Design and Technology
This half term, Year 2 have been designing many different free standing structures.
Multi-sport summer camps
The Tortoise and the Hare
Last week, the children were focusing on Aesop’s fables. We read a few of them throughout the week. The one we focused on the most was, The Tortoise and the Hare. Once the children had listened and read the story, they worked as group to sequence it using pictures and captions.
Then, the children moved on to creating their own story map. Here are a few examples of their brilliant work.
Finally, the children retold the story in their own words. Take a look at some of the amazing examples.
Cricket opportunities
Computing: Promgramming
Year 2 were amazing at programming a simple story using the programming app, Scratch Jr.
Living and Learning: Drugs
During our last living and learning sessions, Year 2 have been learning about drugs. Over the course of two sessions, we identified what can make people feel better if they are not feeling well. The children were able to explain that medicines come in different forms and are used in different ways. We recognised that some medicines, such as vaccinations, can help prevent illness and disease and that some people need to take medicines every day to help them to stay healthy. Finally, the children identified who helps people to stay healthy and what they do.
Observation over time
Over the past few weeks, Year 2 have been growing radish seeds in different conditions in order to find out what seeds need to be healthy. This week, we recorded our results and made conclusions about our experiment.
Prior to recording our results, the children decided that the best way to assess how healthy the plants were was to compare their height and colour.
Through careful observation and diligent measuring, the children recorded their results and then made conclusions about what a plant needs to be healthy, based on their findings.
The children discovered that the plants that received water and sunlight grew the tallest and also looked the healthiest colour. Therefore, they concluded that plants need water and sunlight in order to grow.
We have really enjoyed our science topic this half term and hope that it has encouraged the children to plant more things at home.
Remember to send us pictures of your sunflowers as they grow!
Stamp Competition
This year, Royal Mail are hosting a stamp competition in order to honour the people who have done great things since the coronavirus pandemic began.
Eight designs will be picked by a special panel including none other than Her Majesty the Queen! These winners will be seen by millions of people and there are other cool prizes up for grabs for runners up.
Thank you to everyone who got involved and submitted their creative efforts in appreciation of our COVID heroes. You should be very proud.
Check out some of the many entries below.
E-safety
We have also been learning about how to stay safe online. The children completed a sorting activity where they had to decide whether various online scenarios were safe or unsafe.
After the activity, the children wrote sentences in their books stating what they each do to stay safe online. Here are some examples of their sentences:
I stay safe online by keeping my username and password private.
I stay safe online by only speaking to people that I know.
I stay safe online by telling a trusted adult if something makes me feel upset or worried.
I stay safe online by playing games that are appropriate for my age.
Programming
This week, we have been using Bee-Bots and Blue-Bot devices to test our programming skills.
The children enjoyed completing a series of challenges where they had to put their algorithm and directional knowledge to the test.
I was really impressed with how well the children worked as a team – ensuring that every child had a fair turn to test their algorithms whilst also helping and supporting their teammates when it was needed.
If the algorithms didn’t work, we used our debugging skills to fix the problem.
