Year 2
Pope Francis
Our beloved Pope Francis joined Jesus in heaven on April 21st, 2025. In class, we spoke about all the qualities that Pope Francis was so well known for, especially his qualities of wanting peace, caring for others, being full of humility and always having a cheerful and smiling face. We wrote a prayer to God asking him to look after Pope Francis as he enters his heavenly kingdom.
Classification of Animals
In Science, we started our new topic on animals including humans. We spoke of the six broad categories (mammals, amphibians, birds, reptiles, insects and fish ) that we could divide animals and spoke about the characteristics of each group. It was quite a challenge to sort the animals into the six main groups.
Sepo Day
We raised over £2000 for Sepo to support the work of the Comboni sisters in Mongu, Zambia. Thank you to all children and parents for their generosity. Everybody enjoyed the match box challenge. Some children managed to fit in over 70 items in their box!
Sepo Mothers’ Day Sale
The children supported SEPO by buying gifts for their Mums in the SEPO sale. We then made cards for our Mums, who mean the world to us.
Best Waterproof Material
In science, we tested different materials: tissue paper, paper towel, fabric, tin foil and bubble wrap to see which material would make the best waterproof coat.
Measuring Heights
In Maths, we are learning about different units of measurements. We spoke about the fact that we use rulers to measure the heights of shorter objects and metre sticks to measure the heights of taller objects. We then measured our classroom and the hall using the metre stick.
Tudor Roses
After weeks of practising and mastering the art of creating petals and leaves with clay of various sizes and patterns, the children produced their final product which is nothing but a masterpiece! They all reflect their creativity, skill and perseverance. Well done Year 2!
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday marks the start of the 40 days of Lent. In our RE lesson, we spoke about the three main things we need to be doing: praying, fasting and giving. Later in the day, we had a Celebration of the Word with Fr Gerard for Ash Wednesday. He spoke to us about Lent being a time of 40 days in which we do things, make sacrifices and spend more time with Jesus to develop a closer relationship with Jesus. He then put ashes on our foreheads as a sign of repentance for our sins.
World Book Day
What an exciting, fun-filled day it has been in Year 2. We shared our favourite books and book characters with each other. We then completed different activities including the STA Masked Reader and created our own bookmarks. In the afternoon, we spent some time with our Year 4 Reading Buddies, read interesting, fun filled facts on Elizabeth I and tried to guess the book looking at pictures related to the book. At the end of the day, we all received a book token to use on a book of our choice.
Money
In Maths we have been learning about money. We used coins to help us find the total amount of money and we found it very useful in understanding how to add money together,
Homework Corner
Our gallery of Elizabeth I portraits looks absolutely brilliant. Keep up the fantastic work Year 2!
Cafod Lenten Project
As part of our celebrations for ‘The year of Hope 2025’ the children in Year 2 decided to fund raise for a vegetable garden project by Cafod. We not only reached our target for one vegetable garden, but we are on track to fund several vegetable garden projects! We are earning pennies by undertaking different tasks at home like tidying our room, doing chores and helping our parents prepare dinner. We remembered the saying, loving our neighbour is loving everyone!
Tudor Rose
In our DT topic this term we will be looking at making a Tudor Rose with clay. We had a fun lesson exploring different techniques of how we could shape clay. We also practised how to make leaves with clay.
Banana Experiment
We measured the weight of a banana after peeling it. We then realised we could bend, twist and squash the banana! We chopped it into smaller pieces and weighed it again. Finally, we mashed the banana with our hands and weighed it a third time.
We noticed the banana had lost some weight through water loss. The shape of the banana also changed, this was an irreversible change as we could not put the banana back together again, after bending, twisting, squashing, chopping and mashing!
Tudor Family Tree
We started our new history topic on Elizabeth I, who belonged to the Tudor reign. We spoke about the different Tudor rulers who ruled before her and then completed a family tree of the Tudor dynasty.
Time
We used mini clocks to help us understand how to read time.
Clock Making
To help us understand how to read time, we made our own clocks to use at home.
Recycling
In Science, as a group, we sorted materials into recyclable or not recyclable. We discussed the advantages of recycling. As a school, we have just started recycling pens in our classroom.
