Year 2

Spring Term 2022- Literacy 

Year 2 have enjoyed the test 'Leaf' by Sandra Diekman. The text focuses on a polar bear called Leaf, who drifts across the sea from the Arctic on a block of ice.  He arrives in a woodland where the animals have never seen a polar bear before!  The text gave us so many writing opportunities. The children considered how Leaf would have felt being so far away from home.  They enjoyed responding to images from the text.  The children imagined that they were Leaf writing a letter to his family in the Arctic.  They also considered why a polar bear might have drifted across the sea. We watched video clips of climate change and discovered that polar bears are classed as 'vulnerable' which means that the population will be closely monitored.  The children collected facts about polar bears and wrote a non-chronological report.  We were surprised to find out that a polar bear's paw is the size of a dinner plate!

Spring Term 2022- Maths 

We began the term by focusing on place value.  We ordered numbers from largest to smallest and smallest to largest. We then learnt about odd and even numbers.  Using numicon helped us to remember which numbers were odd and even.  Then we learnt how to count in steps of two, five and ten.  Next, we worked on making fact families. Fact families need four facts- two addition facts and two subtraction facts.  We made sure that we used resources such as base ten and numicon to help us check our work. We also learnt how to use the inverse operation to check our calculations. Finally, we were very excited to begin using TT Rockstars to practice our multiplication and division facts. 

Spring Term 2022- Science 

In Science this term, we learnt about plants. We began by setting up our own investigation to observe 'germination.'  We learnt that germination means 'the process by which a seed starts to grow.'  We remembered what conditions we need to give a plant. So we put the seed on a damp piece of paper towel. We put this in a small plastic bag and then stuck them to the windows so that they had plenty of warmth. After a week we noticed some roots and then shoots started to appear.  When our seeds had begun to germinate we took them home to plant in pots. 

Next, we learnt what happens when a bulb sprouts. We looked at a daffodil bulb and were very surprised to learn that it is perrenial , which means that they will flower year after year. We drew and labelled the life cycle of a daffodil. 

We then learnt about what a plant needs to be healthy .  We looked at some very unhealthy plants that had not been given what they needed!   

Other Curriculum Areas

In PE, we were very lucky to have Lottie from the Sports Commission to come in and give us gymnastics taster sessions. The apparatus was set up so that we could practice balancing,

rolling , jumping and stretching. We learnt how to make gymnastic shapes such as tuck, straddle and pike. 

Art lessons this term focused on us learning about the artist Roy Lichenstein. His style of art was called Pop Art.  One of his most famous pieces is called 'Wham!'  We thought of our own action words and came up with ideas such as BAM!  KAPOW!  BOOM!  and POP!

We then created our own work in the style of Roy Lichenstein.