2023-24

Summer 1

Values day

Our value this term is 'respect'. We discussed why it is important to respect and how this can be shown by things we say and do. We created posters titled 'How does respect grow', we made flowers and wrote different ways we can show respect.

Spring 2

Design Technology

During the Spring term, the children have worked hard on designing and creating their very own bookmarks using binca and coloured thread. They have learned how to do running stitch and cross stitch. Some children had to adapt their designs when it came to making their final product!

Computing - data and information

This half term, we have been collecting data in tally charts and using this to create pictograms online. At the end of our unit, we collected information on the colours of cars in the staff car park and represented this through a pictogram. We can use our pictograms to answer questions about our data. 

Pro Strike

We had a visit from ProStike, each child had the chance to shoot the ball into the goal as hard and as fast as they could. Our top score was 65kph!

Science - Plants

In Science we have been looking at what makes plants grow, learning about our key word 'germinate'. We planted some cress seed and have been watching them begin the germination process. 

World Book Day- Thursday 8th March 

On Thursday 8th March we celebrated World Book Day. We came to school dressed as our favourite book character. They designed their own cross stictch book mark and started to make them using colourful binca and thread. 

We had a visit from West End in Schools, who led a dance workshop based around the book ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. Children used movement and still pose to represent various scenes from the story.

This half term, our focus school values are Courage and Love. Classes explored how their class namesake demonstrated these values throughout their lives. We then discussed some positive affirmations to inspire courage and self-love. Children worked in pairs to create some artwork representing the values and incorporating positive affirmations.

Spring 1

Royal Opera House - meet the artist event

As part of our ongoing project with the royal opera house, we took part in a live event where we got to meet the artists of this ballet. They showed us key movements that are important for telling the story of Alice, as well as answering our questions regarding what it is like to be a ballet dancer and how hard they must train. We even got to join in as they taught us some great motifs.

Royal Opera House - Create and dance project

KS1 has now begun their project with the royal opera house. Over the next term we will be exploring movement which will lead us to creating a dance inspired by Alice's adventures in wonderland. So far we have created a motif influenced by Alice falling down the rabbit hole and the nervous white rabbit acting as a double agent. We identifited many spinning movements and explored the different levels we can make. 

Online safety cafe 

On Thursday Mr Fox led our Year 2 parent cafe all about online safety. We discussed different sources we may come across on the internet and spotted the difference between reliable sources and fake news.  We looked at what makes a good password and what doesn't make a good password, exploring the different symbols on a keyboard and how we can incorporate these into a secure password. Thank you to all families who joined us for this, it was great to see so many of you. 

Computing

We are continuing our ‘Programming’ unit using the BeeBots. This week, we made predictions about where the BeeBots would get to, by thinking logically and moving our ‘Paper Bots’ as a simulation. We then tested our predictions by programming the algorithms into the BeeBots to see if we were right. Some of our predictions were correct and others were not, but part of Programming is figuring out why mistakes have happened and trying to fix them! We demonstrated good teamwork skills and resilience in this lesson. 

Art

In Art this term we have been looking at how we can use paint in a intuative and exploratory way. We started the unit introducing the class to artists who use paint and colour to create exciting gestural and abstract work. Children then explored primary and secondary colours through expressive mark making, connecting colour, mark making and texture (of paint) through abstract work. 

'To the moon and back' play

Year 1-6 watched a comedic play by Ben Langley which was all about space. The children learnt new science vocabulary and an understanding of gravity, velocity and rockets. The play was about a 10 year old boy who's dream was to go into space and land on the moon. 

History

As our theme this term is ‘People’, we are learning all about important local historical figures. We started off by learning about Allan Minns, who was mayor of Thetford between 1904 and 1906 - and also the first black mayor in Great Britain. We found out some key facts about him and then came up with questions. As a class, we carried out some research and answered as many of our questions as we could.