Material Investigation
In our science lesson we spoke about the meaning of the words squash, bend, stretch and twist. We then investigated a range of materials to check if they could be squashed, bent, twisted or stretched.
Rekenrek
We enjoyed using a rekenrek to help us understand what numbers are made up of. These are some of the things we found out:
- that 8 is made of 5 + 3, so 3 + 5 make 8
- that 8 is made of 4 + 4, so 4+ 4 make 8
- that 8 + 2 make 10, so 10 is made of 8 + 2
A rekenrek is a counting frame used in maths. They are used to help children build a sense of number, by helping children to understand number composition. A rekenrek is a fantastic piece of maths equipment to show pupils how to compose and decompose numbers. This helps them build strategies for doing basic mental maths calculations which will help them with their life-long maths understanding.
St Thomas Aquinas Feast Day
What an exciting day we had celebrating the Feast Day of our patron Saint Thomas Aquinas! We started the day by learning facts about the life of Saint Thomas Aquinas. We later explored a school in Stoke that shares the same name as our school and created a card wishing them a happy feast day. In the afternoon, we attended Mass celebrated by Father Gerard, which was followed by some cake, juice and some dancing.
Leonid Afremov
In Art this term we have been learning about Leonid Afremov. We tried using different brush strokes to check which brush would create the desired outcome. It was strange using an ear bud, lolly stick and a feather to paint.
Gymnastics
This term in PE, we are learning gymnastics. It is fun learning how to roll and turn in different ways.
Physical and Human Features
In our Geography lesson we spoke about the differences between physical and human features. We then worked with our partners to sort out pictures into physical features and human features. It was a fun activity, and we learnt a lot.
Pope Francis
We started 2025 with a discussion about Pope Francis and his New Year’s resolutions. We discussed how finishing our meals, not gossiping about others and thinking about the poor are so important. We then wrote our own resolutions inspired by Pope Francis.
Sharing
In Maths we have been using counters to help us understand how we can share objects equally between groups. This will help us when we go on to learn about division in our Maths lessons.
Epiphany
On 6th January we celebrated the feast of Epiphany to remember the day when the three wise men met baby Jesus for the very first time. We thought about what the three wise men saw at the stable, what they thought when they reached there and what they wondered when they looked at baby Jesus. We then went to the school crib and said a prayer, offering Jesus gifts of kindness , compassion and thoughtfulness towards others.
Fantastic Homework Projects
The children have been creative and very innovative in producing some excellent pieces of homework during the holidays, for our geography topic - coasts, oceans, seas. Just week one and we already have some brilliant pieces on display. Well done Year 2!
The Great Fire of London: Action!
Gather around, young historians! Today, we are going to explore the Great Fire of London in 1666 using some exciting actions. You will learn about the fire while moving like the characters from history.
Today we acted out The Great Fire of London. We explored what it would have been like in 1666 during the fire. We learnt about the historical fire while moving like the characters from history.
But what were we learning?
Use of Imperative Verbs: The text we looked at contained numerous imperative verbs that direct the reader to perform actions. Examples include “Run quickly!” and “Throw the water!”
Historical Context: The text used linked specifically to the Great Fire of London, providing factual references and context about the event, such as the date (1666), key figures (Thomas Farriner), and the devastation of the fire. historical events.
Engagement and Interaction: The text used encouraged students to participate physically through acting out the scenes.
No Pens Day
What a fun, exciting day it has been. We practised our times tables in a very interesting way and discovered that times tables can be lots of fun. We then learnt a dragon poem, ‘My New Pet’, which we performed for the school. There were lots of actions to remember!
Dragon Story
In English, the children planned a story about their dragons and thought about the opening, build up, conflict, resolution and ending of their story. They plotted their story on a story mountain so that they could remember the different stages in their story, before they begin writing it.
Cinema Trip
The children were very excited to visit the cinema to watch ‘ Superworm’ and ‘The Smeds and Smoos’ by Julia Donaldson. After an early lunch, they enjoyed a scenic drive to Odeon. They loved watching the two stories.
Judaism Week
This week we have been learning about Judaism. We learnt about the customs, traditions and festivals of Jewish people and the key symbols of the faith. We then compared the similarities between Judaism and Christianity.
