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Year 2

To contact Mrs Hall please email jhall@cashesgreen-pri.gloucs.sch.uk 

Notices. 

• PE will be on a Monday this term, please ensure your children come in to school wearing their PE kit. 
• We count reading signatures on a Thursday so please make sure your child has their reading record in school.
• We change our Share a Story books on a Friday so please make sure your child has it on a Friday so they can swap it for another book for you to enjoy together. 

Monday 7th April

Well what an end to the term and our learning around the book, 'Fantastic Mr Fox'. In science we have been looking at food chains and the diet of a fox. We made a 'chain' to show this information.

In DT we have finally finished our puppets. It has been hard work but we have persevered an are so proud of what we have achieved. We have thought about what we could do to make them even better next time.

Monday 31st March

What have we been busy learning about for the last two weeks?

We were very lucky to be able to visit Robinswood Country Hill Park to investigate micro habitats. We explored Squirrel Woods where we were looking for evidence of animals and minibeasts. We were even able to collect minibeasts! Once we had collected all our evidence we sorted our clues into whether we thought the creatures we had found were herbivores, carnivores or omnivores.

In the afternoon we went pond dipping in Dragonfly Pond, it was very exciting to see what we could find living in the water. We were even able to look at some newts. Luckily nobody fell in.

In our science work we made a choice chamber to try and find out which environment woodlice would prefer to live in. We made four different environments  - dark and damp, dark and dry, light and damp, light and dry. We discovered that most of the woodlice we collected preferred the damp, dark environment (but not all of them). We thought about why this was and decided this was because it was the most like their natural habitat.

We have also been thinking about how foxes are suited to their habitat so we drew a picture of a fox in woodland habitat and wrote about why a fox can survive in this environment. We thought about how a foxes good sense of smell and hearing will help him find food but also keep him safe from predators.

Monday 17th March

We  have been really busy in Year Two for the last couple of weeks, finishing with our Sharing Assembly on Friday where we were able to share all of our learning with everyone. We were very proud of ourselves.

In Geography we have been spending a lot of time looking at maps and drawing maps based on the setting of the story Fantastic Mr Fox. We looked at how to use a key and tried to draw a map using aerial view.

For our Design and Technology work we are making hand puppets based on the characters in the book. We started by looking at different puppets and then drew a design to show what we wanted our puppets to look like. We made a template and have cut out the shape for the body of the puppet. We will be sewing on the details in the next few weeks.

Monday 3rd March

We are very excited to start our new class book - Fantastic Mr Fox. Look at the topic web below to see what learning we will be getting up to this term.

We started the term by imagining we were on the hill next to the valley, just like in the story. After this we made 3D models and maps of the story setting, using reclaimed materials. Some of us even made a fox to put in the model. We had to use our problem solving skills and remember what we had learnt in Year One about joining materials when making structures. 

We then continued our work on maps and talked about aerial view and looking at the different features from above. We went out onto the playground and drew maps of the three farms in the story and where we thought they were in the setting.

In science we are going to be learning about micro habitats, we went around school looking at lots of different microhabitats. We found lots of different living things including frogs and spiders!

Monday 10th February

We have really enjoyed our Science work on keeping healthy. We did an experiment to show how important it is to wash our hands and how germs can spread. We had great fun covering our hands with glitter (germs) and then shaking hands with all our friends to see how far the germs spread.

Continuing our science work we are looking at how animals, including humans have offspring that grow into adults. We started our learning on this by matching pictures of adult animals with their young and spent time thinking about whether all young look the same as their adult.

We finished our artwork by looking at the painting 'The Boy with the Toy' by Paul Klee. Using this as our inspiration we painted a picture of ourselves with our favourite toy.  We used all we had learnt about colour mixing, tints, shades and tones to create our paintings.

Monday 27th January

We have had another busy two weeks. We finished our stories about Kevin who bought a robot to try and trick his mum so he didn't have to do any chores or his homework. It didn't work!

Then we did some work on poetry. We read some poems together and played some games to remind ourselves about rhyme. We wrote some poems to show what makes us unique, here are few for you to read.

