Weekly News
Week Ending Thursday 18th December 2024
This week we have had such a happy, fun filled time together across both Year 2 classes! We loved sharing our Nativity at the beginning of the week and clearly displayed to everyone how hard we had all worked by delivering a beautiful and moving performance! The children worked so hard and we are beyond proud of them all!
On Wednesday we had the delight of taking the children to see Santa in the grotto, share Christmas dinner together and then visit Forest School to have popcorn round the fire! We have also been continuing our learning amongst all the Christmas cheer by taking part in Christmas Maths activities and writing letters to Santa.
We hope you all have a well deserved break and take the time off to spend with each other and relax during this festive period!
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
And look forward to seeing you back in school refreshed and ready for 2025.
Week Ending Friday 13th December 2024
Maths
This week, we have consolidated our knowledge on place value. We have looked at flexibly partitioning numbers to 100, comparing and ordering numbers, using an empty number line and counting in 2s, 5s and 10s.
English
This week in English, we focused on planning our diary entry. We looked at our grammar skills of adverbs, conjunctions, command sentences, and apostrophes and tried to include these in our diary entries.
Geography
This week in Geography, we discussed what human and physical features are and then identified them in Hastings.
RE
This week in RE we looked at what different religions say about caring for one another. We discussed whether all these religions have similar values. We then moved onto looking at the golden rule and how it is an encouragement to care.
Christingles
We had a lovely afternoon on Wednesday making Christingles. We split up into house groups and made our Christingles. We enjoyed learning about the different parts of the Christingles and completing different activities linked to them.
Week Ending Friday 6th December 2024
This week we have had a very exciting and busy week.
Maths: We have continued to look at our topic of shape. We have concentrated on 3D shapes and their properties. We have reminded ourselves what vertices and faces are as well as create patterns with 2D and 3D shapes.
English: In Grammar this week we recapped exclamation marks and commas and we used them in our writing. We discussed a diary entry and what would be included in it. We used our knowledge of the story to support our writing.
Science: This week in science we used our knowledge from last week to create our own food chains. We discussed our key words; prey, predator and producer.
We have been very busy practising our Nativity and cannot wait for you all to see it!
Our Amazing Trip: We had a fun-filled and memorable day at Kent Life Museum on Thursday with a Victorian Christmas theme this week, children enjoyed themselves and had a blast.
They attended various workshops where they got to:
- Try out Victorian toys
- Listen to and role-play the Christmas story with Charles Dickens
- Play Victorian games in small groups
- Make candles from hanging strings
- Even role-played doing chores that Victorian children would have done at a young age.
We were delighted to see the children's enthusiasm and great behaviour throughout the trip. A big thank you to all the adults who accompanied us and made this special day possible!
Week Ending Friday, 29th November 2024
It has been another busy week in Year 2. Between our rehearsals for the Nativity and our weekly lessons, the children deserve a little praise for all the hard work they are doing.
English: We have done some independent learning on how to use interesting vocabulary and incorporate new words in our writing. We have also worked as a group, focusing on grammatical patterns, the use of exclamation and question marks, as well as answering different questions from a text.
Maths: We have truly been mathematicians this week while embedding our knowledge of 2D shapes. We have explored counting sides and vertices, drawing 2D shapes, and even finding lines of symmetry!
Geography: We have started our learning about Hastings, discovering its location and the different human and physical features this beautiful coastal town has to offer.
Science: We have continued our learning related to living things and how they depend on each other to survive. We revisited important vocabulary such as producers, prey, and predators, which will support our following lessons related to food chains.
Art: We have had a group of very excited children making toilet roll vehicles, considering the different things they will need for their vehicles and applying their previous knowledge to make sure their vehicles actually move!
Other Special Events:
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Forest School: As usual, the children enjoyed their time in Forest School this week, connecting with nature and ending their week with the highlight of marshmallows.
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Year 2 Trip: We are looking forward to our visit to the Museum of Kent Life to participate in a fun but educational Victorian Christmas on Thursday, 5th December 2024.
Reminder of What to Bring: Children are encouraged to wear Victorian-style clothes as part of our immersive Victorian experience (please don't spend money on special outfits). They will also need to bring a waterproof jacket and comfortable outdoor shoes (which can be trainers). Please ensure children have a waterproof backpack for their belongings. The museum is a collection of old buildings and shelters, and we will be moving between these during the day, so children will find it easiest to carry a backpack rather than a handheld bag. It will be useful if they could bring a carrier bag to sit on in case the ground is wet. Please ensure that they have a water bottle, a snack, and a healthy packed lunch, bearing in mind that we are a nut-free school.
