Welcome to Year 2

Please click on the photographs to see the gallery.

2019–20

We are a class of thirty one wonderful children who love. laugh and learn together with God in our hearts. We are taught by Miss Hulbert and Mrs Mulholland is our teaching assistant. Alfie is our class puppet who enjoys trips to our homes at weekends. We look forward to sharing lots of the things that we have been doing throughout the year.

Spring

Saving the Ocean Topic Week

What a fantastic topic week we have had on Saving Our Oceans learning so much about cutting down our plastic consumption.

We have enjoyed our Art and DT project this week. Using lots of different techniques we have designed underwater sea-scenes which portray our marine life in and amongst an assortment of plastic debris. We used marbling inks to create our ocean backgrounds.

On Wednesday, the author Steven Pass came and read to us from his book: Madge the Mermaid, who is made from pieces washed up from the ocean. He talked about the importance of planning and editing our writing to help build and improve the story writing process. We have begun to plan our story using Madge the Mermaid as inspiration.

To enable Year 2 to understand how damaging plastic waste is on a global scale and linking our science unit on materials and their properties the children carried out an investigation to find out which materials take the longest to decompose. We compared different types of material when we put them in salt-water- the most significant being a wipe (full of plastic particles). Over the week we have been observing which material has begun to break down.

In Maths, we learned about the properties of 3D shapes. We cut out different sea-creature nets to construct.

English

To inspire our story setting writing on Peter Rabbit, in Art this week we made models of Mr McGregor’s garden. Using lots of different materials: modelling clay, cardboard and different types of paper. We created beautiful, colourful models of Peter Rabbit’s favourite place. When completed, our models will be displayed on each of our tables. We thought about our senses, imagining all of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of Mr McGregor’s garden. We wrote about these and used interesting adverbs and expanded noun phrases to make our writing more appealing to the reader.

We have been thinking about our letter writing technique. With our forthcoming topic week on oceans we decided to write letters to either an organisation (Sainsbury’s) or our Prime Minister asking for their support to reduce the amount of plastic pollution in our oceans. We are waiting for a reply from Mr Johnson.

Look at some of our wonderful homophone and common exception word homework.

Maths

This half term started with multiplication. We mind-mapped multiplication related vocabulary. We used counters to help us make simple arrays focusing on the correct way to write the multiplication calculation and to record it as repeated addition. We continued to use practical models, songs and times table rock stars to learn our times tables.

We have had a big focus on investigating and reasoning. On Number day we learned about shape, factors and did lots of practical maths including the Mathopoly game. In the afternoon we used our number skills again with the Mini Vinnies who came and played Bingo with us.

RE

In RE, we have been thinking about Jesus as a healer. A great portion of Christ’s time was dedicated to healing the sick. He healed all kinds of people: the blind, the paralyzed, the lame, the deaf, lepers. We reflected on our church today and how it cares for people who are sick and in need.

For Faith Fortnight, we have been learning about Sikhism. We learnt that Sikhs display their commitment to their beliefs by wearing the Sikh articles of faith. The five articles of faith (known as such because they start with the letter ‘k’ in the Punjabi language) are: the Kesh (Hair), Kacchera (specific type of undergarments), Kangha (wooden comb), Kada (iron bracelet) and Kirpan (curved sword). We then continued to learn about Sikhism festivals in particular Vaisakhi - the Sikh New Year festival. It is an important date in the Sikh calendar which marks the start of the Punjabi New Year and also commemorates 1699 - the year when Sikhism was born as a collective faith.

History

We have started our new topic in History this week, People Who Have Made a Difference and have been learning about the life of Florence Nightingale, who is famous for her nursing of wounded soldiers during the Crimean War.
PE

During Topic week we created under the sea sequences in gymnastics using balances, rolls and travelling.

At the end of our gymnastics unit we applied skills learned on the big apparatus.

Skipping Workshop

It’s that time of year again when the skipping school visit for our skipping workshop. Then there will be lots of practise getting ready fro our skipping festival.

