Year 2 Class News

Anti-bullying week

This week, it’s been Anti-bullying week. We came in our odd socks to show that we’re all different and that’s a good thing!

We talked about what bullying actually means. If someone is unkind to us once, it’s okay to feel upset and to talk to people we trust. However, recognising behaviour as bullying means:

S – Several
T – Times
O – On
P – Purpose

If we feel this is happening, it needs to STOP, so we should:

S – Start
T – Telling
O – Other
P – People

These people would be trusted adults such as our parents or teachers.

We looked at different situations and decided whether they were examples of bullying or just unkind behaviour.

We also thought about the different types of bullying, such as:

• Physical – when someone is being physically hurt

• Emotional – unkind words or negative body language
  After looking at some friendship scenarios, we thought about how we might feel and what we could do to make sure everyone felt happy again.

We finished the day by thinking about the things we like. Not everyone liked the same things and that’s what makes us unique!

If someone likes something different, it would be good to try it because you might like it too. J

Help at home: Can your child tell you what both STOPs mean? 

Year 2 Trip to the Hepworth Gallery

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.

• 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.