Weekly Class Updates
Friday 16th July
Everyone who is a member of the Y2 team can view our celebration of this week's learning by clicking on the Achievement Assembly link in today's remote learning grid.
Thank you to everyone who has kept in touch during remote learning - we're all in this together! Don't forget to use your Mood Booster chart to keep your spirits up.
Stay safe - see you next week 
Mrs Jameson
Friday 9th July
Time flies when you are having fun and there has been lots of fun in Year 2 this week.
In Maths we continued working to develop instant recall of the division facts associated with the 2x, 5x and 10x tables and learned when to use the division facts to solve word problems.
In English, we shared our favourite lockdown memories and completed some fabulous writing for a whole-school project.
In Science, we extended our understanding of habitats to include deserts, rainforests, polar regions, rock pools and more. R.E. linked perfectly into Science as we thought of the ways we can help to protect our environment.
Have a great weekend, everyone! See you on Monday
Mrs Jameson
Friday 2nd July
It was all change in Year 2 this week, as the children said goodbye to Miss Manners and were joined by Mrs Jameson for their final few weeks in Key Stage 1. We have made lots of exciting plans to celebrate the end of the school year and prepare for the start of Year 3. The children have been super-enthusiastic about everything we have done!
Here are some highlights:
In Maths, we practised addition and subtraction with two digit numbers on the school field. The children quickly grasped the purpose and rules of the game and there was some fabulous team work as they worked together to calculate and then represent the answer to each question.
In English, we wrote letters to share our ideas for celebrating the end of Year 2. Then we wrote more letters, seeking help to put those plans into action.
In PE, we had a great rounders tournament on the field. Check out this week's home learning for an activity that will help to improve our fielding skills ready for next week's re-match!
Have a lovely weekend, everyone: I'll see you on Monday!
Mrs Jameson
Active Maths - addition
Week beginning Monday 21st June 2021
In English we will be writing a practice instruction text, our drafts and edits and then writing the real thing later on in the week.
In Maths we will be finishing our topic on Mass, Capacity and Temperature and then moving onto working through some consolidation packs in some of the Maths subjects that we have covered throughout the year. Some of these include money and fractions.
In VIPERS we will be working through a set of different videos this week and answering different questions about those. We will be looking at vocabulary, inference, retrieval, explaining and sequencing.
In Science this week we will be focusing on creating our own pond and placing plants and animals around the pond that we think match it's habitat. We will be thinking about the plants that could also be food for the insects.
In Art we will be creating a collage based upon the work of Andy Goldsworthy.
Week beginning 14th June 2021
In English this week we are writing character descriptions to describe the characters that we have created. We are also planning our own instruction text which we will be writing at the end of next week.
In Maths we are looking at capacity, millilitres and litres this week. We are also playing a puzzle that you can find online called Water Sort Puzzle, which links to capacity and problem solving.
In VIPERs we are reading more on our book Meerkat mail. We will also be predicting, retrieving, looking at vocabulary, inferring and sequencing.
In Science we are investigating Microhabitat's and searching for different animals/insects that live in them.
In Art we will be recreating some of Andy Goldsworthy's work.
Week beginning Monday 7th June 2021
In VIPERS we are starting our new book 'Meerkat Mail'. We will be looking at vocabulary, making predictions and inferences, retrieving information and sequencing events.
In English we are starting our new text type 'How to trap a Hobyah', which is an instruction text. (See below) This week we will be learning our Talk for Writing actions, looking at vocabulary, identifying features of an instruction text, creating an interesting character of our own and then creating a text map to help us to tell our own stories.
In Maths we are starting our new topic of Mass, weight and capacity. We will be using kitchen weighing scales to measure things in the classroom and comparing the weights of different objects using different units of measure.
In Science we are going to be comparing the differences between things that are living, dead and things that have never been alive. We will be exploring the school grounds and having a look in different places to see what types of things we can find. We will then put these items into the three categories.
In Music this week we will be creating our own sounds using untuned instruments and thinking about the words: beat and rhythm. We will work in groups to create our own songs and perform them to the rest of the group.
How to Trap a Hobyah
Do you have a hobyah living in your area? If so, follow these instructions as no one wants a nasty hobyah trying to steal members of their family! So read on and soon you will be able to capture any hobyahs that might be terrifying your neighbourhood!
What you need
Thick sticks, an assortment of leaves, a brave Grandma, a clearing in a forest behind the hobyah’s cave and strong rope.
What you do
- First of all go into the forest and find the hobyah’s cave.
- Next find a clearing behind his cave and dig a deep hole.
