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!

We have continued our scientific work in Year 2 looking at different materials and the properties that they contain. We are keen for the children to understand how to identify a material, by thinking about what it looks like, and what it feels like. We have been focussing on wood, plastic, metal and fabrics.

We accompanied the children on a materials hunt around the school. We wanted each pupil to report back with five examples from each category. Back in the classroom and we sorted these out into different groups, and then drew and labeled them in our science books. This science work will expand over the coming weeks as we starting to explore man made and natural resources.

It may be almost be the end of the year but Year 2 have been incredibly busy with their current science project. We have been looking at different materials and examining the properties that make them unique. The children have been learning how to identify if a material is man-made or is a natural resource. We have also been introduced to new ways in which to describe and differentiate materials. These include talking about the feel and texture, as well as the appearance and smell. Year 2 devised a simple game to help our friends with this science work. You can watch a short video explaining more about our work above.

It may be almost be the end of the year but Year 2 have been incredibly busy with their current science project. We have been looking at different materials and examining the properties that make them unique. The children have been learning how to identify if a material is man-made or is a natural resource. We have also been introduced to new ways in which to describe and differentiate materials. These include talking about the feel and texture, as well as the appearance and smell. Year 2 devised a simple game to help our friends with this science work. You can watch a short video explaining more about our work above.

Year 2 have had a wonderful time working with Time Table – our new maths robot. We have been paying various Space Maths games to help us get to grips with our two, five and ten times table. Time Table is able to tell us what multiples we need to be focusing on. He is proving to be a very useful class learning resource!

Other work around Year 2 has looked at sequencing events and writing instructions. We took the simple task of making a cup of tea, and then thought about the process as to what is involved. We observed a cup of tea being made in class, and then commented upon the different steps that were required. We soon learnt that we all make cups of tea in very different ways!

Each class member then wrote out their preferred way to make a cup of tea in the correct sequence. We also concentrated on adding connectives to our work, as well as our current literacy focus of bossy verbs.

All of this maths and literacy work has been broken up with some wonderful rehearsals for the annual Michael Faraday Christmas Concert. Year 2 are sounding good with their rendition of Jingle Bell Rock!

Year 2 have been greatly enjoying exploring the work of Jeanne Willis, our current class author of the month. Having read and produced some work based on Misery Moo, we have now moved on to look at the Rascal Cake book. This is a story that involves many gruesome cooking recipes!

We set the children the task to come up with a list sentence based on the book. This style of writing helps our literacy work to come alive, rather than just stating single fact sentences. Each pupil came up with a disgusting rascal cake ingredient. We then drew these out of an envelope to help us come up with a description for our rascal cake monsters that we are going to display. You can listen to a selection of these being read out in the podcast below.

Year 2 have been focussing on identifying different types of shapes during our maths lessons. We have learnt how counting the number of sides on a shape is a good starting point to recognise what type it is. We have also been continuing our number bond work by playing many grouping and pairing games on the class whiteboard.

Our literacy focus in Year 2 has been inspired by the theme of Bonfire Night. The children have been learning the basic Guy Fawkes story, and then understanding why we attend firework displays during this time of year. Our work has also involved talking about the importance of firework safety. We are looking forward to the visit of the local police later in the week to explain more.

We have used this knowledge to help compose a class firework poem. Each pupil contributed to the piece, thinking of many different ways to describe the excitement of fireworks. You can listen to a couple of our pupils read out the piece below.

Year 2 have been treated to a wonderful experience at the spectacular Marble Arch Synagogue in West London. As part of our ongoing study of different world religions, we have been learning more about Judaism for the first half of the term. Our trip to the Synagogue was the perfect opportunity to observe all that we have been finding out about the religion.

Our trip coincided with the Jewish festival of Sukkoth. This is a very special period for Jewish people, which involves thanking God for food and shelter. As we arrived at the Marble Arch synagogue, Year 2 were able to see how a shelter had been erected, lined with fruit especially for the occasion.

Our visit then took in a tour of the magnificent building, as well as a very thorough Q & A session with our wonderful host. Year 2 had come prepared with plenty of questions following our work back in class! We asked about the importance of the Torah for Jewish people and how this is shown in the Synagogue.

Our follow up work back at Michael Faraday has been to write an account of our trip, playing special attention to connective words. These form an important part of our writing skills and can help to liven up our literacy. Examples include then, next, after, however and soon. You can listen to a couple of our accounts being read out in the podcast below.