Year 2
Academic year 2023/2024
Autumn term 2023 homework Year 2
Please find below this term’s maths and spelling homework overviews.
Year 2 homework spelling overview Autumn 1 2023
Y2 number sense – autumn 1 2023
Y2 number sense – Spring 1 2024
Sampling Polish cuisine
Over the last two weeks, we have been learning about Polish traditions. We were very lucky today as we had parents in school who had prepared lots of traditional Polish cuisine for us to sample. One child commented, saying “This is like a five star restaurant”. Our favourites were definitely the Paczki (Donuts) and chicken soup, followed closely by the Peirogi dumplings. Unfortunately, we ran out of time as we were having so much fun so tomorrow we will sample Szarlotka (Apple pie).
Year 2 and year 3 would like to say a huge “Dziekuje” to Mr and Mrs Stokowski for such a memorable, exciting and valuable experience.
Ice-cream treats
We have had a special treat this morning for excellent behaviour, particularly when travelling on the Arriva buses on our recent trips. Our children have been excellent representatives of Our Lady of the Rosary, but most importantly, followed the school rules to stay safe whilst out and about. Well done year 2!
Visit to Peterlee Fire Station
We caught the number 22 bus to Peterlee Fire Station. We had a fantastic time, comparing the fire service today to 1666. The children were able to tell the fire fighters all about the great fire of London. We had a look around the fire station and in and around the fire engine. A few of our favourite parts included passing the buckets of water to each other to put out the fire, just like they did in 1666, pumping the water, holding the hose to spray water and sitting in the fire engine. We loved watching kid’s TV while eating our packed lunches! What a fabulous day and great memories made!
Times Tables Rockstars tournaments in Spring 1
Our overall winner for our most recent TTRS tournament goes to the boys. Thank you to Wilson who was our most valuable player for the boys. Our most valuable player for the girls was Imogen, followed by Kendal and then Heidi J. Awesome teamwork girls and fantastic work by Wilson.
Well done to the winners from our very first TTRS tournament. The girls narrowly won the boys!
Most valuable player of the girls was Heidi W, second valuable player of the girls was Zendy and the third valuable player of the girls was Imogen.
Most valuable player of the boys was Wilson, followed by Oliver and then Elias. Great teamwork guys!
Visit to Taylor’s Bakery
What an amazing day! We walked to the bus station where we caught the 22B bus to Shotton Colliery. At the bakery, we decorated cupcakes and made our own bread roll shapes, which Lisa kindly baked in the oven. The children were given a goody bag full of sweet treats, toys and stickers courtesy of Taylor’s, as well as their decorated cupcakes and some bread rolls. We compared the huge ovens and modern equipment to those used in 1666, during the Great Fire of London.
Children in Need 2023
We had a visit from Pudsey Bear, courtesy of Asda Peterlee. In preparation for Friday’s Children in Need celebrations, we decorated flags and posters. We had a non-uniform day on Friday, where all donations were given to support the Children in Need charity.
Odd socks day as part of anti-bullying week
Art – Drawing
Here is a snapshot of our masterpieces! In Autumn 1, we explored different tonal techniques and applied all of our skills to produce these wonderful still-life drawings.
RE – Other faiths
In RE, we made Challah bread as part of our Judaism topic where we have been learning about how Jewish people celebrate Shabbat. We learned how the bread is blessed in Hebrew and we even got to eat it. We all got to sample two and three pieces of bread. It was delicious!
We also made Havdalah candles out of paper straws. We had to carefully braid each straw and attach 5 wicks made from wool, to make them look authentic. Just look at our proud faces!
We have been learning how to be dog smart with a little help from the Dogs’ Trust
Suzie from the Dogs’ Trust kindly visited our class and delivered an interactive presentation, teaching us the five rules to keep us safe and dogs happy. We made a display in class to remind us how to keep ourselves safe around dogs.
Academic year 2022/2023
Summer term 2 homework Year 2
Please find below this term’s maths and spelling homework overviews.
Y2 number sense – Summer 2 2023
Year 2 homework spelling overview Summer 2 23
Summer term 1 homework Year 2
Please find below this term’s maths and spelling homework overviews.
