Summer Term 2024
W.C 15.07.24 Monday - Wednesday - Mrs Barratt
Our final full week in Year 2! We have been writing setting descriptions all about forests after listening to sounds and writing some key words and ideas about forests. We have written some fantastic descriptions!
In Maths, we have been working on money. We have been learning about where money comes from and why it is important to save money. We have really enjoyed these lessons produced by Natwest because it gives the children some understanding about real money and how best to spend and save it.
In the afternoons, we have continued to practise tying our shoelaces and completing times table activities.
On Wednesday, we were really lucky and were able to meet and greet the chicks from Reception!
Thursday and Friday - Miss Cragg
We have finished off our NATWEST Maths lessons by learning about how to keep our money safe. Science lessons are now completed as we have been writing a fact file about plants and doing some experiments on how water moves up the stem and around the plant and dissecting flowers to see their parts. Time for some guided reading and our last ever spelling test! Final stretch now, almost there!
W.C 08.07.24 Monday - Wednesday - Mrs Barratt
This week in Maths we have continued with our times tables, this time 5- and 10- times tables. We did lots of chanting and practicing telling these times tables and then completed activities all to do with these times tables.
In English, we have completed our big write and edited our writing. These pieces of writing have really impressed us, the children wrote a fantastic report all about flowers.
In the afternoons this week, we have been completing our DT project. We have made apprieciation cards with a sliding mechanism. These have also gone really well and will give these out to the people we addressed them to next week.
A great week Year 2, only 1 full week left!
Thursday and Friday - Miss Cragg
In English this week we did a whole lesson on starting sentences with adverbials to describe the how, where, why and when, with the aim of improving our sentences and making them more exciting. In Maths we began our lessons from the NATWEST scheme, looking at coins and notes identifying them and sorting them. We looked at how we get change and how to check it is correct as well as adding up amounts needed to pay for different labelled items around the classroom.
We completed our Design Technology project and evaluated our cards before having a photograph taken with them and sticking all of our finished work into our D&T books. We finished Thursday off with a spelling test because Friday was our CARNIVAL DAY! We had loads of fun learning how to play the steel drums, making jerk sweet potato wraps with a tropical fruit punch, learning a carnival dance and making our own carnival headdresses. We enjoyed parading to show the grown ups and then performing our dance to everyone at the end of the day, thank you for coming and supporting us!
W.C 01.07.24 Monday - Wednesday - Mrs Barratt
Another week down, we are slowly running out of weeks in Year 2!
In English, we have been writing our big write all about Flowers- we have been trying to include lots of key skills on our writing too. We are working really hard, and our teachers are so proud!
In Maths, we are learning our times tables. We have been chanting lots, completing times table activities and even playing on hit the button. It has been so much fun practising them!
We have continued to learn about Role Models in our Life Skills Curriculum- we learnt about Harry Houdini and Lenny Henry. We talked about how their life changed to work around their newfound fame!
On Wednesday afternoon, we had Music with Mrs Freeman and PE with Mr Godson.
Thursday & Friday - Miss Cragg
The highlight of our week this week was our Wednesday walk to Sleaford Islamic Centre. We felt so welcomed and behaviour was impeccable, we were a credit to Church Lane. Lots of us remembered information about Islam especially the Five Pillars of Islam, and we were respectful and sensible in the mosque.
Thursday was Sports Day! We enjoyed a round robin of activities in the morning and loved our afternoon races. On Friday we counting in 4's, completed our learning about Judaism and finished off with a knowledge quiz. In PE we transitioned from a partner dance to a group dance and we did our spelling test. The final spellings for Friday 19th July are:
wriggle, wrestle, wrecked, wren, wrote, write, wrap, written, wrapped, wrong
Have a lovely weekend!
W.C 24.06.24 - Monday - Tuesday - Mrs Barratt
This week, we have worked really hard to plan our next Big Write - What is a flower? We have lots of ideas and skills planned to use within our report. We can't wait to get started now.
In Maths, we continued with time. We have been learning about telling the time to the hour and then telling the time to 5 minutes. We worked so hard to practise this skill, we are getting so good!
