Year 2
Welcome to Year 2!
Miss Sheridan welcomes you to our Year 2 page. Here you will find out about what we will be learning this half term, as well as gain updates and photos of all of the fun we're having!
Religious Education
At St Patrick's we follow the document ‘Learning and Growing as the People of God’. This underlines the importance of the task of exploring and handing on Catholic faith within the generations of family and Church life. It is the curriculum strategy for Religious Education in Catholic Primary Schools in the Archdiocese of Birmingham and provides the foundations for improved partnership between school, home and parish, a partnership that lies at the heart of Catholic Education.
We begin our first week of June in the liturgical season of Pentecost. The children will develop knowledge and understanding of Pentecost as the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirt. We then end the academic year learning about Our Church.
This half terms Virtues and Values are intentional and prophetic.
Intentional in the ways that we live and use the resources of the world around us and prophetic in the example that we set towards others.
Our topic this half term is:
Land Ahoy!
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Get ready to take to the high seas and set sail in search of treasure!
This half term, we’ll visit a boat yard, river or harbour to find out about boats and ships of all shapes and sizes. We’ll write about our visit, read information books, investigate amazing sea rescues and write postcards and poetry influenced by the sea. Our science skills will help us to understand how boats float and we’ll design and make model ships using a variety of materials. We’ll study paintings of boats and draw detailed pictures of our own. Our map reading skills will help us to identify different seas and oceans, and we’ll learn about famous sea explorers. Stories of pirates will inspire us to make pirate flags, treasure maps and fact files. We’ll even find out how to talk and sing like a pirate!
What an exciting start back to our final term in Year 2! We have transformed ourselves into pirates living on a ship called the Great Emerald. Captain Gem (Miss Sheridan) and her crew the Ruby Red's (year 2 children) are ready to set off on lots of exciting adventures. Watch out there are pirates about!
Our topic this half term is:
Beachcombers
Pack up some sandwiches, pick up a fishing net and keep your eyes peeled because we’re off to the coast to go beachcombing!
This half term, we’ll be learning about shells, pebbles and seaweed to learn all about a wide range of coastal plants and creatures. We’ll read a range of seaside stories and use the coast as a setting for our writing. Maps and film footage will help us to find out more about the coast and we’ll create a wide variety of artwork. We’ll use books and the internet to search for information about the seashore and use our knowledge to write our own non-fiction stories!
The class room has been transformed into our very own beach.
To start off our topic we talked about different things we would find on the beach and looked at different beaches in England. The children loved exploring the beach finder to detect where different beaches are.
The children were excited to see some pictures of the beach that I went to over the Easter Holidays. We explored the pictures together. It's safe to say the children's favorite picture was of Daisy the dog.
Our topic this half term is:
The Scented Garden
Let’s tiptoe through the tulips together and discover the sights, sounds and smells of the garden.
This half term, we’ll find out how to look after plants, ask the experts questions and appreciate the flowers. We’ll write an information book about plants, follow instructions, enjoy the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and write stories of our own. We’ll also learn about the different parts of a plant and create our own ‘planting and growing’ action rhyme. Our senses will help us describe and sort a range of smells and we’ll make beautifully scented products. We’ll look closely at a wide variety of plants, create detailed, observational drawings and press real flowers to use in collages.
At the end of our project, we will have become plant experts! We’ll create a presentation about plants, share the information books that we have made and design a fantasy garden.
The class room has been transformed into our very own scented garden.
To start off our new topic we have planted our very own Antirrhinum. We will water our flowers daily in hope that when the sun starts to shine we will be able to plant them into the prayer garden. We had some much fun potting our seeds this morning.
Our Antirrhinums are all labelled and are sat on the window sill. We can't wait to watch them grow!
Our topic this half term is:
Street Detectives
Grab a magnifying glass, change your name to Sherlock because we’re going to become street detectives!
