Year 2

This term our science topic is Animals, including humans and looking at growth over time. We started by thinking about ourselves and the lifecycle of a human. We brought in photos of ourselves as babies and  really enjoyed looking at a gallery and working out who was who! The children then thought about the word grow and what it means (to increase in size and develop in ability). They described themselves to a partner thinking about how  they have stayed the same (i.e. eye colour) and how they have changed (i.e. grown taller, read a book).

We watched this clip:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/zt7w2hv.

We also focused on the word lifecycle and that it means the process that living things go through from the beginning of their life until their death.

We  identified  and named the different stages in the human timeline – baby-toddler-child-teenager-adult.

Following this, we thought about needs and wants and what the difference is between the two. As the children discussed this together they realised that most things suggested are actually things we want…we can survive without them!

We thought about the word survive in greater depth and identified the things that we as humans need to survive:

• water
• air
• food

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zx38wmn

This week we have found out that all animals need food but different animals need different types of food.

Together we recapped the meanings of herbivore, carnivore and omnivore.

The children researched some animals and created their own animal fact file focusing on their needs and how to look after them.

The children worked really hard and created super fact files that they shared with their peers. What brilliant scientists we have in Year 2!

How to help at home:

– Pick an animal of your choice to research and create a fact file about them. Can you include the vocabulary:

– Herbivore/ carnivore/ omnivore

-Survive

-Needs/wants

-Life cycle

Welcome back and a Happy New Year! The children have returned with stories of Christmas joy and new year excitement.

We got stuck in straight away with our learning this week. In English, we started to learn our new story: The Great Kapok Tree. We learnt the story which is based in a rainforest and linked it to our learning about the equator in Geography.

We began with a recap on how to make a sentence make sense. We used helpful colourful semantics (a writing structure that enables the children to understand how to make a sentence make sense). It reminded us to always use a who (the noun), a what doing (verb), a what and a where. We then made sentences linked to our class story. Take a look below:

The story has a lot of adverbs in the sentences so of course, we had to learn about them this week. Having already learnt about verbs last term, we knew that verbs are the doing words and learnt that adverbs add description to the verb. This could be about how, where or when the verb is being done, for example ‘The smaller man immediately struck the tree with an axe.’ Look  below at some of our work:

How to help at home:

• Do some daily sentence writing, ask your child to include a who, what doing, what and where.
• Ask your child to retell the story using the text map.
• Give your child a sentence with an adverb in and ask them to spot it in the sentence.

This week in Maths we have been using our knowledge of 10 to help us add and subtract efficiently. We used tens frames and counters to help use this method using concrete equipment. We have also been exploring how this might look pictorially as well as using more formal written methods.

Think 10 is not a concept we have found easy but we haven’t given up. Our teachers have been very impressed to see us working with determination and trying our best to use our growth mindsets.

How to use ‘Think 10’ for addition

How to use ‘Think 10’ for subtraction 

How to help at home 

• Encourage your child to use Numbots regularly at home – this really helps to develop their fluency with number. If they know that 8 needs 2 to make 10 and that 6 is made of 2 and 4, then they can use that to solve 8 + 6 by regrouping 6 in to 2 and 4 and then doing 8 + 2 + 4 =
• Talk to your child about numbers in everyday life e.g. there will be 4 people sitting at the dinner table, how many knives and forks do we need? How did you work that out?
• See if they can show you how we have used this method at school. They could draw their own tens frames on paper and then use Lego bricks as counters.

This term in Geography we have been learning about the territory Nunavut, Canada. We studied  the equator and learnt that countries located nearer the equator are hot and countries away from it are cold. We learnt that Nunavut is near the Artic Circle and its landscapes are generally very cold, icy and white. We have learnt about the physical and human geography of the area.

We then used what we learnt to complete some writing tasks. Our first task was to make a poster all about ‘Life in Nunavut’.  We learnt how life for people in Nunavut has changed over time, for example the Inuit people of Nunavut used to live in igloos but now they live in houses made of metal built on stilts. Take a look at some of our work:

Then, we completed a writing task in English. Our hot task this term has been to write a diary pretending we had visited Nunavut the day before. First, we planned part of our diary using the previous text map to help us. Then we used the success criteria to complete our writing (time connectives, past tense verbs and proper nouns). Some of them said they visited the stone landmark of Inusuk. Others described how they went to see the polar bears. Take a look at some examples below:

How to help at home:

• Research amazing facts about Nunavut to share with the class.
• Create a leaflet to advertise to others about what they might find if they visited.
• Write your own recount of a trip you have had before.

