Year 2

Welcome to our Year 2 page

What is my child learning?

Please see our Curriculum Map: Year 2 Curriculum Map

Throughout the year, we will be sharing our learning journey, so please continue to visit our page.

Look out for key dates and important information.

We can't wait to share our journey with you!

June

Maths

May

Literacy

March

Literacy

February

Design Technology

Following our session last week designing cars, today Year 2 built there own vehicles based on their earlier designs. We experimented with different ways to create working axles and wheels, amending our designs where necessary. The task also required us to demonstrate our team working skills, making compromises when needed.

January

History

As part of our 'Transport Through the Ages' topic, Year 2 visited the Transport Museum in Covent Garden. We attended a special 'build a bus' workshop, where we found out about the evolution of the iconic London Bus. We then had time to explore the museum - particular highlights were visiting an early London Underground carriage and seeing the omnibus!

Science

This week as part of our new science topic, Animals including Humans, we visited Hackney City Farm. We had lots of fun looking at the different farm animals, and luckily we were just in time for the animal's breakfast!

   

   

History

To start our new history topic, ’Transport Through the Ages’, we examined different types of transport, noting how they had changed over time. We then discussed the importance of the wheel in the evolution of transport. Year 2 were then given the challenge of re-inventing the wheel! You can see some of our hard work below!

 

November

Science Museum trip

We visited the Science Museum this week as part of our Science topic 'Materials'. It was a fun-filled day with plenty of learning opportunities for the children. We were amazed by the countless layers of 'the Materials House' (a piece of art created using 213 different materials), explored how the uses of materials have changed over the centuries and finally had the chance to experiment to our heart's content in the museum's incredible 'Wonderlab'. Have a look at some of the photos below!

 

October

Holly class Pizza Express trip!

 

We had so much fun being chefs for the morning. We made margarita pizzas! It was even more fun eating the pizzas when they were cooked. Yummy!

Science

After examining and discussing the various properties of different materials, Year 2 embarked on an investigation to decide which materials would be best to build a water-tight boat! We worked in small teams of 4, first discussing ideas, possible plans and roles for each team member, before constructing our vessels and ultimately testing them in some wild waters (a tray full of water)!

September

Maths

To introduce our new maths topic of addition and subtraction, Year 2 investigated how they could use known number facts, such as 2 + 4 = 6, to derive  further number facts, such as 12 + 4 = 16. Our focus on Tuesday was addition and on Friday we looked at subtraction.

 

History

As part of our Great fire of London topic, we made wooden houses similar to the houses in the 1660s. The houses in Pudding Lane in the 1660s were made from wood and were built close together, that’s why the fire was able to spread so quickly.

 

WELCOME BACK

A warm welcome back to the school year. The class names for year 2 this year are HOLLY and HAZEL. We have had a fantastic first half term back in class.Our topic this half term has been The Great Fire of London. 

2016-2017 

Year 2 Reading Championship

Each week we will be announcing our Year 2 reading champion. This young reader will have read their book every night and will win the chance to have their name placed into a reading hat everyday. The name of the lucky winner will be drawn from the hat and will be announced at the end of each week. 

This week's reading champion is Awad Shah. 

 

June

Science

To conclude our Plants topic, Year 2 visited West Hackney Recreation Ground to explore pollination. Groups had a chance to go on a minibeast hunt (setting us up nicely for our next topic of habitats), create seed balls, sketch plants and examine insects and plants closely with a magnifying glass.

To introduce our new science topic, Year 2 spent the afternoon learning about habitats and had the chance to create a habitat of their own! We planted a range of vegetables and wild flowers in order to attract minibeasts to our playground. We will be able to monitor these microhabitats on a daily basis and observe the variety of creatures who make it a home.

 

 

May

Science

As part of our Plants topic in science, Year 2 visited the Horniman Museum in Lewisham to take part in their People and Plants workshop. The children got to examine a range of edible and non-edible plants and discover a wide range of uses for everyday plants—some of which were very surprising! To finish the day, we explored the museum’s natural history gallery, where we were even lucky enough to see a mysterious merman!

   

March 

Literacy

Year 2 donned their story writing hats this week as they wrote their own versions of the story 'Chatterbox Ben'. Would the Jelly Legs Jimmy be able to stay still during the mannequin challenge, raising hundreds of pounds for Red Nose Day? Children explored this idea through drama and talk for writing, before creating their own outstanding narratives!

 

History

As part of our history topic on the Tudors, Year 2 visited Sutton House. Did you know it is the oldest house in Hackney? We took part in a special time travel workshop, finding out what it was like to live in the house at various points throughout history. Can you guess which times are shown in these photos?

World Book Week

Year 2 started March with a bang! It was World Book Week so the whole school spent a week celebrating our favourite reads. Highlights included a pyjama reading party with milk and cookies and of course fancy dress on World Book Day.

February

Literacy - The Magic Finger

To explore our text for the week, Year 2 engaged in a range of drama activities, including hot seating and freeze framing. We also decided on a range of questions we would like to ask characters at key points in the story. We then used these ideas and inspirations to write and finally publish our own versions of Roald Dahl's story the Magic Finger!