In our Science work we are continuing to learn about how to stay healthy and look after our bodies. We have learnt about the effect of food on our bodies and how to choose a healthy diet using the 'Eatwell' plate to help guide us. We have started investigating the effect of exercise on our bodies. We went outside to perform different exercises and then made observations about what happened to our bodies. We noticed the following...

• we got hot and sweaty
• we ran out of breath
• our hearts beat faster
• it made our arms and legs tired

Monday 13th January

We had a very exciting end of term and enjoyed our Christmas celebrations. We felt very proud of ourselves after our Christmas play as some of us were very nervous but we were all superstars. We also finished learning about the Arctic and are very pleased to say we finally found the Giant Arctic Jellyfish. We learnt about food chains and life in the Arctic.

This term we have a new book called 'Can I Build Another Me' by Shinsuke Yoshitake, all about a boy called Kevin who buys a robot do all his chores and homework for him. However he soon learns it is impossible to build someone just like him. Take a look at our topic web to see what we will be learning about this term.

To start our work in Art we reminded ourselves what we learnt about colour mixing in Year One. We had to paint our self-portrait but we only had the primary colours and black and white. 

We also started our work on algorithms in computing and learnt how important it is to give clear instructions. Mrs Hall gave us instructions to draw a picture one step at a time. We realised sometimes we have to add detail to make sure our instructions are clear.

Monday 25th November

We have really enjoyed our new book 'The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish' but we didn't like the ending as the scientist Dr Morley never got to see the giant jellyfish. We have decided that we are going to write a new ending. We have started planning out our ideas about who can help her and what she would next. 

In our number work we have been learning to add two 2 digit numbers and using different counting equipment to help us with our calculations. Our favourite way is to use tens and ones grids. Here are some pictures of us working hard with our numbers.

In science we have been learning about animal characteristics and how these help them to survive in their environments. We focused on the characteristics of a polar bear and how they help them to survive in the Arctic.

Monday 11th November

We are very excited to start our new book 'The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish' and start learning about the Arctic environment. Take a look at our topic web to see all the things we are going to be learning about this term.

We started our science work on living things and their habitats by thinking about things that are alive, were once alive and have never been alive. We had some very interesting conversations about paper and leaves that had fallen off the tree. It was trickier to decide than we realised.

Before we got started we have spent this week learning about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot. We thought about the reasons it happened and why we celebrate fireworks night every year.

Monday 21st October

We were very lucky to have a workshop where we were able to find out more about the Great Fire of London. We learnt all about how the fire started and made our own 'bread' in an oven. Then we had chance to think about the different ways they tried to stop the fire from spreading, knocking down houses, using fire hooks to pull down the straw roofs. We also learnt about the army, who were like the police, and the fire brigade at that time. Here are a few pictures of the day.

We then pretended to be Samuel Pepys and wrote all about it in a diary. We used fountain pens and pretended they were quills which meant we had to be very careful as we couldn't rub it out if we made a mistake. It was a bit messy!

Monday 8th October

We have been carrying on with our learning with Paddington Bear. We have been travelling between London and Peru and comparing the two locations. We noticed that poor Paddington only had a battered old suitcase so we have designed a new bag for him. We are learning how to use a running stitch so we can sew him a new bag. Here are few pictures of us practising our running stitch, it was quite tricky, especially threading the needle.

We also thought he might need an umbrella to keep him dry in London as it is always raining at the moment. Take a look at use investigating the properties of different materials to see which would be most suitable. We realised it doesn't just have to be waterproof but also strong and flexible.

In our history work we have started learning about the Great Fire of London, so far we have developed our chronology skills by creating a timeline of the main events.

Welcome back everyone, it is great to see you all after our summer break.

We have started our learning journey together in Year 2 with Paddington Bear. We have been enjoying the story and finding out all about him. 

The first thing we learnt was his favourite food is marmalade sandwiches. We made some to try and we are now writing instructions so everyone can try them. Most of us thought they were delicious!

In Geography we have been learning about Peru where Paddington comes from and comparing it to London where he lives with the Brown family.

We drew some maps to help Paddington find his way around all the famous London landmarks.

Take a look at the topic web below to see all the exciting learning we are looking forward to!