Over the last few weeks in Year 2 we have been looking at making structures. We learnt that a structure needs to be stiff, strong and stable. During our first week in DT we tested different materials and joining techniques to produce a 3D structure that was stiff, strong and stable. We used paper, card, wooden lollipop sticks and tissue paper alongside glue, treasury tags, sellotape and split pins. We found that sellotape was best used with card or wooden sticks, however a few of us were able to build a stable structure with paper and glue too! Here are some pictures of our models…

After this, we found out that Tudor houses were painted white with black wooden beams. The walls were made from a weaving technique called ‘ Wattle and Daub’.  We replicated this using pipe cleaners and card. We found this a little tricky at first and this made us think about how much time it would take to build a Tudor house.

Finally, we designed our very own Tudor houses. We selected from a range of materials and chose which materials we wanted for each part of our Tudor house. Next week we will make our Tudor house from our chosen materials.

How to help at home:

• Use junk modelling to build a structure of your choice – make sure it is stiff, strong and stable and that you think about which joining technique you will use
• Write an evaluation on what went well and what would be even better if you made it again.

In Year 2 this week, we  began our science lesson with the word absorbent. We discussed its meaning using our Word Aware strategies at Merry Hill. First, we said the word, next we clapped the syllables in the word, then we discussed its meaning, and finally we rapped the word! We especially enjoyed the last part!

Next, we discussed how we could test different materials. We thought about how to make it a fair test and we did this by only changing the material we used. We decided we would need five different materials and some water.

Then, we had to make a prediction about which material we thought would be the most absorbent to the least absorbent.

After that, we had the most fun conducting the experiment! Take a look at some of us testing our materials!
Finally, we had to record the experiment into our books.

How to help at home:

• Check out your toys! Which material are they made from?
• Choose a property, for example ‘stretchy’, how many different materials in your house have this property?
• Can your child do the washing up with different materials? Which one is the most absorbent?

In year 2 we have been learning to use “Think addition for subtraction” because it will help us become more efficient when calculating. Firstly we looked at missing parts in a part part whole model. We wrote the subtraction equation and addition number sentences. This helped us recognise that we can use addition to help us with subtraction.

After this we used part part whole models to complete addition and subtraction number sentences.  We used the stem sentence, “The inverse of addition is subtraction.”

Finally, we put this into practice by using a beadstring to count on to the next benchmark. We then used addition to work out subtraction sentences such as 17-9. For example: I know that 1 more than 9 is 10 and 7 more than 10 equals 17. I know that 1 add 7 equals 8. Therefore the difference is 8. So, I now know that 17-9 is equal to 8.

How you can support at home:

• Practice making a number line at home and placing benchmarks up to 20.
• Use the benchmarks to help you count on.
• Use bar models to write addition and subtraction number sentences.

As part of our continued work as an Inclusive School we frequently refer to  the difference between equality and equity.

Equality means that everyone has the same chances or gets the same treatment. Everyone is treated equally.

Equity means that everyone has the same chances – just like equality – but equity also means considering different people’s situations so that they really are treated fairly.

If 3 children of different heights went to watch a sporting event but found that they couldn’t see over the fence, what could we do to give them a fair chance of watching the event?

If they all got the same number of boxes to stand on (equality), it would not be fair as one child can still not see over the fence.

If they all got the number of boxes that they needed to stand on to be able to see over the fence, they would all have the same chance of seeing the sporting event with their own individual situations and needs being taken into account. Now that really is fair!