We have also been learning about timelines and their importance for helping people to understand history. Timelines show events and/or people in chronological order, helping us to understand when things happened. We sequenced some of the past mayors of Thetford and linked them together to create our own ‘mayoral chain’.

R.E

This half term, our key enquiry focus is: Why are there special places of worship? What are they like? What happens there? We will learn about Christianity and Judaism throughout our exploration of this topic, 

We started our learning by discussing what places are special to us and why. We then moved on to talking about why church is a special place for Christians and learned about some of the things that might happen in a church. We recognised that there are also reasons that non-Christians might go to a church - for example to attend a wedding ceremony. 

Art

We started our unit on ‘Expressive Painting’ by discussing the work of abstract artists Marela Zacarias and Charlie French. Children created their own sketchbook responses to the artists’ work, exploring use of shape and colour as well as adding words and notes about the artwork. 

Trip to Kings House

On the 11th January we took a trip to Kings House in Thetford to help introduce our new theme 'People'. We went to the mayors chambers and sat amongst where the council sits for their important meetings. We got to see all the photos of past mayors of Thetford since the 1800's. We played a game of 'guess who' with the mayor photos to try and find the person we will be focusing on throughout the term. Eventually we came across Allan Minns, the first black Mayor of Britian. We learnt some key information about him and his importance to Thetford. When then got to write and draw a letter to the mayor and council asking for something we would like to see in Thetford, we came up with a zoo, ziplines, outdoor swimming pool as well as more police officers and speed limits. These will be taken to the next council meeting and presented to the mayor himself. We then went on a scavanger hunt to find all the missing parts of the puzzle. Once we created the puzzle, we learnt about the 'mayoral chain' and its significance. We finished the trip off with a visit from the current Mayor of Thetford. We got to ask him all sorts of questions regarding his job and lifestyle. 

Music

This term we are learning to play the glockenspiels with our in house music resident. We have learnt to call and respond to different keys and using our voices to match our sounds.

PE

In PE we are learning about invasion games. We have started the unit by exploring the importance of keeping possession of the ball and learning the key terms 'defenders' and 'attackers'. 

Computing

We have begun our programming unit, where we give simple instrucions to our beeboots. We have programmed our bots to go 'forward, back, left, right and turn'.

English

We began our new teaching sequence with a hook lesson. Sara Star had come to tell us that she had made an intriguing discovery in the forest school area. We went to explore and found 3 giant eggs sat in the fire. We discussed what creature these must have come from and came to the conclusion they were dragon eegs! We then drew a picture of what we think the creature will look like and wrote our own character description. This then leds us into learning our new model text 'Kassim and the Greedy Dragon'.

Autumn 2

Talk for Reading

This half term, Miss Hornby’s Talk for Reading group have been studying the poem, ‘Overheard on a Saltmarsh’ written by Harold Monro in 1917. We learned some new vocabulary from the poem, then rehearsed and performed it as a group with actions, before working in pairs on performances. We explored and analysed the characters of the nymph and the goblin, discussing similarities and differences between these and practised using evidence from the text to justify our opinions - both orally and in writing. As a group, we then created our own similar poem. Finally, we wrote a letter in role as either the nymph or the goblin to demonstrate our deep understanding of the text.

Christmas Carol Serivce at St Cuthberts

Christmas Decoration day

Monday 4th December was Christmas decoration day in our class. We made our very own tree decoration using cardboard and wool. We cut out either a tree, Santa hat, reindeer or star using a template and then wrapped it with wool to add our designs. We also made our own Christmas hats ready for our Christmas dinner on Tuesday.

Lantern making

We have been making pyramid lanterns over the last few days and will be taken them down to Thetford to greet Father Christmas.We have used lots of resilience to ensure our pyramid stays up and is designed properly.

Science

We have been looking at materials in Science and exploring their properties. In teams we built 6 different houses made out of different materials to see which material makes the strongest house that can withstand 'The big bad wolf' (hairdryer). We made predictions on which material would be the strongest. Out of Lego, dominoes, card, paper straws, wooden sticks and multilink, we discovered lego and multilink were the strongest. 

