Eager Beavers

As always, Year 2 has been chock-a-block with many fun opportunities to learn.

Our theme this term, in English, is Traditional Tales. We have been reading different traditional tales, describing main characters, settings, what the characters do and say using powerful verbs. They have learnt to put speech marks around the words said by a character, which is no small feat. The children had a go at contributing to a class character description as well as planning one in pairs. They made story maps, thinking carefully about how they can help the reader to have a picture of the character in their minds. They even had a go at acting out "The Little Red Hen" in small groups, choosing who got to be the bull, the cat, the rat or the hen.

On Wednesday this week, using equipment from the sports room, the children constructed instructions for each other using prepositions. They had such fun; climbing ‘through’ hoops, throwing balls ‘over’ their heads, crawling ‘under’ the hurdles and balancing the ball ‘on’ the bat. Their group work is really improving, the teachers can hear such kind words being used and the children are learning to help their peers as much as they can.

Maths lessons have been full of fun, getting stuck into learning about multiplication. The children have been identifying and describing equal groups of objects and then we have moved on to visualising these groups as repeated addition and writing these as multiplication expressions. We have had so much fun starting our lessons outside, playing a grouping game. The children shout out “Mingle, mingle” as they walk around until a teacher shouts out a number that they need to get into groups of. The mad rush to assemble a group of the correct number is lots of fun. The children then need to formulate a sentence, starting “There are… __ equal groups of __ people.” We have really been enjoying spending time outside during our lesson starters, like getting into a circle and throwing the ball to each other, having to answer multiplication questions, (3x5, 2x10, 8x2).

The children have become great researchers in Science. They chose an animal to research and had to find out how the animal gives birth, how long eggs take to hatch/babies stay in their mother’s tummy, similarities and differences between adults and their offsprings and interesting facts about these animals. This week, Year 2 received a letter from someone who needed them to look after their three exotic animals: a budgie, a chameleon and a stick insect. In pairs, they had to research how they would take care of one of these animals. Their research is constantly getting better as is their love of finding out new things!

Our Geography lessons are based on our theme for this block, ‘Have you had your 5 a Day?’ We have been learning about the fruits and vegetables that grow locally and researching where and how they grow and their importance in our diet. Maybe your child will be a little more willing to eat that last carrot on their plate, as they now know more about all the amazing things fruits and vegetables have to offer.

Our Art lessons this term have been inspired by William Morris who invented ‘block printing’. The children have been making print-blocks using fruits and vegetables and using these to make patterns on paper. We went ahead using the blocks to create other objects, such as cars, ocean habitats and leaves.

In DT, we are learning how to sew! We have started off by making a number of stitches on paper using needle and thread to get used to sewing safely. Next week, they begin making their own fruit/vegetable mat by stitching a template of a chosen produce item onto fabric using the stitches they are learning.

Children marked the BNIS Diversity Day with pomp, colour and enthusiasm! They all came dressed appropriately for the occasion and each of them was able to tell us why they chose their attire, which was great. Children learnt that we are all diverse and this is what makes the world a beautiful place to live in. They learned to respect and appreciate these differences and learn from each. Some of the activities that were scattered throughout the day were to write an acrostic poem for the word diversity and it was great to see them stretch their thinking and really stick to the theme by carefully selecting words and phrases with rich meaning. We ended Diversity Day by drawing self-portraits, which were framed with pictures of something unique that gives them identity. Come past the Year 2 classrooms to have a look at their wonderful artwork.

Bravo, Year 2, for all your hard work so far!