Year 2: Blog items
Date: 2nd Nov 2023 @ 2:54pm
Our first journey for this half term is writing a character description. Before we begin to plan and write our own, we explored lots of different character descriptions from Roald Dahl's books including: The BFG, Miss Trunchball, Fantastic Mr Fox and Grandma in George's Marvellous medicine. We carefully searched for adjectives and adverbs and recorded them in a grid so we can magpie some idea's for our own and some descriptions even included similes!
Date: 2nd Nov 2023 @ 2:52pm
This half term, Year 2 are learning about Remembrance. Before, remembrance day we are creating poppy art from observational drawings. We followed a video and different pictures to draw our own poppy then we carefully painted them the correct colours. When they are dry we will cut them out and stick them onto a black and white picture of Blackpool during the war.
Date: 2nd Nov 2023 @ 2:49pm
This week, it was the beginning of Elm's turn to read with Mr Vincent and Bailey. Throughout, the half term different children will take it in turns to read to Bailey as well as enjoying stories shared by Mr Vincent to the whole class. This week, we enjoyed a story about a puppy who kept forgetting his name and we compared it to a story we have previously read 'Mog the forgetful cat'. The winners of reader of the week were Stevie and Joshua for excellent sounding out and expression for speech. Before Bailey went home we enjoyed blowing some bubbles for her to catch.
Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 2:03pm
Over the last few days, Year 2 have been incredibly busy creating their final products. The children demonstrated patience and resilience when threading a needle, tying a knot and sewing all the way around the outside of their puppet to successfully join the two pieces of material together. Then, they followed their designs, using different materials to cut out and create their animal. They have loved creating their puppets and cannot wait to take them home and play with them!
Date: 17th Oct 2023 @ 4:51pm
Today, alongside the whole School we participated in our termly no pen morning. We began the morning by consolidating our knowledge of telling the time to the nearest 5 minutes where we played a board game with a partner having to tell the time on the square we landed; this was also brilliant for our communication and turn taking skills as well as being able to support one another. Then, we continued our fantastic morning by beginning to sew our puppets together ready to be decorated; we carefully threaded the needle and tried to do a running stitch- we had to demonstrate good perseverence and resillience but we are excited to make our final product. Check back over the coming days to see our final puppets!
Date: 12th Oct 2023 @ 3:07pm
Today was our final forest school session of 2023. We started by sharing one of our favourite books by Julia Donaldson, Superworm. We then searched the area to see if we could find any worms. We looked under logs and dug in the mud. We even pretended to be rain and made a pitter patter sound with our feet to try and trick the worms to the surface. We then made worm habitats using soil, leaves and bark. We are all looking forward to our next sessions in the new year.
Date: 11th Oct 2023 @ 8:17pm
Year 2 have been working hard on telling the time over the last 2 weeks. On Tuesday we consolidated our learning on telling the time 'past' the hour by working in pairs to solve a matching puzzle. We matched analogue clock images with 'past' and 'to' times. We also used stem sentences to help us read the clocks - For example, "The minute hand is pointing at the 2 so it is a ten past time" and "The minute hand is pointing at the 8 so it is a 20 to time." We then looked at the position of the hour hand to complete reading the time.
Date: 11th Oct 2023 @ 11:49am
We have held our first Spelling Bee of the year and what a wonderful event it was! 4 children in each year group represented their house and were given three words to spell from over a list of 30 possible words. Every child showed courage and determination when it came to spelling their words. It was a very close contest, with Chepstow winning overall with 15 out of 15. We are very proud of all the children who represented their house and are looking forward to the next one.
Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 3:59pm
This half term, Year 2 have been enjoying their Music lessons as we have explored different genres and had the opportunities to play a variety of instruments. We have been focusing on learning key vocabulary including: pulse, rhythm, dynamics, tempo and ostinato. This half term, we have learnt the song 'Music is in my soul' as well as 'Hey Friends' both of which we loved the meaning of. We have also had the opportunity to play and improvise to these songs using glokenspeils as well as a range of percussion instruments. Last week, we learnt the term 'scatting' and found it funny to make up our own words and say it repetitively to a beat.
Date: 5th Oct 2023 @ 3:35pm
Today, despite the weather, we enjoyed our second forest school session. Michelle read us a book called 'cool by the pool' and we pretended to be the animals in the book before we split into two groups; one group went pond dipping to look for bugs, plants and animals that we might find in a pond habitat and others explored the forest school garden opting to play in the mud puddle, mud kitchen, creating art or playing 'what time is it Mr Owl?' before we swapped over. Just before we came inside, we warmed up by having a cup of warm vimto.
Date: 28th Sep 2023 @ 3:46pm
We began our Forest School sessions today. To start we reminded ourselves of the Forest School rules that are in place to keep us all safe. We then went on a scavenger hunt to find a range of items that we then used to create a piece of art. Some of us chose to play in the mud kitchen and some of us worked together to build a shelter. Then it was onto the pond habitat to search for frogs. We were very excited to see a few hopping about as they were tiny tadpoles last time we visited in Spring.
Year 2 - School Council Elections
Date: 28th Sep 2023 @ 3:45pm
This week, alongside the whole school we have been celebrating democracy and exploring what that means. With the start of a new school year means making new decisions about who we want to be our classes representative and member of the school council. The children were incredibly brave and delivered their manifesto's explaining why they would be a good school councillor and what they would do to make Boundary a better place before we all went and placed a confidential vote today. Well done to our new representatives:
Elm- Sab
Birch- Marleigh
Year 2 - DT - Developing sewing skills
Date: 26th Sep 2023 @ 3:49pm
This week in DT, Year 2 have been mastering the practical skillls that they will need to create a puppet. We used pipe cleaners to practise tying knots as we will need a knot in the end of our thread when we begin to sew. We completed threading activities to practise the movement needed to make a running stitch and finally, we used a needle and thread to create a running stitch that joined two pieces of fabric.