- After that, cover the hole with leaves and sticks.
- Then carefully sit Grandma near the hole so she is comfortable.
- Now wake the hobyah by shouting, “Food!” loudly.
- Finally, hide nearby and watch!
If you are lucky the hobyah will wake up quickly and run outside. When he tries to steal Grandma, he will hopefully fall into the hole. You can then use the strong rope to move the hobyah to a new cave far, far away!
Week Beginning 24th May 2021
In VIPERS this week we are looking at a text about a girl and a dog. We are answering inference questions, sequencing events and exploring the vocabulary in a text.
In English we are writing up our diary entries. We will also be editing and improving our work.
In Maths we are looking at block diagrams and finishing off the topic of Statistics with some reasoning and problem solving. We are starting our new topic of Shape this week.
In Science and History we are doing a comic strip to show what we gave learnt this term, in a fun way. We will have seeds and sunshine as our characters.
Week beginning Monday 17th May 2021
English- in English we are writing descriptions of our characters and settings for our diary entries. Focusing on the details of conjunctions and interesting noun phrases.
Maths: This week we have been looking at the new topic of Statistics. We are covering tally charts and pictograms this week.
VIPERS: We are looking at an animated video about bullying and the message behind the video. We are using our inference skills to find clues about what is happening and why.
Science: We will have a look at our experiment and explore in more detail why some of our plants are growing and others aren’t. We are making posters to show the life cycle of a plant.
History: We are finishing off our step by step instruction guide to our gross smoothies.
Geography: We will now look at the Yorkshire, after Leeds and explore the different things to do and places to go in Yorkshire.
Wednesday 12th May 2021
This week in English, we are starting our new text type which is still based upon ‘Lila and The Secret of Rain’, but it is Lila’s diary of what happened on Monday. We have looked at the different vocabulary in the text type and we have used our own ideas to create a text map of our own diary entry.
In VIPERS we are now looking at a video called ‘Adventures are the pits’ and it focuses on a young boy that goes on an adventure into a deep ball pit. He has to try and make his way out of the ball pit. We are looking at inference, explaining, sequencing, vocabulary and predictions this week.
In Maths we are finishing off time this week by looking at Hours and Days, durations of time and comparing time. Each day we are also looking at practicing other Maths skills which we focus on for 20 minutes in the morning when we first get to school.
In Science we are conducting an experiment to compare what happens to planted seeds when they are put in different environments and to see what happens when we take away one thing away. For example) No light/ No water/ No air etc.
In History we are going to continue designing our gross smoothie’s still thinking about the different types of things that caused Cholera in the Victorian times and the effects that that had on the people of Leeds in particular.
Friday 7th May 2021
In English this week we have just finished writing our wishing tale on ‘Lila and the secret of rain’. We wrote our final story/ piece independently. In VIPERS we finished the Amazing Grace book. We really enjoyed reading and studying it!
In History we began to think about designing our own disgusting smoothie, thinking about all the gross things that were in the water in Victorian times, which caused the disease Cholera.
This week in Science, we have planted seeds and we are going to watch them grow over the next few weeks. We are looking forward to planning and carrying out investigations over the coming weeks.
This week in Maths we have been practicing telling the time using an analogue clock. We have covered o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to and also telling time to the nearest 5 minutes.
In Art we made our own clocks so that we can continue to practice telling the time.
Friday 30th April 2021
This week in English, we have done some drama linked to Lila and the Secret of Rain. We also learned how to use speech marks correctly.
In VIPERS we have continued to read and explore the story of Amazing Grace. We have been looking at retrieving information and making explanations about things that are happening in the story.
In Maths we finished off position and direction by looking at making patterns with shapes and looking at some reasoning and problem solving questions. We also started the subject of ‘Time'
In Geography we have been looking at Barick and drawing maps to show where our homes and schools are.
In Science we are exploring the different parts of a plant and looking into what a plant/ flower needs to survive.
Friday 23rd April 2021
What a fun-filled first week we have had back!!
At the beginning of the week, we dressed up as historical characters. Here is a picture of us below. We really enjoyed this day!
This week in VIPERS we have been predicting what will happen in our new book Amazing Grace. We have also been doing some inference work about how Grace might be feeling at different points throughout the book.
In English we have started to look at a new text called "Lila and the secret of rain". We have done some acting out of words/ Talk for Writing, to remind us of the story.
In Maths we have been looking at movement and turns. We have been learning our left from our right and looking at the different directions that shapes can travel in.
