Year 2
INTRODUCING THE TEAM
| Mrs Nikki Morris | Class Teacher | Year 2 |
| Mrs Maria Baxter |
Teaching Assistant - All day Mon & Tue. PM - Wed - Fridays |
Year 2 |
| Mrs Katie Collins | Teacher Assistant - AM | Year 2 |
| Mrs Lauren Kenneway | Teaching Assistant - AM - Wed - Fridays | Year 2 |
What happens in Year 2 at Crondall?
In Year 2, topics are brought to life through an active approach, using practical resources and real life situations where possible. Teamwork and friendship play a big part here as they learn to work collaboratively and compromise when needed.
We spend considerable time supporting the children in being more independent, whether that be related to deciding what games to play on the playground, to remembering to change their own reading book. Independence is also a skill that we foster during learning time as the children learn to check and edit their own writing or decide on which challenge to choose in Maths.
Over the year, we see great strides of progress as the children learn to use and apply all the skills learnt during their time in school so far. In writing, they develop from writing simple sentences to writing at length in a range of styles, using speaking and listening to support them. Maths lessons see the introduction of multiplication and division as well as calculating with numbers up to 100.
Above all, we aim for the children to leave Key Stage one with a love of learning and an enthusiasm to continue this in Key Stage 2.
Year 2 have their PE Days on Monday and Fridays - All children to come into school in their PE Kits on these days.
All class blogs are now on Twitter @CrondallYr2_24
YEAR 2022-2023
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Wednesday 9th November 2022
Well, where do we start? We have had such a busy 8 days back at school since half term.
Firstly we had our trip to the Weald and Down Museum where we sketched Tudor buildings (did you know that some of them were built using animal poo?). We then made an accidental fire and created our own sparks to see how quickly the fire spread in 1666. We also took part in a water challenge and baked some bread. We even got to see a Tudor ‘en-suite’ loo!
Then today, we were back outside (no rain - hooray) for Woodland Wednesday where our learning was all about knots! We learnt how to tie the overhand knot and the half hitch knot. Of course we like a challenge in Year 2, so we were also taught the two half hitches knot and we created our own skipping ropes using rope and sticks form the wood - during our free learning time some of us made washing lines and exercise ropes too! We also made 'Living Books' as we used our class book, The Great Fire of London by Emma Adams, as inspiration to create pictures and scenes from the book out of objects from nature.
Bring on the next Woodland Wednesday!
Wednesday 14th December 2022
"He's behind you!" "Oh no he isn't!" "Oh yes he is!"
We have had a busy fortnight counting down to Christmas: we have been completed our Tudor houses, written instructions, welcomed our adults in for a Fabulous Finish as well as learning about Hannukah.
However, I think it is safe to say, that today was the icing on the cake - Year 2 had a great time at the panto, as did the rest of the school. We sang and cheered along, so much so that Ms. Browning has (almost) lost her voice!
All that is left to say for this term is that Year 2, both adults and children alike, wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Wednesday 30th November 2022
We have been working hard on adding and subtracting multiples of 10 to any 2-digit number this week and have made great use of the resources!
We have also been sequencing daily routines in chronological order, identifying features of an instructional text as well as planning our own instructions so that we can make a Tudor house. We even started to make our Tudor house today in DT after a great deal of research and planning.
Wednesday 23rd November 2022
Some fabulous posters for Anti-bullying Week from Year 2 and some very thoughtful responses to what makes a good friend:
"Helping others when they fall over."
"If you see a sad person, go over and see if you can cheer them up."
"Listen to people when they are speaking."
Wednesday 12th October 2022
YEAR 2 LOVE WOODLAND WEDNESDAY :)
We had the best day today! We started our day playing some team building games. Then we learnt how to orientate using a compass as well as recapping the 4 main compass points (we played the North, South, East West game which was great fun). After that we got a little bit competitive as we took part in a 'Cross the River Challenge'. Then we used our increasing map skills to plot a map of the school only using items form nature.
After lunch, and another team building game, we created our own woodland wildlife picture using objects from our school grounds and to round off the day, we were given some free time - most of us carried on with our school maps and wildlife pictures.
Just before going home, we all reflected on the best bit - it was all brilliant, we really couldn't decide!
Friday 7th October 2022
Wow, what a week! We have been researching the Great Fire of London and learning that a range of sources can be used. We have used the past tense to write a blurb for the Museum of London, telling people about old London and used the present tense to encourage people to visit famous London landmarks. The Great Fire theme has carried over into our PE lesson too, where we have been collaborating in small groups to create controlled dance movements!
However, I think today was the icing on the cake for Year 2, as we discovered lots of charcoal close to our outdoor classroom. We used the charcoal to make some marks on the tree stumps and then collected quite a lot in in bark that we thought made great plates! Thinking about one of the elements of art, we discovered that we could make different sized, and shaped, lines by changing the ways that we held the charcoal.