 

 

January

Science - Animals, including humans

To introduce our new science topic, Year 2 looked at the life cycle of a human, paying particular focus to how we change over our lifetimes. We identified things that we did as babies and toddlers and compared these to things that we have learned to do as we have grown older. We then discussed the hypothesis that 'taller people have bigger shoes' and conducted an investigation to find out whether this was true or not. You can see some photos of Year 2 exploring this below!

 

History - Florence Nightingale

We looked at a picture of Florence Nightingale and made predictions about her life. We tried to guess what type of life she had and what her job was. We watched a video about her and compared nurses in 1840 with nurses in the present day. We learned about the key events in Florence Nightingale’s life and looked at some of the reasons why she was famous. We put the events of her life in order on a timeline.

 

December

Maths Mastery

As part of our unit on graphs and data, Year 2 had the opportunity to investigate just how many Smarties of each colour there are in each packet! We carefully recorded tally charts to show the information we had collected, before representing the data as both pictograms and bar charts. You can see pictures of some of the children involved in the data collection process below!

 

November

Geography

This half term we are comparing two cities. We are comparing London to New Delhi in India (a Non-European city). We have looked at famous landmarks in London and Delhi.

   

Maths Mastery 

Unit 4: Length

In this unit the children have been learning how to measure using metre sticks and rulers. They have measured different objects around the classroom using rulers and metre sticks. They have also measured different parts of their body such as wrists, arm length, height using measuring tapes. 

Science: Everyday Materials

Science Museum

We visited the Science Museum this week as part of our Science topic 'Materials'. It was a fun-filled day with plenty of learning opportunities for the children. We were amazed by the countless layers of 'the Materials House' (a piece of art created using 213 different materials), explored how the uses of materials have changed over the centuries and finally had the chance to experiment to our heart's content in the museum's incredible 'Wonderlab'. Have a look at some of the photos below!

  

   

We also had a chance to test out three different materials to find the best material to make a slide. We had a lot of fun testing the materials.

                                          

October

Maths

In Year 2 we have been following the Maths Mastery curriculum. The Year 2 Maths Mastery curriculum consists of 12 units.

Unit 1: Numbers within 100

In this unit we have been learning to recognise the place value of the digits in numbers within 100, ordering and comparing numbers to 100 using the greater than and less than sign, finding 10 more/10 less than a given number and sequencing numbers in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s.

Unit 2: Addition and subtraction within 100

In this unit we have been learning our addition and subtraction number bonds to 20. We have been using our knowledge of the number bonds to add a 1 or 2 digit number to another 2 digit number (e.g. 23+34=) and to subtract a 1 or 2 digit number from another 2 digit number (e.g. 47-18=). We have been using the bridging to 10 method and the place value chart.

Unit 3: Addition and subtraction word problems 

In this unit we have been learning to use the bar model to solve addition and subtraction word problems. 

Daily Maths Meetings

As part of our Maths Mastery curriculum we hold daily integral maths meetings in the afternoon. In these additional sessions we have been practising our times-tables, days of the week, months of the year, counting in 2s,3s,5s and 10s, and addition and subtraction.

History - The Great Fire of London

In Year 2 we have been learning about The Great Fire of London. We learnt that the fire started in a small bakery in Pudding Lane. The fire was able to spread quickly because the houses were made from wood and were close together. We made small houses that looked like the houses in 1666.  

 

In small groups, we acted out the story and then wrote some fantastic retells in our books.

   

   

          

Like the baker, Thomas Farriner, we baked some delicious cakes. We measured the ingredients out and took turns to mix them in a bowl. After we made the cakes, we wrote some amazing instructions on how to make cakes.

  

 

We have also learnt about Samuel Pepys. Did you know that Samuel Pepys kept a diary about the fire of London?  We pretended to be Samuel Pepys and wrote diary entries just like he did.

Our trip to the Geffrye Museum was amazing! We learnt about flammable and non-flammable materials that existed in 1666, this helped us to better understand why the fire was able to spread more fiercely as most of the objects were made out of wood. We also got to use special quill pens to write our names. The best part of the trip was when we got to make videos using Puppet Pals. You can watch one of the videos we have created.

    

  

Listen to a group of our year 2 pupils retelling the story of The Great Fire of London! 

Black History Month

As part of Black History Month we have been learning about the author Patrice Laurence, reading her book - Granny Ting Ting and looking at identity. We have written about ourselves, made suitcases filled with items that are important to us, written postcards from Trinidad and made comparisons between England and Trinidad.

Computing

We are Astronauts

In Computing we have been learning how to program a Bee-bot. We used navigational language to move the Bee-bot to different areas of the mat such as turn left, turn right, move forward or backwards 3 steps. We had so much fun! 

     

We have used our knowledge of navigation to program a sprite using the computing program - Scratch.

   

Science - Everyday Materials

In Science we have been learning about everyday materials. We sorted materials into different groups and learnt about the properties of different materials. We discovered how wool was made and we wove some patterns of our own using paper strips.

 

We also helped Upsy Daisy from In the Night Garden find a suitable material to make an umbrella. We tested 5 different materials to see if they were waterproof - net, silk, nylon, paper and tissue. We found that the nylon was the best material to make an umbrella with as it did not let water through. The other materials were not waterproof, they either let the water pass through completely or ripped.