Year 2AH: Blog items
Date: 31st Mar 2025 @ 3:55pm
Hello!
We had amazing week last week in Year 2 which ended with our fantastic trip to Portland Basin Museum. The children started their day in a 'Put to Work' Victorian workshop where Hannah the housemaid. The children immersed themselves in role play, pretending they were working as cleaners in an estate home, in the coal mines and in a cotton workhouse. The children were shocked when they learnt that Victorian children had to do such tough jobs such as picking for coal in the mines, scrubbing floors and having to quickly get under cotton machines, all for a 25p wage or less!
Following the workshop, we were able to walk through the Victorian street. The children were able to dress up, play with Victorian toys and explore a Victorian school room with playground, a green grocers, fish and chip shop, dressmaker's, Doctor's surgery, chapel and pub. The children had a lot of fun in the classroom, learning the Victorian school rules and comparing how different school is today. It was lovely to see the children exciting in their learning and applying what they have learned in their activity booklets. Take a look at some of the photos below to see what we got up to!
Miss Hindle :)
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British Science Week - Change and Adaptation!
Date: 13th Mar 2025 @ 12:02pm
Hello
This week we have celebrated British Science Week. On Wednesday, we spent the day celebrating Science and all of the amazing things that we have been learning.
We started the morning with a Science Boffins assembly where we learned all about hydrogels that absorb water and make it 'disappear' as well as experiments with household items such as washing up liquid.
In class, we have been learning all about living things and their habitats. We finished our morning by completing our habitat investigations, investigating the rainforest habitat and the animals that live there. The children chose different rainforest animals and drew these in their books, labelling the different features and how these help the animals to survive.
In the afternoon, we then made all of our different habitats. We used sand to create the Sahara desert, water to create the ocean, broccoli to make trees for our rainforest and even made our own snow for the Artic. The children then used different materials and tools such as play-doh and lego to make the different animals and features of the different habitats. The children were all so absorbed in the activites and really used their learning to discuss and create the habitats. Look at the photos below of our Ocean, Artic, Rainforest and Desert habitats.
Date: 7th Mar 2025 @ 2:06pm
Happy World Book Day!
Today has been an amazing day in 2AH, celebrating 'World Book Day' by getting comfy and taking part in lots of reading activities. During the morning, we went into the hall to share some of our favourite class stories with our adults and teachers. The children were so excited and happy.
After this, we came back to class and started our story spoons. In 2AH we love Julia Donaldson stories so you will be able to see a theme.
We also looked through the book 'Flotsam'. The book has no writing so it was really lovely to see the children using their comprehension skills to look at the images and discuss what is happening. As the book shows us so much of our beautiful sea life and oceans, we decided to make 'Save our Oceans' posters.
Finally, the children enjoyed spending some time with their book buddies in Year 6. The pupils from Year 6 sat with the children to read and discuss different stories.
It is so wonderful that the children in 2AH have such a pleasure for reading and talking about the different books that they have read. Remember that the children's home reading and shared reading books are changed each Friday so please take some time to read with your child each day after school.
Our royal crowns
We also made our 'Queen Victoria' crowns in art this week, all ready for more of our history learning. The children used the skills they practiced last week and also used lots of different materials to design. Take a look at their amazing creations!
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Hindle.
Date: 27th Feb 2025 @ 2:52pm
What a wonderful first week back!
Maths
This week in Maths we have started our shapes unit. The children have started to recognise, name and describe different polygon shapes. We went on a 'polygon hunt' around our classroom and outdoor area where the children worked together to take photos and describe the different real life polygons. Take a look at some of our photos below:
History
In history this week, we launched our new unit 'What did Queen Victoria do for us?' We started our launch with our art objective to make our own paper crowns. This week, the children spent time designing their own crowns and practiced their own paper scissor skills such as zigzags, curling and fringing.
English
With our Queen Victoria launch in history, we have started to look at non-chronological reports all about Queen Victoria's life in English. This week, the children identified the features of non-chronological reports and worked together to find these in different reports such as information booklets. On Thursday, we had our 'ideas party', the children worked with their table buddies to write the different question sub-headings that they could use in their reports.