Thank you again for all the support provided so far; it makes a real impact on the children’s learning.
Reminder: Please remember to send your costumes to school by the 6th of December. Thank you
Week ending Friday 22nd November 2024
This week in Year 2, we've had a fantastic time exploring and learning new things!
Maths: We revisited 2D shapes and focused on looking at different 2D shapes to name them and use mathematical vocabulary to describe them.
English: The children have written descriptive pieces about a setting using our plans and all the grammar and vocabulary they've learnt so far, such as the use of suffixes, conjunctions, and even questions to hook the reader!
Science: We've been studying how animals adapt to their habitats, which will support our future learning about Food Chains.
Computing: The children explored the use of Purple Mash to learn what an email is and how to use it safely.
Other special events:
Nativity Practise: We are in full practice for our Nativity. Thank you to all parents for supporting your children rehearse at home.
Special activity: We had the chance to be part of a talk on anti-bullying from NSPCC, all about learning that we must always Speak Out and Stay Safe!
We discussed that we can talk to a trusted adult when someone hurts us or upsets us and spent time making posters to display all that we had learnt.
It has been yet another busy week for the children as we make our way to the fourth week back in school.
Thank you for your continued support. We are looking forward to continue with the children's rehearsals and we hope you are as excited as they are!
Reminder: For children to learn their nativity lines if they received a script and to remember to bring their costumes to school by 6th December, please let your class teacher know if there are any issues. Thank you
Week ending Friday 15th November 2024
English
In English we have continued to deepen our understanding of adverbs, expanded noun phrases and suffixes and looking at ways to include these in our writing. We have begun to build up our work around setting descriptions and will be using our work this week to write our own setting descriptions based on the illustrations we have looked at from our class book this term. We have found it very interesting looking at the different topiary animals and describing what we might see, feel, hear and touch as if we were in the story ourselves! We had fun creating freeze frames as some of the characters and have included a few photos below to show our amazing acting skills!
Maths
In Maths, we have worked so hard on comparing numbers sentences and finding the missing number, using our knowledge of addition and subtraction. We have also recapped our greater than, less than and equal to knowledge and have enjoyed using the base 10 resources to help us answer the questions, as well as partitioning the numbers into tens and ones to support us.
Foundation
In Geography we have continued our topic of coastlines. This week we recapped our learning of what a coastline is and looked at different coastlines around the world as well as the UK. We have looked at the features of a coastline and chose to focus on features such as a bay, harbour, caves and beaches.
On the 11th November, we spent time in remembrance of those who gave their lives and reflected together as we took part in some activities across the two classes. We coloured in poppies using different mediums as well as collage. We placed these on an outline of a soldier and created a really beautiful piece of artwork inspired by the sacrifice of those who served and those who serve currently in the armed forces.
Reading Strands
Our focus this week has been on our reading comprehension skills and we have looked at a range of texts including a piece titled The Vegetable Band. We have thought about how we need to read the information given to us to help us answer the question because we know that the answers are in the text! We have continued to develop these skills and have enjoyed reading this piece of writing.
Request:
Please could we ask you to bring in two toilet roll tubes for our DT project!
We are very excited to introduce this topic to the children and look forward to seeing the results of their creativity nearer to the end of term.
Week ending Friday 8th November 2024
English
In English we have introduced our new topic book for this term called The Night Gardener. This has been really exciting for us all, and we have spent time looking at the pages at the very start of the book that tell us a lot about the story even without any words! We have recapped our suffix knowledge and have looked at similes which the children have then used to write their own simile poem! They have worked so hard on these and we are very proud!
Maths
In Maths, we have been bringing our addition and subtraction topic to a close looking at adding and subtracting two-digit numbers across ten and within ten. We have really persevered with this as it has been a tricky piece of new learning! We have used our tens and ones knowledge to help us and have been learning all about what it means to exchange, using base 10 to help.
Foundation
Forest school began for Year 2 this week and the children in 2F had lots of fun outside - even in the colder weather exploring the outdoors! 2CS will get to enjoy their first session next week too.
In Geography we have started our new topic focusing on coastlines. We looked at what a coastline is and then used a map to mark the coastlines of the UK. We had some really interesting discussions about the different areas of our country and the UK and discussed why coastlines are very important to us.
