WELCOME TO YEAR 2 CRANES

Cranes are opportunistic birds that change their diet according to the season. Cranes class demonstrate this when they adapt their learning skills to different topics. Cranes are kind and helpful to others and bring teamwork into all aspects of our school day. However, they can be solitary at times, using independence and resilience when faced with certain challenges.

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 Mondays and Tuesdays.

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 16^th April 2024 – First day of Summer Term

Thursday 18^th April 2024 – Rocksteady Assembly and Workshop

Tuesday 23^rd April 2024 – RNLI Water safety assembly

May 2024 - Year 2 Assessment period

Monday 6^th May 2024 – Bank Holiday

Friday 24^th May 2024 – Last day of Summer 1

Monday 27^th May 2024 – Friday 31^st May 2024 – Half Term

Monday 3^rd June 2024 – First day of Summer 2

Friday 7^th June 2024 – World Ocean Day

Monday 10th June - Phonics Screening Week

Monday 24^th June 2024 – Friday 28^th June 2024 – RSHE Week

Wednesday 10th July - Year 2 Learning Celebration

Wednesday 24^th 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 (Mr Wingrove). 

swingrove@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk

KS1 Maths Key Performance Indicators

ACADEMIC YEAR

2023/2024

Summer Term

Summer Term Curriculum Map

Thursday 11th July 2024 - Reach Outdoors Water Safety 

Today we had so much fun with Reach Outdoors on Goodrington Beach. Firstly, we learned about the different flags on the beach and their meanings. We also had a think about hazards on the beach and what we can do to stay aware of them. We spoke about 'Float to Live' and how this would support us if we were stuck in the water for a long period of time. Then we spent some time splashing in the sea to build our confidence!

Thursday 4th July 2024 - Transition Day

Today was a very exciting day because we spent the day in our new classroom! We had so much fun with our new teacher Miss Brown and were able to explore our new Wrens classroom. We shared some information about ourselves and created some cave art. It made us really excited for Year 3!

Friday 21st June 2024 - Dartmouth Trip!

Wow, what a day we have had! Today we went on an amazing trip to Dartmouth. Firstly, we got the minibuses down to the train station before departing on the steam train to Kingswear. Once in Kingswear, we got the passenger ferry over to Dartmouth and walked to the park to have some fun! After this, we hopped aboard the Dartmouth River Cruise for a journey along the river where we spotted human and physical features. After this, we went to another park to complete some observational drawing. Then we started our journey back to school. We had such a great day and can't wait to write all about it!

Thursday 13th June 2024 - Science!

This week in Science we took part in an experiment to find out the answer to our enquiry question: what happens to a plant that has no sunlight? To do this we planted some seeds. Half of the plants will be kept in the sunlight whereas the other half will be given no sunlight. We made a prediction about what we think will happen and now we just have to wait to see!

Monday 3rd June 2024 - History Day!

This week in History we learned about Isambard Kingdom Brunel! He was a civil engineer from Portsmouth who significantly impacted the way we can travel across the country. He designed and built famous infrastructure such as Paddington Station, Royal Albert Bridge and the Great Western Railway. We spent the day learning about all of his achievements and even had a go at building some bridges out of paper and masking tape! We have been also building awesome bridges for homelearning too!

Wednesday 22nd May 2024 - The Pied Piper visits White Rock Primary School! Today, we were honoured to be visited by the real Pied Piper of Hamelin! Torbay has been twinned with Hamelin, Germany since 1973 so the Pied Piper came to visit us to tell us his story. He told us tales and played his flute before leading a walk around the school with all the children following behind. Take a look at the pictures below!

Friday 10th May 2024 - Computing

Today in Computing, Cranes learnt all about making pictograms to collect data. Pictograms are a way of showing information using pictures to form a table or graph. We began by making a class pictogram thinking about the types of houses we live in. Then, when we were familiar with the software we started to collect our own data and represent this in a a pictogram. 

Wednesday 16th May 2024 - Dance

We have been creating dances this term using a picture by the Japanese artist, Hiroshige. We worked with a partner to create a duet where we chose 4 parts of the picture and added an action to represent that part - a turn, a slide, a jump etc... The next week we added different levels to each action and then we added different speeds to it. We shared our dances with another pair so they could give us feedback and we could try to improve our dances. 

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!

ACADEMIC YEAR

2023/2024

Spring Term

Spring Term Curriculum Map

Tuesday 19th 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. We practised our dish and arch shapes in our warm up so we were ready.

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.

Friday 23rd 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

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?

ACADEMIC YEAR

2023/2024

Autumn Term

Autumn Term Curriculum Map

Thursday 7th December 2023 - Design Technology

This week we have been undertaking some cooking skills by making a delicious and healthy fruit kebab. The children learnt how to use knife cutting techniques such as 'the bridge' for round objects and 'the claw' for longer objects. Once we chopped our fruit we got to put it on a skewer and of course we got to eat them! This learning has also formed an important part of our healthy living topics in Science and PSHE whilst also enabling us to learn about and write our own instructions in our Writing.  

Friday 2nd December 2023 - Geography 

This week Cranes took part in Geography Day. Our learning focused on the weather and the seasons we experience in the UK. We learnt the words Autumn, Summer, Spring and Winter and the months of the year associated with these words. We also looked at the world map and located the hot and cold parts of our world and named different climate zones. 

Tuesday 21st 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, Cranes have been working very hard on adding numbers together. They used dienes and 10s frames 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 

Cranes 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 -Sports Partnership Festival 

This week Cranes were chosen to represent White Rock at Paignton Community College in a tag rugby festival. The children had great fun getting involved in all kinds of activities that supported the fundamental rugby skills. This included dodging, kicking and tagging. We had such a good afternoon and everybody enjoyed getting involved.

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.

Monday 2nd October - Music

This week, Cranes 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 environment 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 have also been practising some 'Kung-Fu' punctuation. This involves saying a sentence out loud and putting the correct actions to signal a capital letter and a full stop. Check out the videos below. 

Friday 8th September 2023 - Maths

Cranes 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!