Maths

We have begun learning about multiplication and how it represents repeated addition. We have used concrete and pictorial representations to work out that 2 x 5 means 2 equal groups with 5 in each group, we can then use addition to find out answer.

PSHE

We have been looking at how we grow as humans, starting off as a tiny egg to what we are today. We looked at foetal development and compared how at 1 month we are the size of a poppy seed and 9 months is equivelent to a watermelon. We then discussed how we will continue to grow and change as we get older.

We have been learning about making shapes with our bodies and holding them in a balance for 5 seconds. We have learned about the importance of body tension when holding balances - and tested this by trying to push our partner’s arms down! We have explored creating different shapes with a partner, as well as working in pairs to create sequences of balances, linking these together smoothly. 

We learned that maps need: a title, a key (showing the meaning of symbols used), a North arrow and to be drawn from a bird’s eye view. We worked in groups of four to collect crayon rubbings from various items around the playground and used these to represent different textures on the maps we created. 

Music 

We have been learning a new song from our nativity play in the music room. We warmed up our voices using the piano to help us keep a tune. 

Forest School

Year 2 have been enjoying Forest School so far this term. They have been building their resilience, self-esteem, creativity, confidence and independence. The children have been on the look out for wildlife, identifying plants, playing in the mud kitchen, building dens and so much more.

Maths

In Maths we have been exploring measurement. We begun the learning with looking at non-unit measurements and then moved on to centimeters and meters. The children have been not just measuring different things in and out the classroom, but comparing the length of different objects using the equality signs.

Autumn 1

PE

This term we have been working on developing our fundamental ball skills. This has included throwing, catching, rolling, hitting a target and dribbiling. We have looked to increase control and accuracy using co-ordination and balance. 

Science

In Science this term we have been looking at everyday materials and their properties. We participated in a fair test to see which material will be best to make our elephant's umbrella. We have also looked how some objects can be changed by the effect of forces - how they can bend, squash, twist and stretch. We used play dough to help desribe ways we can change the shape of the dough. We came up with 'flatten, pinch, roll and twist'.

Maths Cafe 

On Thursday we had a great attendance in the Year 2 Maths cafe. We looked at the calculation policy and explored the different strategies we use to answer various open ended questions. We finished with a fun problem solving activity where we used concrete resources such as dienes, bead string and counters to help us.

English 

We have been learning a new quest story during English, 'The story of Pirate Tom'. Take a look at our re-telling , with actions and expression! 

Time and Tide musuem trip

Year 2 went to Great Yarmouth to visit the Time and Tide musuem. We went on epic adventures around the world and joined many different explorers. We looked at artefacts, travelled through jungles, climbed mountains and hiked through the snow. We learnt that an explorer needs to be brave, resilient, couragous and observent. We even created our own boat and used our 'can do attitude' when a storm approached us.

Art - Explore and Draw 

During art this term we are introducing the idea that artistis can be collectors and explorers as they develop drawing and composition skills. In the first week,  explored making patterns using outside materials. 

High Lodge Trip 

On our first day back, the whole school took a trip to High Lodge. In Year 2 we started the day with a walk around the music trail, playing the different instruments in sight. We then played some team building games ran by Go Ape. We learnt how to Willow Weave with Mrs Booth and used wool to design our own leaves. After lunch we played in the play area (they loved the giant swing!) and then took part in den building with Sara Star.

Transition Week

In transition week, we have been learning all about the new expectations of Year 2. We started off getting to know our new teachers and finding out all about who our class is named after. We went to visit the pop up gallery in town to see our amazing art work on display and help make some willow sculptures. We looked at our topic for next term 'Explore!' and made our own treasure maps. We have also played lots of circle time and discussed how we can be a kind friend to all our peers and share nicely.