In History this week we did a lesson on Rosa Parks, after Miss Manners came as her for the historical character day. We also looked at the Cholera epidemic and the affect that Cholera had on Leeds throughout the Victorian times. We wrote text message conversations to explain the different symptoms associated with the disease.
Thursday 1st April
Wow, what a half term! Well done everybody, we have made it to the Easter holidays! Although it has been a very different half term, everyone has worked incredibly hard as always and the children have settled back into school life really well.
In our final week at school, we have been learning all about length and height in Maths; practising measuring different objects, understanding different units of measure and ordering objects depending on their size.
In Talk for Writing, we have been working towards writing our own reports about a creature we created, based on ‘The Rainbow Dragon’ which we learnt together in class. This has enabled us to practice a range of skills, including: paragraphs, conjunctions and rhetorical questions.
With Easter approaching, we also enjoyed a fun-filled last week together, including the Easter church service, chocolate tombola and we were even tricked by Mrs Sanderson, who told us school was staying open in the holidays…APRIL FOOLS!
Finally this afternoon, we got to say a goodbye to Miss Wood, before she leaves to have her baby!
*A quick note from a very overwhelmed Miss Wood... Thank you all so much for your kind and generous gifts. I have loved getting to know each and every one of you this year and I wish everyone the very best for the future. I will keep you posted on baby news…
Friday 26th March 2021
We have made it to the end of another brilliant week in Year 2!
We have again been working really hard in all areas and have even completed some assessments this week. These were nothing to worry about, but just to give Miss Manners a really good indication of where the children are and what she should be focusing on.
In English, we have started looking at a report called 'The Rainbow Dragon' and we have also created our own creatures, in order to write our own reports about next week.
In Maths, we have completed our work on Fractions and also started a new unit of work all about measurement.
We have also been continuing our exciting Spanish lessons, as well as practising our ball skills in PE!
Friday 19th March 2021
What another great week in Year 2! Everyone has settled in brilliantly and we have been super busy with our learning!
In English, we have been continuing our work on Kassim and the Greedy Dragon. We have been starting to create our own versions, including thinking about how to build up tension for our reader...spooky!
In Maths, we have continued to enjoy our work on fractions.
In other areas, we have continued our ball skills work in PE, created a Mondrian inspired collage in Art and have really been working hard to improve our reading VIPERS skills!
Friday 12th March 2021
What an amazing week back in Year 2!
Everyone has settled back in really well and has been showing off their fantastic learning for Miss Manners and Mrs Furbank!
In English (Talk for Writing), we have been continuing our work on Kassim and the Greedy Dragon from remote learning and have spent time creating new characters for the story, as well as teaching Miss Manners and Mrs Furbank the actions to retell the story.
In Maths, we have started a new topic all about fractions. We have used our knowledge about equal groups to help us. So far, we have been talking about halves and quarters. Next week, we will be moving on to thirds!
In other areas, we have been learning more about the Easter story in RE, practising our throwing and catching skills in PE and also getting a little bit crafty in our Art lessons!
We hope you have a restful weekend and are all looking forward to another jam-packed week of learning next week.
Please note: there is no home learning this week, this will commence next week. Reading books will also be getting sent home from next week.
Friday 18th December 2020
The final message of 2020!
I guess all that's left to say is thank you all very much for your help and support so far this year. It has been great getting to know you and work with you all and we look forward to continuing after the Christmas break.
We hope you all have a lovely Christmas and new year and we will see you in 2021!
Best wishes,
Miss Wood and Mrs Furbank
Friday 11th December 2020
Well done Year 2, we have worked hard and got lots done this week! It has been great to see you all in your Christmas jumpers today!
In English, we have spent the week reading the nonsense poem: The Quangle Wangle's Hat by Edward Lear. We have looked at the nonsense words used in the poem, as well as the syllables in each of the lines. We then wrote our own nonsense poem, based on the Quangle Wangle!
In Maths, we have started our work on multiplication by looking at equal groups. We have been making groups and matching them, as well as adding them. We have learnt that repeated addition is the same as multiplication.
We were also lucky enough to have a visit from Alive and Kicking this week, who performed an exciting Christmas performance which was hilarious!
Please note: there are no specific spellings this week, instead I have attached the common exception words to the resources folder; please work through any that your child is finding tricky!
Some examples of our nonsense poems...
Friday 4th December 2020
Wow, we have worked hard in Year 2 this week and been extremely busy again!
