Year 2 have had a blast learning all about Africa this half term. We enjoyed a brilliant WOW day with Jamie and Rome who came to school to show us how to play different African drums.  The children learnt different songs and chants, we had the best day ever!

Year 2 have begun our new topic all about Africa!  This week, we had a visit from some new animal friends who had travelled a long way to see us.  We had a message in a bottle and it was from a naughty Sky God who had forgotten his manners, the children wrote amazing letters back to him reminding him just how important it is to be polite. 

To celebrate all the hard work the children have done for their topic The Great Fire of London, we arranged a WOW day for them with a Fire Service visit!  The rain didn't stop us having so much fun on the fire engine and we even got to squirt the hose! The fire fighters came into class and gave us lots of information about what they do.  The children had the best day ever!

KS1 have been enjoying some new playground equipment!   The Year 2 children have been very mature and are in charge of tidying the equipment away. They have done a great job so far!

You just can't beat a bit of fun in the snow!

Year 2 enjoyed a 'Stay and Pray' Craft morning where we welcomed parents and carers to come into shcool to do lots of different activities.  The children had a wonderful time and created lots of meaningful things to display in school and at home.  Thank you to all the parents who joined us!

Year 2 opened the secret note and found a challenge inside!   The children had to make a very special hat for 'the hattiest party of all time!'   Their hat had to be able to do three special things. We had some great ideas including;

Shoot bubbles

Special buttons when pressed will sing Happy Birthday

A button which will take you back in time! 

The children thoroughly enjoyed making their hats. They will be using this fun experience to help them write an advert for their hat in their big write lesson.
 

Today they arrived at school to find a mysterious left for them. The children have been looking at the story 'You Must Bring A Hat',

We all wondered what would be inside!

Year 2 have absolutely loved their Topic The Great Fire of London!  Their Home Learning Projects have been Outstanding.

We would like to thank our parents for encouraging this home learning and helping out with all the wonderful models that have been made, we had to find a bigger space to display them all!  This Topic will end with a WOW day with a visit from the Fire Service, photos to follow!

Inspired by our recent trip to Castleshaw, the children came back to class and created their own habitats for a 'secret animal'. 
They worked in teams to do this. They were given clues in a packet which told them if their animal was nocturnal or diurnal, a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore ans they had to adapt theit habitats accordingly. We were very impressed with their team work! Each time managed to work out which animal belonged in their habitat.

Year 2 enjoyed a wonderful trip to Castleshaw Centre this week!  They learnt so much about our recent science topic 'habitats'. 
The children enjoyed activites such as pond dipping (where we even caught some fish!), making hedgehog houses and going on an adventure through the fields and stream.  We had a ball and the children have come away with such a vast new knowlege and vocabulary, they're even telling us which animals are nocturnal or diurnal! 

Year 2 worked so hard on their display for Remembrance. Each child made poppies of different sizes and textures, each representing a child and staff member in Year 2. They are very proud of their creation.  This has tied in very well with our work in RE lessons about symbols and what they represent. 

The Year 2 children have been selected to complete a forest school programme. This is a fantastic opportunity for our children to hone skills such as teambuidling and problem solving outside of the classroom.  They had a great first lesson today! 

As it is now November, the children will be exploring Rememberance. 
Today, the children came in from break time to discover an enevelope on our carpet. 
They opened it to find a letter from the past! It was from a soldier called Ben from WW2. He was writing home to his Mum about the war. 
The children used this as an oppportunity to distinguish between adjectives for appearance and adjectives for feelings and emotions. 

Year 2 have finished reading our class book- Esio Trot.  Annabel was kind enough to bring in her real life tortoise, Hooter!  The children loved this visit and used it as an opportunity to help us with our question writing. We all thought of some questions we would like to ask Hooter and Annabel very kindly answered them for us.  Hooter was very well behaved! 

In our RE lessons, Year 2 have been learning about the benefits and importance of working in a team.  The children were given a task to make a paper chain completely on their own. They found it hard to complete in 60 seconds by themselves with no help.  We then asked the children to work together as a team to see if it improved the quality and speed of their work.  All the children agreed that working in a team allowed them to get the task done quicker.

As the children are exploring the 'Connect' strand of our 5 Ways to Wellbeing, we mixed up our classes between Year 1 and 2 for Golden time.  Each child had a number and they had to find their connect buddy who shared the same number in another class.
This was a lovely opportunity for the children to connect with someone they might not have met before.  They independently shared stories, made pictures and played together. 

Year 2 enjoyed joining in for World Mental Health Day.  We all wore yellow to celebrate talking about our mental health.  Year 2 did some Yoga and talked about ways in which we can keep our brains healthy during the day as well as our bodies.  We also talked about our emotions in school and at home.

Year 2's Topic is Manchester and we are exploring the artist L.S. Lowry. The children used his paintings to create their own collage of what they think a street in Manchester would look like.

In Year 2 it is very important that we can write in full sentences and use punctuation correctly.  We did this by using our capital letter and full stop hats. The children fixed mistakes in sentences as a team.

We pretended to be tiny bulbs, growing up into a beautiful flower.  Year 2 are learning all about what plants need to grow in their science lessons.  The children explored the life cycles of different plants.

We had a procession around the infant hall so all of EYFS and KS1 could see our costumes.  The children came dressed as characters from stories which include the wolf.  To celebrate the children's hard work and enthusiasm so far in Year 2, we decided to have a Big Bad Wolf WOW Day!  The children really enjoyed their day full of crafts, stories and fun.

Key Stage 1 enjoyed Roald Dahl Day on Thursday 13th September. Year 2 looked at the story of Matilda which will be 30 years old on October 1st!  The children designed a new book cover for the story and felt inspired by Roald Dahl's stories all afternoon.