We learnt so much and experienced a range of habitats through a range of activities including: pond dipping, nature walks, meadow sweeping and even made our own homes for little animals. We thank all of the Hillier staff, school staff and parent helpers who made the trip possible. 

 

  

      

 

 

We would also like to thank all of the fantastic parent helpers and staff who were brilliant in keeping the everyone safe and calm, the staff beavering away back at school and to all of the parents who were waiting patiently for the children to return. It was an adventure we weren’t expecting but it will certainly be one that we never forget! 

 

As a reward for their super behaviour, we will have a fun afternoon in school this week for Year 2, so this will be something extra for the children to look forward to! Our adventure will also add some extra interest and excitement to the recounts that we will be writing too! 

 

We hope to have a fun, but hopefully slightly less adventurous week. 

 

The Year 2 Team

 

We also had a fun week learning about 'Good News' through our RE unit based around Christianity and the Gospel. This was last half term's unit, but with the shorter half term in summer 1, and the Queen's Jubilee celebrations, we felt that it fitted better into this half term. The children have been so thoughtful and have had wealth of ideas to share. We are incredibly proud of them all. 

You may also hear the children talking about leading a whole school worship. Our Year 2 children, will be sharing their learning about Tanzania and the charity: The Mud House Children's Foundation, with the wider school community next week. They are very excited to do this and have loved learning about the Maasai tribes with the help of the charity project director: Nicky Jarman.  You will be able to meet her and other members of the team on a stall at the Summer Fun Day. We will also be asking children from Year 2 to come and help run the stall at the Fun Day where we will begin to raise money for the charity. This will be optional but we are sure many children will be excited to get involved. We will send out details later this week. 

We begin our learning for this half term tomorrow, with our learning based around our exciting science and history topics and linked with the theme: Oh, the places you'll go! If you would like to find out more about what we will be learning, then please see our attached knowledge organiser and topic web. 

We would like to remind you that we have our school trip on Friday 24th June. A letter and reminders have been sent via email.  Thank you to all of those of you who have responded and sent reply slips and contributions. If you have not yet done this, then please could you complete this early this week to give us time to make our preparations. If you have any difficulties or concerns, then please contact your class teacher or the office and we'll be happy to help. Any parents who had volunteered to help before half term, have been spoken to by their class teacher and those needed should have, or be in the process of obtaining DBS checks. When your DBS arrives in, please bring it to show the school office team. We will send a reminder of what is needed for the trip later this week. We are sure it will be an enjoyable trip for them all-especially as it will be their first proper trip! 

We can hardly believe how little time the children have left in Year 2 but they are really demonstrating how ready they are to take on their next exciting challenge of moving into Year 3 and KS2. Some parents have asked about this but we won't begin to properly talk to the children about this until later this half term. If you have any concerns about this or anything else, then please don't hesitate to speak to us or contact us via email: Year2@stmarksce.org.uk 

Thank you for your continued support. 

The Year 2 team

This half term, our learning is based around ‘Our Amazing World’. In Geography we will be learning about a non-European country and in Science we will be thinking about plants and how they grow. We will be linking our learning in lots of creative ways and look forward to sharing our work with you and our school community. If you want to find out more about our topics, then please look at our knowledge organiser and topic web below.

We will be growing beans but to save on unnecessary plastic, rather than buying cups, we are asking that you provide your child with a transparent plastic bottle (1 litre or 2 litre will work well).  Please also cut the top off before sending it in.  See attached example.  Sometime next week will work well.

Please also remember that our PE days are on Wednesday for the remainder of the half term. Please ensure that children come into school in their PE kits on a Wednesday but also with a coat in case of rain. 

Many parents have asked about a trip and we are excited to let you know that Year 2 will be going on a trip to Hillier Gardens on Friday 24th June. A letter will be coming home next week. We will be asking for parent helpers but will require you to have a DBS. We are aware that the DBS are taking a little longer than normal to come back so if you would like to help, then please contact the office as soon as possible. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us via our year group email: year2@stmarksce.org.uk

We look forward to a fun half term!

The Year 2 Team

On Monday, to get started with our science topic, we did lots of exciting arts, craft and games activities linked with our learning about life cycles. You probably spotted our dragonfly life cycle hats which we loved making! See our attached knowledge organiser and topic web to find out more about what we will be learning this half term. 

We all had such a wonderful time on Thursday's World Book Day: Book Swaps, Teatime Tales, Masked Readers, Book Doors, Mr Wonka's Factory visit and much more! Here are some pictures of the book doors that we made in Year 2! 

Don't forget to spend your book day voucher on one of the many super £1 books: https://www.worldbookday.com/books/ (2B's will be sent home on Monday). We also launched a take home book bag/box full of exciting new books and a hot chocolate to drink. We are aiming for each child to take the book bag/box home at some point between now and the end of the summer term. When it comes to your child's turn, do spend some time enjoying the books together. 

We also launched a Masked Reader Competition which closes on Wednesday 9th March at 9am. Entries can be given to the class teacher or submitted via the Google Classroom class page. See Google Classroom for more details. 

PE is on Friday and children should come in wearing their PE kits.

Our Library visit is on a Monday. Please ensure children bring in books to swap on a Monday as it is difficult to visit at other times. 

Homework for year 2 is at least 20 minutes per week on numbots/ttrockstars, daily reading (at least 4 times per week) and spellings (see Google classroom).  All children should be secure with their 2,5 and 10 times tables by the end of Year 2, so any additional practise in these area would be beneficial. Tt rockstars is great for developing speed of recall and is great fun too! Note: login details for this are the same as Numbots. 

Telling the time: Towards the end of this half term, we will be learning to tell the time, initially to the nearest quarter hour and then to five minute intervals. As this is an area children can often struggle with, it would be helpful if you could spend some time regularly talking to your child about how to tell the time on an analogue clock (clock with a face), particularly talking about the position of the minute and hour hand. It is often much easier for children to develop their understanding of time when working 1:1, so we appreciate any support that you are able to give your child with this. 

Thank you for your continued support. If you have any questions or concerns, then please don't hesitate to contact us via email: year2@stmarksce.org.uk

or catch us at the classroom door. 

We look forward to seeing you all at our parents evenings over the next few weeks. 

The Year 2 Team.