We have been doing assessments in Maths and English and the children have really started to show some excellent progress from the start of the year! We have also been writing our losing/finding tales and really showing off our handwriting, as well as using sentence starters, commas in a list and exciting adjectives! We have practised our editing in order to improve our work, which is a really tricky skill but extremely important for spotting any mistakes!
In other areas, in RE we have been thinking about safe places such as school and church and thinking about why they make us feel safe and special. We have also started thinking about all things Christmas and Thursday was a jam-packed messy day full of crafts which you will see the outcomes of very soon! How exciting!
Thursday 26th November 2020
Another massive well done to Year 2 this week! They have all been working incredibly hard in all areas – keep up the good work!
In English, we have been innovating the characters and objects in our losing/finding tales and have started writing the first version of these. We have been working really hard at using exciting adjectives, as well as ‘ly’ sentence starters. Next week, we will move on to start creating our very own losing/finding tale!
In Maths, we have continued our work on money; the children have been comparing different amounts and working through some really challenging questions! We have also been re-visiting our addition and subtraction work to ensure that we don’t forget how to do these!
In other areas, we have continued our Science work and we have been comparing British habitats to those around the world. We have carried out our own research on these areas and then presented what we found to the class!
Friday 20th November 2020
Another big well done to Year 2 this week; they have been working extremely hard!
In English (Talk for Writing), we started the week with our exciting hook, where a crime scene appeared in our classroom; GOLD HAD BEEN STOLEN! We found out it was all part of our new losing/finding tale, which we have spent this week learning with actions, as well as creating freeze frames in order to retell the story. We have also spent some time practising using commas in a list, as well as using adjectives which has helped us to write a short character description of Cat; one of the characters in the story.
In Maths, we have started learning about money and the children have really impressed me with their knowledge. So far, we have looked at counting pence, pounds and then combining notes and coins.
In other areas, we have continued our work in History on Florence Nightingale and this week we took a modern twist to our lesson and thought about how her advice is really useful today about keeping clean. We used this knowledge to write our own instructions for washing our hands.
Friday 13th November 2020
What another great week in Year 2 and even better to see everyone dressed up bright and spotty today!
This week, in English we have been writing our persuasive texts all about a talking object! Next week, we will be moving on to another narrative text so be prepared for some new characters and a whole new set of actions to learn...sorry!
In Maths, we have continued our work on subtraction, moving from number lines to the column method. The children have worked really hard at this and have been doing really well! We have still to learn about exchanging when using the column method which is a little bit more tricky, but I have no doubt we will be experts by next week. We will also be starting our new topic in Maths; money.
In other areas, in History we have been learning about Florence Nightingale and why she was considered a heroine. We have also started learning about different habitats in Science and have thought about the different types of animals and plants we would find in different areas.
We are looking forward to another exciting week in Year 2 next week!
On a final note, if your child has brought home an envelope this evening it will contain a letter regarding consent for being on the website, if you could please sign and return in your child's reading folder on Monday, it would be much appreciated. Not everyone will have these, it is only for the children we don't yet have permission. Thank you as always for your ongoing support.
Friday 6th November
Welcome back to Autumn 2 everyone! I hope you all had a lovely rest over the half term break.
We have had a fantastic first week back in Year 2...
In English, we have been learning our new persuasive text 'Talking Papaya for Sale'; order the sentences and thinking about the paragraphs and 'ly' starters that are used to organise the writing.
In Maths, we have continued our work on subtraction; using number lines to help us find the answers. We have also been practicing our 5 times tables, not just counting, but learning how to work them out written as tables as well!
In other areas, we have been working hard at circuits in PE, learning about living and non-living things in Science, learning about heroes and heroines in History, rap music in our Music lessons and we even had a very exciting Science launch this morning, where we watched all the teachers carry out a different experiment over Microsoft Teams!
Friday 23rd October 2020
Wow! What a first half term in Year 2. Well done for such a great start, everyone should be proud of all their hard work! We have had another achievement assembly in class this week, and we had so many children to celebrate with their spellings and reading achievements! This is a credit to the fantastic work you are doing at home!
In Maths this week, we have been recapping our place value knowledge, as well as counting in 2s, 5s and 10s and we have been perfecting our addition of 2 digit numbers. The children are becoming more and more confident in this area which is fantastic. There will be a few Classroom Secrets Kids activities linked to these areas to tackle over the holidays, too!
In English, we have started thinking about our next unit of work, which will be non-fiction: persuasive writing. We have taken part in our very own Dragons' Den today, where the children have presented their inventions to the judges and the class and tried to persuade us to buy them using slogans and persuasive language!
In other areas, we have tried our hand at dodgeball today, and the children really impressed me with their skills in working as a team and playing fairly which is fantastic to see!
