WELCOME TO YEAR 2 CONDORS
Condors are large, graceful and strong birds. They have great hunting skills and travel long distances so they can feed themselves and their families. They have brilliant looking skills and listening skills which we will be using within our own Condors class.
THIS TERMS THEME
'Be Curious!'
This term we will… develop our curiosity and deeper thinking skills. Throughout this topic we will be encouraging children to ask questions about their learning and promote the value of being inquisitive.
P.E AND DANCE DAYS
PE days are Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Please ensure that your child has the correct PE kit in school all week. We will ensure that they are sent home at the end of each half term.
HOME LEARNING DAYS
Home Learning will be set on a Friday and due in on a Wednesday.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Monday 15th April 2024 - Non-pupil day
Tuesday 16th April 2024 – First day of Summer Term
Thursday 18th April 2024 – Rocksteady Assembly and Workshop
Tuesday 23rd April 2024 – RNLI Water safety assembly
May 2024 - Year 2 Assessment period
Monday 6th May 2024 – Bank Holiday
Friday 24th May 2024 – Last day of Summer 1
Monday 27th May 2024 – Friday 31st May 2024 – Half Term
Monday 3rd June 2024 – First day of Summer 2
Friday 7th June 2024 – World Ocean Day
Monday 10th June - Phonics Screening Week
Monday 24th June 2024 – Friday 28th June 2024 – RSHE Week
Wednesday 10th July - Year 2 Learning Celebration
Wednesday 24th July 2024 – Last day of Summer Term
To be confirmed - Year 2 Swimming
To be confirmed - Year 2 Visit
MEET THE TEAM
If there are any issues or concerns, please feel free to come in and see your teacher (Miss Brewer).
mbrewer@whiterockprimaryschool.co.uk
Year 2 Maths Key Performance Indicators
ACADEMIC YEAR
2023/2024
Summer Term
Summer Term Curriculum Map
Wednesday 1st May 2024 - HM Royal Marines Band!
On Wednesday, we were so lucky to be visited by a group of musicians from the Band of the HM Royal Marines CTCRM! They performed in the hall to Year 1-6 and their instruments included a trombone, drums, 2 trumpets, 2 saxophones and a tuba! It was fantastic interactive music opportunity and even some of our class were asked to take part. The music included some of our favourites like Barbie Girl and Shotgun by George Ezra.
Monday 22nd April 2024 - Art
Today we learnt all about the famous Japanese artist, Hiroshige! He was best known for being the master of colour wood-block printing. Firstly, we shared our opinions about his artwork and created an artist study page. After this, we learnt about printing and the different ways this can be created. Then, we planned and designed our own art in the style of Hiroshige. Finally, we carved our designs into a polystyrene tile, painted it and then pressed it down into our sketchbooks before revealing our amazing print!
Wednesday 17th April 2024 - Writing
Today in Writing we have been identifying the most important events in the story, The Gingerbread Man. Firstly, we read the story and then put the important events in order. Then we created freeze frames of each part of the story. Take a look at the pictures below and see if you can guess what part of the story we are reenacting!
Spring Term
Spring Term Curriculum Map
Thursday 21st March 2024 - Gymnastics
We have been really enjoying our Gymnastics lessons this half term and this week have been practising keeping our bodies in the correct shape throughout a roll. When doing an egg roll we need to stay in a tuck shape, then when we do an exploding egg roll we start in tuck before exploding into straddle and then back to tuck again. In a log roll we have to keep our bodies really straight, keeping our arms and legs super straight and pointing our toes. The trickiest roll is the Gold Medal log roll which involves us having to squeeze our muscles really tight to form an arch shape before rolling into a dish shape and then back to an arch shape again.
Monday 18th March 2024 - DT
Today we had so much fun designing, making and evaluating our own dens. Firstly, we thought about how to create a structure that is stable and strong and decided that a square-based pyramid design would work best. We designed our dens and thought about what materials to use. Then, we worked in groups to build a den structure out of wooden rods and secured the base with masking tape and string. We then used a plastic bag to waterproof our designs and decorated with dry leaves to make them camouflage. After this, we evaluate our dens and thought about what we would do differently next time.
