Welcome to Year 2.
Our Teachers are Miss D’Souza, Mrs Moore and Mrs Garcia and our Teaching Assistants are Miss Moss, Mrs Middleton and Mrs Parikh.
Apr 042025
Bridges, buns and (Easter) baskets
A big thank you to the sun for shining on our last day of this term. Let’s hope this glorious weather continues for the next two weeks.
This week we have found some budding scientists and engineers in Year 2! In Science, as part of our learning about materials and their properties, we designed and built bridges from different types of materials (paper straws, string, cardboard, tape). There have been some excellent models which are strong enough to take heavy weights and allow toy cars to cross.
In History, we tried to re- create the famous Alban bun. This is a special bun which is sold just before Easter in the Cathedral. The recipe is a closely guarded secret. Our attempt to work out the secret recipe resulted in delicious buns which we baked ourselves! Scarlet class enjoyed eating them at a picnic on the playground. Perhaps you could try an authentic one at the Abbey over the holidays.
If that wasn’t enough, children in Year 2 have been busy writing wonderful poems about their favourite animals. Everyone is very proud of their poem and enjoyed reading them to their friends.Perhaps you could have a go during the holidays to write a rhyming poem?We have had lots of Easter fun at the end of the week making cards and baskets.There are no spellings to learn or homework to do, but please keep reading every day, have a go on TTRockstars and be sure to make some happy memories.We hope you all have a brilliant time off school and hopefully get to enjoy some sunshine. We look forward seeing you all rested and recharged on Wednesday 23rd April for our final term of Year 2.Best wishesThe Year 2 Team-
Mar 282025
Multiples, arrays, bread and ‘wine’
It has been a very busy penultimate week of this half term in Year 2.
In English we have seen some amazing narrative writing, based on the story ‘The Kapok Tree’. Children’s use of vocabulary and sentence structure is improving all the time.
In Maths we have been looking at multiples and repeated addition. We have had lots of fun creating arrays with counters.
We had lots of fun in RE, where we role played Jesus’s last supper whilst we are learning more about the Christian Easter story. We enjoyed some bread and ‘wine’.
To end the busy week, we have designed and made our own bread rolls. The children chose their own shapes and toppings from sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, olives, raisins and honey and they looked (and apparently tasted!) delicious.
What a great week.
Have a wonderful, and hopefully sunny, weekend.
Best wishes
The Year 2 Team
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Mar 212025
Fair tests and times tables
This week in Science, Year 2 have set up a fair test to investigate how durable materials are.
We used sandpaper to rub each material and discovered that fabrics such as denim were more durable than thin fabrics such as polyester.
In Maths we have been learning strategies to help us remember the 2’s, 5’s and 10 times tables. See if you can try these on Times Tables Rockstars at home.
We have also been comparing St Albans as it was in the past and as it is now. What a lot of changes we have noticed!
This week, Scarlet Class performed their class assembly. We are sure those watching would agree that they did a great job. We all felt very proud to stand up and speak and sing so clearly.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend.
Best wishes
The Year 2 Team
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Mar 142025
Visiting the Cathedral
This week, both classes in Year 2 have enjoyed a wonderful visit to the Cathedral here in St Albans. We were reminded of our local history and how our city got its name. Children really enjoyed the morning and were very well behaved.
We all enjoyed dressing up to act out the story of St Alban.
Crimson class performed their assembly and everyone took part very well indeed. A big congratulations to all of the children. Scarlet class are looking forward to their assembly next week.
In DT, we are learning about how to make bread. Soon children will design and make their own bread rolls using a range of different toppings. Perhaps you can have a go at home too?
Scarlet class have been sent home with a line or two to learn for the sharing assembly. They have been stuck in the homework book. Please help your child learn this for next week. Thank you.
We hope you enjoy the weekend.
Best wishes
The Year 2 team
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Mar 072025
World Book Day!
Where are the weeks going? Time is certainly flying in Year 2 and things are looking up now that it is light in the mornings and the sun is shining!
A highlight of the week has definitely been ‘World Book Day’. It was so lovely to see the excitement on everyone’s faces wearing their costumes or own clothes. We had lots of fun doing book related activities, including making our own books and stories, being library detectives, an online quiz hosted by Mrs Bland and also reading with our Year 5 buddy classes.
This week in English we have finished writing our non-chronological report on our chosen animal. Our writing has included subheadings and a ‘Did you know?’ fact.
In Maths we have continued on the theme of ‘time’ and have been thinking about intervals of time, working out the difference between two times (eg. the difference between 56 minutes and 38 minutes)
Another highlight has probably been making and sampling pancakes too. The general consensus was that they were delicious, especially with sugar on!
There is a TTRockstars battle set up for this week (10th-14th), so please log in and encourage your child to practice their times tables.
Have a lovely weekend and enjoy some sunshine (hopefully!)
Best wishes
The Year 2 Team
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Feb 282025
Analogue clocks, animals and Alban
Welcome back after the half term break.
In Maths we have been learning to tell the time. We know o’clock, half past, quarter past and to and can count round a clock in 5 minute intervals. With time telling, it really is a case of practice makes perfect, so we will keep revisiting this and it would be really helpful if you do at home too – discuss clocks when you see them and what times you do things.
