Year 2 blog

• Friday 17 January 2025 Starbird This week the children have been enjoying the whole school text that we are following as part of the Herts Writing competition. The children have focused on looking at description and how they can describe the characters using noun phrases.
• Tuesday 3 December 2024 STEMPOINT Materials Last week we welcomed STEMPOINT East to the school to run a Materials workshop for our Year 2 children.
• Wednesday 20 November 2024 Family Learning Week! Thank you to the parents who have attended Family Learning Week so far this week. The children have been engaged with the learning and, as you can see, have begun to create wonderful designs ready to be painted later in the week.
• Sunday 17 November 2024 The World From Above This week we have been looking at how we use a map from an aerial view. The children spent some time exploring google maps, discussing how we use these maps to create or follow directions.
• Tuesday 12 November 2024 Anti Bullying Week This week we have been focussing on being unique during our Anti-bullying week and celebrating all things that make us who we are.
• Tuesday 22 October 2024 Next Page Books Half of Year 2 went to Next Page Books, where we listened to 3 stories and voted on which 1 we wanted to take back to our class. We chose The Snow Thief by Alice Hemming and Nicola Slater. Mrs Undrell also chose one on the Great Fire of London.
• Thursday 17 October 2024 Windmill Hill Sketch Trip Year 2 had a wonderful trip to Windmill Hill to sketch the buildings. Thank you to the parent helpers who enabled the trip to go ahead.
• Friday 17 May 2024 From Past to Present This week we were lucky enough to have a visit from a pilot who happens to be one of our very own parents. It was great to welcome Mr Lonnon to come in a talk to the children about his experience as as a modern day pilot. We have been looking at the history of planes and how they have changed over time. The children flooded Mr Lonnon with questions and have been speaking about the presentation he gave all week!
• Friday 3 May 2024 Grow, grow, grow! Over the last two weeks the children in year 2 have been looking at germination and the process that seeds go through when the begin to grow. The children have planted their seeds and are now monitoring them under various conditions to track their growth.
• Thursday 28 March 2024 One Day on our Blue planet! Over the course of the last couple of weeks the children have been looking at the text, 'One Day on our Blue Planet'. All of their learning has culminated in them creating their own books written in the style of this text. We hope you enjoyed sharing these with the children when they had their books out to share.
• Monday 11 March 2024 World Book Day 2024 Last week we celebrated World Book Day. The children looked absolutely brilliant and were able to talk about the texts that they were representing.
• Friday 9 February 2024 Little People, Big Dreams! This week the children in year 2 have been sharing all of the Little People, Big Dreams books that they have been bringing in over the last few weeks. The children were able to pick one of the incredible women that we had around the classroom and create timelines about the incredible achievements of these women.
• Friday 2 February 2024 Wonderful Women This week we have continued to look at wonderful women from the past and present. The children have began to bring in their presentations on the women that they have focused on at home and it has been wonderful to see how this topic has inspired them to do this. Well done to those children who have been able to share this and speak about the impact these women have had on our world. I have attached an image from the presentation about Rosa Parks that was delivered beautifully!
• Friday 26 January 2024 Poetry Corner! This week we have been focusing on poetry and the children developing a love for the poetry we are focusing on and to become poets themselves. The children have looked at the language in the poem and the imaginary language that can open up rhythm within their own free verse poems. The children have created and performed poems that link to everyone being unique and individual!
• Friday 12 January 2024 Here We Are! This week the children embarked on a new 3 week English unit linked the the text 'Here We Are' written by Oliver Jeffers. The children will be working towards writing a poem at the end of the 3 weeks to enter a writing competition that spans across Hertfordshire. This was very successful last year and we look forward to participating again this year.
• Friday 15 December 2023 It's a small world, after all! This week the children have designed and created their own small world. They created a design to begin with, thinking about the materials they would need to depict some of the things you would see from an aerial view image, they then moved this into a stage where they could put their maps into reality.
• Sunday 10 December 2023 Christmas Journey This week we had the opportunity to visit St Paul's Church in Letchworth to witness the re-enactment of the Christmas story. The volunteers were amazing at the Church and the children enjoyed listening to the various stories, answering questions and engaging in the activities that were on offer to them. The children represented the school amazingly and the people at the church were really impressed with knowledge the children had!
• Thursday 30 November 2023 Photo editors! This week the children have started a new text, 'Skater Cielo', and are enjoying the learning they are doing from it. We have all learnt some new vocabulary that we did not know existed! We will be continuing to build on this learning in the coming weeks.