Date: 21st Sep 2023 @ 1:51pm
For one of our PE units this half term, we have been developing our dance skills. We have linked this dance with our current class novel, Fantastic Mr Fox. We have been thinking about how a fox might move and how we can show emotion through movement. We worked in small groups to put together a short motif that showed Mr Fox and his family digging, listening and moving.
Date: 20th Sep 2023 @ 5:11pm
Today, we continued our topic by exploring microhabitats. We thought about where we would find microhabitats before going into the forest school area to explore these to see what minibeasts we could find. We also discussed the conditions of the microhabitats and thought about how these minibeasts survived there. We looked under leaves, rocks, logs, under the bark and in some soil.
Year 2 - Flexible Partitioning
Date: 13th Sep 2023 @ 8:47pm
Year Two have been using the Base 10 and part-part-whole models to partition 2-digit numbers in different ways. We tried to do this in a systematic way so we could spot the patterns occuring with the tens digits. We started to record our calculations with addition senetences and this also helped us to see the patterns in the digits.
Date: 13th Sep 2023 @ 8:36pm
As part of our Reading into Writing journey, Year Two have been learning how to use conjunctions effectively to join clauses. We enjoyed working in small groups to match clauses with appropriate conjunctions. Once matched, we had to re-read the sentences carefully to make sure that they made sense with the chosen conjunction. We will continue to develop our understanding and start to use a wider range of conjunctions in our next piece of writing.
Year 2 - Computing - Budding Photographers
Date: 13th Sep 2023 @ 8:21pm
For our first Computing unit of the year, Year Two are focusing on Digital Photography. We have been learning the steps needed to take a good photograph and how we can adjust the way we are holding our devices to improve the photographs we take. We have also been learning the difference between portrait and landscape images and experimenting with these, thinking carefully about which option a photographer might prefer depending on the subject of the photograph.
Date: 7th Sep 2023 @ 1:58pm
Today Year Two worked on representing the tens and ones in 2-digit numbers using Base 10. We compared numbers with the same digits, such as 59 and 95 to show how the order of the digits makes a difference in the value of the number.
Date: 7th Sep 2023 @ 1:57pm
This half term in Year 2 we will be creating our own puppets. To begin our learning journey, we explored a range of different puppets including: glove puppets, finger puppets, marionette puppets and shadow puppets. We thought about the materials that each puppet has been made out of, who might use the puppet as well as the different techniques that were used to join the matierals together. Most of us thought the glove puppets were the best and look forward to making our own in the future.
Year 2 - Welcome to Bailey's Book Club
Date: 6th Sep 2023 @ 2:51pm
Today we welcomed Bailey and her owner Vincent to our school for the first session of Bailey's Book Club in Year 2. Several children had some one to one time reading to Vincent and Bailey the dog, Bailey also came into class and Vincent read a story about a Puppy to the children. Bailey gave out some Word of Week Certificates to the readers and then we had a bit of fun with Bailey doing some tricks with the bubbles!
Date: 19th Jul 2023 @ 3:38pm
This half term, Year Two have been exploring different ways to represent data using an online system linking our Computing and Maths learning. Throughout the unit we have explored creating tally charts, pictograms and today we finished the unit by using data to create a block diagram. We have really enjoyed the unit and putting our Maths statistics knowledge into Computing.
Date: 18th Jul 2023 @ 4:24pm
Today, we used the computers to create our hot write of a persuasive advert. We thought about making it appealing by using bright colours and exciting shapes as well as using persuasive language to persuased someone to visit either Antarctica, the rainforest or the desert. We used our Geography knowledge from hot and cold places to make sure we told some facts. We had to have lots of patience but enjoyed using the chromebooks for our writing.
Date: 13th Jul 2023 @ 4:04pm
Today, we participated in Geography morning alongside the rest of School exploring Antarctica. Year Two explored the key question ‘What is it like in Antarctica?’ We watched a video that recapped our knowledge about the temperature, animals, plants and shelters that are there and how nobody lives in Antarctica. We learnt it is the largest desert and is also the coldest place on earth because of its location furthest away from the equator. We used all our knowledge to create replica models of Antarctica.
First, we added mountains and the Southern Ocean into our model before painting a sky. Then we used cotton wool, tissue paper and other resources to add texture to our creations and bring it to life. We even had an iceberg floating in the middle of the ocean! Finally, we discussed animals we would find in Antarctica and placed them around the model in their correct habitats.
Date: 5th Jul 2023 @ 4:01pm
This week we celebrated heritage day where each year group has learnt about the History of different things in Blackpool. Year 2 explored the history of Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Both classes were excited to go to the pleasure beach where we learnt about how it came about, got it's name and looked at how the park has developed over time- some of us were shocked to learn that the flying machine is still there after being built and opened in 1904. Whilst we learnt about the history we also got a tour of the park and watched different rollercoasters thinking about how they work and what makes them exciting/scary. We used our knowledge and photos to create an inspiration page all about the Pleasure Beach and are incredibly grateful for the staff there who shared their expertise and knowledge. Lastly, we learnt about Amanda Thompson- one of the few females to be in the amusement park industry and she is carrying on family tradition of being the director.