We have also been practising our life skills too, we have been looking at role models including, Usain Bolt, Taylor Swift, Steve Irwin, Steve Jobs, Leo Messi and Lewis Hamilton. We watched clips on how they became who they are today and why and how they picked these paths.
Wednesday, Thursday & Friday – Miss Cragg
Another week in the bag! In English we have begun our Big Write, writing about the features of flowers and making sure to include lots of descriptive adjectives as well as the conjunction ‘because’. We are learning all about how flowers attract pollinators! In Maths we have finished our re-learning about time, looking at the hours in a day and minutes in an hour. We have made so much more progress by re-doing this again and lots of us are much more confident in telling the time past and to the hour as well as half past and o’clock.
We have completed an end of year Science test and an RE lesson on Bar and Bat Mitzvahs in Judaism, an important rite of passage for 12 and 13 year olds. Our PE lesson was all about transitioning from a partner dance to a group dance and we’ve also squeezed in some writing about our little jaunt to the Rec and our film afternoon last week. A spelling test rounded things off for us! The spellings for the next test on Friday 5th July are:
Know, knew, knit, gnome, gnaw, knock, knee, kneel, knight, gnat
See you next week!
W.C 17.06.24 - Monday - Wednesday - Mrs Barratt
Week 3 done and dusted.
This week, we have worked really hard in English, we have continued learning about what are leaves and completing a range of skills including, using a because sentence, alliteration, writing a question, expanded noun phrases and using the contracted form. A super job this week in English.
In Maths, we finished our unit position and direction with shape patterns with turns and then moved onto recapping time. We began with telling the time to the o'clock and half past- we did really well and have retained telling the time really well.
In History, we completed our Queens unit of work with a debate. We had to debate which queen was the best, Queen Elizabeth the first, Queen Victoria or Queen Elizabeth the second. We were amazing at arguing our points using all the facts we have learnt over the last two terms!
In PSHE, we looked at female and male body parts and how you can tell the differences between a male and female. Then we looked at what we are most excited about moving into Year 3. There are lots of excited, but also nervous, children!
On Wednesday, we were really lucky, we went to The Rec in Sleaford for our end of Year reward trip from all of our hard work during SATs. We had the best time playing at the park, playing football and rounders and just having fun with our friends. We then came back for lunch and then had the Japanese drums out, we got to practise playing the drums and listening to a rhythm and playing the rhythm back- amazing! Afterwards, we got to watch a film with popcorn and crisps- WHAT A DAY!
Thursday and Friday - Miss Cragg
The weeks are flying by now, on the downwards slope towards the end of the year and KS2 is beckoning for these little lovelies! This week we’ve had our lovely reward on Wednesday so no lessons all day long, lucky us. Our Japanese drumming session sounded AMAZING!
In English we’ve had two sentence stacking lessons, one covering synonyms for the word ‘special’, put commas in a list and use a colon with adjectives all about murderous, predatory, savage meat eating plants! Our other English lesson we had to use an exclamation mark, a question word and a question mark and the conjunction ‘so’ in our sentences. Busy busy!
In Maths we have been recapping telling the time, quarter past and quarter to then telling the time past the hour. We have a much deeper understanding now and are able to reason and problem solve. In RE we continued to learn about Judaism, this week learning about the holy day of Shabbat which is a weekly celebration that Jews look forward to. We learned about sweet Challah bread, the blessings and services at the synagogue as well as the rules and traditions about wearing smart clothes and not being able to use anything electronic including the lights!
In our PE lesson we danced and we also completed this weeks spelling test. Next weeks spellings for the test on Friday 28th June are:
ice, city, lace, circle, rice, race, cell, fancy, space, circus
Hopefully it will stay sunny this weekend so we can all have some fun in the sun. Be safe and see you next week!
W.C 10.06.24 Monday - Wednesday - Mrs Barratt
Another week down, and a good job at that!
In English this week, we have been looking at lots of leaves. We looked at compound and simple leaves and organised them into different groups such as size, colour, touch. We really enjoyed looking at lots of leaves and know that there are a lot of different leaves in such a small space! We then wrote about different compound and simple leaves using these skills; adjectives, 'because' sentence and using a simile.
