Year 2

Using the Inverse to Solve Addition and Subtraction (Year 2)

This week in maths, Year 2 have been learning how addition and subtraction are connected by using the inverse. The inverse means doing the opposite operation to help us find a missing number or check an answer. When we know one fact, we can use its inverse to help us solve a related problem.

The children have been working with numbers up to 100 and using cherry diagrams and bar models to represent numbers clearly and spot missing parts.

What do we mean by the inverse?

• The inverse of addition is subtraction

• The inverse of subtraction is addition

If we know the total and one part, we can subtract to find the missing part.
If we know the parts, we can add to find the total.

Representing problems with models

Cherry diagrams
These show a whole number with two parts underneath. They are useful for seeing how numbers are made and for finding missing parts.

Bar models
These show the whole as a long bar, split into parts. They help children see the relationship between the total and its parts.

Worked example

Problem:
___ + 7 = 60

We know the total (60) and one part (7). We need to find the missing part.

Step 1: Represent the problem

• In a cherry diagram, 60 is the whole, with 7 as one part and the missing number as the other part.

• In a bar model, the full bar is 60. One part is 7, and the remaining part is unknown.

Step 2: Use the inverse
Because the problem is addition, we use subtraction:

60 − 7 = ___

Step 3: Check
___ + 7 = 60

So, the missing number is 53.

3 things to do at home

1. Missing number sentences
   Write addition or subtraction sentences with a missing number, such as:
   □ + 34 = 80
   72 − □ = 25
   Ask your child to solve them by using the inverse.

2. Draw it out
   Choose a number up to 100 and split it into two parts. Ask your child to draw a cherry diagram or bar model and then write the matching addition and subtraction facts.

3. Check the answer
   When your child solves an addition or subtraction, ask them to check it using the inverse. For example, if they add two numbers, can they subtract one to get the other back?

These activities will help build confidence and deepen understanding of how addition and subtraction work together.

This week in English, Year 2 have been swept away into the magical world of Rapunzel! We began by reading the traditional fairy tale, bringing the story to life through role play as we retold it to our classmates. Stepping into the characters’ shoes helped us remember key events and retell the story with confidence and expression.

Next, we explored a modern twist on the classic tale. This sparked great discussions about how stories can change and how characters can be shown in different ways. We focused on using expanded noun phrases and powerful adjectives to describe Rapunzel’s personality. To deepen our thinking, we sorted these adjectives into a zone of relevance, deciding which words best matched her character and explaining why.

The classroom then turned into a forest adventure! Through energetic role play, we acted out Rapunzel’s journey — crawling through thorny bushes, climbing tall trees, and paddling through icy streams. This immersive experience helped us understand how exciting verbs and vivid imagery make writing more engaging for the reader. Using these ideas, we wrote past tense sentences describing Rapunzel’s adventurous journey through the forest.

🏡 Three Things to Do at Home

1. Retell the Story Together
   Ask your child to retell the story of Rapunzel using toys, drawings, or role play. Encourage them to use story language such as Once upon a time, suddenly, and happily ever after.

2. Character Description Fun
   Choose a character from Rapunzel and think of three adjectives to describe them. Can your child turn these into expanded noun phrases?
   Example: the brave, kind princess.

3. Action Verb Adventure
   Go on an imaginary journey around your home or garden. Pretend to crawl, climb, tiptoe, or splash just like Rapunzel. Afterwards, help your child write or say a sentence in the past tense about what they did, using exciting verbs.

We have loved seeing the children’s enthusiasm and creativity shine through this fairy tale work!

What a fantastic autumn term it has been in Year 2! We are so proud of all the hard work, enthusiasm, and positive attitudes the children have shown over the last few months.

This term, the children have completed three wonderful stories, written creative poems, and even sent a letter home to parents using the post box, which was very exciting! We also enjoyed a walk around Bushey, taking in our local area and learning together outside the classroom.

In school, the children have worked hard to learn and follow our new school rules: Ready, Respectful, and Safe. In maths, they tackled some tricky calculations, showing great resilience while learning how to solve problems by rebalancing. In science, we have explored different materials, and in PE, the children have developed their skills and confidence through gymnastics.