In Science, we continue our topic of Living things and their habitats this term and were thinking this week about the conditions of a habitat and how each animal and plant is perfectly suited to where they live. We also discussed what happens when an animal or plant does not have these conditions met in the habitat they are living, adding a new word to our science vocabulary – extinct.
Reading Strands
Our focus this week has been on writing predictions and widening our vocabulary knowledge by picking out words we are unsure of in our focus text and looking up the definitions. We have also developed our comparison skills and summarised what has happened in our story. We have also begun to focus on our comprehension skills developing these and using the text to help us answer the questions.
Other
We thought it would be helpful to supply a list of websites for you to further support your child at home with a Maths, English and Phonics focus. Please see the Useful Websites section of our class page!
Week Ending Friday 25th October 2024
Well done to all of the children for their hard work this half-term. The children have been busy these past weeks, diving into all subjects and cherishing moments with their friends.
In Maths, our focus has been on:
* Practising subtracting from ten.
* Subtracting a one-digit number from a two-digit number across ten.
* Recognising ten more and ten less.
* Adding and subtracting tens.
In English, we began the week by gathering and writing information about our class pet. We wrapped up by writing poems about our pet, highlighting the use of similes and rhyme.
In Science, our explorations continued with habitats, particularly those in our local area.
In RE, we looked at why Christians celebrate Harvest and why it is important to them.
In PE, we worked together on the fundamentals of team building. This will continue next term with more engaging games.
We hope each one of your wonderful children enjoys the break. We wish you a peaceful and restful week away from school, filled with family time and joy.
Week ending Friday 18th October 2024
English
In English the children have been working hard using their plans created last week to write their own instructions on how to build a habitat for their own creature! This has involved using their new knowledge on command verbs (which we like to call bossy verbs!), using commas in lists and continuing to apply our knowledge of subordinating conjunctions in our writing.
Maths
In Maths, the children have been looking at adding to the next ten and adding three one digit numbers as well as looking at subtracting across a ten. They have been using base 10 and counters with tens frames to help support them with their working out.
Foundation
In PE this term we have been focusing on teamwork in our Tuesday lessons and this week we worked together in groups using a key to help us build a face using PE equipment! This resulted in lots of fun and good discussions in our groups, whilst developing our listening and communication skills.
In History we enjoyed learning all about Florence Nightingale and what makes her a significant figure in History and how she impacted our lives even today, by making small changes that had a big impact, even as far back as the Victorian times!
In RE this week we were continuing our learning about Creation and wrote a prayer thanking God for all the beautiful things we enjoy about our World! The children wrote some lovely prayers which were a joy to read.
Reading Strands
Our focus this week was a set of instructions to help support our English theme. We looked at a set of instructions for how to build a sandcastle. Children focused on writing expanded noun phrases and answering questions related to the instructions, developing their deeper reading of the text to find the answers, developing their inference skills further.
Week ending Friday 11th October 2024
English
In English children have been focusing on instruction writing to create a habitat for their own creatures they designed. The children have identified command sentences and when and how to use them. We ended the week by planning parts of our instructions.
Maths
In Maths, the children have been looking at fact families and bonds to 100. The children used their knowledge of number bonds to 10 to support them. The children have been able to use different concrete manipulatives to help them.
Foundation
* In Computing, the children have been looking at coding this term. This week they have used a programme where they have added more than one object to program to do different actions of their choice.
* In Science the children were able to create their own microhabitats, thank you for all the great resources you provided for your children!
House Day
On Monday afternoon, the children split up into their house groups to learn about their house group charity. They were able to discuss who their charity is and why it is important to raise money for them.
Reading Strands
Our focus was a poem. Children focused on predicting, answering to questions related to the poem and looked carefully at the vocabulary used.
Polite request for next Friday – Next week we are concluding our art topic by creating a sculpture using natural materials in the style of our focus artist this term: Andy Goldsworthy. We would really appreciate it if you could collect any natural objects for this lesson to help us with our amazing creations! Please do not feel any pressure to bring lots in however if you are out on an Autumnal walk and spot some interesting natural materials we would be very grateful! Thank you
Week ending Friday 4th October 2024
We are incredibly proud of how well the children are settling into school life and the hard work they have put into their learning so far.
English
In English children have focused on writing a narrative for their own unusual creature using a plan and applying previous knowledge of suffixes, adverbs, expanded noun phrases and interesting vocabulary in their writing.
