Year 2

Welcome to our Headline of the week. This will give you a small taster of some of the learning taking place in your child’s class.

We hope you enjoy reading our Headlines each week.

21/07/23

In Geography, the children learnt about the five main oceans and practiced locating these. They continued building on their atlas skills and gave hints to each other about where some seas where located by using their geographical vocabulary.

14/07/23

In Design and Technology, the children have been learning how to sew. They used their plans from the previous week to create their logos by sewing using binca. They learnt how to thread a needle, how to use a running stitch and demonstrated fantastic perseverance!

07/07/23

In English the children watched videos of meteor showers and used their senses to describe what they saw and explained how it made them feel. They then wrote a collaborative poem using their senses, adventurous adjectives, similes and alliteration to describe the stars and how looking at the stars made them feel. Following on from this, the children explored how they could use their voices and bodies to bring their poems to life taking inspiration from Julia Donaldson and Michael Rosen’s poetry recitals and performed these to the class.

30/06/23

Year 2 have been working hard to prepare their assembly for the whole school and parents. They have worked together to choose their highlights from the year and collate their ideas into a script. They greatly enjoyed performing the Continent Song and sharing a small section of all the amazing work they have been doing across the year.

23/06/23

In Geography the children have continued to learn about different types of maps. In this week's lesson, the children learnt how to use an atlas to find a given location. They worked collaboratively in small groups to navigate the content page to find the correct map and then used their locational knowledge and the key to help them to locate various places.

16/06/23

In Computing, the children have been learning about how technology is used on board the International Space Station to control and monitor various needs. In this lesson, they thought about what would be essential to pack for a trip to space and then worked with a partner to create a digital drawing of this using their mouse and trackpad skills.

09/06/23

In Geography the children have started to explore different types of maps. This week the children explored the different features of maps, what an aerial view is and learnt how to make their own sketch maps of the school.

25/05/23

This week marks the end of our Design and Technology unit on healthy eating. Over the past few weeks, the children have planned, made and evaluated a healthy snack. They have practised their chopping skills using kitchen knives to prepare their healthy snack and have reflected on their making process. Throughout this topic there have been links to lots of other subjects such as PSHE (healthy eating) and Geography (looking at where our food comes from).

19/05/23

In English, the children have concluded their letters to the King about the environmental issues explored in our class book relating to Peppered Moths. Following on from this, the children were introduced to non-chronological reports and explored the key features and their purposes. They then worked collaboratively to add their prior knowledge of Peppered Moths to the relevant sub-headings and then researched further facts.

12/05/23

In Art, the children have continued exploring patterns. This week they looked at various ways to print, such as by using natural objects, using impression techniques and by using engraving techniques. Following on from this, the children learnt how to create their own block print and used this technique to produce their own printed repeated pattern.

05/05/23

This week in PSHE, the children have continued learning about Sebby Star from Heads Up Kids. In this week's section of the story, Sebby noticed that something was different in the school playground; children were being unkind. Year 2 took it in turns to pass the shocked Sebby Star toy around, sharing what kind of things Sebby may have seen and how this might have made him and others feel. They then went on a kindness clue hunt and shared the different things that they could do in the playground to show kindness.

28/04/23

In English, the children have been investigating their enquiries by working collaboratively in small groups. They started off by exploring the difference between an open and closed question and then thought about what they wanted to explore. Once they had their questions written down, they worked together to retrieve information from a range of texts.

21/04/23

In Art the children have started to explore different patterns. This week the children looked at different examples of man-made and natural patterns. They then collected rubbings of natural patterns and created their own man-made patterns inspired by geometry, stain glass windows and tiles.

31/03/23

This week in English, we have finished reading our class book ‘The Adventures of Egg Box Dragon’. In the final pages, the Queen hosts a tea party for Egg Box Dragon so the children helped to prepare her tea party by working collaboratively to plan the event and then wrote invitations to the Princess and Princes inviting them to the occasion.

24/03/23

In Design and Technology, the children have been using their design plans to create a vehicle. They used nets to create the chassis and then used straws and bottle lids to create the axels and wheels.

