Fantastic Foxes – Y2
Learn and Be Happy!
Class teacher – Mrs Atkin
Mrs Hutchinson also helps us with our learning
Summer Term Home Learning Grid
Autumn 1
We have had a very exciting start to the year as we have adopted an orang-utan! We have been learning lots about orang-utans and where they come from and we have linked this to lots of our learning. First, we created a clay orang-utan, we wrote acrostic poems about orang-utans and then we read animal adventure stories featuring orang-utans. We focussed on a David Walliams story called The Queen’s Orangutan.
In our Maths lessons we have been working on number and place value before moving onto measurement.
In Science we have been planting a variety of different things including onion bulbs, pepper seeds and cress. We have been watching them closely and writing about them in our plant diaries. We also did some tasting and investigating different friuits.
In History we have started to learn about History Makers. We began with Guy Fawkes and we have also learnt about women in history including Margaret Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth 1.
Our Geography lessons have seen us exploring locations including where we live and comparing it with a place in Brunei called Kampong Ayer.
RE
Our topic this half term was ‘Christianity – The Church.’ During this unit of work, we were aiming to answer the question ‘What unites the Christian community?’
Firstly, we looked at Christian symbols and what they represented. For example, the cross is a symbol of Jesus’ death; a fish used to be a secret symbol for people who were not allowed to be Christians; candles represent Jesus being the light of the world and a dove is a symbol of peace.
Next, we learned about places of worship and what might be found there. We looked at what can be found in a church. For example, pews, a font, and alter, a pulpit, a lectern and stained-glass windows.
Our next lesson was to discover what worship means for Christians. We learned that Christians worship through singing hymns, listening to stories from the Bible and praying. We wrote our own prayers.
To finish our topic, we found out about the church community. We discovered that lots of people belong to the church including people who play music in the services, people who clean the church and people who run children’s clubs.
PSHE
Our topic this half term was ‘Being Me in My World’
As part of this topic, we identified some of our hopes and fears for this year.
We then spent time thinking about the rights and responsibilities for being a member of our class and school.
During this topic, we have also listened to other people as well as contributing our own ideas about rewards and consequences.
Autumn 2
English
In English this half term we have done lots of analysing different stories and poems. The children are very good at finding adjectives, nouns and verbs. They have also been spotting suffix words and different types of punctuation. In addition to this, we did some drama to help us understand the main parts of the story. We then moved onto writing our own version of an introductory paragraph.
Maths
Recently in our Maths lessons, we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. We have been finding out about the properties of the shapes, sorting them, finding lines of symmetry, making patterns with them and solving problems. Previous to this we were embedding our knowledge of addition and subtraction.
Art week
In Art, we have been using line as a focus to create pictures with pencil, pastels and charcoal. For Art week, we used what we have been learning about line to create pictures using different mediums.
GPS/Phonics
In our GPS lessons we have been focusing on adding different suffixes to our words such as –ness and –ly. The children are trying hard to include these suffix words in their writing across all the subjects.
For Phonics, the children continue to do as much reading as the can, both in school and at home. They are learning different phonemes, sounding and out and blending to help them read more fluently.
Science
In our Science lessons this half term we have been learning about everyday materials. We started by going on a material hunt outside and then we investigated materials and why some are more suitable than others for certain jobs.
Geography
In Geography, we have continued to learn about Kampong Ayer, which is a water village in Brunei. We have done lots of discussion around the topic and compared it to where we live. We have also linked it to our DT lessons and the children have made stilt houses because that is the style of the houses in Brunei.
History
Our History lessons have continued to focus on important women throughout history and the children have been thinking about the greatest history maker in their opinions,
DT week
We decided to design and make cake pops for DT week. The children will be selecting a design, making it and then decorating them to sell at the Christmas Fayre.
Computing
The children have continued to work on their coding skills by using Purple Mash. They have refreshed their memories about Computer safety and how to stay safe when using the internet.
PSHCE
This half term, we studied the topic ‘Celebrating Difference.’ The children have identified ways in which our friends are different to us and why we value this difference.
Music
The main focus in our music lessons this half term has been learning the songs for the Nativity and then rehearsing with the other children in Key Stage One and EYFS.
RE
Our topic in this half term was Christianity (God). The children have been thinking about the question – ‘What do special stories teach worshippers and others?’
PE
In PE we have been using balls and rackets to try and improve our hand-eye coordination. The children have enjoyed the challenge!
RE
Our topic this half term was ‘Christianity – God.’ During this unit of work, we were aiming to answer the question ‘Does how we treat the world matter?’
Firstly, we talked about looking after God’s wonderful world. We focused on the words ‘awe’ and ‘wonder’ and what they might mean. Also, we thought about how people damage the beautiful world God has created.
Next, we learned about the creation story. We looked at how Christian’s believe God took six days to create the world and on the seventh day, he rested. We sequenced the story and thought about what we would’ve made first if we were God.
Our next lesson was to interpret religious song words. We listened to the hymn ‘All things bright and beautiful’ and looked at the words in each verse. We then sketched a picture of what we could imagine whilst listening to the hymn.