We have been planning a non-chronological report about an animal. This week has involved research and note-taking in preparation for next week’s report writing.
In History we have heard the ‘Story of Alban’ and how he stood up for his beliefs. We are really looking forward to our trip to the Cathedral in a couple of weeks time, where the story will really come alive.
In Design and Technology this term we are making bread and we introduced the topic with a session on tasting and evaluating different types of bread. What a great way to end a hard working week!
Remember it is World Book Day on Thursday, where we will have some fun book related activities to do. We look forward to seeing what you all choose to wear.
Remember to use TTRockstars at home. It is a great way of having some educational iPad time. We are focusing on the 5x table this term.
Have a great weekend.
Best wishes
The Year 2 Team
Feb 142025
What a fabulous term!
As we reach the end of another half term, we can’t believe that we are half the way through year 2, and it has been another great week, full of enthusiasm and amazing learning.
In Maths we have been looking at word problems and how to solve them, using bar models to record the information we know and the information we want to find out.
In RE we created ‘Butterflies of Hope’ inspired by last year’s exhibition in the Cathedral ‘Peace Doves’. Look closely at the beautiful messages of HOPE.
Out FEEL it emotion this week was ‘impatient’ and we discussed how this feels and how we can deal with it when we feel it. We had some very thoughtful ideas.
We had a lovely afternoon in Clarence Park on Thursday carrying out some Geography fieldwork. We had a good look at the facilities that the park offers, what we like and dislike about the park and how we think it could be made better. Judging by the fun had at the end of the ‘survey’ I think most children gave it a score of 10/10!
Wishing you all a happy half term break, and we look forward to seeing you all on Monday 24th February.
Best wishes
The Year 2 Team
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Feb 072025
What a creative week!
It’s nearly half term and Year 2 have had a very creative week!
This week in Geography, we have been creating our own map of the area surrounding the school. However, we have made it in 3D, recreating out city like a model village! Children have added wonderful detail to local buildings and parks and understood where each of the major landmarks are placed on the map. There was a real buzz of excitement in the room while the ‘building’ took place.
Can you recognise any landmarks from the photos?
In English, we have planned and written some excellent and imaginative stories! We are focusing on checking our writing to ensure that we have used punctuation and spellings correctly.
Our colourful orchestra in Art has really come together this week and we have absolutely loved creating our instruments.
This week has been Children’s Mental Health Week and the theme is ‘know yourself, grow yourself’. We have thought about things we are good at and things we would like to work on to improve.
We hope you all have a good weekend.
Best wishes
The Year 2 Team.
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Jan 312025
Science is fun!
During assembly on Monday, we were reminded that Chinese New Year is celebrated this week. During soft start, children have been making items to show the year of the snake, and we enjoyed a special menu on Wednesday.
In English, we have been reading Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love. Through the joyful story, we have been learning about a range of verbs and co-ordinating conjunctions we can use in our own writing.
In Maths we have been using our subtraction skills and have been subtracting 2-digit numbers from each other. We have used dienes to visually see the calculation. Next week we will have the challenge of regrouping.
Science has been good fun as we have been testing a variety of hard materials such as bricks and wood to see if they will absorb water.
In Geography we have identified the physical and human features in St Albans. We realised there are many more human features than physical ones, and had some very mature discussions about features such as trees and forests and how they were originally planted by humans.
Our creative juices have been flowing in Art this week while we began creating a class ‘cheerful, colourful orchestra’. We are designing our own instruments and combining them with an animal or creature of our choice. So much imagination!
This week, in our ‘feel it’ lesson, we have been learning about feeling ‘accepted’. We have thought about accepting people as they are and times when we feel accepted.
Thank you to those of you who handed in their homework in the new book. It has been lovely to see how much pride the children have taken in their work.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Best wishes
The Year 2 Team
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Jan 242025
Reports, regrouping and religion
They say ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ so that must be by the weeks seem to be flying by (we are already half way through this half term)!We do have lots of fun in Year 2.
Our non-chronological reports in English have come together really well. We have written an introduction to our imaginary creature, plus sections on it’s appearance, diet and habitat. Do have a look in our English books in the morning during Soft Start if you’d like to.
In Maths we have been adding two two digit numbers with regrouping. This is the method we used, but we also used dienes to help us visually understand that the ones needed to be regrouped:
54 + 38
4 + 8 = 12
50 + 30 = 80
80 + 12 = 92
In Geography this week we used our map reading skills and followed a map through town to the Clock Tower. Who would have predicted how exciting this could be? Thank you to the adult helpers who came with us.
In RE we found out more about how and where different religions pray, and role-played some prayer routines. The children are showing a lot of respect and interest whilst hearing about different religions.
We have a FEEL IT session every week where we talk about one emotion. We discuss how it makes us feel and what makes us feel it. This week our emotion was ‘miserable’. We agreed it is a low energy, unpleasant feeling. Each week we discuss ways we can deal with the emotion.
We are sending home a book to complete homework in. This will hopefully keep the homework together and prevent lots of random pieces of paper. We will still post the homework on Google Classroom, but would like it to be completed in the new blue book please.
Have a lovely weekend
Best wishes,
The Year 2 Team
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