In Maths, we finished out statistics unit with interpreting pictograms- we had to make sure we checked the key to know what each object represented. On Tuesday, we started our new Maths unit of work 'Position and Direction', we started with language and position, this entailed us to look at where objects were e.g. left, right, above, behind, below, between etc. We also learnt how to describe movement, moving forwards and backwards, left and right. This is tricky, but we've tried really hard.
In History, we continued with Queens and learnt about the British Empire and which Queen had the biggest impact on the Empire, we also learnt about how Queen Elizabeth the second changed the way Queens rule. Did you know, Queen Elizabeth the second made the royals accessible to the public using the media?
We have also been learning how to tie our shoelaces in Year 2. Tying shoelaces is apparently one of the hardest knots you will ever have to learn in your life. The children did really well learning this new skill.
On Wednesday, we had PE with Mr Godson and Art with Mrs Freeman.
Thursday and Friday - Miss Cragg
We are continuing to plough on, working hard and high expectations. Two experience days to end the week with in English, with a sentence stacking lesson in the middle, we’ve learned more about simple and compound leaves using key scientific language to describe them and their structures. We have used the conjunctions ‘and’ and ‘which’ to write effective sentences for an information text about the leaves of horse chestnut and birch trees and have used commas in a list when writing about where white clover grows. In our final experience day we learned more about different leaf types and why they have the adaptations they do, how a leaf shape and size changes according to its position in the natural environment and how plants use light. We discussed oxygen and carbon dioxide, glucose, photosynthesis and chlorophyll and basically our knowledge of leaves is beginning to rival most horticulturists! Some excellent understanding of science and applying our learning about plants in our Science lessons to our English lessons.
In Maths we have been learning about position and direction, cementing our understanding of left and right and introducing new learning about clockwise and anticlockwise, quarter, half, three quarter and whole turns. Plenty to remember!
In our RE lesson we began to learn about Judaism, looking at items which are important to Jewish people when they pray in a synagogue. We passed around a kippah which is a hat, a prayer shawl called a tallit and looked at the special tzitzit knots and also a Torah which is the Jewish holy writings. We watched videos exploring the features of a synagogue and discussed the similarities and differences with Christianity and Islam which we have also studied this year.
In PE we continued to learn about dance, this week recapping the partner work we did last week and performed the Caerphilly March then learned a group dance to Medieval music. We finished the week with our spelling test. These are the spellings for the test on Friday 21st June:
gym, magic, energy, engine, gentle, gem, giant, giraffe, digit, religion
Have a lovely weekend!
W.C 03.06.24 Monday - Wednesday - Mrs Barratt
First week back and done! It has been nice to get back to our normal compared to last month of SATs.
In English this week, we have started our new book 'plants'. This is a non-fiction text all about plants. We have had a look at the text and slotted the shapes next to the correct information.
In Maths, we have been learning all about statistics. We focused on tables, block diagrams and pictograms this week so far. We have done really well to understand the different tables and answering the questions.
In History, we have learnt about Queen Elizabeth the 2nd and what impact she had on society today. We also started our final PSHE work, all about changing me. We have been talking about changes we can't control like growing older and moving up to a new year group and how our bodies change as we get older e.g. running slower, find it harder to hear etc.
On Wednesday, we had Art with Mrs Freeman and PE with Mr Godson.
Thursday and Friday - Miss Cragg
Welcome back! We've hit the ground running this week, straight back into routine and straight into Maths and English lessons like we didnt have the whole of the month of May off! In English we have had an experience day on Wednesday where we got out of the classroom for a while to explore nature and look at the different kinds of leaves we could find around our field, linking this to our new book about 'Trees, Leaves, Flowers & Seeds'. We have also used adjectives to describe leaves, alliteration with our adjectives, the conjunctions 'because' and 'while', commas in a list and possessive apostrophes at the end of the week in our lessons on Thursday and Friday. Our non-fiction writing is looking good!