PE
We had an amazing PE session with Coach Amy on Tuesday. This half term, the children are working on their throwing and catching skills. This week, the children used tennis balls to practice how we can throw up and catch a ball, cupping our hands and holding the ball close to our hands to protect it.
Children's Mental Health Week and Amazing Designs!
Date: 7th Feb 2025 @ 3:53pm
Hello!
This week has been Children's Mental Health week where we have explored the theme 'Know Yourself, Grow Yourself'. The children discussed how they can learn more about themselves and what makes them the person that they are. We discussed that all of us are different. We have our own qualities, talents, thoughts, opinions and personalities. This is what makes our world a wonderful and diverse place. By developing our self-awareness, we can identify and understand how we feel in different situations. This can help to build resilience and confidence. We took part in 'Place2Be's' Inside Out themed activities, creating memory boxes where the children had an opportunity to write their memories and store them inside. We then watched the 'Inside Out' film during Golden Time and discussed the different feelings and thoughts that we have.
Artists in the making!
In preperation for our recount writing next week, we made Chinese New Year dragon hats in design and technology this week. This is also linking to our learning of Wuhan in China and the different celebrations they have compared to Manchester. The children used oragami style techniques to make their dragon face templates and then designed these using lots of different materials. They even practiced their sewing skills and used a needle and thread to make their dragons nose!
Home Reading
Myself and Miss Imran have been really impressed by all of the children who have been reading at home and having their reading records signed. 'Oscar the Reading Owl' has been to lots of houses over the past couple of weeks and we have seen such an improvement in a lot of the children's reading in school.
We do ask that you spend time to listen to your child read every night and log this in their home reading record.
Have a lovely weekend :)
Miss Hindle
Date: 24th Jan 2025 @ 2:18pm
Hello!
2AH have blown myself and Miss Imran away this week with their passion to learn!
The children have been really lucky this week as we have had Wood Street Mission's roadshow visit our school. The children had a chat with the staff from Wood Street Mission all about reading and were able to choose 5 free books to take home. The children chose their own books, looking at the front covers and reading the blurbs for something they will really enjoy.
In Maths, we have been working on multiplication, practicing our 2, 5 and 10 times tables. The children have been having so much fun dancing to Jack Hartmann's lesson warm-ups, retrieval practice on the iPads and going for times tables scavenger hunts in our outdoor areas. Next week we will be looking at doubling and halving numbers which the children have already been recalling from Year 1.
In English this week, we have started to read 'Winne and Wilbur at Chinese New Year'. We have been discussing all of the amazing adjectives that we can use to describe a Chinese New Year celebration parade, discussing what we can see, hear, smell and feel. The children have loved listening and watching the different ways in which people celebrate such as seeing the red lanterns, dragons, lion dancers, drummers and discussing all of the tasty food. Click this link to listen to 'Winnie and Wilbur at Chinese New Year' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuw4L3OEao0
In Geography we have continued our learning of Wuhan and Manchester. This week we have looked at the human features that can be found in both. The children were really excited to discuss the local human features they know such as the Velopark Cycling Centre and the Etihad Stadium. Within the children's homework this week there is a Geography challenge to go on a walk and spot the human features around us, which I am sure all of the family can enjoy.
We have also introduced 'Oscar the Owl' in our class. Oscar is a reading teddy which will be given to a different child each day to take home and read to that night. Please ensure that your child's reading record is being signed each night as we do monitor this and reward children who have had their reading record signed every day.
Thank you,
Miss Hindle.
Date: 12th Dec 2024 @ 10:40am
We have had an amazing week in 2AH!
It has been very busy across the whole school with Christmas festivities such as the Christmas Fair last week, meeting Father Christmas this week and lots more to come.
I am extremely proud of how the children performed in our EYFS and KS1 Nativity. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the performance, I am sure you have heard lots of line practicing and song singing over the past couple of weeks! It has been lovely to watch how the children have really come into themselves during this first term of Year 2 and the confidence that they brought to the performance just shows how proud they are.
