Money Week
This week, we’ve had a special focus! It’s been all about money. Here’s what we have been up to:
In maths, we’ve been learning to recognise the value of different coins and notes. We practised ordering them by their value and explored how many 1p coins are needed to make the same amount as other coins.
In our Living and Learning sessions, we’ve been thinking about how people earn money and how to manage it wisely. We discussed the importance of being careful with our spending and prioritising what we need before buying things we simply want. We also talked about how keeping our money safe is very important.
Finally, we considered how we can use our money to help others. This led to a thoughtful discussion about charity, and the children voted for our new school charity which will be revealed next week!
People earn money by working. Deacon
We keep our money in the bank. Luna
I am saving up my money to buy a toy. Elsie
It’s good to give some money to charity to help others. A
Gymnastics in Year 2
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.
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Training day – Arty Ideas
We thought you’d enjoy hearing a little about what went on during our recent teacher training day! Part of the day was dedicated to developing our art knowledge and skills with our resident art teacher, Mrs Boulton.
Teachers got hands-on with paints, pastels and even soap! There was plenty of colour, laughter, and even a bit of friendly competition as we experimented with new techniques and ideas for upcoming art lessons.
The rest of the day focussed on other important areas too, including maths and inclusion. It was a full, productive day – and we left feeling ready and excited for the next half-term!
Health and Hygiene in Science: The Results Are In
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.
Junior Leadership Team
Last week, we took part in a democratic vote to choose our new Junior Leadership Team representatives from year 2.
We wrote some brilliant speeches explaining why we should be chosen to be a JLT member.
Congratulations to the two fantastic and newly elected JLT members.
Here are their speeches that won them their places on the school JLT.
Help at home: What does it mean to take part in a demographic vote?
Adding tens and ones
We have continued to explore tens and ones in our maths lessons.
This week, we have been adding tens and ones together.
We learned that if we have 40 (or 4 tens) and we add 3 ones, the total is 43.
We used Base 10 equipment to help us see this visually. By finding the correct number of tens and ones, we could clearly see the total amount when they were added together.
We are becoming more confident at recognising how numbers are made up of tens and ones and using this to help us add!
Help at home: Can your child choose some tens and ones to add together. They could draw out the Base 10 or show you a part whole model that we have been using.
Health and Hygiene in Science
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.
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One slice of bread was placed straight into a sandwich bag without being touched – our control slice.
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Another slice was passed around by everyone before washing their hands (straight after break).
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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.
Living and Learning: I respect others
Our living and learning this week was all about respect.
We have been looking at what is means to be respectful and why it’s so important. The children talked about how we can show respect to others by listening carefully, using kind words, and taking care of our classroom and belongings.
We explored real-life examples, acted out respectful and disrespectful situations, and discussed how our actions make others feel.
Respect is when you are kind and share- Isaac
It’s saying thank you to the ladies at lunchtime- Gracie
Respect is doing what you are told by your mum and your teacher- Deacon
It’s playing with your friends and sharing- A
Not listening is not respectful- Thomas
Year 2 Celebrate National Poetry Day
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.