dough into a curved shape, it floated but a big lump of play dough sank. We found out that this was because of air. If you add air into a material it is more likely to float than a dense material with no air it in. Changing the shape of the play dough to a curved boat shape allowed more air into the material so it floated!

Here are some pictures of us investigating:

This week, Christmas cheer has been creeping into the Year 2 classroom as we begin our preparations for the important festival for Christians.

In our R.E lessons, we have been learning about the advent wreath and what each part represents. We know there is a candle for each Sunday in Advent that represent love, hope, joy and peace. As a class we have been reflecting on how each of these values feature in our lives and how we might be able to demonstrate them ourselves.

This week we have also made some festive hats to wear to our Christmas lunch! We had a great time eating turkey, pulling crackers and eating delicious mince pies! It was extra special for some of us whose parents came to celebrate with us.

Have a look at us in our amazing hats.

This week in Year 2, we have been thinking about the importance of looking after our mental health. During circle time, we have discussed feelings and how we may deal with certain things that make us feel upset or uncomfortable. We decided that the best thing to do when we are experiencing feelings that we don’t understand or like, was to talk to someone we trust and think about ways to solve any problems we may have. In addition, we also practised lots of mindfulness techniques like controlled breathing and meditation.

We have been creating our own Pudding Lane Bakery in Year 2. We have made lots of bright, colourful flames to show just how fierce the fire was in the bakery. We can now pretend we were actually there when the fire started and can understand just how scary and frightening it must have been!

Last week the children were lucky enough to experience Forest Schools with Mrs Grant in our lovely forest area outside. Mrs Grant showed us how to start a fire and what  fire needed to burn. Importantly, she also gave us some rules that would keep us safe around fire. For example, if anyone did set part of their clothes on fire, they had to STOP…… DROP…. and ROLL!

We drank delicious hot chocolates with gooey marshmallows inside them! What a treat! We also listened to one of our favourite stories while we were sat around the fire trying to keep ourselves warm. We all had a fantastic time and it was great to see what a real fire looks like!