Welcome to Year 2

"We are all different, but there's something quite fantastic about that isn't there?" 

- Roald Dahl 

Take a look at all the interesting and exciting topics we have been learning about...

Summer Snack Shop!

This week we've been making the most of the glorious heatwave and had snackshop on the field, we had some delicious fruit kebabs that went down a treat on a hot summer's afternoon!

I-Spy with my little eye...

As part of our Plants topic, we having been learning how to spot different types of plant. After looking at photos of a variety of flowers and plants, we went outside to see how many we could spot and draw what we could see. We were surprised by how many found!

Next time you're out and about, why not see if you can spy any buttercups, clovers, dandelions, dog roses or ivy. 

Congratulations Prince Harry and Meghan!

We had some royal guests during our snack shop today! To celebrate the upcoming wedding we also had traditional scones with jam and cream. They were beautiful! 

Maths Hunt

Year 2 have been making the most of the wonderful weather by taking their maths outside! In pairs children raced around the school to find different maths questions to solve. They all worked fantastically! 

What do mammals and amphibians have in common?

Year 2 will be able to tell you the answer to this question as we have been learning about different types of animals and what they have in common. Did you know that some reptiles, birds and fish lay eggs but mammals don't? Or that amphibians aren't born with lungs but develop them as they grow older? 

Rural, Urban or Coast?

We found out that places can be sorted into 3 different groups known as rural, urban or coastal areas. We then labelled each area with different features, for example urban areas have traffic, buildings and people whilst coastal areas have cliffs, cruisers and piers. 

Whinlatter Trip

We had a fantastic day at Whinlatter on Wednesday, taking a stroll in the deep dark wood was like stepping into the pages of a Julia Donaldson book. We walked and climbed along the Gruffalo trail and played a few games along the way. Later, we enjoyed our special pack lunch inside the Yurt before playing in the Wild Trail areas. Barbara, our ranger told us lots of useful information about the different types of animals that live in the forest and what their habitats might look like. We had a super time!

Sorting Materials

These are just some of the questions we were discussing in todays science lesson. After finding out that materials have lots of different properties like rough and smooth, stiff and flexible, transparent and opaque and waterproof and absorbent. We spent the afternoon sorting everyday materials into different groups using venn diagrams and came up with some brilliant questions in the process!

Are pennies rough or smooth?

Is rock waterproof?

What is the most flexible material?

Snow Day!

We wrapped up in our hats and scarves to enjoy the snow that had dusted the playground. We tried to make snowballs but it was just too cold! We were all very excited.

Gymnastics Competition

Year 2 had their first gymnastics competition at Montreal School, it was very nerve wracking as they practised and performed their routine in front of other schools and the judges. They all did brilliantly and had a great time.Well done gymnasts! 

Our Passover Feast

As part of our RE topic about the festival of Passover, we had our very own Seder Meal in class. We tasted lots of new, different and some very bitter foods from the Seder plate and ate some delicious unleavened bread called Matzo. Each food helps Jewish people to remember the hard life and suffering the slaves experienced 3000 years ago on the journey to freedom. 

Party Day

Year 2 had a jam-packed full of fun Christmas party day, the magician Stu-Di-Doo kicked off the proceedings, before we played our very own board games, had a brilliant party dinner, danced until our feet hurt in the school hall, then ended the day with party games back in class. We had a super time! 

Technology Day!

Year 2 became busy elves in Santa's Workshop today, as they were given the challenge to work as a team to design, make and evaluate an amazing new board game that would fly off the shelves this Christmas. Miss Giles was amazed by the hard work, focus and teamwork of all the children throughout the day, especially during tidy up time! Although we didn't with the Dick Winter trophy, we all had a fantastic day. 

PE

In this weeks coaching session we were refining our skills of passing my practising how to throw and aim accurately. We had to work together as a team to pass the bean bags to each other without dropping them! 

Letters from the Trenches

Year 2 stepped into the muddy boots of World War 1 soldiers to write letters from the trenches this week. They used a 'Ranking Ladder' to remind them of what to include in their letters such as adjectives, conjunctions, contractions and commas in a list. Check out our display to read their fantastic work! 

Our Visit to the War Memorial

During the lead up to Remembrance Day year 2 discovered that poppies are worn to remember the grave soldiers who fought to protect their country and lost their life. We found out soldiers from every part of the country including Egremont went to fight in WW1. We saw many names on the War Memorial and the dates showing how long the War lasted, we even saw a poppy wreath. 

Purple Mash

Today we have been learning how to login to Purple Mash, a brilliant website with lots of games and activities to do both at home and school. First, they had to design their own online character and there were lots of funny choices to choose from. Afterwards, we learned how to complete and hand in homework online. We made some fantastic poppies for Remembrance Day, we enjoyed it so much we even asked Miss Giles for some extra homework! 

Jennifer Carver Day!

We were set the challenge of making a disgusting dessert fit for The Twits to eat on Jennifer Carver Day. We made edible cups of 'dirt' made from deliciously crushed Oreo biscuits and sweet angel delight mousse. We were also inspired to make Mrs Twit's 'squiggly spaghetti' (without the wriggly garden worms!) after reading about the gruesome trick she played on Mr Twit. Take a look at what we got up to throughout the day, we all had a brilliant time.

Lego Club

In Lego Club, the builders have been extremely busy constructing some fantastic buildings and inventions! Take a look at some of their superb models...

What's an adverb?

Did you know that you can run in many different ways? We discovered that you can run:

• fast
• slowly
• crazily
• sensibly
• silently
• noisily to name but a few! 

Miss Giles explained that these types of words are called adverbs as they describe how the verb (a doing word) is done. Take a look at us experimenting with different adverbs!

Complicated Carroll Diagram Challenge

To find out how well we know our properties of 2D shapes, Miss Giles challenged us to sort a variety of different shapes into groups 'shapes with right angles' and shapes with 'lines of symmetry'. She was very impressed with how well we worked together and listened to each other in a group. 

How clean are your hands?

As part of our Science topic, we have been learning about our personal hygiene and how to prevent germs from spreading. We conducted an experiment to find out just how many germs we carry on our hands. First we needed to find a place where germs might live and as a class, we chose the adventure playground as lots of children use it everyday. With our dirty hands, we then handled a slice of bread and later repeated the process with clean hands. We have left the slices of bread in a warm dry place and can't wait to see what and how each slice will look like after half term!