We talk to the children about many of the resources and strategies we have at Merry Hill to ensure everyone is included in the classrooms, outside on the playground and at lunch times.  Some of the things we came up with included:

• our mindfulness areas in the classroom
• writing slopes and pencil grips
• fiddle toys and our fiddle boxes
• visual timetables
• scaffolds and prompts to help us achieve something we find tricky
• having a special place in the line, e.g. line leader
• adaptations at lunch time, such as having a different tray or a designated place to sit
• visiting the sensory room and using the resources in our class sensory bags
• prompts in our learning tool kits to help us remember phonic sounds and harder to read and spell words etc.

• Have conversations that celebrate individuals and their differences
• You can listen to the story “Who Are You? by Smriti Halls being read online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xp0LEY3YQ4
• Visit the library and see if you can find other books to enjoy that celebrate inclusion
• Encourage your child to recognise what they need to help them be successful at an activity

In Year 2 we have been learning about performance poetry.  We have learnt that it is a type of poem performed with expression, action and emotion. We looked at some different examples and explored that each poet might also have their own way of speaking a poem. We have been learning the poem Talking Turkeys by Benjamin Zephaniah. 

Take a look below at the first verse of the poem:

Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas
Cos’ turkeys just wanna hav fun
Turkeys are cool, turkeys are wicked
An every turkey has a Mum.
Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas,
Don’t eat it, keep it alive,
It could be yu mate, an not on your plate
Say, Yo! Turkey I’m on your side.

Then, we watched him perform his poetry. This is Benjamin Zephaniah’s poem Talking Turkeys:

After that, we learnt the poem off by heart and tried hard to perform it. Take a look on your child’s Seesaw account this week to see their performance!

How to help at home:

• Ask your child to tell you the poem of Talking Turkeys.
• Go to the library and find some poetry books to read and share.
• Research a poet you know! Practice and perform a poem to share during our show and tell time.

This week in Religious Education we learnt about Jewish symbols. We learnt about the Menorah and the Hamsa hand.

We discovered that:

• The oldest symbol in Judaism is the Menorah. It is a seven branched candelabrum.
• The number of branches represents the seven days of the week.
• It represents the burning bush Moses saw on Mount Sinai.
• Some Jewish people wear a kind of good luck charm called a Hamsa.
• It is shaped like a hand and usually has a picture of an eye in its middle.
• It is worn to remind Jewish people of God’s protective hand and his watchful eye over them.

We decorated our very own Hamsa hands and made Menorahs from Lego. Look at how creative we are!

How you can help at home:

• Compare Jewish symbols to Christian symbols
• Research Islamic symbols – we will be learning these next half term
• Design your own special symbol that represents you, thinking of what makes you unique.

This term in History we have been uncovering new knowledge about the Great Fire of London. We have been very excited by this; our teachers have even been teaching us  a class story in English about Vlad and Boxton who journey through the Great Fire of London. We really cannot wait to write our own story next week with our own characters from the Great Fire of London.

In History, we began our learning by uncovering some sources. We used these to be real historical detectives; our teachers did not tell us anything about the topic and we had to use our Historian skills to find out as much as we could!

Next, we have learnt the sequencing of events. We had to work hard as a class. Our teacher read aloud a source and if we had the matching event, we had to step up and place ourselves in order of the event. After that, we sequenced the events in our books. Take a look below:

Then, we tried to uncover how the Great Fire of London burnt down so many houses and who was most to blame for the consequences of the fire. Last, but not least, we discovered what was done to help people.

In English, we have been learning the story of Vlad and the Great Fire of London. Here is a picture of the book below if you would like to read at home with your child:

How to support at home 

• Play The Great Fire of London game to find out more about the fire – https://www.fireoflondon.org.uk/game/
• Go to the library and find some books that might tell you more about the fire
• Visit Pudding Lane and the Monument in London, or have a look at pictures of them
• Think about your own history – use a timeline to put events in order

This week we have created our own wishing tales based on the story of ‘Pumpkin Soup’.

First we made our own text maps and planned the 5 parts of our story; opening, build up, (problem) unfortunately, luckily (resolution) and ending.

Next we wrote our very own wishing tales. We changed the characters, settings and objects. We focused on identifying nouns and verbs, adding adjectives and ensuring our sentences were punctuated.

How you can help at home:

– Write a short narrative about your own wishes.
– Edit your work with a green pen to make sure you have included accurate punctuation.
– Design your own character and label with adjectives to describe them.