• Monday 20 November 2023 Family Learning Week! Last week we enjoyed Family Learning Week, thank you to all of the parents who were able to attend and engaged in the learning that your children are doing.
• Thursday 9 November 2023 Whipsnade! This week we were lucky enough to go to Whipsnade zoo to enjoy the walk around, visit the animals and be part of a really informative workshop from one of the keepers at Whipsnade zoo.
• Friday 3 November 2023 Portrait or landscape? This week the children have been looking at photography and what makes a good photo. We have been using the iPads to take photos and evaluating whether they meet the criteria to take a good photo. The children have looked at focus, framing and positioning... this has made for some very interesting photos!
• Friday 20 October 2023 Delightful descriptions! This week we have been working on using descriptive language and incorporating this into our longer pieces of writing. The children have been focussing on using noun phrases, such as: warm scarf, powerful popgun, to add description to their writing!
• Sunday 8 October 2023 Hitchin Sketch Walk This week the children had the chance to head into town to practice their sketching skills. We looked at different ways that we can sketch and the resources we would need. The children were full of excitement on our walk up but really focused on their task when they were sat on Windmill hill and produced some wonderful pieces of artwork!
• Friday 22 September 2023 Fabulous Food Chains! This week the children have been investigating food chains and the different food chains they could come up with around the world. We began by looking at food chains in the urban areas that we live in, we then moved onto looking at habitats far and wide to think about the food chains we would see there.
• Thursday 14 September 2023 Mini and Micro! This week the children have been looking at minibeasts and the microhabitats that they live in. The children examined some of the microhabitats that we have around the school and created some of their own. We are going to observe these microhabitats over the next few weeks to see how many of them have new inhabitants by the end of our topic!
• Friday 8 September 2023 Getting to know!
• Tuesday 4 July 2023 Big, Bold Adventures! This week the children have been looking at a longer text about adventures and how we should always endeavour to dream of big adventures. The children have loved the start of this book and have been gripped by the characters early exploits!
• Friday 16 June 2023 The Secret of Black Rock The children have been diving deeper into our class text, 'The Secret of Black Rock'. They have focussed on the relationship between our main character, Erin, and her mother. The children were great at showing their empathetic skills and putting themselves in the position of the characters. They were wonderful at creating a tableau and explaining what their character was feeling at that time!
• Monday 12 June 2023 Our Secret of Black Rock! This week the children have been focusing on the text, 'The Secret of Black Rock'. The children have been working on building suspense in their writing by using descriptive language. We were able to read our terrifying descriptions to Year 3, the children had created mythical stories linked to how villagers viewed the Black Rock.
• Friday 12 May 2023 Mad for stats! This week the children have worked extremely hard in all areas of the curriculum. They have really ran with their new Maths topic where we have been looking at statistics, the children have loved collecting data and putting this into tally charts and block diagrams.
• Friday 5 May 2023 Growth and Coronation! This week the children have spent a lot of time looking at our big question: What is a coronation ceremony They have enjoyed exploring this and learning about what they should expect from the coronation on Saturday.
• Friday 28 April 2023 From Hitchin to Brunei This week we have had a big focus on our Geography and Science units where we have been looking at climate, weather and how this can impact the things we grow and the way we live.
• Friday 21 April 2023 Finding Fractions This week the children have been working hard to find fractions of shapes and amounts. This is a new topic and they have excelled in their learning throughout the first week.
• Sunday 19 March 2023 Mud, Mud, Mud! This week the children have been exploring poetry and the ways we can write it. They have really enjoyed looking at poems that they are able to experience, with this in mind we went out to experience what early Spring can be like. The children loved going out into the mud, finding soggy twigs and thinking about the language they would use to describe this.
• Monday 27 February 2023 What is Salvation? To begin the new half term we have introduced our new RE topic as we move towards the Easter celebration. The children dived into the stories linked to Holy Week and were brilliant in their acting out of some of the key parts of the story.
• Sunday 29 January 2023 Wonderful Women
• Friday 13 January 2023 Marvellous Maps This week the children have had the opportunity to share their Home Learning as we showcased this through a class museum. The year 2 children spent part of the day reading through and viewing the maps that their friends had made at home.
• Friday 16 December 2022 Symmetry I yrtemmyS This week the children have been focussing on symmetry this week and have worked hard on exploring shapes with mirrors.
• Tuesday 6 December 2022 Geographical Genius This term we have been using our fieldwork skills to think about how we create directions and landmarks that help us to get around.
• Friday 18 November 2022 Family Learning Week It was wonderful to have so many parents attend our STEM based family learning week where the children were able to share so much of their learning. Year 2 embraced the activities and used their problem solving skills to think about solutions to our various activities.
