Welcome to Year 2

"In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work like you are working for the Lord, not for the people"

Colossians 3:23

Mrs Connell and Mrs Bonner would like to welcome you to our Year 2 class page for 2019-2020. Our aim is to keep you informed of things that are happening in our class.

School Closure Information

Week 1 and 2 Work Pack

Spring Term

2019-2020

Dates for your Spring Diary

Spring 1

• Friday 7th February : Non-uniform day - unwanted gifts
• Thursday 13th February : Children finish for half term

Spring 2

• Monday 2nd March: Pupil progress meetings
• Thursday 5th March: World Book Day - Wear Orange! And donate an item for the foodbank
• Friday 13th March: Mad hair day to support Sport Relief
• Friday 27th March: Non-uniform day - chocolate
• Friday 3rd April: Easter bonnet and raffle - Children finish at 1.30pm

World Book Day - There's a Rang-Tan in my Bedroom

We have chosen to study a whole school text this year called There's a Rang-Tan in my Bedroom.

This beautiful book explains how the orangutan’s habitat is being destroyed to create space to produce palm oil. It makes us think about how we can help when we live so far away.  We use products that contain palm oil every day, it is in many foods and toiletries that we use so we can make a big difference if we make some changes to the products that we buy. 

We decided to complete lots of reading, writing and speaking and listening activities using this book and on the day do these two special things.

1. Wear orange! This is to show our support for the orangutan
2. Support the use of sustainable palm oil. We all brought  in one food or toiletry item (shampoo, soap, toothpaste) that was produced using sustainable palm oil.

This is to support the use of sustainable palm oil products and promote awareness of these.

Science/PSHE - Keeping Healthy

James from Active Sefton visited year two to tell us all about keeping healthy. We learnt how important the foods that we eat are because each group gives us something that our body needs, we just need to make sure that we eat the recommended amount of them. He also showed us how to make a smoothie using apple juice, strawberries, raspberries and banana.

Science - The Planetarium

We were very lucky to visit a planetarium in school today. We learnt about stars and the names of the planets in our solar system. We even took a virtual tour of the moon! The most interesting fact we learnt is that the warmest stars are blue and white in colour and the coolest stars are orange and red. 

Other Faiths Week - Islam

This week we have been learning all about Islam. We had a visitor who explained about the 5 pillars of Islam and  we visited the Al Rahma Mosque in Liverpool. It helped us to understand all about how muslims pray and how important it is to them. We also learnt a lot about mosques and what happens in them.

PSHE and SMSCD - Inside Out Day

Today we supported Inside Out Day by wearing our clothes inside out. This was to remind us that how we look on the outside doesn't always match with how we feel on the inside. Be kind and think of others! #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek

PSHE - Respect

This week Year Two have been thinking carefully about what respect means. We decided that respect is how we think and act towards others. Having respect means that you think good things about a person, talking and treating them in that way too. You have to have respect for yourself and for others. 

Lots of people in our school show us respect,

Ethan said, "Alfie always smiles at me when we are on the playground."

Oscar said, "Tabitha always check that I am ok when I've fallen over."

Myla said, "India shows respect because she always finds characters for me in her games."

Noah said, "Louis cares about me when I am sad."

Evie said, "My older brother helps me when I need help with my homework."

It is really important to treat others in the way that you would like to be treated yourself. If we all did that then everyone would be happy.

PSHE - Fundraising for Isaac House

We are continuing to support Isaac House in Uganda this year. The school council organised movie nights for Key Stage 1 and 2 to raise money, we all enjoyed watching Sing and more importantly eating our hot dogs! Thank you everyone for your kindness and generosity.

PE - Football

Today we practised our football skills with coaches Dylan and Liam from Jamie Carragher's Watch Us Get Fit. We improved our goal keeping and shooting skills. Thank you so much we all loved it.

"It was amazing! I got to take penalties and be in goal!"

"I learnt that I was a talented goalkeeper, I saved most of the goals"  Myla

"I was shocked because I learnt how to shoot really low" Matthew

"I enjoyed improving in goal" Ava

"I was surprised I scored!"

Geography - Australia Here We Come!

We are heading to Australia for our Geography topic. We began by finding out where in the world Australia is. Our first activity was to learn about the continents and use an atlas to name them so that we could do this. 

Art- Emma Blyth - Painting

We have continued to work with paintings by Emma Blyth. 

First we produced sketches of small sections of our favourite paintings. We observed the pictures closely to identify the shapes used to create them (revising skills of observation covered in Autumn skyline pictures) before having a go. Once we had our outline we were able to use pressure shading to add detail, we had learnt how to use this technique in September.

Then we produced our own versions of the paintings using paint. We painted the background before adding detail. We thought about how we could use the paintbrushes in different ways to create lines of varying thicknesses. We can't wait to complete these.

