Author: Ellie Bye

This half term, Year 2 have started an exciting new unit in PE, gymnastics. The children are exploring different types of movement, beginning with low, then medium and finally high movements. They have been thinking carefully about how these movements could be inspired by animals, using their bodies to stretch, balance and travel in creative ways.

Throughout the unit, the children will be challenged to try a range of gymnastics poses, including the forward roll, wheel pose and candlestick. As their confidence grows, they will begin to link movements together to create a smooth and controlled sequence.

The children will also have the exciting opportunity to use the apparatus, where they can practise climbing, balancing, and exploring different levels safely.

Two weeks ago, Year Two set up a very interesting bread experiment to explore how handwashing helps keep us healthy. We wanted to find out how germs affect the food we touch and what difference clean hands can make.

We compared three slices of bread:

• One untouched control slice (straight from the packet)
• One slice passed around the class before washing hands
• One slice passed around the class after washing hands

When we checked back after two weeks, the children were amazed by what they saw. The dirty hands bread had grown the most mould, the control bread had a few small patches, and the clean hands bread looked the best of all. Exactly what the children predicted!

“The dirty one was covered in green and black bits – it looked disgusting!” – Elsie

“That shows how many germs are on our hands if we don’t wash them.” – George

“The clean bread looked the best. Washing with soap really works!” – Jolyon

Staying Safe

From our experiment, we learned that germs are tiny and invisible but can easily spread and make us ill. By washing our hands properly, covering our mouths when we cough or sneeze and keeping things clean, we can help stop germs from spreading – just like Florence Nightingale taught.

Help at Home

Here are some ways the children can keep practising good hygiene at home:

•  Wash hands with soap for at least 20 seconds – try singing Happy Birthday twice!
• Always wash hands before eating and after using the toilet or playing outside.
• Use tissues to catch sneezes and coughs, then bin them straight away.
• Help keep your room or toys tidy and clean to reduce germs.

Year Two were brilliant scientists throughout this experiment – observing carefully, making predictions, and discussing what they had learned. What a wonderful way to finish our first half-term in Year Two.

This week, Year Two began their new science topic all about humans, health, and hygiene.

In today’s lesson, we learned about the famous nurse Florence Nightingale and how her simple ideas about keeping hospitals clean completely changed healthcare. The children discussed why washing hands and staying clean is still so important for our health today.

To explore this further, we carried out an experiment using bread.

• One slice of bread was placed straight into a sandwich bag without being touched – our control slice.

• Another slice was passed around by everyone before washing their hands (straight after break).

• The final slice was passed around again after everyone had carefully washed their hands with soap and water.

The children made some brilliant predictions about what might happen over the next two weeks:

“I think the dirty hands bread will go green and fluffy!” – Luna
“The clean hands bread might stay the same because there won’t be any germs on it.” – Niyah
“I think all bread grows mould, but the dirty one will do it faster.” – Jolyon

We’ll keep a close eye on our bread bags and check back in two weeks to see which slice grows the most mould.

On Thursday, Year 2 celebrated National Poetry Day with a special assembly. The children performed two poems, which were A Little Manners Poem and Autumn Leaves. They had worked hard to learn the words by heart and even created their own actions to add to the performance. It was wonderful to see them performing so confidently in front of parents.

Each week in Year 2 we enjoy reading a new poem. This helps us to develop a love of reading and also supports our fluency. Poetry is brilliant for children because it builds rhythm and expression, introduces rich new vocabulary and encourages memory and performance skills.

The children really enjoyed sharing their poems, and we are so proud of the confidence and enthusiasm they showed.

This week in Year 2 we have been learning all about the number line up to 100. The children practised estimating where numbers belong and explained their thinking clearly.

We drew 100cm number lines and carefully added the numbers from 0 to 100. Using what we know about halfway, we placed important numbers such as 50, 25 and 90.

Here are some of the things the children said:

George – “I know 50 goes in the middle because it is halfway between 0 and 100.”

Austin – “25 is halfway between 0 and 50, so I put it at the quarter mark.”

Luna – “I put 90 near the end because it is close to 100.”

Gracie – “I checked my number by thinking about counting in tens along the line.”

Help at Home 

Have a go at practising together at home with this interactive number line: https://mathsbot.com/tools/numberLine

This term in PE, Year 2 are developing their football skills. We began by learning how to control the ball by stopping it carefully. The children then practised moving slowly around each other, keeping the ball under control as they navigated the space.

Working in pairs, they learned how to stop the ball with their foot before passing it back using the inside of their foot. Finally, the children started dribbling the ball to each other, focusing on keeping the ball close and controlled.

⚽ How you can help at home:

• Practise stopping the ball with your foot.

• Try short passes with a family member, aiming to use the inside of your foot.

• Set up small obstacles (like cones or toys) and practise dribbling slowly around them.

• Talk about the importance of control rather than speed.

This half term in Science, Year 2 have started a new topic all about what animals need to survive. We are building on our Year 1 learning, where we explored different animal groups. Now we are thinking more carefully about their individual needs.

All animals need some important things to survive:

• Food

• Water

• Air

• Shelter

Jolyon – “All animals need to have shelter and stay warm to survive.”

Zubi – “Shelter is somewhere that animals can go to be protected from the weather.”

Last week, we began by looking at mammals. We talked about how humans are mammals too, and thought about the things we need to stay alive and healthy. Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring the survival needs of other animal groups, including birds, fish and reptiles.

Help at Home: Ask your child about our new Science vocabulary.

What a wonderful first week back we’ve had in Year 2! The children have returned full of enthusiasm and have already shown such a positive attitude towards their learning.

In Maths, we’ve been busy playing games to practise our number bonds. Using towers of ten cubes, one partner hid some while the other worked out how many were missing. The children also explored how ten is made up of ten ones — a really important building block for their number work this year.

In PE, we had lots of fun with a game of Castles and Cannonballs. The children worked brilliantly in teams to build tall, careful towers before using balls with great skill to try and knock them down.

It’s been a fantastic start to the new school year, and I’m so impressed at how well Year 2 have settled back into school life. If the first week is anything to go by, we’re in for an amazing year ahead!

In Year 2 this week, we have been thinking carefully about rules and routines. We spent time settling into our new routines and revisiting familiar ones, noticing how these are shaped by our school rules.

The children explored each rule and asked important questions: Why do we have this rule? What is its purpose? Their thoughtful answers showed how much they understand about keeping our classroom safe, fair and happy. To share their ideas, the children designed bright and creative posters of their own school rules. Some of these posters are now on display in our classroom as a reminder of the choices we want to make together.

 

What impressed us most was how children made links to their RE learning. They recognised that just like our school rules guide us, people of faith also follow rules that are important to them — such as the Ten Commandments in Christianity and the Five Pillars of Islam.

We are very proud of Year 2’s thoughtful discussions and creative work already this week!