Year 2

SPRING TERM 2019

January 29th 2019

Although the children are still doing a little extra work to finish their 'Family' Projects, we are starting a new topic this week which will carry on after half term. Our topic is called 'Uphill and Downhill'.  The children have been really interested in building waterways and roadways outside and have asked lots of questions about how things move up and down slopes. They are also very keen to find out more about castles and volcanoes so we will be learning about all of these!

To begin with, we will be investigating slopes and ramps and finding out how to make vehicles roll further and faster. This will involve a lot of experimentation, testing, measuring and recording results so your children  will be developing early design, engineering and scientific skills. 

We are also working on our teamwork skills and there will be several tasks to carry out to help understand and improve these. 

Throughout the term, the children's language, maths and technology skills will be steadily improving. They will use  these as part  of their topic work, and in order to enter our Eisteddfod competitions. 

Please see Miss Proctor (or Miss Parveen after half term) and Mrs Williams if you have any questions. We will be happy to tell you more! 

Autumn term 2018

Families

The Year 2  class enjoyed their first topic this year: 'Into the Woods'. Many thanks to the parents who helped us during our exciting visit to Caerphilly Mountain View Ranch. We had so much fun exploring the countryside!

This term our topic is 'Families". The children will be finding out about their own family backgrounds and may be asking you some questions about this. If possible, please talk to your child about your own childhood, your time at your own school, toys you used to play with, family events and celebrations. They will be bringing home some simple homework sheets to use when they 'interview' family members, with questions they have devised themselves. 

They are trying to create their own 'albums' about their families. We would really  appreciate   any family photographs that they can bring in to stick in their albums - possibly photographs of them when they were babies or of other family members or events. They will show you their work at the end of the topic and bring their own albums home at the end of the year for you to keep. 

If any parent or grandparent is willing to come to class to be 'interviewed' by the children about their own childhood/ school life, please let us know!  

 Thank you 

Miss Proctor  

Welcome to the Year 2 Page!

November 2017

The class thoroughly enjoyed learning about   engineering through their 'Rocking and Rolling' topic.

Now they will be finding out about life in the past and how things change over time, as part of our 'Children Long Ago' topic.  They will be finding out about differences between their own lives and that of their parents, grandparents and people who lived much further back in time.  Be prepared for them to ask you lots of questions as they begin their  research!  In a few weeks they will also be asking about how Christmas  traditions (or those of other religious festivals) have changed over time. 

We are hoping to engage in some workshops about toys in the past and to have a chance to play with old-fashioned toys and games. 

If you have any old-fashioned  toys  at home that you would be happy for your child to show in school, please send them in. 

Please ask me at the end of the day if you have any questions about this topic. 

Autumn term 2017

 The Year 2 children  have already settled smoothly into their new class and are a delightful, enthusiastic and friendly group.  

Our topic for this half term is 'Rocking and Rolling'.

Year 2 will  begin by thinking about playground equipment and toys which rock or roll when they are being used - for example the children will investigate how  swings and seesaws and marble runs work. They will experiment with different materials, forces and structures. They are aiming to create an exciting outdoor marble or ball run for the younger children to play with.

As part of this topic we will be visiting an adventure playground  so that the children can have fun investigating how the equipment works. 

In Mathematics they will be learning different methods of calculation. They will use measuring skills to measure their constructions and marble runs, and use 3D shapes to build them. 

Year 2 will be learning how to sequence events in writing and how to use verbs, connectives and lots of interesting vocabulary about movement  in order to improve writing skills. At the end of the topic they will use these skills to explain  how their marble run was made and how it works. 

In R.E. we will be thinking about how belonging to a religion affects the values people use in their daily lives. We will look at some festivals which reflect these values, especially |Harvest Festivals around the world.

How to help at home:

There are some amazing video-clips of marble runs on the internet! Help your child to find them so that they can use some of the ideas when they plan and create their own.

Practise reading their reading books regularly for short periods of time during the week and return their book bags once a week. Read their library book to them as a bedtime or evening story - listening to stories read aloud by an adult really helps to develop vocabulary for writing.