Termly News

Autumn Term 2024

What a fantastic start it has been and we are so pleased with how well the children have settled into their new classes!

September was a busy month with new routines and new challenges for Year 2. To add to the excitement and enjoyment of the new year and to remember how important reading is, we started by taking part in Reading Matters week. We loved reading a range of books, spent time reading and exploring the new books in our class library and we had our first visit of the year to Westfields Junior School. It was fun sharing books with the Year 5 children.

In Writing, one of our highlights was exploring the book ‘Where the Wild Things Are.’ We really enjoyed the story, finding out about the characters and setting, and we also got to design and make our very own Wild Things as part of our D&T work. The teachers were very proud of our creations.

In Science, we built upon our learning in Year 1 on materials and thought about different materials and their properties. We used Blu-tak to gather many words to describe how materials can move such as ‘stretching’, ‘twisting’ and ‘bending’. Later, we designed a crown for Max (from ‘Where the Wild Things Are’) and we learnt words such as ‘transparent’, ‘absorb’ and ‘opaque’.

After reading ‘The Girl with the Yellow Bag’, we decided to test some materials to make a waterproof bag for the little girl. We talked about making the test fair so we had the same size material, the same amount of water and poured it the same way. Some of us predicted that the plastic would be the best and others said the foil. We found out the foil, plastic and shiny paper were waterproof. It was good fun testing each material and working as a team to carry out the experiment!

Our Geography work had us using a compass and playing games involving different directions so that we remembered North, East, South and West. We remembered the countries and capital cities that form the United Kingdom from Geography in Year 1. Then we looked at the seas that surround the United Kingdom.

At the beginning of the second half term, we found out about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot in our History lessons, making links to Bonfire Night. As part of our learning, we were able to hear and act out the story with ‘Now, Press, Play’ (an immersive audio resource connecting children to their learning through sound, storytelling and movement). We wore headphones to listen to the story which included sound effects and helped us to experience typical events of the time. It was great fun and brought the story to life.

In Music, we learnt many songs and listened to a variety of music from Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ to ‘Eye of the Tiger’ by Survivor! We thought about pitch when singing and we played glockenspiels, making our accompaniments to the songs. Impressively, we kept a steady beat and played different rhythms to the music.

In PE, we began with gymnastics where we linked movements on and off of the apparatus. During the first half term, we also improved our throwing and catching skill, using these in the games we played. Following this, we enjoyed our ‘cat’ themed dance and in games, we worked on our co-operation and co-ordination skills.

As we approached Christmas, we looked at light as a symbol in Religious Education lessons. We learnt about the significance of the Menorah candle for Jewish people and the Advent candle for Christians.

One of our final events of the term was performing our Nativity play ‘Hey Ewe’ in St. Peter’s Church. The children worked so hard to learn their lines and learn the songs and it was such a special occasion to perform in front of the parents and invited guests.

What an amazing term it has been! After a well-deserved break, we are looking forward to seeing the children’s continued progress and we are excited for what the spring term will bring.

Summer Term 2024

Our summer term started with Year 2 going on a fantastic trip to Wisley Gardens. The children enjoyed exploring the lovely grounds as well as planting their own cornflowers and hunting for minibeasts. They saw nymphs, beetles, tadpoles, spiders, pond skaters, millipedes and many unusual, exotic plants.

Obviously the best part was lunch! However, the children had a great day and many have looked after their cornflowers, watching them grow and flower.

In writing we have enjoyed using some super books to help us use our imagination and write creatively. The children particularly loved the Tin Forest, when the old man’s gloomy world turned into a beautiful jungle. After watching the short film, Bubbles, the children were able to imagine going to an imaginary land and create a short adventure. The 100 Decker Bus encouraged the children to think of their own decks and inspired their writing of a postcard as if they had been on the bus.

This term our Maths work has focused on improving the children’s arithmetic skills and using simple facts to help them solve a range of mathematical problems. They practised counting fluently in 2s, 5s and 10s and they tried hard to practise counting in 3s. The children started to solve problems with two parts, such as buying two items from a shop and then finding the change. They also loved measuring various objects around the class as well as playing with tangrams to look at various 2D shapes.

We celebrated a Maths Day across the Westfields Federation where each class looked at Maths through a story and created mathematical art work to represent the book. They also designed their own games which they played with a class from a different year group which was lots of fun!