We have also created poems about Rosa Parks to complete our History topic for this half term. It was amazing to see all of the information the children remembered from our work about her a few weeks back!
Thank you all again for your continued support and hard work at home with the children. I hope you all have a lovely rest over the half term holidays, enjoy!
Friday 16th October
This week, in Maths we have been looking at adding. At the start of the week, we were working on mental addition questions, by using our number bonds to 10 to help us. We are definitely getting quicker at these! In the second half of the week, we have been looking at adding 2 2-digit number together, by splitting the tens and ones and then putting them back together again!
In English, we have been thinking about how stories have 3 main parts; a beginning, middle and an end. We have been creating our own stories by drawing our characters and settings and then writing up our stories.
In other areas, we have been recapping feeling the pulse in Music, as well as starting to look at notes which have different lengths. We have practiced clapping lots of different rhythms!
Finally, well done to everyone in this week's spelling tests and well done to those children who have received their reading badges for achieving 25 reads in Year 2. Keep up the fantastic work - there are definitely a few more children who will be getting theirs next week!
Friday 9th October
This week, the children have done a few assessments, just to see where they are so far, and for us to establish what we need to work on going forward.
In English lessons, we have done lots of work on grammar, in particular capital letters. We have been helping at the 'Sentence Hospital'; correcting sentences which are a little bit poorly. We have been using capital letters correctly, both at the start of sentences, as well as for proper nouns. Next week, we will be moving on to writing up our final papaya piece, before moving on to a non-fiction text in the final week (still based on the papaya - so you've not escaped just yet!)
In other areas, we have been working on dance in PE. The children have being using movement to show different animals. We have been moving to the pulse of the music (I just can't wait to be king from The Lion King), and creating short routines in the style of different animals.
We have also had an exciting art morning today, where we have learnt how to mix powder paints correctly. We have practiced using tints and tones; moving from the lightest shade through to the darkest and back again. We definitely have some budding artists in Year 2!
Powder paint mixing
Friday 2nd October 2020
This week, we have spent time changing our characters and innovating our stories in English.
In Maths, we have looked at fact families, using addition and subtraction. This has helped us to practice our number bonds to ten, as well as other number facts.
In other areas, we have focused on the 'air' and 'ure' sounds in phonics. We have also been looking at Rosa Parks in History; thinking about the impact she had on the world.
Friday 25th September 2020
We've had another great week in Year 2. In Talk for Writing, we have spent time 'innovating' the nouns in the story and have started writing it up. The children have brought their text maps home this evening, so they can share their new characters with you, and create their own actions.
In Maths, we have continued our place value learning; thinking about counting in 2s, 5s and 10s.
We also had lots of fun listening to and feeling the pulse in Music, where we listened to a piece of music from South Africa called Hands, Feet and Heart.
Our Maths learning - Friday 25th September
Friday 18th September
This week, we have continued our learning of The Papaya That Spoke. We have got to the end of the story, and have spent time performing as well as writing some of the story from memory to show off our writing skills! We have also spend time reading the text 'as a reader'; answering comprehension style questions about the text to demonstrate our understanding. Next week, we will be moving on to the 'innovate' stage of Talk for Writing, where we will begin to change the characters in order to create our own versions of the story.
In Maths, we have continued our place value work; working on partitioning tens and ones, as well as ordering and comparing numbers.
Hard at work partitioning tens and ones!
Friday 11th September
What a FANTASTIC first week back! I have really enjoyed getting to know the children in year 2! We have had a busy week full of exciting things!
In Writing we have started learning to retell the story of The Papaya That Spoke! We have had great fun, adding actions and expressions! If you get a spare five minutes this weekend, you might like to ask your child to show you, as they have become experts! We have also talked about how the story contains repetition, which makes it fun and a little easier to remember.
In Maths we have been working incredibly hard on place value, understanding tens and ones. We have been thinking about partitioning, as well as drawing out tens and ones using Base 10 (lines and dots) – again, I’m sure if you ask, they will be able to show you.
In other areas, we have spent some time reading with our partners, as well as thinking about the first of our reading VIPERS – Viscount Vocabulary. We know that this means words, and we have been really fancy, thinking about synonyms; finding different words with the same meaning.
Finally, we have sent home the new spelling words for this week. If you get chance this weekend, you could start having a little look at these. We will be spending time learning these in class next week as well!
Overall, it’s been an amazing week and we can’t wait to have even more fun next week now we’re really getting settled in! Have a great weekend everyone!