This half term, children will continue to develop their expanding vocabularies in English to effectively describe creatures, people and places. They will also learn to write instructions and develop an understanding of the features of letters, including using persuasive language. Children will also be exploring the ‘Great fire of London’ and writing diary entries as if they were there.
We will follow a route around our local streets and take pictures of the buildings, businesses and plants we can see. Talking to residents about the area will help us understand how the local community has changed over the years, we will also find out about the history of our school We will study and draw maps, create a model of a local building, draw portraits of the people we have met and look at the work of urban artists.
To welcome in the new year the children were greeted by a very strange, unusual object.
We have all agreed that we are going to investigate to find out what this mysterious object is. We are no longer 'Year 2' we are
'The Great Detectives of Mysterious Objects!'
On Wednesday 9th January 2019, Mrs Clarke came to visit us to share some exciting news, it was a letter! The letter was off Dr. Felicity Bernard, an investigator from the National Museum of Strange Objects. She was writing to ask all about the unusual discovery that had been made. The letter said:
The Investigation Team,
The NMOSO,
Egg Lane,
Wondersville,
WON D3R.
8th January 2019
Dear Head Teacher,
It has come to the attention of the Board of the National Museum of Strange Objects (NMSO) that you have recently had the most unusual discovery within the grounds of your school.
We are clearly interested in anything as unusual as this and would like to assess your discovery in person.
However, in order to help us with our enquiries, we would be grateful if you could forward a little more information describing the circumstances of your discovery (for example, when and where it was found, the state it was found in and whether there have been any). It would be helpful if you could include a photograph or sketch of the objects discovered, prior to arranging a visit with one of our museum staff.
We are very keen to know more and look forward to reading your written accounts, which, of course, we will respond to immediately.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Felicity Bernard
The Investigation Team
The National Museum of Strange Objects (NMSO)
The Great Detectives of Mysterious Objects were super excited about the letter, that they all agreed to write a letter back to detail our discovery. We have been working very hard to make sure our letters are perfect for Dr. Bernard. After all we want to ensure that she comes to help use investigate.
This morning we had a very exciting visit from Dr. Bernard, she came to investigate the strange object that we discovered. Dr. Bernard was amazed- she has never seen something so mysterious and beautiful throughout her career.
Before Dr Bernard arrived, as a class, we thought of lots of different questions that we wanted to ask her in order to find out more about what the strange object is. These are the questions we prepared:
Questions to ask Dr. Bernard- Friday 18th January 2019
Have you ever seen an object that looks like this before? If so what could it be?
What is it like to be a scientist and investigate lots of different things?
What equipment will you use to help us find out what it is?
What is the strangest object in the national museum of mysterious objects?
How long will it take to find out what this object is and where it has come from?
Do you think the strange object is an animal? How do you know?
Do you think this could be a dragon egg? Have you ever seen a dragon egg before?
Did you hear on the news about the dragon? Do you think the object and the dragon are related?
What weather do you think the object should be in?
When Dr. Bernard arrived the children and I were very excited- we had been waiting weeks to find out what the strange object is.
Dr. Bernard bought some special equipment to help her to investigate the strange object.
After some thorough investigating Dr. Bernard still had no idea what this strange object is- so she asked if she could take it back to the lab to conduct a detailed investigation on it. She has promised the children that after the investigating is complete she will send a full detailed report to discuss the findings.
Our topic this half term is:
Muck, Mess and Mixtures
Muck and mixtures can be messy and magical!
This half term, we will get very messy and we will be investigating mixtures, from paint and toothpaste to jelly and shaving foam. We’ll enjoy the story of George’s Marvellous Medicine and write recipes, leaflets, lists and stories of our own. We’ll use our science skills to explore everyday materials, investigate soap products and understand why mixtures freeze and melt. We will taste a wide variety of foods, learn about healthy eating and follow recipes to make some yummy treats including pizza and ice cream! Our artwork will also rely on our mixing skills. We’ll use marbling inks to make unusual patterns, create food landscapes inspired by Carl Warner, paint with ice cubes, model clay into exciting shapes and use a variety of materials to make mixed media collages.