Y2 number sense – Summer 1 2023
Year 2 homework spelling overview Summer 1 23
Year 2 Liturgical Prayer with parents and carers
Thank you everyone for joining us in our liturgical prayer on the theme of kindness. We all enjoyed making our hearts of kindness and can’t wait to hide them near and far, spreading smiles around the world.
Nature Club
Nature Club session 1
We had great fun watching videos of a blue tit building its nest inside a bird house and then watching the eggs hatch and observing blue tits growing up and eventually leaving the nest. We researched the best locations to place a bird house in your garden and then we looked at our bird house kits that we will be building and painting over the next few weeks. Daniel kindly brought in his bird box that he built when he visited the RSPB. This provided us with real inspiration.
Nature Club session 2
This week we were given our bird box kits to assemble. We would like to say a huge thank you to Mr Elrick for making these for us. We followed our plans to construct our bird boxes, carefully inserting dowels into the holes. We used glue and hammers to ensure they fit together securely and tightly. We can’t wait to paint them!
Art – Sculpture
In art, we have started to create our own African masks. We had to design the outline of our masks first using line and shape. We copied our designs onto cardboard. We folded cardboard and also used a technique called relief to add a 3d effect. We found cutting the cardboard tricky as the cardboard was very thick.
Next lesson, we will add texture to our masks and then paint them.
We can’t wait to take our African masks home.
What do plants need to grow?
In science, we set up an investigation to observe what plants need to grow. Over the next week, we will draw our observations.
Firstly, we worked in small groups to fill pots full to the top with compost. Then we labelled each pot and sprinkled approximately the same amount of cress seeds in each pot. One of our pots will be watered and left in the sunlight, one will be unwatered and left in the sunlight, one will be watered but stored in a dark cupboard and the last one will be stored in a dark cupboard with no water. We predict that the seeds watered regularly and stored in the sunlight will germinate first and grow the tallest. We predicted that the seeds stored in the dark cupboard with no water would not grow very tall but might still germinate because of the food store.
Spring term 2023
Please find below this term’s homework and overviews
Y2 number sense – Spring 1 2023
Year 2 homework spelling overview Spring 1 23
Pathways to adulthood
We would like to say a huge thank you to Kornel’s mum for coming into class to tell us all about her role as a paramedic. We really liked hearing about how rewarding it is saving lives and some of our children have decided that they might like to be paramedics when they are older. The best part was exploring some of the equipment used and asking questions to gain a deeper understanding of a paramedic’s role. We discussed how being a paramedic links to the subjects we learn in school, such as science, maths and even geography when driving the ambulance around villages, towns and cities. We also hope that because our children have seen the equipment they might not be scared if they ever needed the ambulance service. This was a great way to kick start British Science Week 2023! More activities to follow on Friday so keep an eye out for photos and pupil voice.
Look at our ‘around the world’ bunting.
We can’t wait to hang our bunting up in the classroom. We hope you like them! We have used lots of skills today, including designing, cutting, sewing, measuring and drawing. We will upload more photos of our masterpieces, once we have them hanging up in our classroom.
Sewing a simple running stitch
Cutting the felt
Kayana replicated the Sri Lanka flag
How many world flags can you identify?
Attaching an applique flag onto the bunting with glue
Our visit to the fire station and bakery
We visited Peterlee Fire station, where we explored inside and outside of the station. We even got to pump some iron in the gym. We split into 4 groups; Green Watch, White Watch, Red Watch and Blue Watch and carried out a treasure hunt, looking for 18 items on the list. By the end of the visit, we knew our way around the fire station. Green Watch were the first to find all 18 objects, although some people disagreed and thought there was a bit of cheating going on!
Firefighter Anth was absolutely blown away with the children’s answers during a Great Fire of London quiz. Of course, Mrs Jones said it was down to her outstanding teaching!
At the bakery, we rolled dough, decorated cakes with fresh cream and chocolate flakes, got to sample some fresh cream and chocolate cream and Lisa the baker kindly gave everyone a goody bag filled with bread rolls, cake, toys and sweets. Some children made Challah bread because we have been learning about the Jewish festival of Shabbat.
Thank you to Peterlee Fire Station and Taylor’s Bakery of Shotton for allowing us to visit and thank you to the children for their excellent behaviour!
