Our Learning in Summer 1

Summer 1 in Year Two is an exciting place to be!

In English, we will be writing a letter based on the text 'The Last Wolf' by Mini Grey. In our final piece we will look to create an engaging letter that use the conjunctions of if and that and spells homophones correctly.

In Maths our children have been learning about time including o'clock, half past, quarter past, quarter to and also telling the time in increments of five minutes. We have also been learning about units of measure including grams, kilograms, millilitres, litres, centimetres, metres, kilometres and degrees celcius. 

In Science, Year 2 are learning about how various habitats provide for it's animals. Children have looked at various food chains to understand how habitats meet the various needs of animals. There will be a trip in Summer 2 to deepen our childrens' knowledge and understanding of habitats.

As historians, Year 2 are looking at railways and how they changed Britain. We are learning about the significance of George Stephenson's invention of railways and how it changed Britain. Our children are exploring the importance of the Manchester to Liverpool railway lines and understanding the positive and negative affects. Children are also learning about how trains have changed over the years.

In Art, Year 2 have been learning about repeated patterns. Our children have looked at the work of Al Hambra and other Islamic patterns. We have looked at various repeated patterns, drawing some in the outside environment and printing other patterns using blocks. We will be producing our very own digital pattern using collage techniques. We have been inspired by the famous patterns by Joanna Brundle.

In Design Technology we have been looking at the various hats we wear and their uses. Year 2 children will be cutting out a paper template of a bucket hat and sewing it. It will be made from cotton so that it can keep us cool during the summer months. We are excited about using sewing needles to sew a whip stitch. We will write a plan including what we will need and the steps we will take to make our bucket hat. Then we will write an evaluation of how well the hat turned out and how we could improve on the design or sewing process for next time.

Our Physical Education lessons are focusing on varying speed and mastering what it means to jog, run and sprint. This includes learning about which parts of our bodies to use and how to use them to move at different paces effectively. We are learning how to have relays against other children and groups. This is helping us to keep not only physically fit but also mentally well too. We understand the link that physical health has with mental health.

In our computing work, we are learning how to create shapes and objects in PowerPoint so that we can create steam and modern trains. We are developing our skills so that we can edit the properties of shape such as text, colour or font. 

As musicians, we are singing a range of songs and learning to play instruments to the rhythm of songs. We have listened and appraised the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.  Year 2 children have enthusiastically played to the crotchets and quavers of Snail, Snail as we continue to develop our understanding of pulse, tempo and rhythm. 

In Religious Education, Year 2 children are learning about the holy books of the Abrahamic religions and about how various religions treat their holy books respectfully. We will learn about parables including the Lost Sheep, the Exodus and the Black Stone, especially considering how key religious figures promoted values including caring and kindness.  

In RSHE lessons we will be learning the PANTS song to help us to understand acceptable and unacceptable touch. We will know who our trusted adults are and how to ask for help if we need it. We will also learn about the key stages of the human life cycle and what is fair, unfair, kind and unkind. As part of RSHE, we will be learning about online safety including how some events online can make us feel sad or upset, what our online rights are and who to seek support from if unwanted content has been put online. 

Here are some pictures of our learning in Summer 1