As a class we will be focusing on Roald Dahl's book 'George's Marvellous Medicine'. You will follow in Georges footsteps and make your own marvellous medicine! Are you up for the challenge?
To help immerse the children with our new topic, I have created a potions lab within the book corner.
We had a special guest come to start off our topic from the Fizz,Pop Bang science group.
The children had a fantastic morning becoming scientists whilst taking part in a Crazy Chemists workshop. We explored chemical reactions; from colour changing liquids to making slimy putty. We even watched a cool mini explosion!
We had a whole afternoon where we were conducting our own experiments. We predicted what we thought may happen with each one first. We are starting to become real scientists.
As part of our English lesson we have been writing a revolting recipe. To help us understand the different features of a recipe we followed one ourselves to make cupcakes. We looked firstly at the ingredients and equipment to make sure we had everything ready. We then followed the step by step method. We ended up making delicious cupcakes.
Our topic this half term is:
Towers, Tunnels and Turrets.
Climbing the battlements or tunnelling in the ground, there’s a whole world of adventure and fun to be found!
This term, we will visit a real castle to explore the towers, battlements and maybe a secret tunnel or two! We’ll learn all about the different parts of a castle and describe how they have changed over time. Using a wide range of materials, we’ll build models of castles and test the strength of our structures. We’ll learn the stories of Rapunzel, The Three Little Pigs and The Three Billy Goats Gruff and create models inspired by them. Maps and photographs will help us learn about the tallest buildings and the longest tunnels in the world.
To help immerse the children in the Towers, Tunnels and Turrets topic I have created a castle to form part of our book corner.
Year 2's visit to Warwick Castle.
As part of our topic this term we visited Warwick Castle. The children had a fantastic day exploring the castle and finding out lots of interesting facts. Our day consisted of:
watching an archery show.
watching the Trebuchet
exploring the kingmaker (which was a little bit scary and dark)
we even climbed over 500 steps to the top of the tower (when we got to the top we had 29 very tired children)
A very special and memorable day was had by all. I think we all wish we could go back.
Following on from the trip to Warwick Castle the children wrote some amazing recounts in English. They are all superstars. The children were writing in chronological order and in the past tense.
Well done Year 2, keep up the fantastic work!
The Tunnel
As part of of our literacy lessons we have been writing the ending to the story 'The Tunnel' by Anthony Browne. The children used their imaginations to write about where the tunnel in the story leads to. All of the children came up with individual ideas and each and everyone of them were AMAZING! To finish off this style of writing Year 2 invited parents and carers in to listen to their children read. This was a magical morning that all children thoroughly enjoyed. A special thank you to all those that came to join us.
Building Bridges
During our topic lesson, on Wednesday afternoon, we were making bridges out of recycled materials. We looked at different types of bridges and explored the shape of them and the materials they are made out of. In partners, the children had the task of firstly designing their bridge and then making it. We had a fantastic time making our bridges and testing how strong they were (we made a right mess of the classroom, there were pompoms, feathers and glue everywhere).
Spellings and Times tables
New spellings will be given out weekly and tested every Thursday. Please ensure spelling books are in school every Thursday. It is
important to practice spellings regularly at home with your child. Children will also be expected to practice their times tables, in Year 2 we will be focusing on the 2, 5 and 10 times tables. Children will be given a times table test weekly.
Reading
Please find time to listen to your child read at least three times a week and record it in their diary. We have introduced a new reward system in which children who have read three times a week will get a star sticker on our class reward chart.
Homework
Homework is handed out each Thursday and collected back in on the following Wednesday.
Please ensure only one page is done per week in each booklet.
Water bottles
It is important that your child has access to a water bottle every day.
Clothing
Please ensure all items of clothing are named so that nothing gets muddled or lost!
Many thanks, Miss Sheridan