In Maths we have been learning about all things statistics, exploring pictograms. We have had to interpret them answering questions to find out information and also draw our own pictograms, paying careful attention to the key which doesn's always represent 1!
In Science we were also learning about plants again, this time about how a flower reproduces. We learned about pollination by role playing a bee moving from flower to flower and learned about the different male and female parts of a flower. Next week we will dissect flowers to look inside and see the different parts for ourselves. In our PE lesson on Friday we began to look at traditional dances, moving our bodies to English country dancing music as well as Tudor music. We then learned the steps to the Caerphilly March and performed it with our partners. A spelling test has finished off our week. Spellings for our next test on Friday 14th June are:
charge, orange, strange, sponge, fringe, change, range, hinge, dungeon, pigeon
Have a great weekend!
W.C 20.05.24 Monday - Wednesday - Mrs Barratt
Last week, finally! Well done for making it to the end of the term Year 2!
We have been completing our final lessons for our Topic lessons this week. We have learnt a lot about relationships in PSHE, we talked about secrets, different families, friends and conflict and trust.
We also finished our unit of work in Geography- comparing Mugurameno to Sleaford and looking at the similarities and differences. In History, we learnt a little more about the role of women in the Victorian era.
On Tuesday, we had the laptops out and had a go using purple mash to complete some units of work. We looked at online e safety and spreadsheets.
On Wednesday, we had Art with Mrs Freeman and PE with Mr Godson.
Thursday and Friday - Miss Cragg
What a way to end the week! Year 2 raised the most money from break the rules day and we have earned the right to watch a movie and eat popcorn one afternoon after half term, hooray!
This week we've finished off our Materials unit in Science by testing the properties of materials to see which would make the best tent. We were looking for materials that were waterproof rather than absorbent and that were strong and durable. We also did a lesson looking at why we choose certain materials for certain jobs and sorted some materials into groups. We've completed our RE unit on Islam, looking at Muslim weddings as well as funerals. We have also squeezed some Music lessons in, using the instruments to find a beat and tap a rhythm as well as our voices exploring pitch. A spelling test and a PE lesson on movements, turns and balances has finished our week off nicely.
Spellings for the first Friday (7th June) are:
edge, dodge, ridge, judge, lodge, badge, bridge, fudge, smudge, wedge
(Yes we have done these before, we've completed the unit!)
Have a fantastic, safe and happy half term. We look forward to seeing you back in a weeks time.
W.C 13.05.24 Monday - Wednesday - Mrs Barratt
We have made it through another week! We are still working so hard and amazing us every day.
This week we have continued with our SATs papers and really got stuck in and working so hard- so nearly finished Year 2!
In History this week, we have learnt about Queen Victoria and her life. We found out that, she was the longest reigning queen of 63 years, she also became queen at the young age of 18. She also only wore black, after her husband Prince Albert died.
In Geography, we have learnt a little more about Mugurameno and what human features they have. We looked at the key main human features including, houses, shops and schools.
On Wednesday, we had Art with Mrs Freeman and PE with Mr Godson.
Thursday and Friday - Miss Cragg
Final SATs at the end of this week and we’re all done! Everyone has worked so hard over this last month and deserves huge praise, we are so proud of each and every one of you. We have all tried our best and that is the most we can ask so give yourselves a big pat on the back! We will be filling in some gaps in our lessons next week and doing lots of Science, History, Music, ICT, PSHE, Geography, Life Skills and RE. When we return after half term we will go back into a normal routine again, thank goodness!
This week we have also had a Science lesson on materials designing a strong house to withstand a wolf attack for the three little pigs, some more guided reading (because we haven’t had enough of that lately!), a spelling test and a gymnastics PE lesson on linking different ways of travelling around the space with balances, rolls, jumps and turns.
Spellings for the test on Friday 24th May are:
whole, any, many, clothes, busy, people, water, again, half, hour
Have a lovely weekend!
W.C 07.05.24 Monday - Wednesday - Mrs Barratt
An extra-long weekend was a lovely treat for us all after working so hard this term!
