Year 2

On Wednesday 26^th June, the Year 2 children were able to share their amazing art work with children from Reception, Year 1 and Year 3, as part of ‘Toftwood Tate.’

Throughout Year 2, the children have produced art work inspired by artists including Van Gogh, Monet and Kandinsky as part of their Art learning.

In the afternoon, the children were able to share their art with family members, and it was lovely to welcome parents and other adults into our school again. They were able to share a blueberry muffin that they had made in school with their adults too.

The children were so proud to share their art work with so many people, and we are very proud of them too!

On Wednesday 19^th June, Year 2 went on a trip to Pensthorpe. The children have been learning about habitats and could use their prior learning to answer questions during our trip.

The children took part in a discovery walk to identify different creatures and thought about other creatures that may live there. The identified mini-beasts in the woodland area and some were lucky enough to spot some tiny frogs!! We also discussed the order different animals that might be found at Pensthorpe in a food chain!

We saw different types of ducks and geese and visited the flamingos and cranes. It was so exciting to see the animals close! We even got the chance to feed some ducks. We had to keep our hands flat so not to get pecked. The children were so brave and enjoyed this so much.

The children went pond dipping too! The children used identification sheets to identify the different minibeasts and pond creatures. They found many exciting creatures including pond snails, pond skaters and even a newt! We then looked at these creatures under a micro-scope and the children were enraptured by looking at what they had captured.

In the woodland area the children were able to create some woodland art using twigs, branches, leaves, grass, flowers and even some shells! They created frogs, ducks and cranes to name a few.

We had a brilliant day and learnt lots about the different animals and habitats at Pensthorpe!

20.6.24

Year 2 have been very busy during SAW week. They learned about three special insects that are found in Norfolk: the swallowtail butterfly, the Norfolk hawker dragonfly and and the brown lipped snail. The children chose one insect and then enjoyed using their tablets to research and make notes about the things that they had learnt. Next, the children wrote cinquain poems about their chosen insect – they carefully chose nouns, adjectives and verbs to write something that they were really proud of. Finally, the children created a collage which had a mixture of textures. They thought carefully about the habitat that the animal lives in and tried to include this in their background.

As part of our Habitats and Environments learning, we welcomed some very unusual visitors to our school! Ed Mackay brought along his ‘Mini Monsters’ to meet the children to introduce our new topic and the children were very excited to meet them all.

The Mini Monsters included Winston the Bearded Dragon, Trinny the Tarantula and Salsa the Milk Snake.

The children learnt about what the different animals eat, the habitat they live in and how this helps them to survive as well as some fascinating facts about these creatures!

The children were able to see all the animals up close, and were even able to touch or hold some of them!

All of the children found the animals really interesting to learn about and enjoyed their visit to Year 2!

This half term the children have concluded their topic Art Around the World. We have created lots of wonderful pieces of art ready to display in our Toftwood Tate. The children have enjoyed practising the different areas of art such as printing, drawing and painting. They have even sculpted some clay into African masks. Mia said that she liked “being precise with her dots” for the dot art.

In Computing the children have been taking photographs and have learnt what makes a good photo such as lighting, focus and whether a photo should be captured in portrait or landscape.

We have also enjoyed continuing with Cricket this half term in one of our PE lessons. We have been learning how to catch, field and bat. Phoebe said “my favourite part is the batting because it is fun.”

In RE, the children have been learning about Passover and how this is celebrated in Judaism. They learnt the story, retold this in groups, and then created their own Seder plate.

We also were very lucky to have Marsha and Todd come and speak to the children about the celebration of Passover. The children learnt about the story of Moses and thought about what each part of the Seder plate means. The children tried some of these different parts, such as; parsley with salt water, grape juice and matzah bread.

We finished the term with a visit from Lorraine Theobald who shared her Brazilian Samba Dance Workshop with us. The children clapped along to Lorraine playing the drums, and listened to her play some other traditional Brazilian Samba instruments. She taught the children a range of moves which they then put together to make a dance. To add to their dance, the children wore amazing headdresses!

This half term the children have explored the topic of ‘Air, Land and Sea’. They have thought about different materials in Science and about explorers such as Admiral Nelson in History.

In Art the children have created their own ‘Water Lillies’ painting in the style of Claude Monet.

This half term in English the children have become travel agents, and have had a go at creating their own travel brochures, filled with information all about Hawaii! The children enjoyed researching all about Hawaii; using tablets, listening to people who have visited Hawaii, and virtually meeting Mrs Morton’s mum Mrs Clarke (who is a real travel agent!).

After the children had written their brochures, some decided that they wanted to send some thank you notes to Mrs Clarke for all of her helpful tips on travel brochure writing!

In Computing the children have explored using tablets and have enjoyed diversifying their digital technology usage!

Year 2 enjoyed learning about and celebrating Christmas. The children listened to the Nativity story and re-told this using the stop motion app on the tablets. We also looked at different designs of stained glass windows and discussed what they represent. The children enjoyed creating their own stained glass windows using craft materials.

The children learnt two Christmas songs; Must be Santa, and Sing Up It’s Christmas; and also learnt their actions. They performed these songs and also a poem Carrot Nose to their parents/carers for our Year 2 Christmas performance.

As part of their DT learning, they followed a recipe to make Speculaas biscuits. In English, they wrote the instructions for how to make these biscuits and tried carefully to include all the features.