Thursday 7th March 2024 - World Book Day!
Today was World Book Day and we had a fantastic time celebrating all things reading! We did a class reader swap with the Year 6s where they read to us and listened to our wonderful reading. We guessed which White Rock adult was behind the mask in 'The Masked Reader', designed book tokens, took part in a class book quiz and so much more. Take a look at our great day below!
Monday 26th February 2024 - Science
This week in Science, we did an investigation to answer the enquiry question; why do birds have different shaped beaks? We thought about what birds eat and represented this with different foods e.g. seeds = skittles, bugs = fruit gums and worms = spaghetti. We used a spoon, tweezers and chopsticks to represent different bird beaks and tried to pick up the different foods using the different objects. We recorded our data in our books and have since thought about what our data tells us about different shaped bird beaks.
Monday 19th February 2024 - History
This week have undertaken our History topic for the spring term. We have focussed on identify significant historical people and describing the impact they have had on modern times. During this learning, we have been exploring flight and chosen to focus on Amelia Earhart, The Wright Brothers, The Montgolfier Brothers and Neil Armstrong. Along this journey we have been able to use skills in research and also been able to place things in time order.
Friday 9th February 2024- Spanish
Year 2 have had so much fun in their Spanish lessons this half term. The children have learnt how to sing Head Shoulders, Knees and Toes in Spanish.
Here is the new vocabulary to practise at home! iQue fantastico!
boca= mouth
nariz=nose
cabeza=head
hombros=shoulders
rodillas=knees
pies=feet
ojos= eyes
orejas=ears
Tuesday 6th February 2024 - Art
This week, Year 2 have been learning all about painting and colour mixing in Art. We started by looking at the artwork of Jo Peel. She likes painting pictures of empty cities and construction work. We then used careful observation to mimic some of her shapes and mixed the primary colours together to create secondary colours. We then drew and painted our own Jo Peel style pictures using the skills we had learned. Have a look at the photos below to see how we got on!
Friday 2nd February 2024 - Religious Education
In RE this week, we have been learning more about what Muslims believe in. We learned more about one of the 5 Pillars of Islam, Salah. We found out that Muslims pray 5 times a day, that they need to be clean and use a prayer mat. We then designed our own. Have a look at the photo's below to see how we got on!
Tuesday 30th January 2024 - Dance
We have been learning about outer space in Dance and have worked in groups to create a rocket shape. We used different levels to represent the different parts of the rocket and had to make sure that we could move in our rockets, as they had to take off into space. Our rockets then landed on a planet and we had to explore the planet using different speeds and levels. Each of our planets could be whatever we wanted it to be, so our actions had to reflect this. At the end of the dance, we had to run away from an alien and create a hiding position.
Friday 26th January 2024 - Science
This week in Science, we have been learning about adaptations and how animals have adapted to their habitats. Polar bears have thick, blubber fur to keep them warm in the Arctic. We completed the 'blubber experiment' to experience what it feels like to have 'blubber' in freezing cold water, like a polar bear! See some pictures below!
Wednesday 17th January 2024 - Geography
This week, we have been learning about 4 seasons, the world's continents and oceans, different climate zones around the world and human and natural features. We found out that a human feature is man made (like shops, houses and harbours) and a natural feature is made by nature (like cliffs, beaches and rivers). Have a look at the photos below to see how we got on!
Wednesday 10th January 2023 - Science
This week in Science we learned about habitats. A habitat is where an animal lives! We also learnt what a micro-habitat was and then went outside to our woodland to see if we could find any! We used microscopes to help us with this and spotted a range of insects like worms, spiders and woodlouse!
Thursday 4th January 2024 - Spoken Language
We started a new Writing journey this week which is based on Mrs Armitage and the Big Wave (Youtube version below!) We listened carefully to the story and identified the key events. We used our teamwork skills to create secret freezeframes of each part. Can you guess which part of the story we were?
Autumn Term
Autumn Term Curriculum Map
Wednesday 6th December 2023 - DT!
