PE

Year 2 PE this half-term has been around bouncing the ball. The children have been practicing and refining the bouncing, throwing and being able to pass the ball with accuracy. The tactical side of bouncing balls in a game like situation. The children have also learnt characteristics like resilience.

RE

Year 2 R.E. Autumn 2 2022 – Website info

Theme: Christmas – Jesus as a gift from God

Key Question: Why do Christians believe God gave Jesus to the world?

Religion: Christianity

The Fantastic Foxes had a superb start to this topic. Mrs Lingard surprised them and came in dressed as a superhero. This was the hook to a discussion about how Christians believe God sent his one and only son Jesus as a gift to save the world and make it a better place to live in, by teaching others to love each other and their world, helped by God.

We read the story ‘George Saves the World By Lunchtime’ by Eden Project. Then looked at advent calendars, one commercial, the other depicting a traditional Christmas scene asking – Which ones are about the Christian story of Christmas? Following this we chatted and asked each other how Christians prepare and look forward to Christmas? How we celebrate at school?

We helped each other find this quote in the bible ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mark 12:28-31). Finally, the children had a superb lesson from the students at Life Church in Rosegrove through the Pais Movement. Many Thanks to Josh from Life Church for your assistance in organising the visit.

The Reading Hour (including Phonics)

In the Reading Hour this half term, we have continued using the Bug Club Phonics scheme to learn the alphabet, learn our Phase 5 sounds and different ways to spell the s, c, ear, air, ow, oi, or and ur phonemes.  We have also been learning about how to spell high-frequency words and irregular words such as eye and friends. In Guided Reading, we have been reading books both independently and in small groups. We have been discussing and answering questions about the books we are reading and creating character profiles, completing book reviews and more!

Geography

In Geography, we have been learning about the geography of where we live. We started this enquiry by learning about the human and physical geographical features of different environments. To understand the difference between them, we categorised them too! Then, we used our observational skills to walk around school and its grounds, to identify the human and physical features of its surrounding environment. We saw houses, soil, offices and more. Finally, we learnt about the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom.

English

In English this half term, we continued reading the ‘Sweetest Song’ from ‘The Story Tree’. We created a story map, made puppets and wrote our own story. We then moved on to reading another interesting story, ‘Little Lord Feather Frock’. We got into character and wrote a diary entry about how Little Lord Feather Frock was almost turned into a delicious fluffy supper for Old Foxy! As well as reading and writing stories, we learnt about suffixes and about how they can change the meaning of a word. How a suffix can end with -er or -ful and change its meaning. Finally, we read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’. We thoroughly enjoyed reading this story and wrote a letter to St Nicholas just in time for Christmas!

Maths

In Maths, we have been completing simple addition and subtraction calculations and learning how to apply these skills to problem solving situations this half term. We have been using number lines, base ten and hundred squares to help us to add and subtract one-digit and one-digit numbers, lots of two-digit and one-digit numbers and some two-digit and two-digit numbers as well. We have also been challenging ourselves to calculate some sums mentally too! Alongside addition and subtraction, we continued to work on our understanding of place value to reinforce and build on our learning from the last half term.

Computing

We started by learning about E-safety this half term. Now more than ever, it is important that our children understand how to stay safe in the digital world, so we learnt about staying safe online and discussed why Purple Mash and other child-friendly websites are more suitable for children than searching the internet using Google. Then, we learnt about communicating with others online. We received an email from Baby Bear about Barnaby Bear’s travels. So, we replied to the email by writing a short message, painting a picture of Barnaby Bear on holiday, attaching the picture to the email and sent it off! Finally, we learnt about spreadsheets and how they are used.

Science

In Science, we have been learning about Plants this half term. We started by identifying the main parts of plants. We moved on to learning about the role of the different plant parts and how they are suited to their functions. We also learnt about how plants grow and what plants need to survive by making predictions and carrying out experiments.

 

Art

In Art, we have been exploring the colour wheel and experimenting with different colour pigments and mediums, such as paint. We used brushes, sponges and more to create our works of art. We decorated pinecones with paint, made calendars for 2023 by learning about the four seasons and made Christmas cards too!

PSCHE

In JIGSAW this half-term, we’ve been learning about ‘celebrating difference’ and how all the people of the World are different, how they are shaped through there culture and religion and different experiences. We have learned about how we need to accept difference and why it is so important to have differences within our World and even our local community.