Over the last few weeks we have had great fun learning about, making and using puppets in our new Year 2 Puppet Theatre.
So far we have made stick puppets, hand puppets and rod puppets with moving parts. In Literacy, we have been studying The Owl Who was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. We made some beautiful owl artwork. First, we created owls on black paper with chalk and paint to remind us that owls are nocturnal. We used silver and gold sequins for the owl’s eyes. We also created some fluffy owls, sewing recycled material pieces together. It was a bit fiddly but Mrs Reid was very impressed by our focus and concentration.
As part of our RE lesson about Hinduism we have learnt about Diwali. We found out that Diwali is a special festival of light and it is celebrated in lots of different ways. We also watched a film about the Story of Rama and Sita. We loved making Diwali lamps. Finally, we learnt a song about Diwali called “It’s Diwali,” which we sang in a two part harmony.
As part of our fantastic Science topic Let’s Recycle, we have been carrying out some exciting and unusual Science experiments using recycled objects. First, we made Flying Owls by making cone shaped owls and placing them on top of different sized milk bottles. We loved when they flew into the air. Matthew “The fiddly bit was making the cone” Alfie “It was hard to cut the feet out because they were small.” Liam “The air in the bottle made the owl fly into the air.”
Ava “The air pushed the owl into the air” Sophie “A little bottle just pushed the owl a little bit in the sky. The bigger one made it bigger in the sky” Shreyan “We clapped onto the bottle to make it fly” Today marked the end of our Great Fire of London Topic. This morning we performed our assembly to our parents and families before we recreated the Great Fire in our very own playground. We designed houses using boxes and decorated them to look like houses from 1666. We used materials like wood and straw in our designs. We then put all of our houses together to make a replica of how a typical London street may have looked in 1666. We have learned that in 1666, a small fire started in one building and quickly spread across London. Miss Peverell lit one of the houses in our street and we watched in amazement as our houses quickly went up in flames!
‘I couldn’t believe how big the flames were!’ – Sebei ‘It was a bit scary but when it went out I wanted to watch it again!’ - Ava
Today after our Remembrance Assembly with the Mayor, we learnt more about why we wear poppies and why November 11th is such an important day. We painted simple yet beautiful water colour poppies. Year 2 enjoyed working with Emma the specialist dance teacher. After looking at images of cats, we have been putting together different movements and poses. We are really thinking about our body shapes. What do you think?
Today we have thought carefully and sensibly about what we lessons we have learnt from the Great Fire of London. We reminded ourselves that fires still happen today. We found out about the disaster at Grenfell Tower in London in 2017 where 72 people lost their lives. We designed memorials to help remember this and based our ideas on the Monument in London which remembers the Great Fire of London. Some children designed a monument; some children designed new housing for the homeless to live in and some designed a memorial garden.
As part of our Great Fire of London topic, we have been learning about fire safety. We have been making moving fire engines but our first ones weren’t very good. We learnt from our mistakes and had another try. What a difference!
In Year 2, we have been learning about parts of our body. We reminded the children of the different ways our body can tell us that we are in danger. Children said that they might feel sick, get goose bumps, shake or their heart might beat faster. They also talked about needing to scream or cry. Moyo “You might feel uneasy if you were in your house in the dark.” Darryl “You might feel worried and uneasy if someone tried to hurt you.” Toby “When Miss Peverell was in the dark and she thought someone was in her house, she felt her heart was beating like a drum. She got goose bumps. It was only her cat though.” Alice “I might feel uneasy if I was on my own.” Clara “Sirens and alarms are signs of danger. They make me feel uneasy.” Next we shared their ideas about what secrets were. A shared definition was that a secret was something somebody had told you but said that you couldn’t tell anybody else. Pupils recognised that some secrets were not good. They confidently sorted and talked about which secrets were good/bad and why. They knew that they should not keep secrets, only surprises. We talked about surprises only being a secret of a little while. All pupils talked confidently about this subject. They knew what to do if they had been asked to keep a bad secret and they knew who they could talk to.
Clara “A secret is something that is just for you and you don’t want anyone to know.” Ivy “It is better to tell someone if you don’t like the secret and then they can help you.” When we win a reward for the best attendance in KS1, we love having a free choice afternoon. We can go in either Year 2 classroom and work with different friends, sharing the activities we like. Some of us love to be creative, some love to role play as teachers, some choose the computers or some children like to try lots of different activities in the afternoon.
On Wednesday, a group of Year 2 pupils attended a Multi-Skills festival at Eastbourne Sports Complex. The children took part in various 10 minute games in small teams and individually. The games were so much fun and we can’t wait to try some of the ideas on the Key Stage 1 playground.