Maths
Maths required ‘mathematicians’ in class this week. From estimating to counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s, children practised using mathematical vocabulary to describe greater and less than when comparing numbers as well as organising groups of 10’s and 1’s when grouping different numbers.
Foundation
* In History we have learnt about Victorian children. and the differences between’ then’ and ‘nowadays’ schools. Children had the opportunity to discuss about differences and share their opinion of the different benefits schools can offer to them nowadays.
*In Science we investigated about different microhabitats, why are they good homes and the creatures that best fit in all of them.
*In RE we have continued discussing about creation, and the importance of caring for the world and all its inhabitants. As a class we discussed how Christians believe that God entrusted humans with the responsibility to look after His creation.
Reading Strands
Our focus book of the week was ‘George’s marvellous medicine’ by Roald Dahl. Children focused on predicting, answering to questions related to the story and giving advice to grandma (character in the story).
Request: Could we please ask for children to bring an old adult white shirt to keep in School? We will use this for some activities such as Science and English when getting into ‘character’ during our lessons. Also, if you haven’t sent your shoe box yet, could you make sure is in School by Monday next week? Thank you for your continued support.
Week ending Friday 27th September 2024
Nearly halfway into this Term and children are continuing to apply all the knowledge they have learnt in and out of class showing determination and a positive mindset in the process too, keep up the good work Year 2!
English
In English children have focused on writing a narrative for their own unusual creature using a plan and applying previous knowledge of suffixes, adverbs, expanded noun phrases and interesting vocabulary in their writing.
Maths
In Maths children have been busy developing their number skills through a series of engaging activities, such as estimating numbers on a number line, as well as, comparing and ordering numbers and objects.
Foundation
* In History we have learnt about Victorian children. Both classes had the opportunity to learn about poor and rich children in Victorian times and the impact this had on their health, life expectancy, housing and even on the toys they used!
* In Science we explored the differences between living, once living, and never alive things. This topic helps children understand the characteristics that define life and how to categorise the world around them.
* In RE children have learnt about the story of creation from the Bible, specifically from the book of Genesis. We discussed how Christians believe that God created the world in seven days and rehearsed sequencing the events in the correct order.
Reading Strands
Our focus book of the week was ‘The Green Ship’ by Quentin Blake. Children were busy bees predicting, designing, consolidating new vocabulary, comparing elements from the book to their real lives, reflecting on the story and most importantly, reading for pleasure! We hope they enjoyed it as much as we did!
Request: Could we ask children to bring a shoebox with some natural resources gathered from the environment (grass, pinecones, twigs, leaves etc) for them to create a habitat for a minibeast? Thank you.
Week ending Friday 20th September 2024
We have enjoyed yet another fun filled, exciting week in Year 2 with lots of incredible learning taking place.
English
In English this week, we have been learning all about the Bog Baby which is our focus book for this term. We have been building our knowledge and understanding by using adjectives and conjunctions in our writing! We have worked so hard this week.
Maths
In Maths this week, we have been focusing on writing numbers up to 100. We have also looked at partitioning numbers up to 100 and have been using part whole models to help us with this. We have continued to develop our knowledge of tens and ones using this to help us this week in our learning.
Foundation
In our Science learning this week we have been looking at things that are dead, living and those that have never been alive creating some interesting discussions in our classrooms! In RE this term we are focusing on the story of Creation and looking at God as the Creator of the world creating some amazing pictures of what happened on the sixth day. Reading Strands this week has been focused on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and we all took great delight in imagining the setting of the chocolate factory and then drawing what it might have looked like, then thinking about some questions we would like to ask Willy Wonka!
For Art next week, please could children bring big leaves they have found outside for an exciting activity. Thank you (2CS will use them on Tuesday and 2F on Friday)
Week Beginning 1st September 2024
We are happy to share all children in Year 2 have had a successful first week back!
This week we have been busy across both classes revisiting our learning from before the summer. We have spent time catching up with each other’s exciting holiday news, and have focused on writing some amazing holiday recounts all about the wonderful memories that have been made over the past six weeks! Despite the wet weather towards the end of the week, we have also had time to discuss what it means to be part of a team, thinking about how our class is our team and how we can continue to work well together. We took part in some activities outside earlier in the week that created some interesting discussions and brought lots of laughter! One activity involved working out how to move a hula hoop around the circle using no hands! This encouraged lots of teamwork and helped strengthen and develop our teamwork skills.
We are looking forward to being part of their learning journey and excited to see what this new year will bring.
Hope they have taken the chance to share with you all what they did in school over the week, they were busy bees.