Church visit
On Friday, we visited church to find out about the different books used in church. We looked at the hymn numbers on the wall and found each hymn in the hymnal. We looked at the lectionary, mass books and a Sunday Missal.
We always genuflect to show our respect in church.
Hymn numbers
Looking at the mass books used in church.
We found the hymns in the hymnal by finding the hymn numbers.
Milah stood at the lectern and read a short reading from the lectionary.
DT – Sewing a simple running stitch
In DT, we explored sewing. The skills we carried out included threading a needle, tying a knot at the end of our thread, sewing a running stitch to join fabrics, finishing off by creating a knot and cutting any loose threads. One of the hardest parts was ensuring our thread didn’t come out of the eye of the needle.
Well done Year 2! You made the newspaper for your dedication and hard work during our organised beach litter pick! Please click on the link below.
Youngsters beat the cold on environment mission | Hartlepool Mail
Autumn term 2023
Please find Year 2 maths and spelling homework for this half-term (Autumn B). Click on the links below.
Maths homework
Spelling homework
Beach litter pick and wintery woodland walk!
Heading down to the beach with our litter picking equipment.
Do you like our turtle art?
Daniel is very proud of this giant icicle he found!
Even more litter!
Look at this litter on our beautiful beach!
Christmas Fayre
We are in the process of setting up our very own stall to raise money for our school funds. Our stall is a ‘Kid’s cup tombola’ where everyone is a winner! Tickets will cost £1.50, and cups will be filled with sweets, chocolates, toys and anything else that children love! We wrote our own shopping lists, so we knew exactly what we needed to buy.
Children’s raffle – 1st prize (Kid’s hamper) and 2nd prize (Make your own chocolate pizza)
We made 80 cups filled with goodies! We raised £120 on this stall and £40 on the kid’s raffle.
UPDATE: We raised lots of money with our very successful kid’s cup tombola stall and kid’s raffle. It was a sell out within 30 minutes!
We filled some cups at school during our personal development lessons and some at home.
Durham and Darlington annual Christmas card competition
Year 2 have entered the annual Christmas card competition 2022. All designs must have included a fire theme. The winning card will be published by DDFRS and there are prizes to be won. Wish us good luck!
Choosing a winner is going to be hard! Mrs Jones says everyone is a winner!
Working as scientists
We love our science lessons and particularly enjoy working as scientists. Look at the different ways we work scientifically during our science lessons.
Setting up a test – Which material will make the best waterproof coat?
Setting up a test – Which material will make the best waterproof coat?
Setting up a test – Which material will make the best waterproof coat?
Setting up a test – Which material will make the best mop?
Setting up a test – Which material will make the best mop?
Setting up a test – Which material will make the best mop?
Setting up a test – Which material will make the best mop?
Setting up a test – Which material will make the best waterproof coat?
Setting up a test – Which material will make the best mop?
Our visit to church to re-enact a baptism.
We walked to church to re-enact a baptism. Deacon Neil kindly offered to do this with us. This helped us gain a better understanding of the signs, symbols and actions of baptism that we have been learning about in RE. After this, we celebrated baby Elizabeth’s baptism by having a party in the classroom. We had so much fun and made special memories!
Gathering around the font
Meet baby Elizabeth, parents, Godparents, family and friends
Party time!
Party time!
Drying the baby’s head
Anointing oil on the baby’s head
Cricket
Week 1 – We learned how to hold the bat, control the ball and hit the ball.
Week 2 – We learned how to bowl the ball and aim to hit the wicket. We did a rock and bowl action to help us.
Week 3 – We applied our batting skills by playing a game of quick-fire cricket. Our winning team scored a whopping 130 runs!
Week 1 – Hitting the ball
Week 1 – Controlling the ball
Week 1 – Hitting the ball
Week 1 – Controlling the ball
Week 2 – Hitting the wicket and scoring 1 point
Week 2 – Hitting the wicket and scoring a point
Week 2 – Bowling the ball
Week 2 – Bowling the ball
Week 2 – Rock and bowl
Week 3 – The winning team celebrating 130 runs!
Week 3 – Quick-fire cricket
Week 3 – Quick – fire cricket
Week 3 – Our fielders during quick-fire cricket
KS1 STEM after-school club
We love being scientists! Check out our photos to see how we work scientifically each week.