Music - Recorders

We are all really enjoying learning how to play the recorders in Music with Mrs Payet. We have learnt how to hold our recorder correctly and how to make a sound using it. Mrs Payet is teaching us how to make different notes.

Art and Computing - Emma Blyth

We have started researching the artist whose work we will be studying this half term. She is called Emma Blyth and she comes from Western Australia. She is well known for her bright, vibrant creations that show the beauty of the Australian landscape. We used our time in computing to investigate the colours that she used, using the colour wheel to identify which colours were hot or cold. Our observations allowed us to identify the shapes that are used to produce the pictures.

We painted the background of our page ready for when we produce our own versions of her paintings.

Science - Changing the shape of materials

We investigated whether or not we could change the shape of some materials. We discovered that we could do this by twisting, stretching, squashing and bending them to create a new shape. We were able to recreate shapes given using this.

Autumn Term

2019-2020

Dates for Your Autumn Diary

Autumn 1

• Friday 18th September: Mass for Feast of St Robert Bellarmine
• Wednesday 2nd October: Play in a Day - Liverpool the Pool of Life
• Friday 4th October: Macmillan Coffee Morning
• Friday 18^th October: Non-uniform day (unwanted gifts)
• Monday 21^st October: Pupil progress meeting
• Friday 25^th October: Non-uniform day (wearing red or blue to say NO to racism)
• Friday 25^th October: School closes for half-term (3pm)

Autumn 2

• Tuesday 5^th November: School reopens
• Friday 15^th November: friendship assembly (parents of yrs 1,3&4 welcome to attend)
• Wednesday 20th November: DT Day
• Friday 22^nd  November: non-uniform day
• Friday 29th  November: non-uniform day (chocolates)
• Friday 6^th December: non-uniform day (bottles)
• Wednesday 11^th December: Yrs1&2 Christmas performance (pm)
• Friday 13^th December: Xmas Jumper day, Santa dash & Xmas fayre
• Friday 20^th December: Term finishes @ 1:30pm

History - Chronology

We revisited the concept of chronology today using the photographs from our washday session yesterday. We discussed what each photograph told us and which order the actions were done in as we put them in chronological order.

History - A Trip To Merseyside Maritime Museum

We visited the Maritime Museum at the Albert Dock in Liverpool for two reasons. 

House, Home and Washdays!

We explored what happened during washdays in the past and how it compares to how we wash now. We all tried our hand at the different processes and realised that life was much harder then than it is now! This fitted in with Life in Liverpool 100 years ago and helped us to develop an awareness of the past and use a wide range of vocabulary. We looked carefully at the similarities and differences from then and now.

Titanic Story 

Before beginning our History topic of Titanic after Christmas we gained some prior knowledge by taking part in an amazing workshop in Merseyside Maritime Museum where we were  invited to take part in the story of Polar the Titanic Bear. The story is adapted from the original written by a Titanic first class passenger, Daisy Corning Stone Spedden, who survived the fateful voyage, along with her family. She then went on to write Polar the Titanic Bear as a Christmas present for her son Douglas. 

We learnt all about the Titanic by taking part in the storytelling and playing different characters including Douglas, Daisy and a sailor. We were shown what actions and words we needed to perform and had the opportunity to try on and handle replica costume, hats, and of course a toy polar bear. We all joined in with the story at certain parts and had the opportunity to handle the objects. Through the story we learnt about different aspects of the Titanic and the subsequent rescue in a lifeboat. 

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

We have been getting into the Christmas spirit this week in Year Two creating personalised Christmas stockings to sell at the Christmas Fair and using a variety of techniques to make an Advent wreath including painting, colouring and cutting. We have also been practising for our Christmas production Lights, Camel, Action 2! This tells the story of Christmas in the format of a dancing show. Our speaking and listening skills have improved so much we could speak audibly and fluently and gain the interest of our listener. We took part in a festive daily mile wearing our best Christmas jumpers - keeping fit is fun!

 Even our Governors approved, "Congratulations and well done to the children from Years 1 and 2 for their fantastic performance of 'Lights, Camel, Action 2, the Sequin' on Wednesday afternoon.

Year 1 sang 'A-maz-ingly' and Year 2 deserve a '10' for their acting. The Strictly Final this Saturday, and the Tour in January won't seem the same without 'our' fantastic contestants, judges, hosts and singers."

Design & Technology - Textiles 'Trashion Show'

Well done to everyone who took part in this years 'trashion show' - your designs were fantastic. The children have been working hard to design and make a new stylish product from an old T. shirt. Some people made new creations, cushions, bags and hats.. The project made us think about the importance of recycling, so that we can cut down on the waste we produce and look after our world better. 