On Tuesday, we came straight into class and cracked on with our SATs yet again, some of us had a good go at the Maths Paper 2: Reasoning, they all worked their socks off! We then had a go at completing our English book 'Stardust' looking at alliteration, relative clauses, and dialogue. In Geography, we learnt about some of the physical features in Mugurameno and focused mainly on the River, Zambezi. We looked at how they use this physical feature to help them survive and do their daily chores- we are so lucky we have running water out of a tap!
On Wednesday, we completed Reading Paper 1 in the morning, this was a lovely text to read about, and again, the children made us so proud of how hard they are working. Then we had PE with Mr Godson and Art with Mrs Freeman.
Thursday and Friday - Miss Cragg
On Thursday Mrs Sambridge and Miss Liston worked with us on some more revision for our SATs, we did guided reading and some grammar practise ready for Friday. We also did an RE lesson on learning about how Muslim babies are welcomed into the faith by a ceremony called Aqiqah where the baby's head is shaved and the eqivalent value of the weight of the hair in gold or silver is donated to charity. We then shared some search and find books with some of us enjoying them so much we borrowed them to take them home!
On Friday some of us completed our grammar tests whilst the rest of us did some more revision ready for more tests next week. In the afternoon we had our usual spelling test then a PE lesson where we linked our previous learning about jumps and turns together, combining them with balances and different types of movement.
Spellings for the test on Friday 17th May are:
Megan's, Ravi's, Cody's, Sophie's, Sam's, child's, boy's, man's, dog's, lady's
Enjoy the last of the sunshine this weekend before the rain begins again next week!
WC: 29.04.24 Monday - Wednesday - Mrs Barratt
In Year 2 in English we have continued with our book 'Starlight', writing effective sentences for our story including listening to sounds, writing action sentences, writing a question and using three adjectives with commas. We are really enjoying this book!
In Maths, we have been learning all about tables and graphs and how to read them. We then looked at a range of questions to analyse the tables and graphs.
In History, we continued learning about Queen Elizabeth the first and why she was so important. In Geography, we learnt about a village in Zambia called Mugurameno and found out about their life there and how they live day to day. We noticed there are lots of similarities and differences between our lives and theirs.
We have also started our SATs on Wednesday, we started with our first Maths paper: Arithmetic. We absolutely smashed it, we are so proud of the children who have completed it so far. Well done!
On Wednesday, we had Art with Mrs Freeman and PE with Mr Godson.
Thursday - Miss Cragg
The beginning of SATs this week and every single child who has begun their tests has tried their absolute best, we are so proud of the start they have made. Not every child will have a test every day this month, if they are not in a test they are practising instead so we have done some arthimatic, spelling and reading practise in our lessons this week whilst some of us have done some of our SATs papers. Year 2 have shown great resilience and wonderful attitudes, lets keep that up for the whole month and smash these tests!
In Science we were investigating how we could change materials, adding water to sand bit by bit to find out how many spoonfuls before we got the perfect sandcastle. We read about sand art and worked collaboratively with a partner counting our teaspoons of water to change the consistency of the sand. We had a rather tricky spelling test, some guided reading and a PE lesson where we all got very sweaty jumping around the room. We jumped with balls, in hoops, forwards and backwards and from left to right across lines and then used the equipment to jump from boxes safely landing on two feet with soft, bent knees.
Have a lovely long weekend and we'll see you back at school on Tuesday!
WC: 22.04.24 Monday - Wednesday - Mrs Barratt
Another week down, and what a great job we have done!
In English this week, we have continued with our book 'Stardust' and have looked at writing show-not-tell sentences, using adverbs to create a negative impact and an action sentence. We then had an experience day where we looked at understanding empathy and putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes. We even got to watch a Bluey episode looking at how Bluey was empathetic towards his sister when she was sad!
In Maths, we have been recapping what we have learnt so far this year. We have worked on finding a half and a quarter of a number and remembering to use our sharing circles to help us solve the problem. Then we looked at dividing and sharing, again using sharing circles. Then we looked at 2D and 3D shapes, we looked at finding its properties and solving problems with shape.