Our festive period was full of joy and creativity. The children put on a lovely singing show, proudly shared their books with parents, and carefully made calendars and cards as special gifts for their families.

A huge thank you to all parents and carers for your continued support—it truly makes a difference and helps the children thrive.

Everyone now deserves a restful and well-earned break. We wish you all a happy holiday season and a brilliant New Year. We look forward to welcoming the children back on January 5th.

See you next year! 🎉✨

  Young Coders in Action! 🌟 (more…)

This week in English, we have been exploring the wonderful story Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña. The book follows a young boy on a journey with his Nana, who teaches him to notice the beauty in ordinary moments by using all of his senses. Inspired by their adventure, we set out on our own journey of discovery.

We began by listening to different pieces of music, sketching the feelings and images that came to mind. From swirling colours to calm landscapes, the children created expressive illustrations and then transformed them into vivid descriptive sentences.

On a snowy Wednesday morning, we continued our exploration with a walk up the local high street to Andrew’s fruit and vegetable shop. Along the way, we searched for local landmarks and practised using rich adjectives to describe the unexpected beauty around us. The children’s imaginations were wonderful. Some noticed trees that “looked like skeletons’ legs,” while others pointed out “beautiful, bright poppies covered in sparkly white snow.”

It was a week full of creativity, curiosity, and learning to see the world a little differently just like Nana teaches in the story.

Today, our school came together to honour and remember all those who have served and continue to serve in the Armed Forces.

In class, we used oil pastels to create beautiful poppy artwork, thinking carefully about what the poppy represents — hope, peace, and remembrance. The bright red petals reminded us of the courage and sacrifice of those who fought for our freedom.

We also had a very special assembly with soldiers from the Royal Air Force and Army, who shared their experiences and helped us understand the importance of Remembrance Day. They spoke about bravery, teamwork, and why we wear our poppies with pride.

After this, Year 2 walked down to the war memorial statue to pay their respects. They laid a wreath on behalf of the whole school, standing quietly to reflect on the lives lost in wars past and present. It was a thoughtful and moving moment for everyone.

What can you do at home?

1. Create your own poppy – Use paper, fabric, or craft materials to make a poppy and display it in your window.

2. Share a story – Talk with a family member about someone they know who served in the Armed Forces, or look up a local war hero together.

“At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.” 🌹

This week, we explored benchmarking numbers from 0–100 — and wow, it was trickier than we first thought! At first, it felt a little confusing to think about where numbers should go on a number line without any help. But by taking small, steady steps, we built our understanding and confidence.

We began by working with a number line that showed all the tens — 0, 10, 20, 30, and so on up to 100. This helped us see the pattern and spacing between each group of ten.

Next, we challenged ourselves by taking away most of those numbers and only keeping the benchmarks 25, 50, and 75. Using what we already knew about the number line, we practiced estimating where other numbers would fit between those key points.

To make it more fun (and a little competitive!), we rolled two dice — one for the tens and one for the ones — to make a two-digit number. Then we had to place our number where we thought it belonged on the number line. This helped us develop our estimation and reasoning skills.

Finally, we faced the ultimate test: a blank number line! Using our understanding of quartiles and midpoints, we marked out 25, 50, and 75, then added in our tens using estimation. It was great to see how our confidence grew from needing lots of support to being able to place numbers independently.

Top 3 Tips to Try at Home

1. 🎲 Roll and Place: Roll two dice to make a two-digit number and challenge your child to show roughly where it belongs on a blank line from 0–100.

2. 🧮 Number Talk: Pick any number and ask, “Is it closer to 0, 50, or 100?” Talking through the reasoning helps build number sense.

3. 🏠 Everyday Estimation: When you see numbers at home (like prices, page numbers, or house numbers), ask, “What two tens is it between?” or “Where would that go on our number line?”

This week in class, we had lots of fun exploring a spooky but sweet story called How to Look After a Ghost by Rebecca Green. This magical book helped us learn something surprising: ghosts aren’t scary at all but instead they can actually be our friends!

