Friday 18th July

This week we had lots of fun learning about minibeasts across the curriculum! In Science, we finished constructing and painting our junk model minibeasts. We enjoyed letting our creativity flourish and the finished products looked fantastic! For those that had finished their minibeast, they used the chromebooks to research some facts about them. 

In English, we continued our poetry unit and used our imagination to write our own minibeast poems. We made the poems into the shape of the minibeast and tried to include how the minibeast looks, moves, sounds and any interesting facts. We also focused on alliteration to make our poems more exciting for the reader.

In Maths, we have continued to recap some of our key learning from Year 2. We recapped telling the time and position/direction. We had so much fun using the Bee-Bots to remind ourselves of key positional vocabulary. We worked in groups, where one person chose the starting position, another person chose the finishing position and the third person had to programme the Bee-Bot to land on the correct target. It was fun to see the children challenging themselves to find complex routes to land on the target.

 

Friday 11th July

We have had an exciting DT-filled week in Year 2! The children thoroughly enjoyed the fruit tasting lesson and trying a variety of different fruits. It was impressive to see some children bravely trying fruit that they had never tried before! The children then spent the afternoon designing their fruit kebabs. We discussed making the kebabs colourful, using patterns and having a range of textures too. On Wednesday, the children were so excited to make their final product. They were very careful when using a knife to slice and chop their fruits, and were able to make use of the 'bridge' and 'claw' techniques. Then, the best part... eating their wonderful creations! Lots of children rated their fruit kebab 5 stars.

In English this week, the children have started to explore minibeast poems. We have been learning tips and tricks to help us memorise a poem - including lots of practice, looking at the rhyming words and adding actions. We then discussed what makes a good performance. The children knew that they had to project their voice and add expression. After some time memorising different minibeast poems, each group performed their poem to the class. It was fantastic to see the actions the children added when performing the poems. 

In PSHE, we have discussed road safety and how we can keep ourselves safe. We reminded ourselves that we must always look left and right to check the road is clear before crossing, stay on the inside of the path, and wear bright clothing, amongst other ideas. The children then used this information to create eye-catching road safety posters!

Friday 4th July

The children have impressed us so much this week with their 'can-do attitude' in this heat! They have been so focused during Big Write in our English lessons, writing up their innovated version of 'A Tadpole's Promise'. The children adapted the characters and the settings brilliantly and used exciting vocabulary in their stories. In Maths, Mrs Wood and I were so impressed with their timetable knowledge. We have been working on our mental maths skills to help us answer calculations relating to our 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s, and made use of arrays to support us when we were unsure. It was especially brilliant to see how many children in the class could fluently recall their 3s! We have also started to recap the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. We used the 3D shapes to help work out the number of edges, vertices and faces each shape had. In Science, the children continued their learning about microhabitats and minibeasts. They drew 'minibeast mansions', ensuring that the minibeasts would have adequate shelter and food sources. 

Friday 27th June

The children had an exciting week finding out what class they will be in next year and spending the day with their new teacher! We discussed our thoughts and feelings ahead of the transition day. It was so lovely to hear that pupils with older siblings are excited to be in the Key Stage 2 building with them. We also walked to their new classroom so that they knew where to go on transition day. In English, the children have started innovating 'A Tadpole's Promise'. So far, we have created new characters and settings for our story. We focused on using expanded noun phrases to provide detailed explanations of the characters/settings. In Maths, we have completed our Year 2 Summer Maths assessment on the chromebooks. We showed brilliant determination to answer as many questions as possible, using our whiteboards to support us with our workings out. In DT, we completed some product research. We looked at a variety of fruit kebabs and evaluated them. Lots of us liked the fruit kebab with a rainbow pattern. In Science, we used chromebooks to research facts about minibeasts. We then used the facts we learnt to make posters. Finally, we have been promoting a love for reading. Some brave students volunteered to read a book aloud to the whole class. The class really enjoyed this, and we will be doing this again!