Today in DT, we made fruit kebabs! Firstly, we designed our fruit kebabs and picked what fruit we wanted to include and thought about how we wanted it to look. Then, we took part in the 'make' process. We learnt how to cut up our fruit safely and slide it onto our bamboo skewer. Finally, we evaluated our fruit kebabs to think about what went well and what we would do differently next time. We will now use this to help us write instructions about how to make a fruit kebab. Check out our pictures!
Thursday 30th November 2023 - PCSA Sports Festival
Condors were lucky enough to be invited to Paignton Academy for an afternoon of multi-skills! The children took part in 6 different activities including an obstacle course, javelin throw and a balancing activity. The children has a great time and worked very hard.
Thursday 23rd November 2023 - Dance
Year 2 have been creating dances based on Victorian portraits. Having looked at photographs of Victorian family portraits, we worked in groups to create our own and used these as starting positions. We then had to move from our place in the photo to another person's place by using a travelling move. We had to try to include moving in unison (at the same time) and in canon (moving at different times, one after the other). Our ending position for our dance was our starting position. Take a look at our Victorian portraits below.
Friday 17th November 2023 - Bridge to Spelling
This week we have been learning all about spelling! We have been thinking about different spelling rules and learning about long and short vowel sounds. We have used our knowledge of phonics to support us with this learning and have enjoyed spelling new words.
Friday 10th November 2023 - Maths
This week in Maths, Condors have been working very hard on adding 2 two-digit numbers together. They used dienes to support them with their learning and focused carefully on adding together the tens and adding the ones. Take a look at us working hard below!
Friday 3rd November 2023 - Science
Condors class took part in an exciting 'Glitter Bug' experiment this week to learn about germs! We thought about the importance of hygiene, the things we do to keep clean and how this might be linked to why humans get poorly. We put some 'Glitter Bug Potion' on our hands and shone a blue light over them, we could see lots of white spots which were germs! After this, we washed our hands for 20 seconds with soap and looked at our hands again. We observed that most of the germs had disappeared. This taught us how important it is to wash our hands and to wash them well!
Monday 16th October 2023 - Art
In Art, we learned about using different types of lines to create different effects. We started with a self portrait (for comparison!) in the style of Vincent Van Gogh. We then practised using different types of lines, and experimented to create different details and textures. We then used these skills to improve on our initial self portrait. We even had a gallery showing of all our masterpieces!
Thursday 12th October 2023 - Phonics
This week we have been focussing on the graphemes ie, y, ea and a. We have been spotting these digraphs in words, reading sentences and using our segmenting skills to spell new words with our focus graphemes.
Thursday 5th October 2023 - African Dance Day
We had some African visitors in school and Year 2 were very lucky to have a chance to learn some African dances and sing some African songs using call and response. The visitors were very impressed with how well the children learned the dances in such a short time.
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Monday 2nd October - Music
This week, Condors enjoyed our first Year Two Music learning. We learned lots of different musical words including rhythm, tempo, pitch and volume. We listened carefully to different types of music and repeated the rhythm and tempo. We then had a go at making up our musical sequences with different instruments.
Friday 29th September 2023 - Computing
This term in Computing we are learning about Online Safety! We spoke about how we can keep ourselves safe online and what to do if something makes us feel unsafe. We also learned about safe searches and how to ensure we keep ourselves safe when searching the internet. Look at us in the computer suite!
Friday 22nd September 2023 - PSHE
This term in PSHE we have been thinking about how we can better our enviroment and be good citizens. This week, we learned about the importance of saving electricity. We then discussed ways in which we can do this around our home and in school. Check out these posters we made!
Friday 15th September 2023 - Writing
This week in Writing, we have been working on using capital letters and full stops correctly. We learnt to use a capital 'I' when it stands alone in a sentence and practised putting a capital letter at the start of a name or a place. We wrote some sentences putting what we had learnt into practise! Look at what a fantastic job we did!
Friday 8th September 2023 - Maths
Condors have had a fantastic start to our year! In Maths, we have been learning about the value of numbers to 100. We started using our prior knowledge from Year 1 to count different amounts. We then filled in missing numbers on a number track. Finally, we used diennes to count how many tens and ones were in different numbers to 100. Have a look at the photo's below to see how we got on!
