Welcome to Life at KPS for Year 2

Mrs Sandhu and Mrs Morgan warmly welcome you to Year 2.

The aim of this page is to highlight some of the fantastic learning that has been happening in Year 2, this page will be updated monthly, with photographs and information about the learning we have completed during the month.

We hope you enjoy looking through these updates and do discuss your child’s learning with them to celebrate their success. We look forward to any suggestions you may have to make your child’s learning a pleasant experience.

January 2021

Art

We had so much fun learning this half term’s topic as we looked at drawing. Our theme was ‘A view through my window’.  We kicked off by learning to draw what we saw followed by four shading techniques, namely; hatching, cross hatching, stippling and scribbling. We enjoyed shading our drawings because we found it relaxing. After that, we learned about lighter and darker tones when shading. We then started to draw what we could see through our windows. Doing drafts helped us to improve our drawings and produce final pieces that we are quite proud of.

English

In English the focus has been on Paddington Bear. Through watching his animated series, the children have learned to write 2A sentences – aswell as What! sentences that use an exclamation mark. They have been very imaginative in creating their very own adventures on a storyboard, focusing on a problem that PB must solve in the end. The children thought of missing TVs, hats and all sorts of ideas that made their stories very entertaining and amusing to read.

History

History was quite exciting as we travelled back in time all the way to September 1666, the time of The Great Fire of London. Firstly, we compared 17^th Century London to modern London.  videos and a story called Vlad and The Great Fire of London helped us understand the events better. We also create timeline to help order the events and had the chance to re-design London through some very colourful drawings. To mark the end of the topic, the children became journalists and wrote newspaper articles describing and explaining the fire.

Maths

A short time- earlier this term we started learning about time in Maths. The main focus has been reading the time on analogue clocks. Children initially tell the times quarter to and quarter past before progressing onto reading the time to five minute intervals. They have also had the chance to draw  hands on empty clock faces to show these times. The learning has also included how to calculate duration of time in minutes and hours, sequence daily events and solve time-related word problems.

Music

I’m so proud of how year twos are participating in online music lessons.

As a warm up each lesson, the children have been following rhythms in grids like the picture.

The children have learnt a song related to their topic called September 1666.

This has allowed them to sing, beat rhythms and pulse in time to the melody and select phrases from the song which they can say as a rhythm to a pulse.

Panjabi

In year 2, we have been learning 4 sets of the Panjabi alphabet, and their corresponding sounds. We have been using many resources such as whiteboards, magnetic letters, foam letters and songs to learn the alphabet. We have also been using our knowledge on the sounds and letters to start writing Mukta and Kanna words. We have also been learning about body parts and their functions in Panjabi. To learn this, we have been singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and toes in Panjabi.

PE

This term, children have taken part in online Zoom PE lessons!

We have focused on fitness and exercise with workout routines as well as playing fun PE games such as ‘Would You Rather’ and ‘Deal or No Deal – Fitness’.

Children have learnt new exercises such as ‘Kangaroo Kicks’, ‘Frog Jumps’ and the ‘Cheetah Run’.

We have also spent a little time meditating towards the end of our lessons to help clear our mind and focus our thoughts.

It has been important that children do keep fit exercises daily so we have also challenged children to repeat the exercises every day at home to maintain their health and fitness!

PSHE

This half term in PSHE, we focused on our feelings. We created our jars of happiness where we collected all the fun things we are doing with our families and in our worry extinguishers, we wrote down any worries that we might have had. Story times were fun as we had opportunities to discuss about how we felt about certain characters. We took part in Mental health awareness week for children. The theme Express Yourself got the children to show their kindness to others. Children had fun producing their kindness diaries and charts.

RE

This half term we have been learning about Judaism. We looked at symbols and their meanings. We also learned about the synagogue where Jewish people worship and even compared it to the Gurdwara. We found out about their holy book, the Torah where teachings and lots of stories are written. One of the stories we heard was about a brave man called Moses who the Jewish believe brought them ten commandments on a tablet from God. We had fun coming up with our own tablets.

Science

We have been learning about Materials this half. We focused on carrying out investigations to help us understand more about properties and uses of materials. We were curious to find out those that are absorbent and not, sink or float, and those that could or could not change shape when twisted, stretched, squashed or bent. We finished off this topic by looking at why some materials are more suitable than others for certain objects.

We took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch Watch with RSPB observing the birds that visit our gardens. This was fun because we got away from our devices.