All parents will receive a photo of their child in their nativity costume as mentioned by Mrs Hughes. We also had a whole class photo before our performance, just look at the excitement on the children's faces!
The events of The Great Fire of London
Date: 28th Nov 2024 @ 2:32pm
Last week in History, the children explored the timeline of events during 'The Great Fire of London'. We remembered how the fire started and then discussed how it spread easily through the streets of London and how Samuel Pepys started writing about the events in his special book called a 'diary'. The children looked at how the fire burned down St.Paul's Cathedral and spread all the way across to the Tower of London, which luckily didn't catch fire. We talked about how the fire then started to die down as the wind changed and people used fire hooks to pull down the houses.
Following their learning, the children collaborated to make their on 'Great Fire of London' timeline for our display board in the classroom. The children used their amazing writing and creative skills to show the events of the 'Great Fire' and are very proud of their work. Take a look below of how amazing it looks!
Our trip to the Gregg's bakery
Date: 15th Nov 2024 @ 9:15pm
This week has been very special in 2AH! We have been extremely busy with starting our subtraction work in Maths and having school photos taken. This week we also had Remembrance Day on Monday, in class we discussed why we have Remembrance Day, the meaning of wearing a poppy and completed some creative tasks to show our thanks and remembrance. It has also been anti-bullying week, the class discussed choices which are and are not respectful, responsible and safe. We discussed how we can show kindness in our classroom, to our friends, our family at home and others. The children had some lovely reflections, discussing how using our voice to speak up is brave and that we all deserve to be treated with kindness.
To end our week, we had our class trip to the local Gregg's bakery. This links to our current history topic 'Could the Great Fire of London happen in Clayton?'. We have explored how the Great Fire started in a bakery on Pudding Lane, and how ovens and bakeries are different now compared to when the fire started in 1666. At the Gregg's factory, the children were able to see all of the different machinery used to make bread rolls and pizzas. The children had a go at sorting their own pizza dough ready to be baked and also enjoyed decorating their own gingerbread men. We had some special visitors, including Pudsey Bear who the children were extremely excited to meet. Take a look at some of our photos below:
The whole class have been great representatives of our school whilst out in public this week and I am so proud of how they are working in Year 2. For being so incredible during our trip, and during the whole week, I have awarded our behaviour star this week to the whole class. Well done 2AH, I am extremely proud of you all!
The Great Fire of London and Diwali
Date: 31st Oct 2024 @ 9:30am
Welcome back!
It has been a lovely first week back in 2AH, I have enjoyed hearing all about the children's half-term break and seeing all of the amazing holiday homework creations. The children were so excited on Tuesday to show their creations to the rest of the class and these are now on display in our shared area.
History
This week we have launched our new History topic: Could the Great Fire of London Happen in Clayton?
The children have discussed what they would like to learn about the Great Fire of London and have made some amazing silhouttes of the Great Fire to add to our classroom display. This half term we will be doing a lot of activities all about the Great Fire of London and I am very excited to see the children become immersed in their exploration.
English
We have also started our new unit in English, Poetry. The children will be writing poems linked to the Great Fire of London and this week we have been reading poems all about bonfire night, finding adjectives that describe the sounds, colours and shapes of the fire. I was very impressed with the amazing adjectives that the children contributed to our class working wall and look forward to see how they apply these to their own poems.
Diwali
To celebrate the Hidu celebration of Diwali - The Festival of Light, we made our own diya candle holders. The children used their fine motor skills to make their diya's from clay and we look forward to painting these and bringing them home to light with our families next week. Just look at how proud the children were of their work!
World Mental Health Day and More in 2AH!
Date: 10th Oct 2024 @ 12:43pm
World Mental Health Day
Today we have celebrated World Mental Health Day. We have taken some time throughout the day to discuss how this event links to the rights respecting school Article 24 and how our mental health and wellbeing is a priority. The children took part in activities such as mindfulness colouring, we read 'Find your Happy' by Emily Coxhead as part of 'read Manchester' and also had some independent mindful reading. The children recognised how it is important to share our feelings and what we can do to support our mental wellbeing.