As part of our Great Fire of London topic, Year 2 have been working hard as bakers today. The fire was believed to have started in Thomas Farriner’s bakery on Pudding Lane.
To make our bread buns, first we had to measure out the ingredients carefully using scales. Next we mixed them all together and added the water. We then kneaded the dough and our hands got very messy but it was great fun. Then we left the dough to prove. We were amazed how much it had risen in such a short time. After that we shaped our dough into rolls and let them prove again before we baked them. At home time we saw our baked bread rolls for the first time and the smell was amazing! We couldn’t wait to taste them! We have been using lots of different ways to learn and remember our spellings. We found out how many times we could write them in a minute, we put them into spelling pattern circles, we wrote the words inside pictures and we have drawn pictures of what the words meant. We even learned silly phrases to help us remember them -
People = people eat omelettes, people love eggs. The best bit was playing matching pairs with a friend. Now we need to remember to use the correct spelling in our writing! Today we had a special visitor in school, Mr Warren from the Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form. He told us about why he became a drummer. We talked about different ways to make sounds using percussion instruments. Then we followed the conductor’s instructions so we knew when to play. Everyone played four different instruments.
Finally we learned a rhythm for next week to try and remember… Today we thought about where numbers would be found on a blank number line. First we looked at our ruler. We pointed to different numbers. Then we turned our ruler over and made our own number line on the back, thinking about where zero was. Next we made our own number line on whiteboards thinking about the middle number. We even placed numbers on the number line on the computer. Finally, as a class we made a number line to 100, using our metre rulers to help. Miss Peverell gave everyone a number and we had to place it in the right place on a giant blank number line. We helped each other, making sure the numbers were written correctly and were in the right place. Fantastic team work.
Today we thought about Global Goal number 1 – No Poverty. We have been learning about some of the different people who live in London. Many people have lots of money. We thought about what we might choose if we were millionaires. Then we found out about some people including children, who do not have a home. We talked about why people might become homeless and looked at a video where child refugees talked about what it was like to be homeless. We compared what we have, to what a homeless person might need. We thought about what we need to survive and talked about how important it is for homeless people to be recognised and acknowledged. Sebei “Homeless people have to sleep in a road or shelter because they haven’t got a house. You can give a homeless person money to buy food.”
Freya “We can try to help the children get a house so they can be safe.” Isla “It is important to say hello or smile at a homeless person not ignore them” Today we had an amazing time. We travelled back in time to the year 1666 using our special tickets. We blew a time traveller bubble and floated around the school. When we returned to the classroom, there had been a terrible fire. We were shocked. Fortunately, we could use water from the River Thames to help put it out. We made a bakers hat because the fire started in a bakery.
Before we went to visit the farm, we learned about different types of farms including: Dairy, Arable and Livestock. We thought about how supermarkets provide us with our food. We then worked with a partner to sort different types of food into the correct farm.
Then we visited Acorn Dairy and found out what life on a real farm is like. We learned all about how cows give us milk and met lots of amazing cows and one of the two huge bulls. The calves were incredibly cute and some of them even tried to lick us! Our behaviour throughout the morning was excellent. We would like to say a big thank you to Graham and Caroline for letting us visit. This morning, 2B visited St John's church on Neasham Road to take part in their 'Christmas Journey' activity. The children loved learning about the Christmas story by travelling through a series of tents which housed sets including a stable and Mary's kitchen. Some of the children got to dress up and act out parts of the story.
Carys said "My favourite part was when the animals in the stable were talking about baby Jesus being born." 2H are now looking forward to their visit, next week. Today, we met Dr Hannah Sykes from Northumbria University. She showed us some amazing experiments and talked about the basic skills needed to be a scientist. We learned about observing and recording what was happening while we were doing experiments. We even got to make our own rocket mice and slime!
Today we made our very own Great Fire of London. We talked about fire safety and then Mr Banks lit our houses. The fire started slowly but soon all the houses were fully lit. We were amazed and shocked at how fast the fire spread and how tall the flames were.
Year 2 had a fantastic time at Sports Day. It was lovely to see the children supporting each other and cheering each other on. A big thank you to all the parents and families who came down to watch.
Today we used our capacity skills to make our own measuring bottle. The scale went up in 100ml up to 1L. We used amazing team work and measuring skills. Finally, we checked that our 1000ml was the same as a real measuring jug. Amazingly, they were! We found our 1000ml was the same amount of liquid, even when it is in containers of different shapes and sizes.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are getting married tomorrow so we learnt all about why royal weddings are so special. We found out about members of the royal family and about features of a royal wedding. We made biscuits and hats to mark the occasion and had a replica wedding in the garden. It was quite exciting and very glamorous.
|