History - Chronology

 We revisited the concept of chronology and examining a source. We began by looking carefully at 8 pictures and identifying something that they had in common, year two decided they were all linked by Liverpool. We used these photographs to identify what we knew about each of them and found out there were two that were not sure about, A picture of the old docks and a portrait of King John. We researched these and were happy that we had knowledge about them. Once we had done this we revisited the term chronological order and tried to put the images in chronological order discussing why we made those choices. Ethan thought that the black and white images were the earliest things to happen because cameras only used to take photographs in black and white. We thought this was difficult so we added years and captions to our images. We tried to re-order the pictures using this information and were much more successful than before.

English - The Scarecrows' Wedding

We have been studying two stories that were written by Julia Donaldson - The Highway Rat and The Scarecrows' Wedding. We are enjoying working on The Scarecrows' Wedding and have tried hard to find evidence to support an opinion. We decided that Harry was sensible, thoughtful, respectful and responsible compared to Reginald who was cruel, selfish, rude, sly and disrespectful. After finding lots of evidence Year Two are unanimously Team Harry!

DT - Making a 4 wheeled vehicle

We worked with Steph to design and make a 4 wheeled vehicle. Steph gave us all a design criteria for our vehicles. They had to fit a toy driver in, carry the driver when moving without the driver falling out and the bearings must hold the axle in the correct place securely. We made the chassis then used cardboard to make the body because we knew that the properties of cardboard meant it could be cut, bent and folded. We all learnt some new vocabulary  like axle, bearing, chassis, boot, bonnet and body. Thank you so much Steph.

History - Liverpool Landmarks

When we worked with Altru we found out the names of some famous Liverpool Buildings and we identified some more when we produced Liverpool skylines in art. We were all really interested so we carried on our learning at home. Thank you so much for supporting us with our learning.

Judaism - A guest speaker to tell us all about the religion

Today we were lucky enough to listen to Michelle who told us lots of facts about Judaism. We learnt what the Star of David is and what it looks like, we saw a Menorah, we found out that the Torah Scroll has lots of stories and rules in it and we discovered what a Mezuzah is. Thank you so much!

Odd Socks Day 2019 - Anti-Bullying Week

Today the whole school wore odd socks as part of an initiative run by the Anti-bullying Alliance. The purpose is to spread the message that we should encourage people to express themselves, celebrate individuality and be unique! #oddsocks #antibullying week.

Remembrance Day Collective Worship

Today we took part in a Remembrance Day Collective Worship to remember those who have suffered and those who have lost their lives in wars. We observed a minutes silence at 11 O'clock.

Judaism - Visit to a synagogue

We have been learning all about the Jewish faith in RE lessons.  Our learning has been enhanced through visits and visitors who taught us all about the faith and different traditions. We have also visited the synagogue in Childwall where Dennis told us all about the Torah Scrolls, mezuzahs and Shabbat. Thank you so much we enjoyed our morning!

Friendship Week _ Anti-bullying performance. 

Altru-drama came to work with the whole school and put on a great performance focusing on the issues of bullying called Agents of Change. The children learnt about the effects of bullying and how best to deal with it. We also learnt that other people who are witnesses to the bullying can have an important role in helping to stop the bullying and they can help bring about change.   

RE - Beginnings - Psalm 19 is a song of praise to God

We have read psalm 19 and recognised that it praises God for the wonders of creation. We listened to 'Morning' from the Peer Gynt Suite and created a dance of celebration inspired by the psalm.

Spanish - Seasonal foods

Year Two have enjoyed a morning making apple roses with our Spanish teacher. They learnt that lots of apples are grown in Northern Spain and people often uses these apples to make foods for festivals. This time of year is harvest time! We learnt the Spanish names for the ingredients - manzana (apple), holjaldre (pastry), limon (lemon) and huevo (egg).

History and English - The Pool of Life (Local history of Liverpool

Today we worked with a drama company called Altru to produce a play called The Pool of Life. This documented the local history of Liverpool from the ice age, King John, The Beatles, football and  history of important buildings! We loved having fun while learning historical facts and improving our speaking and listening skills. At the end of the day we performed our play to the rest of the school. Thank you so much Barry!

Art - Producing a Liverpool Skyline

We looked at the Liverpool skyline and broke it down into the shapes that could be used to recreate it. We then used crayon to create our own. We evaluated our artwork and checked to see if we could identify the famous buildings in our own pieces.

Art - Observing the skyline of Liverpool

We worked in art partners to look closely at the skyline of Liverpool. We researched the name of the buildings that we could see and named the shapes that we could use to draw the skyline ourselves. We recognised that we could recreate the skyline by breaking the buildings into the shapes.

British Values - Democracy

Today we went to the polls to vote for our new year two school councillors. All of the children who wanted to be considered for the job had to complete an application form saying why they would make a good school councillor and what they would like to do. These application forms were submitted and then shortlisted. Those children on the shortlist presented their ideas to the class before voting. Well done to our two new councillors!

We also selected two sports leaders to work with Mrs Liggat this year. They will support and help organise any sporting activities.