Giving Commands with Bossy Verbs

Before we read the story, we practised giving commands using bossy verbs. We took part in some fun role play where we gave instructions to our friends like:

• “Pick up the pencil!”

• “Sit down quickly!”

• “Open your book!”

Bossy verbs help us tell someone what to do clearly and confidently and they are perfect for writing instructions!

What We Learned from the Story

Once we read How to Look After a Ghost, we discovered lots of things about ghosts, such as:

👻 Ghosts are our friends!
📚 They love reading spooky stories.
🍽️ They enjoy eating Monster Mash (yum!).
🏠 And the best way to welcome a ghost into your home? Blow gently to say hello!

We explored the book together and talked about what we’d do if a ghost came to stay in our house. Then, we wrote our own set of instructions using bossy verbs. Some of us even had creative ideas like:

• “Tuck your ghost in at night.”

• “Make your ghost a cup of slime-tea.”

• “Tell your ghost a bedtime story.”

We made sure to use conjunctions like and, because, and so to join our ideas. For example:
“Feed your ghost a midnight snack because ghosts get hungry at night!”

How to Be a Good Friend

This week, we are also learning how to be a good friend. We shared ideas and gave each other kind commands, such as:

• “Share your toys.”

• “Listen when your friend is talking.”

• “Say sorry if you hurt someone.”

We even made freeze frames to act out different ways to show friendship such as; helping someone up when they fall or inviting someone to play.

Try These at Home!

Here are 3 things you can try at home to practise being a good friend:

1. Write a kind note to someone in your family or a friend.

2. Write a set of instructions about something that is important to you.

3. Play the unfortunately game in partners where one of you starts your sentence with a positive clause, then you add the unfortunately by using the conjunction but. For example “ I arrived at school but I then saw a monster!”

Remember, being a good friend means using kind words, sharing, and always looking out for others—just like how we look after our ghost friends too!

Learning About Religious Symbols in RE! 

This week in RE, we’ve been exploring the rich and diverse world of religious symbols from four major world religions: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.

We’ve had lots of fun getting creative while deepening our understanding of what these symbols mean to different faiths:

We made Hamsas and beautiful Lotus Flowers to celebrate the importance of symbols in Hinduism and Judaism.

 Today, we built Mosques, Stars and Crescents, and Dome structures out of LEGO to represent important symbols in Islam.

Throughout all our activities, we’ve been learning how these symbols reflect the beliefs, values, and traditions of each religion.

Our final products

3 Things to Try at Home:

1. Symbol Scavenger Hunt – Look for religious symbols in books, decorations, or places of worship near your home or online. Can you identify them?

2. Create Your Own Symbol – Design a symbol that represents something important to you or your family. What shapes, colours or patterns would you use?

3. Story Time – Find and read a story from one of the religions we’ve studied. What symbols appear in the story, and what do they mean?

Maths Fun in the Classroom!

In our recent maths lessons, we’ve been exploring place value using tens and ones. The children have been learning how to regroup numbers, discovering that 10 ones can be exchanged for 1 ten and that it works the other way around too! This concept has even been extended to money, helping our children make real-world connections with their learning.

Alongside place value, we’ve also been investigating odd and even numbers. In pairs, the children carried out a fun investigation to find out what happens when you add different combinations of odd and even numbers:

• Even + Even

• Even + Odd

• Odd + Odd

Some children went above and beyond, using numbers greater than 20 to challenge themselves even further!

Three Things You Can Try at Home:

1. Play “Make 10” – Gather small objects (like coins or buttons) and ask your child to group them into 10s. Can they regroup 10 ones into 1 ten? What about regrouping 1 ten into 10 ones?

2. Spot Odd and Even Numbers Around You – Look at house numbers, car number plates, or page numbers in a book. Ask your child if they are odd or even and why!

3. Money Maths – Use real coins to practise making different amounts. Can your child make 20p in different ways? What happens when they trade ten 1p coins for a 10p coin?

It’s been a brilliant start to our maths journey this term, and we’re so proud of how engaged and enthusiastic the children have been!