17/03/23

In English the children have been using drama and role play to bring their class story to life. Each child made up a character and then acted in role to explore different opinions and questions that they had about the Egg Box Dragon.

10/03/23

In English, the children have been making predictions on what might happen next in our class text. After discussing what might happen next and what our predictions were based on, the children wrote the next page of the story. They then shared their fantastic stories with the rest of the class.

03/03/23

In Computing, the children have been practising their coding skills on Scratch Jr. This week, they have explored the signal and motion blocks and have practised using these to create and debug an algorithm for their sprite.

24/02/23

This week in English, the children have been learning about instruction writing. The children started off the week by drawing and describing an Egg Box Dragon. They then followed a set of instructions to make their Egg Box Dragons, practised identifying the features of an instruction text and then wrote their own set of instructions explaining how to make their Dragons.

10/02/23

This week in Geography, the children have been using their map work skills to locate hot and cold countries. They have looked at where each continent is located on the globe in relation to the poles and the equator line and discussed how the location of the country affects its climate.

03/02/23

In English, the children finished Pattan's Pumpkin. They then story mapped the key events in the story and selected sections of the story to change. They are really excited to write their own version of the traditional tale!

27/01/23

In Maths, the children have been learning about recognising coins, choosing coins to make an amount and adding notes and pounds. They have used replica notes and coins to help them with their learning.

20/01/23

In English, the children read a few more pages of Pattan's Pumpkin. They discussed how the author built up the pace and tension through the sentence structure and the placement of words on the page. They then worked with a partner to role play and freeze frame the new section of the story.

13/01/23

This week in Computing, the children looked at typing skills. They learnt about the shift key, caps lock key, enter key and the space bar then practised using these whilst typing their names.

06/01/23

This week in Ivrit, the children have learnt how to count up to 20 in Hebrew. The children played lots of fun number games to remember all of the new vocabulary.

16/12/22

In Jewish Studies, the children have been learning about Chanukah, practising Chanukah songs and painting their chanukiah. They are really excited to use their chanukiah at home and share their hard work with their families!

09/12/22

Year 2 have had lots of fun during Science Week! They have taken part in a range of experiments including Growing Ice and BFG Magic Potions. They have also continued their habitats learning by exploring microhabitats, observing minibeasts and recording the minibeasts that they found.

02/12/22

In English, the children have been using the animals and themes from our class book, 'Winters Sleep a Hibernation Story' to inspire their writing. This week, the children have been researching about a bat's hibernation processes in preparation for their script writing and nature documentary.

25/11/22

In Computing, the children have been exploring what algorithms, sprites and debugging means through unplugged activities. This week, the children took it in turns to become a sprite and follow a set of instructions to reach a specific square on the grid.

18/11/22

This week Year 2 have been learning about Road Safety and took part in Be Bright Be Seen Day. After talking about how to be a safe pedestrian and how to cross the road safely, the children had the opportunity to put their learning into practise and crossed the road outside of school.

11/11/22

This week in Computing the children have been learning about algorithms. The children worked with a partner to build a small Lego structure and wrote a set of instructions for their partner to follow. They thought about what an algorithm is, what it is used for and how to write a clear set of instructions to achieve their desired outcome.

04/11/22

Year 2 have been working on different spelling rules this week. They have looked at different examples of words that follow the spelling patterns and suggested their own examples. They then practised spelling the words by playing Chinese Whispers.

21/10/2022

Year 2 have been working on their house project in Design and Technology this week. They have been working in groups to create Tudor style houses, which they have been learning about in history.

14/10/2022

To celebrate Sukkot, the children have participated in a range of exciting activities. One of these activities was an outing to Mill Hill Shul to visit their Sukkah. The children played games inside the Sukkah and had Kiddush before going inside the shul to speak to Rabbi Rose.

07/10/2022

In Music the children have been learning to recognise and follow the pulse of simple songs, play back rhythms and to read pictorial musical notation. They have played lots of fun games to engage with the pulse of songs and have begun to use claves.

