The Great Fire of London

Wow – What a term! The children have loved learning about all things 1666.

Our History topic has been so popular with the children, they are able to recall key facts about the Great Fire, but also have been investigating how we can look at different pieces of evidence from the past to explore what happened. We’ve read diaries and newspaper articles. Had boxes of evidence delivered directly from London and looked at paintings to learn more about Samuel Pepys, Thomas Farrier and Sir Christopher Wren.

We’ve written instructions to make rolls from the famous bakery on Pudding Lane and written a diary entry as someone who was there on Pudding Lane on the night the fire started. We had a drama workshop with Ian from Kic theatre company too!

In DT we have built houses to replicate those from 1666, burnt them to see how quickly the fire spread and finally designed a new London.

Here are some photos of our learning this term.

6 Ways to Wellbeing

This week saw our first of our  6 days across the school year ‘off timetable’ celebrating our ‘6 Ways to Wellbeing.

Each class has chosen an artist and an environmentalist through which we will be learning, connecting, giving and more!

 

DT – Structures

Linked to our History topic of the Great Fire of London this term we will be making and testing structures.

To begin our topic we have looked at the terms ‘stable’ and ‘structure’. We made different 3D shapes and tested them to see which was the strongest. With this knowledge we then worked together in teams to try to make the most stable structure. We used books to test how strong each structure was.

 

Science – Materials

This term we are learning about different materials. We have learnt how to sort, describe and test different materials for different purposes.

It’s been lovely to see the children link their learning across subjects. For example we learnt that in 1666 they used leather buckets for carrying water, our Year 2 children came up with many alternative materials that would be better for this product.

Here are Fox Class sorting objects:

We were then learning about investigations. This year we will look at, and complete many investigations. We will build up to completing our own investigations by the end of the year.

RE – The Story of the Creation

Year Two have been learning about the Creation. They sequences what God made on each day and had to guess what might be created on day 6. We used water colours to paint pictures of what they believed God created and we then wrote about these too.

Their learning moves on now to look at how to protect and look after our planet that Christian’s believe God created. How we are all responsible and advocates for our Earth. This has linked well to our Worship about Harvest and our Wellbeing day where we looked at the natural world.

Our first week of Maths

To start this term we will be looking at Place Value.

In our first few lessons of Year Two we have been exploring how we can make teen numbers using a range of manipulatives. We will recap learning from Year One and identify our small steps of learning.

You can log in now to Numbots to continue practicing addition and subtraction challenges

In the afternoons we also help secure our number knowledge through Mastering Number this is a programme which helps

  • Pupils develop and demonstrate good number sense
  • Pupils build firm mathematical foundations
  • Support children’s understanding and use of appropriate manipulatives to support mathematical structures

Mastering number has some links to Numberblocks; videos can be found here:

 

English

We have started this term with our story about never giving up!

Following the success of the Olympic games we were inspired to look at the story of Skater Cielo. The children have loved sharing the book in our first few days of Year Two.

This week we made zig zag books to look at ourselves, our likes and dislikes and our hobbies. We also designed our own skate boards – with some fantastic results!

Welcome to Year Two

Welcome to Hare and Fox Classes 2024!

What an exciting year we have ahead of us. We hope you’ve all had a fantastic summer and are so pleased to see you happy and thriving in our classrooms this first week of the school year.

Below we have our Curriculum Map to give you an overview of the learning that will be covered this term. Our topic is the Great Fire of London and many of our subjects have aspects that link closely to this. We look forward to building houses to represent London in 1666 as well as turning our hand to baking whilst considering what it would’ve been like in the famous bakery on Pudding Lane.

Following our teacher visit to the Power of Reading home in London before the summer we have chosen a fantastic story on which to base our English work, closely linked to the summer of sporting events through the Olympics we hope it will inspire our young learners.

If you fancied a London family adventure the London Museum are running a Family Great Fire of London Walk this September!

https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/great-fire-of-london-family-walk/

In Maths we will be looking at place value, addition and subtraction. We will be introducing the children to different manipulatives to support their understanding as well as looking at ways to represent numbers pictorially. The children will be sent home some work to support their learning of this terms KIRFs, any questions please ask.

KIRFS year 2