We have been continuing our work in Year 2 looking at different animal environments. The children have been researching in great detail all about the habitat of the rain forest. We were able to observe this at close hand with a recent trip to London Zoo. Year 2 saw how the hot, steamy conditions are ideal for many of the different animal and insect life that we have been learning about.

We will be able to compare this environment with a very different habitat, when we visit the Dulwich Wildlife Garden later on in the year. This visit will allow the children to experience supervised pond dipping and the plant life that grows around this environment.

Year 2 have been enjoying some recent drama work based around our current class topic of the rainforest. We have been learning about the different types of animals that inhabit this type of environment. Some of them are large and strong, others more fragile and may move around in different ways.

We introduced the pupils to the Carnival of Animals classical piece of music. This is a very enchanting suite, with many mood changes throughout. We asked the children to try and think what type of rainforest animal they might associate with the different sounds that they were hearing. We then acted out these movements in time with the music.

We have been combining out maths and ICT work in Year 2 by learning how to programme the wonderful Michael Faraday roamers. These are computerised buggies that respond to a set of instructions that we can programme in. We can tell the roamers whether to move forwards or back, or to turn clockwise or anti-clockwise by either 90 or 180 degrees.

We set the children the task of writing down a sequence of instructions for the roamers. We then programmed this information in, and pressed the Go button. We observed the movements of the roamer, and plotted on our paper the route in which they were taking. We were able to conclude the exercise by matching up the original set of instructions with the diagram that we had drawn. You can find out more in the short video above.

We have been combining out maths and ICT work in Year 2 by learning how to programme the wonderful Michael Faraday roamers. These are computerised buggies that respond to a set of instructions that we can programme in. We can tell the roamers whether to move forwards or back, or to turn clockwise or anti-clockwise by either 90 or 180 degrees.

We set the children the task of writing down a sequence of instructions for the roamers. We then programmed this information in, and pressed the Go button. We observed the movements of the roamer, and plotted on our paper the route in which they were taking. We were able to conclude the exercise by matching up the original set of instructions with the diagram that we had drawn. You can find out more in the short video above.

We are incredibly impressed with the response that we have had from our Year 2 pupils as they prepare for their SATS assessment later in the summer term. As this is the halfway stage in the year, we decided to recap on the knowledge that we have learnt so far in the year. We asked all Year 2 pupils to think of a number up to 99, and then to write down as many sums, statements or facts that they know about this number. We encouraged the use of all four mathematical operations. We received a great response from this exercise and are greatly encouraged about the second half of the school year.

Elsewhere in Year 2 and the children are about to start their new class topic of the rainforest. This will also be linked in with their SATS work, as a large part of the literacy exercise will involve writing about this subject. As well as learning about the environment found in the rainforest, Year 2 will be learning about the many nocturnal birds that live in this type of area. To help with our work, the Year 2 book corner has been transformed into a magical rainforest area!

We have introduced the Year 2 pupils to the wonderful new topic of the Great Fire of London. This is a project that we will be working on for a number of weeks, combining history, literacy and drama. We started off our early work on the Great Fire with some drama and character exploration. We wanted the children to think about what it must have felt like to live in London around the time of the Great Fire, and to think how the city has changed from where we now live.

Some children took on the role of market sellers; others were wealthy Londoners who were interested in buying different goods. We encouraged the pupils to stay in character, and act out various bartering scenes. The sellers had to think about the goods that were being sold during this period, whist the buyers explained their needs and reasons for wanting the goods.

Comparisons were made with the nearby East Street Market, and some of the sights and sounds that we hear whist out shopping. We soon realised that not a lot has changed in terms of how we go about buying and selling our goods!

This early piece of exploratory drama work was followed through with some literacy work back in the classroom. Each pupil produced a written report, addressing what they could hear, what they could see, what they could smell and how they were feeling. Much more work on the Great Fire of London to come!

Year 2 have been finding out more about the many different musical instruments that are played all around the world. To help us with our work, both classes recently attended a special workshop at the nearby wonderful Horniman Museum. A collection is held here that is one of the finest assembled in Europe! Different instruments from many cultures throughout history are available to be seen, studied, and more importantly, played! Our workshop covered the different types of sound, and how different instruments need different actions in order to create a sound.

Back in the classroom and the children have been combining this musical knowledge with their literacy work. We have been focusing recently on the importance of using timeline connectives in our writing. This involves using phrases such as ‘we started off…’ then we…’ finally we…’ Each pupil has written an account of the trip, explaining more about their favourite instruments and their memories of the day out at the Horniman. You can catch up with a couple of our Year 2 pupils in the podcast below.

To celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Dragon, Year 2 staged a special assembly for the rest of Key Stage 1. We have been learning in class all about the story behind the Chinese New Year, and some of the traditions that are associated with it. Our assembly involved acting out the story of the animal race that lends itself to the Chinese association with a different animal each year. As you can see from the video above, we also put on a wonderful dragon dance display!