This week in English we have started reading 'The Disgusting Sandwich' and have been practicing instruction writing for our own recipes. The children have been using time connectives, adjectives and conjunctions in their writing and I am so proud of how much they are expressing their ideas in this topic.
Please remember that we have pupil progress evening next Tuesday and Wednesday for families that have children across the key stages. If you have not yet booked your time slot, you can book an appointment using the online booking system through School Spider. You will need to login via our website by selecting ‘parent login’ on the top
bar of our site using the login you received via email or, via the School Spider app. If you are unable to login, please discuss with me on Friday and I can arrange your appointment.
Please also remember that the children's reading records are checked every day, the children should be reading every night at home and this should be logged in the reading record. The children's homework is due on a Friday when we also do our class spelling test.
I am extremely proud of how the children are working this term and look forward to the exploring, creating, reading and writing we will be doing next week.
Thank you for all of your support,
Miss Hindle.
Date: 3rd Oct 2024 @ 11:24am
We have had a fantastic week in 2AH this week!
In English, we have started to look at the features of instruction texts and focusing on imperative 'bossy' verbs. The children have been excellent in collaborating during learning time to discuss and share their own instructions using the features that they have discussed. Do you have any recipe books or instruction manuals at home? Practice reading these with your child and ask them to point out the features that they notice.
I have been blown away this week by the children’s enthusiasm in their Maths learning. The children have been extending their knowledge of addition, adding three addends and independently using classroom resources to represent number sentences. It has been fantastic to see how the children are working with their peers to support each other in their learning and contributing so much to whole class learning.
In Geography this week, we explored hot and cold places around the world and how a countries distance from the equator determines if it will be hot or cold. The children used maps of the world to identify hot and cold places, used their knowledge to recognise the features of hot and cold places, and used reasoning to explain their knowledge of the worlds continents and oceans.
As we continue with our ‘healthy me’ topic in Science, the children found out about and described the basic needs of humans. We discussed the difference between human wants vs needs, recognising the importance of water, food, and air to our survival.
Please remember to listen to your child read their home reading book each night, the children’s reading records are checked every day so please ensure to sign this with the date when you have listened to your child read.
The children also have this weeks homework in their bookbags, this is due each Friday. Please make sure that the children practice their spellings ready for their spelling test.
Date: 19th Sep 2024 @ 10:47am
We have had an excellent week in 2AH!
The children are settling into their new classroom now and have been showing lots of interest towards what we have been learning in class.
In English, we have been discussing adjectives and conjunctions as we prepare to write our character descriptions for Whiffy Wilson next week. The pupils have been great at discussing adjectives and applying these to their writing.
We have also been discussing more about different continents in our Geography topic 'What would we see if we travelled from Pole to Pole?'. The children enjoyed looking on Google Earth where we compared the size of different continents and looked at images to see how these looked different to where we live. If you would like to explore with your child just click the link https://earth.google.com .
In RE our current enquiry question is 'Who is a Muslim and what do they believe?'. This week we have discussed the Prophet Muhammad and how the Islamic faith teaches Muslims to care for all creatures big and small. We talked about how we can protect small creatures and enjoyed making a 'bug hotel' which we will be keeping an eye on outside our classroom.
On Wednesday, the children took part in the schools inclusive sports day where they all had a lot of fun. I am so impressed with the feedback from other teachers in the school about how the children shown their team work and determination.
Thank you for such an amazing week 2AH and to all of the parents for your ongoing support.
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Hindle and Mrs Cooper.
It has been a busy week in Year 2!
Date: 15th Sep 2024 @ 5:59pm
Hello,
Well all we can say is that it has been a busy week in year 2 this week. The children have settled in well and are becoming more and more confident at working independently, which is lovely to see. The children have enjoyed joining in with Mrs's Hughes Celebration assembly this week and were particularly excited when they worked with Miss Kent during singing Assembly. Our children are so talented at singing and performing and it is lovely to see they come alive when they sing and dance.