Friday 20th June

The children had lots of fun during Sports Week. We really enjoyed Sports Day and all tried our best! Well done to the Yellow Team for winning! During the carousel of events in the morning, it was especially great to see the leadership shown by some of the Year 2's who helped the younger children in their groups. Throughout the week, we also enjoyed getting active with football rounders, yoga, dance... as well as our usual PE lesson with the sports coaches. In English, we have started our new topic, 'Tadpole's Promise'. We began by looking at how to use possessive apostrophes and wrote our own promises on a lily pad. We then sat in a circle and shared what we had promised. Some of the promises made were to help cook dinner, keep their bedroom tidy and to load the dishwasher - so ask your children what promise they made! In the following lessons, we sequenced the events of the story and wrote speech bubbles using contractions.

Friday 13th June

This week we have been looking at position and direction in Maths. We have been using the words: left, right, up, down, forwards and backwards. We enjoyed building towers out of multilink, following instruction cards with the key vocabulary on them. In English, we have been reminiscing about our year in Year 2. We have been thinking about our highlights and all the progress we have made. For lots of us, our highlights have been Victorian day, making bread in a bag and our trip to Colchester Zoo. We have also been thinking about our goals for next year, and what we would like to improve on as we move up into Year 3. In our PE lessons, we have had the chance to make the most of the sunny weather. We have been practising the carousel of events for Sports Day, including tunnel ball and cones and domes. In PSHE and Computing, we have continued to discuss how to stay safe online. The children are very confident in knowing that if they see something online that they don't understand or find upsetting, they must tell a trusted adult immediately. 

Friday 6th June

Year 2 have worked incredibly hard this week when completing their SATs reading papers. They showed brilliant determination and tried their best to answer the questions - even if they were unsure! In Maths this week, we revisited telling the time using 5-minute intervals and completed our end of unit quiz. We are now ready to move onto position and direction next week. In RE, we explored individual beliefs in God and how everyone's image of God may be different. We started off by drawing a dragon that we had made up in our head, and we were surprised at just how different everyone's ideas were! Later on, we drew our own ideas of what we thought God could look like. The children thought God might be powerful and kind. In PE, the children sheltered from the rain and took part in a carousel of different activities. This included practising their throwing and catching skills, balance and co-ordination. The children especially enjoyed using the hurdles.

Friday 23rd May

We have had a busy last week of term. We finished our History topic, 'Marvellous Machines', by recapping the facts we learnt about the invention of cars, planes, trains and the moon landing. It was impressive to hear the amount of facts we could remember, such as Michael Collins being known as the 'forgotten astronaut', and we then used this knowledge to write a fact file about a significant invention. In Maths, we started to compare time by converting hours into minutes, and also created block diagrams to reveal how we spend our 24 hours a day. In English, we continued learning about the chicken life cycle. We used the chromebooks to create the life cycle of a chicken. We challenged ourselves to use scientific vocabulary, such as embryo and incubate. Finally, we were ready to write up what we had learnt in our Big Write books. Hope you all have a well-deserved rest over half-term!

Friday 16th May

This week in Maths, 2 Bond have shown fantastic resilience - one of the school's core values! We have been telling the time 'to' the hour and, despite finding this a little bit tricky, we didn't give up and have been determined to try our best. In History, we discovered that George Stephenson invented the locomotive that powered the first passenger steam train. In pairs, we created a timeline of George Stephenson's life and then used this information to create a fact file. As eco-friendly scientists, the children have made a plant pot using newspaper. Surprisingly, during our observations, the newspaper held soil and water without leaking!

Friday 9th May

In our Maths lessons this week, we have been telling the time. We began by looking at o’clock and half past, and then we moved onto quarter past and quarter to. In Art, we started to create our final piece. We drew geometrical patterns on different types of transport and painted them using bold colours. We will need to outline the shapes and patterns in a black pen in our next lesson. In History, we discovered that the Wright brothers invented the first powered plane in 1903. We were shocked to learn that the first flight only lasted 12 seconds!

Friday 2nd May

We have had an exciting week as we finally got to watch our Great Fire of London model houses burn down! We watched closely as the fire spread rapidly, flames roared and the fire crackled. In Maths, we continued drawing and interpreting the data shown in pictograms. In English, we wrote a letter to Jim as if we were the Giant. We used our knowledge of ‘Jim and the Beanstalk’ and challenged ourselves to use suffixes. In Art, we practised our colour mixing skills to complete the other half of an Esther Mahlangu painting, ensuring we mixed the correct shade of each colour. We also practised drawing geometric shapes in a symmetrical pattern and colouring them in with vibrant colours.