Year 2

Summer Term- Literacy

In Literacy this term, we have enjoyed reading 'The Magic Finger' by Roald Dahl.  We made some predictions about what Girl's powers could be and found out that when Girl 'sees read,' she puts The Magic Finger on the Gregg family to teach them a lesson.  The Gregg family enjoy hunting and Girl strongly disagrees with this so the Magic Finger turns them into the birds that they have hunted!. We began by thinking about our own views on hunting. We wrote some persuasive letters to the Gregg family telling them the reasons why they should stop hunting. 

We wrote some amazing noun phrases to describe what the Gregg family might see, now that they had wings.  These included 'vast, sparkling river' and  'rolling, green hills.'  We continued reading the story and were pleased to find out that the Gregg's had learnt their lesson and had finally stopped hunting. We then wrote the sequel to 'The Magic Finger.'  We innovated the story by thinking of a different animal that the Gregg's could hunt and be turned into.  Our ideas included pigs, sheep and foxes! We enjoyed being authors and illustrating our own stories. 

Summer Term 2023 - Maths 

In Maths this tem, we began by working on place value.  We enjoy using Base 10 resources to help us with this.  We showed our understanding by using place value charts and part whole models.

We then used our knowledge of place value to add two, two-digit numbers. Place value charts really helped us with addition. 

Recently we have focused on division. We learnt various different strategies to help us with this. We learnt how to divide by grouping, sharing , using a bar model and by using a number line.  

Summer Term 2023- Science

In Science , we learnt how to classify animals into  vertebrates and invertebrates. We learnt how animals change as they mature and completed some animal lifecycles.  Then we learnt about what all animals need to stay alive.  We found out that even though all animals need the same things, they find water, food and shelter in different ways. We also learnt that humans need these things too as well as exercise.  We completed a really speedy daily mile and talked about the changes that had happened to our bodies after running. We sat calmly and quietly and did a yoga session. We compared how our bodies felt after running and yoga! 

Other Curriculum Areas

 Design and Technology

we completed a unit of work called 'Baby Bear's Chair.'  We were excited because we were put into groups from each class!

Firstly, we investigated the stability of different shaped pieces of play dough. We made the shapes, put them on a heavy book, tilted it and measured the height at which the shapes rolled. We discovered that the pyramid was the most stable shape.  Then we tested the strength of 3d shapes by making them from paper and piling books on top!  The strongest shapes was a cylinder. Next, we worked in our group to each make a cylinder.  Again, we piled books on top and tested it to destruction!  Finally, we used this knowledge to make a strong chair for Baby Bear. 

History 

We have learnt a lot about important people and places in Guernsey. We discovered the history of Castle Cornet. We learnt that it was built on 1204 as a fortification to protect Guernsey from French attack. Henry VIII ordered the castle to be repaired and  strengthened and said that more cannons were needed.   Did you know , the bridge linking it to Guernsey was only built 100 years ago? 

Spring Term 2023- Literacy

This term, we have loved reading an amazing text called 'Leaf' by Sandra Dieckmann. 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! We made a lot of predictions about the events of the story and we thought about the characters and the choices they have to make. The illustrations in the story inspired us to write poems and use descriptive language. We wrote some fabulous reports about polar bears. We discovered that polar bears' fur is actually transparent and that polar bears can swim for hundreds of miles at a time! 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. We created some fabulous posters all about climate change and the things we can do to help our planet.

Wordy Bird also spent some time in Year 2 to help us develop our vocabulary! We achieved lots of 'Wordy Bird' stickers when we used impressive words in our writing. 

Spring 2023- Numeracy

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.  We have developed our knowledge of division using grouping and sharing. We also used number lines to help us divide by jumping back in groups to zero. 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. 

Spring 2023- 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.

Autumn Term 2022 Literacy

We enjoyed two key texts in Literacy this term - 'The Last Wolf' by Mini Grey and 'The Jolly Postman and Other People's Letters ' by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. 

We loved 'The Last Wolf.' We spent time looking at the amazingly detailed illustrations and discovered something new each time we read it.  We noticed straight away that the story had many similarities to the traditional story of 'Little Red Riding Hood.' One of the key themes in the story is endangered animals and habitats. We produced some very informative non-chronological reports about Black Rhinos (another endangered animal). We were amazed to find out that they are actually grey and not black! 

We are enjoying reading the variety of letters to traditional story characters in 'The Jolly Postman' text. We are really appreciating the detailed illustrations and the different letter types. We are writing our own letters to come of the characters in the story. We also really enjoyed a taking part in a drama activity called 'Conscience Alley.'  One side of the alley had to tell Baby Bear why he should forgive Goldilocks and the opposite side of the alley had to tell him why he should not forgive Goldilocks for breaking his chair! 

Autumn Term - Maths

We began this term by focusing on place value. We practised using base ten to help us with understanding tens and ones. We used part -whole models to understand two-digit numbers.  We have also been learning about addition and subtraction by making fact families. We learnt that there needs to be four facts , with two addition calculations and two subtraction calculations. We were able to check our fact families using resources.

We have also been learning how to make arrays to show the two, five and ten times tables. We learnt an important maths word - 'commutative' which means that 2x5 is the same as 5x2 ! 

Autumn Term - Science

Our topic was 'Living things and their habitats.' We began by thinking about things that are living, things that were once living but are now dead and things that have never lived at all. We has to think carefully in order to sort the pictures under the correct headings. To help us, we used MRS GREN. This tells us the characteristics of living things - Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion and Nutrition.  We impressed Mrs Cooper and Mrs Chalker by remembering these characteristics! We also learnt about what plants and animals need to survive and thrive. We noticed that there were some things in common. We learnt about habitats and found out that there are 'microhabitats,' which are very small habitats within a larger one. We went outside to investigate what minibeasts might live under the leaves.  We were surprised at the variety of minibeasts that we found in this microhabitat. 

Autumn Term - Other Curriculum Areas

In Music , Mrs Wright has been coming to work with us each week on Musicianship. We have been learning about beat and rhythm. She has taught us rhymes such as , 'Cobble, Cobbler,' and 'Soft Kitten.'  We have counted the rhythm and beats in these rhymes. 

In Art, we enjoyed learning about Clarice Cliff and recreated one of her ceramic designs on a paper plate. We looked carefully at the colours and shapes she used, then we used black paint and a straw to blow paint a tree. 

We loved our week of Outdoor Learning! We wrapped up warm and headed outside. First,  Mrs Chalker read us a story called 'Not a Stick.' We had to use sticks and leaves to create something - we made fishing rods, magic wands and a mini shelter. We then learnt how to tie a clove hitch - it's quite tricky! We used larger sticks and tied them together using a clove hitch knot. We also made 'paintbrushes' using a stick and either leaves or twigs for the bristles.  Things got a little messy when we used clay to make endangered animals! We enjoyed collaborating with our friends to make animals such as a black rhino, a red panda and even an elephant! 

Other Curriculum Areas

In Computing, we learnt about algorithms. We made lego models and wrote down our algorithms (instructions) for how to make our models. 

Art lessons this term focused on superheroes. We drew some faces showing different emotions and then we investigated different poses that superheroes might make. We created wire sculptures of superhero figures and then moulded plasticine on to the wire figure for the head and torso. We were very proud of our finished 3D artwork.