30/09/22

In Ivrit the children have continued to build upon their vocabulary. This week they continued to practise naming parts of their body and have introduced themselves to a partner.

23/09/22

Maths:

Year 2 have been working hard on their place value learning. This week the children practised partitioning numbers using place value charts and counters.

16/09/22

Year 2 took part in an exciting PE workshop this week! They worked on their hand eye coordination skills and teamwork skills.

09/09/2022

In maths, Year 2 have used lots of different resources to help them practise making 2-digit numbers. They have also practised matching numerals to their corresponding word and have used the number sentence, ‘there are ___ tens and ___ ones. This makes ___.’

21/07/23

This week in Science the children learnt about the importance of having a balanced diet and being hygienic. Using glitter to represent germs, the children worked in small groups and investigated the best method for removing the most amount of germs from their hands. They then discussed their observations and concluded that washing with soap and water was the most effective method.

14/07/23

This week's Maths learning has been full of collaboration and outdoor learning. The children had the opportunity to go on a 3's hunt around the playground, looking for equal groups of 3 to practise their 3 times table. They also became a number line and worked together to work out what each number line was going up in and estimated what number was being marked. Lastly, they worked together to solve word problems and investigation questions that linked to our History and Science learning.

07/07/23

In Geography the children have been continuing with their map learning. This week they looked at the index page in their atlases and how to use these. They then solved ocean and content riddles and found these on the class globe and in their atlas.

30/06/23

In preparation for the Israeli Dance Festival Year 1 and 2 have been working together to make posters, collages, paperchain silhouettes and cakes. Year 2 particularly enjoyed being able to use their recently learnt measuring skills from maths in their baking.

23/06/23

In Science the children have been learning about animals including humans. This week the children have been looking at life cycles and the differences between each stage for different animals and humans. After learning about this, the children had the opportunity to observe the butterflies that had previously been hidden inside of the pupa. The children were delighted to see their beautiful wings!

16/06/23

In Maths, the children have been revisiting the concept of commutativity, inverse operations and fact families. At the beginning of the week they used counters to prove that addition is commutative, but subtraction is not. They then looked at bar models and used cubes to represent parts and investigated how parts can be added together or subtracted from the whole to create the fact family calculations.

09/06/23

The children looked at a real Sefer Torah to see the similarities and differences between a Torah and a printed Chumash. This will help them prepare to learn Chumash next year - the words in the Chumash and Torah are exactly the same and all very precious to the Jewish people.

25/05/23

In History the children have been learning about significant King's and Queen's within the British Monarchy. The children have enjoyed learning about what life was like in different time periods and using different sources and facts to learn more about each king or queen.

19/05/23

This week in Maths, the children have been learning how to tell the time. They have been using clocks to identify, make and tell the time to o'clock, quarter past, half past, quarter to, minutes past (5's) and minutes to (5's). Additionally, they have started to explore time word problems and reasoning questions.

12/05/23

This week in Computing, the children were introduced to Stop Motion. Firstly, they considered what qualities make a good photograph and how this can be achieved. Next, they worked on taking and sequencing photographs together to make a short animation of a moving character.

05/05/23

In English, the children have been making inferences and predictions based on our class text 'Moth: An Evolution Story'. In this week's section of the story, the children explored what prey, predator, survival, evolution and camouflage mean by using a dictionary to find the meanings. They then focused on the illustrations of the moths and thought about how these words are relevant to the story. Following on from this, they worked in teams outside and took it in turns to become the predator (bird) to hunt the prey (moths represented by multi-coloured beads). The children concluded from this that the better camouflaged moths would survive longer as they are harder for the predator to hunt.

28/04/23

In Maths, the children have continued to learn about fractions. This week the children have been consolidating finding halves, thirds and quarters using manipulatives. Additionally, they have used bar models and counters to use part of a fraction to find the whole and have practised making and identifying unit and non-unit fractions.

21/04/23

In Computing the children have started their Animation topic. This week they have explored what an animation is and various ways that these can be created. They then took part in an unplugged activity creating their own Flip Books.