Science

To finish our unit on Living Things and Their Habitats We have been learning about food chains in Science. We learnt that plants get their energy from the Sun. They are called producers because they make their own food. Animals are called consumers because they eat plants and other animals. We designed our own food chains to demonstrate this process.

In Science we have been learning about eating healthily. We thought about the fruit and vegetables that we haven’t tried yet. We designed posters to encourage us to eat our recommended 5 a day.

Autumn Term

Christmas

Merry Christmas from Year 2

Well done to all the children for an amazing Christmas Nativity. Thank you to all the parents for your support practising lines and providing costumes.

More nativity photographs can be found on the Prickly Hay link on the website.

On Thursday we walked to the Christmas Tree Festival at the parish church. The audience were treated to a fantastic selection of Christmas carols and as always praise was given to the St Joseph's children for their wonderful singing and behaviour.

We had a whole day of Christmas craft-making fun! We put the finishing touches on our calendars, we made salt dough mangers and Nativity scene Christmas cards.

Autumn

Otley Walk

To learn all about local history, we went on our walk around Otley. We visited the Otley Bridge, the Methodist Church, Otley Clock Tower and the Parish Church. In the afternoon, we were taken around Otley Courthouse, we learnt about its history and how it is used today. Fr Lawrie let us explore Our Lady & All Saints and answered all our questions. Thank you to our parent helpers for your support throughout the day.

1960’s Topic Week

Year 2 have had a blast during our 1960’s Topic Week! We have fully immersed ourselves in the cultural decade of revolution, music and society. We enjoyed learning about the typical school day and what might have appeared on the school dinner menu. We made traditional puddings: Spotted Dick and Jam Roly Poly. Tasting our creations was even better, along with Angel Delight and Rice Pudding! We sat at our desks in rows learning the 3Rs writing, reading and arithmetic.

Psychedelia and the Hippie movement inspired our art as we had fun making tie-dye and a lava lamp. We enjoyed using bright, vibrant colours to paint some of Andy Warhol’s 1960s Pop art.

With environmentalism becoming a new social movement in the 1960s, Year 2 enjoyed an afternoon of sunshine and nature by using sticks, leaves, stones and other natural materials to built insect habitats.

Finally we sang the Yellow Submarine in our 1960’s assembly accompanied by 1960’s dance moves that we had learned in PE.

RE

Advent

In the afternoon, we were given our (secret) Advent Angels. For the duration of Advent we are going to think about that person and make sure that we’re filling the classroom with kindness and positivity.

The children were advent collective worhsip leaders, thinking about the words Hope, Love, Joy and Peace.

Thank you for all your donations for our reverse advent appeal.

We have been learning about the tricky concept of the Holy Trinity. We have learnt that there is exactly one God. There are three really distinct Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.Each of the Persons is God. We reflected on the different ways the Trinity makes sense to us such as the shamrock or the apple.

Where is God?

RE started this half term by thinking about the question: Where is God? Is he in heaven, church, our homes, in nature or can God be found everywhere? The children shared their thoughts and ideas and demonstrated these with watercolour paintings.

Harvest

For Harvest, we learned about Fabiano and how money raised through CAFOD enabled a water pump to be installed in his village. We reflected on the difference this has made to Fabiano’s life as he no longer has to walk 3 miles to collect water, morning and evening. We wrote Harvest prayers asking God to help those who don’t have enough food and water.

Harvest Assembly

Well done to all the children for a fantastic assembly. We thought about the meaning of harvest and thanked God for all the people involved in making breakfast. Our collective worship thought about a seed growing just like we grow with God.

We all retold the story of baby Moses in the bulrushes together using actions. We reflected on the thoughts and feelings of his older sister, Miriam who hid him in the bulrushes. The children wrote about Miriam’s trust in God. Next we learned about the bible story of Daniel and the Lions. We reflected about the importance of putting our trust and faith in God and thought about the times when we seek God’s assurance.

