“For art, she had pinned up hundreds of autumn leaves on one of the cracked walls.”

                                                                          Eleyne-Mari Sharp

What a busy and exciting Autumn Term in Year 2! 

In Autumn term, Year 2 have learnt about lots of exciting things! In our first half term we read tales of fire breathing dragons and were inspired by the Great Fire of London. In the second, we have been exploring the cold polar regions of the world and finding some interesting friends along the way. Read on to see some of our highlights from English, Science and Topic lessons.

Geography

Year 2 have been learning about their local environment in their Geography lessons.  A key part of this learning was a Geography field trip. The children used a map of Pershore to guide them from school down to the High Street, where they looked at the human and physical features around them, and thought about why people would visit the High Street.  The class them used their mapping skills to locate where they were on the map and planned a route back to school, via the Abbey Grounds and Pershore Abbey.  The children enjoyed exploring our town and being geographers!

English

This term our class text was ‘The Dragon Machine’ by Helen Ward.  The children sequenced the story and created their own story maps to help them retell the story.  They also learnt about positional language and used this to describe where dragons may be hiding in our school.  Following on from this the children really enjoyed innovating the story and creating their own exciting stories!

In English, the children also learnt about the past tense, including how to speak in this tense and how to change verbs into the past tense too.  They enjoyed acting out different verbs and playing games to develop their understanding further.  They found out that you can’t always add the suffix -ed to words, as some verbs are irregular and need changing even more!

History

In History, the class learnt about the Great Fire of London.  Miss Adams found a magical box filled with interesting artefacts.  The children investigated these one at a time and discussed what they thought they were and how they linked to a significant event from the past. 

In subsequent lessons they found out how the fire had started and the effect that it had on London and its people.

Maths

The children started the term by learning more about place value, including partitioning numbers into tens and ones.  They have learnt how to represent this on a part whole model and took their learning outside using autumn treasure to partition numbers! 

Science

The children have been super scientists, investigating the different properties of materials.  The main character from their class ‘book as a hook’, George, wrote to them needing their help!  He needed them to find out what materials were most suitable for a rain-coat and also a material to add to his dragon machine to help be seen at night time.  The children all agreed that they needed to find a waterproof material and also a reflective material.  They observed closely and used different scientific equipment and were able to sort and compare the materials and make conclusions.  They had great fun working together!

DT

This half term, in DT, Year 2 have been set the challenge of designing and making some packaging to protect biscuits. So far they have investigated and tested packaging, and sorted it according to various design briefs, and undertaken some focussed, practical tasks investigating nets and then choosing some nets to draw and make prototype boxes. 

This week they were again working on focussed, practical tasks that will help them meet the design brief, by investigating which methods of reinforcing card. They used a range of methods and then tested them out, using weights, to see which was the strongest. Next week they will apply all of this learning, and design their packaging. They are really looking forward to this, and very keen to start making, testing and evaluating these designs!

Well done Year 2 and thank you Mrs Breakwell for some fantastic DT learning.

PE

Year 2 attended a wonderful gymnastics festival, organised by Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College. The children were supported to have a go on lots of new equipment and were encouraged and supported fantastically by Blessed Edwards young leaders.