This week was the launch to our new Geography topic ' What will we see when we travel from Pole to Pole' The children made passports, created suitcase lists and boarding passes which they really enjoyed. Some of the children would make great travel agents! This week they will be using globes, maps and Atlases to locate the Continents and Oceans of the world. If would like to help them further have a look at the knowledge organiser below to see the skills, knowledge and new vocabulary that they will be learning.
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They have a fantastic week and have made all the staff very proud. We know that they will continue to work hard next week too.
Thanks for all your support
The Year Two Team
Date: 17th Mar 2024 @ 10:14am
Adam from Sublime Science finished off Science Week with KS1. He put on a exhibition in the playground all about how to create some rockets using fizzy water, a pump and mentos sweets. He used different sized bottles and changed the amount of mentos sweets that went into the fizzy water to see how far each rocket would go. Some rockets went out of our school playground!!
It was so much fun!!!
Date: 2nd Feb 2024 @ 11:55am
This week in maths we have been exploring halving numbers. We used counters and bar models to represent a number and then explored halving the counters into two equal groups.
Date: 18th Jan 2024 @ 12:41pm
In PE this week, we have been working with the city coach. We practiced dribbling the ball on the spot, before dribbling around the hall. Our partners gave us directions to ensure we dribbled the ball into a space.
Date: 14th Jan 2024 @ 10:02am
This week, we worked with our art teacher, Mrs McAffer. First, we used our observational skills to create a continuous line drawing of penguins. Next, we continued to use our observational skills and focused on the tone, lines and shapes in pictures of penguins. Finally, we explored using a different media to draw penguins.
Date: 5th Jan 2024 @ 11:27am
Our connected curriculum topic this half term is, Why do some animals live in cold places and some in hot? As part of our topic, we have been looking at where different animals live. First, we chose an animal that either lived in a hot habitat or a cold habitat to draw. Then we used half of the animal's face to draw the other half. We had to look very closely at what we could see to ensure we drew the animal accurately.
Date: 17th Nov 2023 @ 12:23pm
In class, we have been learning all about Diwali. We spent a whole day completing different activities to learn more about the festival of light.
We listened to the story of Diwali, learnt a dance, created paper lanterns, and even made candle holders. Making paper lanterns was definitely our favourite activity.
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The Great Fire of London artwork
Date: 12th Nov 2023 @ 1:28pm
In art, we created our own pieces of artwork based on Pudding Lane in 1666. We started by looking at different images of the houses and used our observational skills when drawing the houses. Next, we created our background with oil pastels. We selected red, yellow, and orange to represent the fire. Then we went over our drawings of the houses in charcoal in order to get them to stand out and show that the houses were burnt.
Date: 12th Nov 2023 @ 1:22pm
To launch our connected curriculum topic, 'Could the Great Fire of London happen in Clayton?' the fire service came in. We learnt all about how to keep ourselves safe from fire. We were able to think about how fires are put out today and compare this to how fires were put out in 1666.
Date: 13th Oct 2023 @ 9:46am
This week Rebaz came back into school to visit the children. We watch him perform some fantastic tricks in assembly and got the chance to ask him questions. Then we got a chance to have a workshop with Rebaz and practise some tricks ourselves. We learnt that every trick we tried requires lots of practise.
Date: 5th Oct 2023 @ 7:07pm
This week in English, we have been learning how to write instructions. In reading, we have read lots of different examples of instructions. Today we read instructions for how to make a pirate hat. We carefully read the instructions and followed the steps. Here are our hats that we created with the instructions.
Date: 4th Oct 2023 @ 4:08pm
This week in PE we have been practising forwards rolls. We started by watching different demonstrations of a forward roll and used numbers for each movement within the roll.
1. Stand tall
2.Crouch down
3. Hands flat on the floor
4.Straighten legs
5. Lean forward
6. Tuck chin in and roll
Then we practised in small groups. We practised forward rolls to seated poistion and forward rolls to standing poistion. We all did such a fantastic job and really enjoyed learning a new roll. So far this term we have practised log, egg and forward rolls.