PSHE / Leader in Me

What a fantastic start to the school year, we’ve had this week in Y2! We have been so impressed with everyone’s ‘Work-at-it Wiz’ attitude and this was shown in both our Growth Mindset activity (about trying our best) and demonstrated in our ‘Leader In Me’ outdoor activity, where we focused on working together despite our differences.

We met Amber from Leeds City Council who spoke to us about The Green Cross Code. We know how important it is to: Stop, Think, Look and Listen. In small groups, Amber took us out to a nearby roadside to put these steps into practice.

Maths

The year started by reinforcing our recognition of numbers, numerals and digits. We practised number bonds to ten, which enable us to use mental arithmetic with greater fluency.

We have been focusing on Place Value in Maths this week. We have looked at 2 digit numbers and carried out practical based activities using (tens and ones) rods and grids to help us visualise number value. We used the part whole model to represent this in our books.

We have been ordering numbers from smallest to largest and vice versa. We also used practical resources to show our understanding of greater than (symbol >) and less than (symbol <).

We have been looking at: one more than, one less than, 10 more than and 10 less than a given number. We used practical resources to help us see how the tens/ones changed.

We have had fun spending lots of money in Maths (unfortunately for us only pretend money...) We have practised making different amounts using coins and notes and used bar modelling and the part whole model to help us understand this.

We used lots of maths to solve the mystery of the disappearing reindeer bells. It was Neville, the naughty elf!

English

Year 2 took to the skies with St Joseph’s Airlines. Whilst Miss Robertshaw piloted the plane, Miss Hulbert and Mrs Mulholland (our stewardesses) oversaw the comfort and safety of all passengers. We landed in tropical Costa Rica, ready to have fun exploring some of its beautiful islands and be inspired for our ‘island setting’ writing in English.

We enjoyed sharing our holiday news in class and wrote about this in English. We were careful to ensure that our sentences were in the past tense and included time conjunctions to improve our writing.

We read the book, Message in a bottle and used noun phrases to describe the island. We received a very exciting letter from Baruti, an explorer and park ranger in Costa Rica asking for our help to design an island. We created our own islands in art and then had fun using adjectives to describe our amazing islands.

Towards the end of term, we read the story, ‘Harvey Slumfenburger’s Christmas Present.’ We thought about all the different ways that Father Christmas travelled to get to Harvey’s house (and putting our recent work of forming verbs in the simple past tense to good use) we used our brilliant imaginations to come up with some of our own fantastic ways to travel using verbs, adverbs and adjectives.

Geography and History

In Geography we have started our exciting unit on Let’s Explore. We imagined a beautiful island and thought about all the things we would like to include. We have designed and created our islands using a range of media and materials.

We’ve been continuing our Let’s Explore topic in Geography by learning about position and direction. Navigating our way through waterfalls and volcanoes hoping that we’d find the x that marks the spot..

Science

In Science we have been investigating living things and classifying them into groups. We took the IPads outside to capture examples of things that were: living, once alive and never alive.

Next we learned about the seven life processes that tell us that animals are alive. To help us remember them we have found a mnemonic to remind us- Mrs Nerg. Our Maths lessons have involved ordering numbers from smallest to largest and vice versa.

We had lots of fun and got very muddy creating mini creature habitats. Each had to provide for the needs of living things. We called them exciting names such as: Big Sticks Mansion, Bug Hotel and Shelter Chalet.

We continued to learn about Habitats in Science, we investigated different types of animal habitats. We explained the different features of our own insect habitats and why they were important.

We went on a minibeast hunt. We used a tally chart to record our findings, which was useful when we came to organise and present our data in a pictogram during our Maths lesson. We answered questions by analysing the data.

Music

In Music this half term, we have had fun learning about pulse. We listened to and sang a variety of songs and practised clapping our hands to each tempo. We played a game that involved marching as Mrs Shakespeare played a steady pulse on her drum.