• Tuesday 15 November 2022 What do animals do for their young? During the last week the children in Year 2 have been looking at animals and their young in Science. They had a wonderful knowledge of how wild animals rely on their parents for the early part of their lives and the children explained the things that the animals would need. We took this opportunity to have a small visitor so that the children could explore how this links to humans and the needs that children have. The children linked this to how we develop and our learning about the things that we eat.
• Monday 7 November 2022 Windmill Hill Sketching!
• Sunday 9 October 2022 Not Lost! This week in Year 2 we have been focussing on our book, Not Lost! The children have been exploring the illustrations as well as acting out some of the adventures the main character goes on. This text has enthused the children to produce some wonderful pieces of writing for different purposes.
• Friday 23 September 2022 London is Burning! This week we have been focussing more on our understanding of numbers and how we can make numbers in varying ways.
• Monday 19 September 2022 First Full Week Year 2 have had a wonderful first couple of weeks back at St. Andrew's and it has been great to begin to get to know all of their wonderful personalities.
• Friday 11 March 2022 Year 2 St Albans Cathedral visit
• Friday 11 March 2022 Year 2 St Albans Cathedral visit
• Friday 4 March 2022 Year Two reading Congratulations to Orla who received her bronze award today for reading 27 books since she has been in KS1 - the first person to receive this award in KS1! Well done Orla! :)
• Friday 21 January 2022 Year Two RE
• Friday 19 November 2021 Dazzle us for Children in Need This week, we have enjoyed taking part in lots of activities to raise money for Children in Need. We particularly enjoyed crazy hair day, the bubble blowing competition and wearing our sparkly, bright clothes for the non-uniform theme 'Dazzle us'.
• Thursday 18 November 2021 Matchbox Nativity Today as part of our RE learning about Christmas, the children learnt about how Christianity is celebrated around the world. We learnt about a miniature matchbox sized nativity which can be bought in South America and is used to remember the Christmas story. We spoke about how Christians around the world may bring the Christmas story into their home in different ways.
• Friday 5 November 2021 Salt dough Houses
• Friday 22 October 2021 Team building! Year 2 enjoyed some super team building activities on Tuesday afternoon. We completed a crane task where we had to manoeuvre wires as a group to control a crane to build a tower. We also had a relay race where we had to fit pieces of tunnel together to pass a ball down the playground, as well as trying land skis in pairs. Finally, we played a stepping stones game where the floor was lava and we had to work out how to get our whole team to the other side. We showed lots of teamwork skills, such as: including everyone, listening to everyone's ideas, taking turns and sharing. Miss Watson and the instructor were very impressed with our patience and determination. Well done Year 2.
• Friday 8 October 2021 Is it opaque? Our Science Enquiry In Science this week, Miss Watson told us about a problem she's been having where the street light outside her house has been waking her up at night. Miss Watson asked the children what to do and they suggested making some curtains/ blinds which were completely opaque. The children then set up their own investigations to work out which material would work best. The children showed great teamwork and even created their own scoring systems. By the end of the lesson all children had recorded their results and were able to rank the materials from most opaque to most transparent. Looks like I'm off to buy a blind made of cardboard! Great enquiry skills Year 2.
• Friday 11 June 2021 Our Wheels and Axles project Year 2 worked so hard to create their own toy car as part of our wheels and axles project. The children were given a design brief and had to design, make and evaluate a toy car which could be enjoyed by a child. First the children investigated which axle join would work best for their design. The children then measured their own axles, sawed the dowels and attached axles, wheels and handles independently. Each and every car was a triumph, with an eye-catching design and turning wheels! 
• Monday 24 May 2021 Judaism visit from Mrs Kinchin-Smith Today, as part of our Judaism RE topic, we had a very interesting and informative visit from Mrs Kinchin-Smith. We learnt all about what it is like to be Jewish and got to ask Mrs Kinchin-Smith lots of questions. We enjoyed seeing pictures of Mrs Kinchin-Smith's synagogue and seeing her special items, such as the tallit prayer shawl and her prayer book written in Hebrew. Thank you very much Mrs Kinchin-Smith!
• Friday 21 May 2021 Outdoor Learning Week As part of Outdoor Learning Week, Year 2 have been enjoying lots of opportunities to get outside. We have taken part in an outdoor spelling scavenger hunt, as well as lots of outdoor measurement lessons in maths. 