31/03/23

In Ivrit, the children have been playing matching and memory games to revise all of the vocabulary that they have learnt so far. They have also had short conversations with each other using vocabulary for parts of the body, family and numbers.

24/03/23

For Book Week the children have been learning about the author and illustrator Mini Grey. They watched videos of her reading Traction Man Meets Turbo Dog, explaining the illustration process and the writing process that went into the book. The children then created their own characters inspired by Mini Grey's illustrations, made a story map and then wrote their own short action story.

17/03/23

This week in Geography the children have been learning about human and physical features. They have looked at different areas within the United Kingdom and discussed the similarities and differences in the types of features that they have.

10/03/23

In Maths, the children have been learning about odd and even numbers and how odd and even numbers can be made. They have used Numicon to explore the shape of odd and even numbers and how these can be added together to change an odd number to an even number and an even number into an odd number. They have also explored different ways of partitioning numbers using rekenreks and have discussed how a number can be made up of odd and even parts.

03/03/23

This week in Jewish Studies, the children have been working together to make posters about Purim. They have enjoyed learning about the Purim story and the four mitzvot.

24/02/23 This week in Maths, the children have been looking at repeated addition and multiplication. They used counters to explore equal groups, repeated addition and linking repeated addition to multiplication calculations

10/02/23

In Science, the children made observations of their cress. They looked at their own pots and the other cress that we planted with different variables. The children thought about how sunlight and water impacts the growth of a plant and what a healthy plant looks like.

03/02/23

In Music, the children used claves to copy a beat and then read and played back simple notations. They also practised repeating actions and sung phrases one bar and two bars behind the leader.

27/01/23

In this week's spelling group, the children have been learning how to add the -er, -ed, -est, -ing and -y suffixes to words ending in consonant 'e'. The children have played lots of fun spelling games throughout the week to practise adding the suffixes to the root word correctly.

20/01/23

In PE, the children participated in a fun rugby workshop run by Saracens. They played a range of different tag games and worked on their speed and agility. Everyone had a fantastic time!

13/01/23

This week in Science, Year 2 have started their new topic on plants. They have discussed what they think a plant need to stay healthy and to grow, labelled the parts of a plant that they remembered from last year and planted their own cress seeds to observe growth over time. They also planted a further 3 seeds to test if a plant can grow and stay healthy when it does not receive both sunlight and water.

06/01/23

This week in Maths, Year 2 have revisited 2D shape properties and horizontal and vertical lines of symmetry. The children have used their stem sentences to say how many vertices and sides their shape has and have drawn lines of symmetry onto their 2D shapes. They then sorted 2D shapes into Venn Diagrams.

16/12/22

In Maths, the children started their new topic 'Shape'. This week, the children have learnt the names of 2D and 3D shapes and have practised counting the sides and vertices on 2D shapes. They have also used their knowledge of shapes and their properties to explain why a shape is the odd one out from a selection of 2D and 3D shapes.

09/12/22

In Jewish Studies, the children have been preparing for Chanukah by learning songs, learning the rules of how and when to light a kosher chanukiah and making their own clay chanukiot to use at home with their families.

02/12/22

In Science, the children have been learning about habitats. This week the children learnt about urban habitats and used their observation skills to draw and label features of their local urban habitat.

25/11/22

During this week's Magical Maths, Year 2 have been practising counting in 2's, 5's and 10's by singing along to songs and rolling the big classroom dice to recall their multiplication facts in a random order.

18/11/22

To mark Parliament week, the children have learnt about Parliament, explored and recreated Claude Monet's Houses of Parliament paintings and met Matthew Offord MP. The children really enjoyed listening to Matthew Offord and had the opportunity to ask him some questions.

11/11/22

Year 2 have been learning about how number bonds can help us with addition. In this lesson, the children used magnetic tens frames to add three one digit numbers.

04/11/22

This week, the children participated in an exciting Sefer Torah workshop, where they looked at how a Torah is made. They then had the opportunity to use Hebrew letter stamps and a quill to practise their Hebrew writing.

21/10/2022

In History, the children participated in The Great Fire of London re-enactment. Using the houses made in Design and Technology, the children were taken back in time to 1666 and watched how the fire spread. They discussed the materials that houses were made out of and how the weather conditions contributed to the spread of the fire.

