English

During this half term in Year 2, we have been reading the book ‘Lila and the Secret of Rain.’ Our story is based in Kenya, and we started our topic by looking at lots of different aspects of life for Kenyan people and used lots of descriptive writing and shared lots of ideas to build our own piece of class writing. We used lots of role play to understand the character’s thoughts and feelings and created story boards to re-tell the story. This half term, we have also been partaking in writing workshops which involved watching short trailers and composing pieces of writing on character descriptions, setting descriptions and action scene narratives. We have focused so much on our writing on these past few weeks, developing our vocabulary, grammar and punctuation and we are super proud of our improvement!

Maths

In this half term, we have been working very hard in preparation for our SATS tests, focusing a lot on our arithmetic learning; addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. We have been looking at lots of different reasoning questions, being shown word problems and understanding how to calculate the sum. Alongside all this learning, we have also learned about different lengths and measurement and different measurements of mass and weights. We have learned a lot of new things this half term and practiced so hard every day and we are all very proud of ourselves in our development.

Science

Year 2 have learned all about different materials this half term. We have studied different properties of a variety of materials, working in pairs and groups to discuss their appropriate uses and designing our own creations and which materials would suit them best for their use. We have conducted lots of scientific experiments whilst moving through our topics of ‘material strength’ and ‘ship building’. We have loved discovering which materials can float or sink and getting a little splashed in the process! We have been able to record a range of results on tables and identified any patterns that might tell us anything about our study.

History

In our History topic this half term, our question of enquiry has been ‘How do we know so much about the Great Fire of London?’

We used what we know about the dangers of fire to predict how we think the Great Fire began and learned about the role of Thomas Farriner and his bakery on Pudding Lane on how it all unfolded. We studied historic artistic depictions of this event and recounts from different people who were present in London at that time. The class have discussed how we might know as much as we do about the Great Fire of London and reflected on Samuel Pepys and his diary accounts during the days of the fire and what was happening in London at that time.

Geography

In our Geography topic this half term, our question of enquiry has been ‘How does the geography of Kampong Ayer compare to where I live?’

We have studied different maps of the world, as well as Google Maps and learned all about the North Pole, South Pole and the Equator and where the United Kingdom and Kampong Ayer are in relation to these. We have used Google Maps to calculate how many miles we are away from Kampong Ayer and predicted how long it may take for us to travel there.

Computing

In Computing this half term, we have been collecting our own data in the classroom on our favourite things such as animals and food and input this data into different tables, pie charts and graphs. We have chosen what types of data we can collect and how we can represent this on our computers. We are really proud of our data representation this half term and how much we have learned. We have finally moved onto a new topic in Computing, learning to create our own e-books, we are working as a class to come up with front cover designs and plots on which to base our e-books. We are going to continue this topic in the next half term and build our class e-bookshelf with as many creations as we can.

PSHCE

This half term in PSHCE, as a class we have been learning all about the relationships we have in our lives. We have discussed the different relationships we can have, those with our family, friends, teachers, pets etc. The class have thought about the different ways in which we can strengthen those relationships and what qualities we value in those whom we have relationships with. We have discussed what conflict is and identified where we have experienced this in our lives, we then discussed different methods of conflict resolution and how we can use these to build our relationships. As a class we have spoken about different types of physical contact, which types we enjoy such as hugs and high fives and when it is appropriate and inappropriate and how we always have the choice to say no to physical contact we are not comfortable with.

Music

The Fantastic Foxes this half term in their music lessons playing the notes B A G on the classroom glockenspiels. We can hold the beater to create a lovely sound.

Using Charanga we have looked at the formal stave notation to recognise the notes B and A. We looked at the crotchet and minim and the crotchet rest and minim rest. We said the mnemonic to try and learn the line names ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Favour’

We played along to the music, listening to the introduction, and waiting to come in altogether then try and follow the notation as we play. We counted the tempo to keep ourselves in time.

RE

Theme: Community and Belonging Religion: Islam Key question for this enquiry: Does going to a mosque give Muslims a sense of belonging? Learning Objectives: We are learning to understand why Muslims visit the mosque and to explore whether this gives them a sense of belonging.

The Fantastic Foxes have been studying the religion of Islam.

At the beginning of this topic we had fun with the class parachute – learning how team work is so important. We had a great class discussion about the groups we belong to.

We then learnt about Muslim prayer, the wudu wash and the features of a mosque. Several children brought in their own prayer mats to show the class. Mr Ahmad Kindly showed the children his prayer mat too.

The children visited a local mosque where we were saw the features we had learnt about in class. A lovely lady called Rhana, lead the visit. She gave us a tour around the outside where we spotted the tower-the minaret, the dome, Arabic writing, the crescent moon and the speakers on the tower.

Back inside we took our shoes off and Rhana showed us around the beautifully decorated walls. We followed the actions for wudu and praying.

The children asked some super questions.

DT

This half-term in Design & Technology we have created our own Pouches.  Firstly, we practised our running stitch which we found tricky, we threaded our sewing needles with thread then practised the running stitch on small pieces of felt.

Next, we cut out a paper template which we then pinned onto pieces of felt.  We then cut around the paper templates to get the pieces we needed to make our pouch.

Then we pinned the two pieces of felt together ready to sew.  Using a sewing needle that we had threaded we sew the two pieces of felt together to make our pouch.

Finally, we used sequins and pieces of felt to decorate our pouches. We have been very proud of our creations and shown such resilience in the process of making them.

PE

The children have worked extremely hard and as a result completed a dance routine based around ‘The Seaside’. The first few lessons involved discussing what they might see, hear, smell whilst at the seaside. As part of the discussions the children came up with a list of eight things that reminded them of this environment. Following on from this, the children then created a sequence that involved incorporating these eight things with transitions. By the end of the unit the children shared how much they had enjoyed the lessons- it was a nice introduction into early dance. This half term, we have also had the pleasure of being coached by Sam, learning lots of different athletic techniques we have applied in many different team activities both inside and outside.