After that, we discussed what we treasured and why. We then moved on to think about the treasures around us that Christians believe God gave us and how these treasures should be treated.
To finish our topic, we created a collage of God’s creation. We also included the words ‘awe’ and ‘wonder’ in our work
PSHE
Our topic this half term was ‘Celebrating Difference’
As part of this topic, we discussed how people make assumptions about boys and girls. We were able to think of some ways how boys and girls are similar.
We then spent time thinking about how bullying is sometimes about difference. We looked at some different scenarios and decided whether they were acts of bullying or not. We reminded ourselves that bullying doesn’t just happen once, it goes on over time and happens over and over again; it is deliberate; it is unfair. Usually the person doing the bullying is stronger (older, bigger, in a bigger group)
Next, we thought about how to help make our class a safe and fair place. We discussed what we would do if we witnessed somebody being bullied.
Our next lesson was to think about ways to make new friends. We read the book ‘Willy and Hugh’ by Anthony Browne and talked about even though the two characters were very different, they were still able to make friends.
Spring 1
English
Our topic was Traditional Tales with a twist. We have read lots of traditional tales and then we planned and wrote our own version with a twist! One of our activities was to create a story mountain to help us with our innovated stories.
Maths
We have covered lots of different topics in our Maths lessons this half term including money, fractions and place value. We enjoyed using straws to show more than and less than.
Art week
During Art Week we made our own stamps and then used them for printing with. We linked this to our Science learning of Living things and their habitats.
GPS/Phonics
For Phonics, the children continue to do as much reading as the can, both in school and at home. They are learning different phonemes, sounding and out and blending to help them read more fluently.
Our GPS lessons have covered different word classes as well as different types of sentences.
Science
Our Science topic at the moment is Living Things and their Habitats. We started our learning by going outside to see what living things were around. We have also looked at different habitats and food chains.
Geography
We have continued to learn about Kampong Ayer in Geography. We now know about the different forms of transport that they use as well as what school is like for children. We discovered that their schools are similar to our schools in many ways.
History
We have now finished our topic about great history makers. This ended in us rating the women that we have been learning about according to who we felt was the greatest history maker. This was a challenging task for us as each of them had done something amazing!
Computing
We have been working on giving precise and unambiguous instructions in our Computing lessons. We started by helping our teacher to make a jam sandwich by giving her instructions.
PE
In our PE lessons we have been thinking about explorers and linking this to dance. We came up with actions for the things an explorer might need as well as trying to act like the different animals that an explorer may come across.
We also had a special opportunity of making lanterns this half-term! Somebody came in to help us with this and then they were used in a lantern festival!
RE
Our topic this half term was ‘Judaism.’ During this unit of work, we were aiming to answer the question ‘Does worship help people?’
Firstly, we looked at a variety of celebrations that we were familiar with and discussed their features. We then chose a celebration; wrote about what happens in that celebration; wrote about how we felt in the celebration; wrote about what makes it so special to us and drew a picture of the celebration.
Next, we learned about the Jewish festival of light – Hanukkah. We looked at how it is celebrated including traditional games that are played and food that is eaten. We then had a picture of a menorah with candles that had true and false statements about Hanukkah written on them. With a partner, we placed the candles with true statements on one side of the menorah and the candles with false statements on the other side of the menorah.
In our next lesson, we learned about the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. During this lesson, we learned about how Jewish people put sukkahs in their gardens during the festival and pray and eat in them. The sukkah must have at least three walls. These walls can be made out of anything. People often use wood, textiles, brick, metal or stone. The roof of the sukkah must be something found from the ground, such as plants, grasses or branches. We ate bread dipped in honey, which is a special food eaten during Sukkot. We then looked at ‘The Four Kinds.’ These are: Lulav – a palm branch; Avarot – a willow branch; Etrog – a fruit like a lemon; Handassim -a flower called myrtle. People take the Four Kinds, say a special prayer over them and wave them right, left, forward, up, down and backward.
After that, we used our knowledge of the festival of Sukkah to create our own acrostic poems. We included facts we had learned. We also spent time looking at Jewish artefacts such as a menorah, the Torah, a kippah and a prayer shawl.
To finish our topic, and linked to art week, we created Jewish stained-glass windows. Our windows included the Jewish symbol – The Star of David. We also used bright colours to decorate our windows.
PSHE
Our topic this half term was ‘Dreams and Goals.’ In our first lesson, we were able to identify our successes and achievements. We discussed what ‘success’ means and identified the success we could see in a variety of pictures. We then set a goal to achieve by the end of the year.
Next, we were able to understand how working with other people can help us to learn. We made a list of the ways in which working with a friend can help us learn and achieve our goals. We then created a certificate that could be awarded to somebody for achieving their goal.
After that, we looked at a variety of images of parks and gardens and discussed what we liked about them and how it would feel to be there. We closed our eyes and used our imagination to imagine we were walking through a garden of ‘Hopes and Dreams.’ We pictured the garden in our minds and thought about the colours, the plants, the birds, the creatures, etc. We then designed our own ‘Birds of Hopes and Dreams.’
To finish our topic, we used origami to create our ‘Birds of Hopes and Dreams’ out of paper.
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