In History we have continued learning about queens. We learnt about Queen Victoria this week; we know she didn't marry a man because she didn't want him to become King! She was a strong, independent woman!
In Geography we started our new unit looking at whether all places in the world are the same as Sleaford. We are comparing Sleaford to a country called Zambia. We used an atlas to locate Zambia in the world and then where it is in Southern Africa. We worked well as a team to find Zambia.
On Wednesday we had Art with Mrs Freeman and PE with Mr Godson.
Thursday and Friday - Miss Cragg
The weeks are going by fast and May is soon approaching bringing the SATs with it! Next week we will start a slow approach to our tests in order to get them all completed by half term.
In English this week we’ve been writing complex sentences where we have used synonyms and thought about the wishes of our main character, Mabel, we have used the conjunction ‘because’ and written lines with rhyming words at the end of them. We’ve also created a collaborative poem together as a class thinking of positive statements about why each member is a star. We had some really lovely ideas, well done Year 2. We have also used onomatopoeia, written noun phrases using adjectives about stars and used repetition when writing about the Earth’s physical features and the weather, we’ve been very busy but our writing is looking great.
In Maths we have continued to recap previously taught topics to help us to revise for our upcoming SATs. This week we have been spotting patterns in questions, finding the difference and thinking carefully about how to answer some of the questions which will be trying to trick us. We also reminded ourselves of how to tell the time to the hour, half past, quarter past and quarter to as well as thinking about times that are past and to the hour.
In Music we moved our bodies to the beat, discussing ostinato (a repeated rhythm) and dynamics (volume). We squeezed in some guided reading, talking about a spider called Anansi who liked to play tricks and a PE lesson where we explored different types of roll. A celebration assembly and a quick spelling test rounded off our week.
Here are the spellings for our next test on Friday 3rd May:
Station, fiction, motion, nation, education, action, injection, caption, fraction, competition
Enjoy your weekend!
WC: 15.04.24 Monday - Wednesday - Mrs Barratt
Welcome back to school! We hope you have had a lovely relaxing Easter break filled with chocolate!
This week, we have started a new English writing scheme and we have loved it! The children have taken to it so well and enjoyed a change. We are reading a new book 'Stardust' by Jeanne Willis. We have looked at writing effective sentences including alliteration, hyphenated words, apostrophes, and show-not-tell sentences. We are looking forward to getting stuck into this book.
In Maths this week, we have been recapping all the skills we have learnt over the year. We have recapped adding with and without exchanges and then moved onto subtraction without exchanging.
We have started a new topic in History, Queens. We have looked at the different Queens who have ruled the United Kingdom and then ordered them onto a timeline.
On Wednesday, we had Art with Mrs Freeman and did yoga for PE.
Thursday and Friday - Miss Cragg
We have continued where Mrs Barratt left off this week, in English undertaking what is called an Experience Day learning about our new book. We watched a clip from the film 'Boss Baby' and discussed the theme of jealousy and sibling rivalry. Some of the stories we talked about were very interesting! We know how it feels when our siblings get something and we don't, we also talked about fairness and the roles adults play when it comes to making things fair. Lots of us have new babies in our class so that was an opportunity for them to share their feelings. We then did a new style sentence stacking lesson learning about the concepts of expanded noun phrases, comparatives, using commas, using possessive apostrophes, positive adverbs, suffixes and superlatives. Quite a lot to cram into one lesson!
In Maths we have been doing some revision of key concepts ready for our SATs tests next month. At the end of the week we've been recapping subtraction with exchanging and then looking at word problems which involve using column method to do mixed addition and subtraction to solve two step problems.
In Science we have begun our new topic learning about materials, we can name objects and state the material they are made from as well as beginning to identify some of the properties of different materials. We tested some materials such as playdough, a stone, a sponge ball and a straw using the vocabulary of bend, twist, stretch and squash. Time for a PE lesson on balances and different types of movement, some guided reading and a spelling test and then our week was done.
Spellings for our test on Friday 26th April are:
quiet, quite, bare, bear, sun, son, be, bee, night, knight
Have a great weekend!