14/10/2022

In Maths the children have been learning to count forwards and backwards in fives. They have played lots of fun games to explore counting in fives and the patterns in the five times table.

07/10/2022

This week in PE Year 2 have been continuing with their gymnastics learning. They used the gymnastics positions and rolls that they have learnt so far and thought about how they could sequence these to create a short group routine.

30/09/22

In PE the children have been developing their reaction times. They have played lots of different cone and ball games with a partner and in small groups.

23/09/22

Seed:

In preparation for Rosh Hashanah Year 2 alongside their adults created beautiful booklets to use for their Rosh Hashanah table. It was lovely to see so many parents and grandparents enjoying time preparing for the Chag.

16/09/22

Year 2 have enjoyed learning all about the Shofar and hearing all the different sounds it makes, we have woken up to its call and are now ready for Rosh Hashanah.

09/09/22

This week Year 2 have learnt about the United Kingdom. They have discussed what countries make up the United Kingdom, the compass points and where London is located.

My name is Miss Luton and I am delighted to be teaching your child in Year 2. Joining me is Rabbi Herman who will be teaching Jewish Studies.

Year Two is an exciting part of your child’s education where we will continue to work in a creative and integrated curriculum. We will build upon your child’s experiences from Year 1 and develop their knowledge and understanding in all areas of the curriculum and support them in becoming enthused and motivated both independent and collaborative learners. The children will continue to learn through topics in which they will investigate, explore and discover as they engage in a variety of practical tasks to help secure the facts, skills and teachings in a memorable and meaningful way. We will continue to use a blended learning approach, which includes the use of SeeSaw to set activities and record explanation videos, and record the children’s ideas and responses using photographs, videos, text and voice clips.

We will begin the year with our first topic called ‘The Great Fire of London’ where the children will learn about The Great Fire of London with cross-curricular links primarily to science and Design and Technology.

In Jewish Studies we are excited to introduce Hebrew script writing in Year 2, the children will learn to read and write Hebrew script. Later on in the year, the children will learn Gematria (Hebrew numericals) and also start to develop their Chumash readiness skills. Another highlight in the year is the KS1 Israeli Dance Festival.

The children will continue to develop their phonic knowledge through the Read Write Inc scheme and Support for Spelling. We will be reading and writing for a range of different purposes throughout the year. We will endeavour to provide meaningful experiences and outdoor opportunities to enhance their learning throughout the year. They will be developing their mathematical skills in number and calculations, problem solving, shape and measuring. The children will be given lots of hands on practical opportunities to consolidate this as well as develop their learning in a purposeful manner through a range of approaches.

In the Summer Term 2023, children complete their Key Stage 1 SATs. These assessments will be administered in May 2023. Please note that when the children take the tests in our school, we will refer to them as quizzes, challenges or booklets and they will be delivered in a low key way which gives children confidence. There is no need for the children to know when these are taking place and we ask that you do not tell the children as this could heighten anxieties and have a negative impact on how well they perform. As much as possible, the children will experience the normal routine of the Year 2 timetable.

The Year 2 children will take SATs in:
•Reading
•English grammar, punctuation and spelling
•Maths

To help your child be responsible for their belongings, please ensure that all items of clothing including shoes, jumpers and kippot are clearly labelled with your child’s name. Boys must bring into school a spare kippah with clips which will be kept in their indoor trays. This will be extremely useful in helping your child be responsible for their own belongings by ensuring that they do not misplace any items of clothing especially after PE lessons. To support your child in school, please can you provide 1 box of tissues, 5 medium Pritt Sticks (43g, only Pritt Stick no other make) and a non-school uniform cap. Please give these items to your child to bring in on the first day of term.

Your role as parents is also invaluable, learning is key not only in school but in the home as well. We aim to create strong links between the home and school environment, and to do this the children will need your support with regards to their learning. We believe that good communication between home and school is central to your child’s learning. If you have any concerns or questions, please contact us via the Home School Liaison books.