In our Art lessons we looked at the work of Alma Thomas and the children were able to re-create her work using various media and objects. It was lovely to see how many children created her work as a home learning task too.

Our Science work was about animals and their life cycles. The children watched the life cycle of a butterfly in real life and then they found out about the life cycles of other animals. They particularly liked the penguins, they also found out about polar animals and how they adapt to their habitats.

Throughout the term we have been on a journey around the world, finding out about the continents, the oceans and the equator. We found out fascinating facts about Alice Springs in Australia and compared it to Yateley, finding many similarities and differences. The children were amazed to learn that their seasons are not the same as in England.

As we moved through the term, the children visited the Junior School as part of their transition plan. They have visited various parts of the school including the playground where they were able to join in with lots of different games and make new buddies from Year 5 ready for when they move to the Juniors!

One of the highlights of the term was definitely our Sports Day where the children competed against each other in various races, including a relay race across the Year 2 classes.

Spring Term 2024

We have certainly had a lot of exciting learning going on this term, highlights have definitely included: World Book Day, Science Week, Safer Internet Day and World Religion Day!

During World Book Day we had so much fun finding out about the stories of Mr Penguin and we know many of the children have been keen to find his other books too which is absolutely wonderful! Some children have even written their own Mr Penguin stories – we may have some budding authors in Year 2! We have continued to read a lot to get as many certificates as we can on the Dino Reading Challenge and many children have achieved Tyrannosaurus Rex Certificates which is something to be proud of; well done to all those that have read frequently!

This term in our writing lessons, we wrote our own versions of a story as if we were the seagulls inspired by the storybook, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch. We also pretended to be a lighthouse keeper to write a diary entry, where we were able to use a range of adjectives and adverbs to explain how terrible the day was until the villagers came to the rescue – read our diaries to find out what happened.

In Maths we have worked hard with developing our understanding and recall of multiplication. We have learnt how to use counting in 2s, 5s and 10s to solve real-life problems. We have also learnt to read the time for o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to. Our teachers were proud of how well we learnt to read the time and sometimes we still tell the teacher when it says a time we recognise. Recently we looked at finding halves, quarters and thirds of amounts.

Our Science, PSHE and DT work has been all about staying healthy. We looked at what this meant including: eating a balanced diet, exercising, sleeping, keeping clean and drinking. We even did some tests to work out which exercises made our hearts beat faster. We also thought about medicines, what they do, how they help us and why we should never take them if we are not ill. In DT we were able to plan and make a fruit cocktail which was great fun.

We have really enjoyed visiting the Junior School for special events such as Safer Internet Day where we were able to look at technology from long ago – the teachers remembered lots of the old gadgets – they must be getting old! Our task was to be detectives and order all of the objects, it was really interesting to learn about how they were used and how they have changed over time.

In Science Week we developed our skills as scientists; we got to share information about dinosaurs and put them on a timeline, it was fascinating to learn about the different eras of time and which dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Autumn Term 2023

Autumn term in Year 2 - September seems like such a long time ago; The children settled well into their new classes with lots of exciting learning.  We had some mysterious footprints in our class rooms which we now think were from 'Wild Things' and we discovered an unusual door that took us to a new world.  These helped us to develop our imagination and vocabulary when writing our own stories.  We enjoyed our 'Reading Matters Week' and the start of the new Dino Reading Challenge - we have all improved how many times we read each week which is so important.

We found out that maths is all around us.  We practised our number bonds and realised that when we know simple facts we can use them to help us solve more complicated problems.  We have looked at shapes in the environment, identified their properties and found lines of symmetry.  The children became confident with counting in 2s, 5s and 10s and many even started learning to count in 3s!  We have learnt how to measure carefully in centimetres too.

In Science we have enjoyed testing different materials to see if they were waterproof.  Everyone across our classes had a job to do and everyone worked well as a team.  We also investigated friction and tested the best surfaces for rolling a car or a marble.

One of this term's highlights has got to be making our very own Wild Things!  We designed them, planned how to make them and then made a model of one - what a great morning we had!

Finally the term ended with a fantastic performance of our Nativity Play 'Children of the World' which we were lucky enough to perform in St. Peter's church.  There were some very proud teachers that night.