Wheels and Axels
The children explored different ways to make the wheels of their vehicles and decided on using either blue tack, sellotape or a rubber band to attach the wheels to the axels. They cannot wait to make their vehicles.
NSPCC
We were very fortunate to have a NSPCC team member visit and speak to us. We spoke about how every single child has the right to speak out and be safe. If anything worries us or we feel uncomfortable we need to speak to a trusted adult. We discussed who our trusted, safe adults were and we learnt the number 0800 1111, to call when we need help.
The Great Fire of London
We started our history topic by finding facts about the Great Fire of London. We used different sources and found out the answers to some questions on the key facts. Some facts we researched were very interesting. We cannot wait to learn more about the topic.
Homework Corner
The children continue to shine like ‘SUPERSTARS’ with the fascinating homework projects they have done over the holidays, from brilliant paintings to fabulous models of Pudding Lane bakeries! They even tried out different recipes of bread. Well done Year 2!
Computing
During our computing lessons, we researched The Great Fire of London,1666. We found out many interesting facts, which will help us when we start our new history topic on The Great Fire of London.
Living Things
We began our new science topic this term and discussed what are living things, non-livings things and things that have never been alive. We then sorted pictures into these 3 categories and on post-it notes we wrote a list of items that fall under each category.
Monet-Pointillism
We used all the techniques that Monet used especially his choice of warm colours and his pointillism techniques and produced our very own piece of art. The outcome was brilliant.
Holy Rosary
October is the month, which is dedicated to the Holy Rosary, a beautiful prayer that reflects on the life of Jesus through the eyes of his mother, Mary. It is a tradition of the Catholic Church that the rosary is prayed during this month as a beautiful source of strength and gratitude. For our class worship, we recited one decade of the rosary and offered it for the intention of world peace.
Adjectives
We have been learning that adjectives are describing words. We identified if the word was an adjective and then used it in a sentence.
Reading Buddies
The Year 2 children were visited by the Year 4 children, who read with them. It was lovely to see how they interacted with each other.
Maths
In our maths lesson we rolled dice and we made our own 2 digit numbers. We then ordered them from the smallest to the biggest.
Multi-Skills
We are very lucky to have a member of the MK Dons team teaching us PE on a Tuesday. We had a fun lesson today by learning how we can move like different animals and how our movements can differ based on the animal we were imitating. It was a lot of fun!
Monet
This term we have been learning about the famous French artist Claude Monet. The children learnt about analogous colours for his famous paintings and created their own colour wheel using greens, blues and purple.
Nouns
In English, we have been learning about nouns. We discussed that a noun is a naming word and it can be the name of a person, animal, place or object. We then played a game with our partner where we had many words written down and we had to guess which word was a noun. If we go it correct, we could keep the word and if our partner got it correct, they got to keep it. We really enjoyed the game even though some words were challenging!
Sunflower Seeds
In Science, as part of our topic on plants we planted sunflower seeds. We plan to conduct an experiment on what plants need in order to grow. Some pots will be kept in darkness, some in sunlight, some will be watered daily while some pots will not be watered and some pots will not be given water or sunlight. We want to check if plants can survive without water or sunlight and hopefully in a few weeks we will reach a conclusion.
Homework Display
Our homework corner looks brilliant with all your creative and artistic artwork! Such innovative ideas were used to make different gardens. Well done to our master artists who used pointillism, Lego, watercolours, leaves, playdough and pasta to make gardens of their own, which reflects our Geography topic ‘Gardens around the world’ and Science topic ‘Plants’. Keep up the excellent work Year 2 superstars!
Plants and Trees
In Science, we have been looking at plants and trees. We observed the different parts of flowers and trees. It was so interesting! We then completed our worksheet and drew a tree and a flower and tried to identify the different parts. We are very proud of our beautiful drawings.
Class Beatitudes
The children had a fantastic start to the new academic year. They proved they were superstars by listening, following instructions and being kind and polite in class. As a class we discussed and wrote what we felt would be fantastic class beatitudes for our new class. We then signed our names on the beatitudes that we formulated together.