Animal Adventure – We explored our outdoor area in search of minibeasts in their microhabitats. We recorded our findings.
Speedy scooters! – We tested riding a scooter on different surfaces: tarmac, grass, gravel and sand to see how far it would travel. We used a tape measure to measure the distance.
Rainbow colour collectors – We collected colours of the rainbow from our outdoor environment. We found blue and indigo items difficult to find. We think this is because it is now autumn and most flowers have died. There were lots of autumnal colours such as brown, orange, red and yellow, mainly from the leaves on the ground.
Teabag trouble! – We enjoyed being scientists in STEM club. We predicted which material would make the best teabag for Uncle Cosmic. He doesn’t like tea leaves in his drink, so we had to consider this. Next, we set up our test and carried it out. We found only one material was suitable because tea leaves escaped through the other materials because the holes were too big. We were surprised that the paper towel made the best teabag because paper usually tears easily when it gets wet.
Sniffly sneezes! – We listened to a story called ‘Sniffly sneezes’ and then we predicted and tested out the suitability of different materials to make a good tissue. We found out that the best materials were soft and absorbent, whereas some materials were waterproof or rough.
Testing timers – Through this activity we compared real sand timers and observed what variables effected the time we measured. We experimented with different hole size and quantities of sand in our own sand timers, and we tested our sand timers and reflected on how it could be improved. We found that some holes were too big, and the sand went through too quickly. Some holes were too small and didn’t let the sand travel through it. We did manage to make a one-minute sand timer without adjusting the amount of sand used. We did encounter a problem. We found the base of the cup was flat, so the sand didn’t pour through the hole, and it just sat in the bottom of the cup. We had to give it a gentle shake. The boys and girls are going to try making a funnel shaped base at home and compare the sand we used in school to flour, salt, sugar and pepper.
Brilliant bubbles- We investigated bubbles to see if we could change the size, shape and colour of the bubbles. We made our own wands with heart and diamond shapes. We found the size of the bubble changed when the end of the wand was bigger, but the bubbles never changed shape or colour. It was great fun and can’t believe how quickly the time passes!
Discovery bag – To complete our 8 week club, we examined different materials to identify if they were man-made or natural. We also explored natural materials that came from trees or not. We used sorting hoops to sort the objects.
Teabag trouble
Speedy scooters
Speedy scooters
Speedy scooters
Speedy scooters
Speedy scooters
Speedy scooters
Testing timers
Testing timers
Testing timers
Testing timers
Rainbow colour collectors
Animal adventure
Animal adventure
Teabag trouble
Rainbow colour collector
Teabag trouble
Teabag trouble
Animal adventure
Sniffly sneezes
Sniffly sneezes
Sniffly sneezes
Sniffly sneezes
Sniffly sneezes
Brilliant bubbles
Brilliant bubbles
Discovery bag
Discovery bag
Discovery bag
Discovery bag
Forest School
We are fortunate enough to experience forest school every week, rain or shine! Just look at the fun we have had so far identifying leaves, making popcorn on the campfire, building shelters using sticks, leaves and grass and foraging for materials to make our very own ‘little beings’.
Year 2 Newsletter Autumn 2022
Reading is fun!
In year 2 we love to read! We choose our own reading books that are closely matched to our phonic knowledge. Every time, we read at home, we put a raffle ticket into the box. The raffle is drawn on a Friday morning and the winner chooses a book prize and takes a certificate home. The more we read, the more chances we have of winning! Please check out our lucky winners so far. I wonder who it will be next week.
Week 1 winner – Well done Kornel!
Week 2 winner – Well done Lucas!
Week 3 winner – Well done Logan!
Week 4 winner – Well done Alex!
Week 5 winner – Well done Logan for a second time!
Week 7 winner – Kayana won for a second week. Well done!
Week 6 – Well done Kayana!
Delicious chocolate truffles!
In personal development, we wrote a shopping list of all of the ingredients needed to make chocolate truffles and we submitted an online shopping order. The next day, we made the truffles and sold them at our cake sale. They must have tasted good as they all sold really quickly! All proceeds went to Macmillan Cancer Support. In total, our school raised £171. We were delighted with this!
Tasty Truffles!