• Thursday 13 May 2021 Christian Aid Week 2021 This week is Christian Aid Week and the focus is on how the climate crisis is damaging God's world. As part of this, Ms Fenn set up a wonderful prayer space in the Silver Birches which helped us to reflect on this important topic. There were bubbles for us to 'blow away our worries for the world' and a quiet forest area for prayer or reflection. We also showed our value of thankfulness by writing our notes of thanks to the world and sticking these on a world map. There was also an area for us to write prayers and pledges on recycled paper and join these together in a paper chain, which we have now displayed in our class spiritual area.  We were very calm and sensible which made Miss Watson very proud of us. 
• Friday 7 May 2021 Our Trip to Southwold On Wednesday, Year 2 joined Year 1 on a wonderful trip to Southwold beach. We were blessed with lovely weather for the majority of the day and enjoyed making sandcastles, collecting special stones/ shells ad paddling in the waves. We also loved walking on the pier and seeing the Wacky Wall of Mirrors which made our reflections into funny shapes. We were treated to an ice cream which we enjoyed together. Lots of members of the public told our teachers how well-behaved we were and our teachers were so impressed. We played so nicely, showed our school values and made the most of this special time together.
• Tuesday 4 May 2021 The Day We Flew to Ohio As part of our Transport topic, Year 2 took a flight to Ohio on Friday. The children came in dressed for a holiday with their luggage which was weighed and put through the security scanner by the flight attendants (Miss Watson and Miss Wall). All of the children then made their own passports and were given their St Andrew's Air boarding passes. We then had our boarding passes stamped at the gate and went to board the plane. Once safely boarded, the cabin crew gave the safety talk and we were ready for take off! 
• Monday 19 April 2021 Hinduism RE week Year 2 really enjoyed learning about Hinduism for our RE week. We started the learning off by bringing in photos of our family to create a world map as we discussed that Hindus see all living things as part of a world family. We spoke about how this links to treating everyone with respect and kindness as you would your own family. We learnt about the celebration of Janmashtami and created peacock cards to celebrate Krishna's birthday. We even learnt about the festival of Raksha Bandhan and designed and made our own rakhi bracelets. We enjoyed discussing who we would give these to as a sign of love and protection.
• Wednesday 24 March 2021 The Great Big Art Exhibition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buQgJM7sUyY
• Monday 15 March 2021 STEM Week in Year 2 Year 2 really enjoyed being scientists during our STEM week last week. We were very busy and took part in a mini beast hunt, a tree detectives investigation and a create an insect competition. We also investigated the best material to make teabags and which washing liquid removes the most mud! We showed lots of attributes of scientists by communicating and working collaboratively. Miss Watson was especially impressed at how observant and resilient we were during our investigations.
• Monday 30 November 2020 Geography in Action! As part of our Geography learning, we were given photos taken at different locations around our school grounds and we had to find where the photographer was standing. We had to use locational knowledge of our school 'landmarks', such as the stage, the castle, the field and the pond to help us work out where the photo was taken. We spoke a lot about perspectives and used our language of left, right, behind and next to. Super learning, Year 2!
• Tuesday 3 November 2020 Back in Time to 1666! Before half term, year 2 had a very exciting trip back to 1666 to end our Great Fire of London learning. We came in dressed as people from the Stuart era and even got to try some jobs that people did. We started by making dried flower bags which were believed to keep people healthy by keeping away the bad air. We liked the smell of the rose petals and lavender but found the spices and cloves a bit strong! Next, we wrote with real quills dipped in ink and the grown-ups couldn't believe how neat our hand-writing was! After that, we made clay candle holders and some of us got to use a wax stamp to seal a letter. The whole class also did some drama, read some Great Fire of London stories and made some art. What a busy day!
• Wednesday 30 September 2020 Great Fire of London Historians As part of our project about The Great Fire of London, we have been learning about artefacts and the important role they play in piecing history together. We started off the learning by bringing in an object from home that we would save from a fire and using our presenting skills to talk about this to the class. We found out that most of our objects were special for similar reasons- they were sentimental, our favourite toy or made us feel safe. You can see pictures of some of our precious things below:
• Thursday 16 July 2020 So lucky to have a pond... We are so lucky in our school to have the wild-life area with the pond in it. 
• Wednesday 17 June 2020 Blue Peter's 6 Badges of Summer
• Friday 12 June 2020 Wild Weather
• Thursday 4 June 2020 The Final Broad Bean Update
• Tuesday 2 June 2020 Broad Bean check in
• Tuesday 2 June 2020 Broad Bean Update
• Sunday 31 May 2020 Planting Broad Beans
• Wednesday 20 May 2020 Den Building
• Wednesday 13 May 2020 Leaf Spotters!

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