Adults, you best check our pockets before you put our uniforms in the wash!!
Monday 12th September 2022
Well we have been back a week and what a great first week we have had! An introduction to our Woodland outdoor learning days kicked us off followed by a week of getting to know you and settling in routines.
Today however was our Stunning Start and goodness me, What a Disaster! Ok, it w, that is just the name of our topic this term! The children and their Year 1 partners, were given a map of the school grounds and a grid of different pictures and were told that they were going to be History Detectives. They had to find the pictures around the school, using their maps and number them on their picture grid. They then sorted the pictures into Old and New, before working out what the topic was about.
Then in house teams, the children had fire-fighter races and re-enact putting out the 'Great Fire Of London': cups of water had to be taken from one end of the playground to the other to put out the 'fire'. Was walking slowly or running quickly the most efficient method? Luckily the sun came out and a drop of spilt water was a welcome relief to all.
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YEAR 2021-2022
Wednesday 22nd June 2022
Did you enjoy Sports Day? We certainly did! Here are some of our highlights...
Wednesday 8th June 2022
Welcome to our new web-page. We thought you might like to see a few things that we were doing before half term ...
Well, there was Science Week:
We started off the day drawing what we thought a scientist looked like. Then, after an assembly about science (where the teachers debated about the best biscuits to dunk), we had some visitors in doing some science demonstrations with us. We researched a famous scientist too!
However, our favourite part of the day was when we investigated which biscuit was the best dunker! In case you were wondering, it was chocolate digestives in Year 2, although some other classes had different results.
Finally, we drew what we thought a scientist looked like again to see if our opinions had changed and guess what? They had – because we are all scientists!!
Monday 25th April 2022
Ahoy there m'hearties!
FABULOUS FINISH!
Yesterday the whole school celebrated each other’s learning from this term. We made our classroom look ‘spic and span’ and chose the work that we were the most proud of to display: some of us chose our English books because we loved the unit on The Queen’s Knickers, whilst some of us chose to share our Topic books because we loved learning about animals. We also put our home learning famous landmarks on display along with a few weather diaries and the buses that we made in DT. Our coiled clay pots have been on display along the Learning Corridor for a few weeks now, so we left most of them there. The other classes left lots of lovely comments such as ” Amazing!”, “Very neat handwriting” and Year 3 said “We love your knickers!”. We are so proud of our work that we wanted to share it
with you too …
Wednesday 16th March 2022Another week has flown past and Year 2 have been just as busy! We have worn blue and yellow in order to raise money for the troubles in Ukraine; we have written our our weather forecasts as we have been identifying weather patterns in the UK; we have been looking at features of a postcard (as well as writing our own) and we have started learning about division, both grouping and sharing. All this and more … how do we find the time!
Wednesday 9th March 2022Wow, what a couple of weeks! We enjoyed dressing up as our favourite characters for World Book Day: we’ve designed and made coiled clay pots; we have shared some of our amazing home learning projects and of course our trip to Marwell Zoo. The children were superbly behaved and were keen to share their knowledge with the staff at Marwell as well as ask lots of very interesting questions (especially about the giraffes!). It was indeed the Marvellous Middle of our learning journey.
Wednesday 16th January 2022Well life in Year 2 has been incredibly busy these past two weeks. We have had a visit from a policewoman to tell us about road safety; a visit from the dentist to remind us about dental hygiene and a yoga instructor helped us with our downward dogs!
However, yesterday morning, Ms. Browning and our teachers told us we we were going out for a walk. We braved the miserable weather and strolled over to Hook Meadow. Ms. Browning told us she was tired and that she needed a rest, which was OK but imagine our surprise when a chinook landed! It was incredible! We were so lucky, that later we were all able to go inside and investigate. We were even able to sit in the cockpit! Jamie, Nick, Woody and Abi told us all about the fuel tank, how a Land Rover could fit inside and how the windows popped out if needed! Later in the afternoon, we got to watch it take off too. What a great day!
Wednesday 12th January 2022Happy New Year! What a stunning start we had last week! We entered our classroom to the sound of African music. Photos of items from Africa were showing on the screen. We had to guess where which country we thought the music and photos were from. Once we realised they were from Kenya, we used atlases and globes to locate Africa and Kenya. We even had to find the Kenyan flag. Then, we looked at the jewellery from the Maasai, a tribe who have lived in areas of Kenya for hundreds of years. Their jewellery is made of colourful beads arranged into patterns. Finally, we made our own using paper plates, pasta, paint, felt tips, crayons, wool, tissue paper and beads. This week we have started to listen more closely to Kenyan music too, trying to work out which instruments are being used.
Wednesday 8th DecemberWow, another busy fortnight in Year 2! We concluded our learning about everyday materials and built bridges … out of paper!!! We folded the paper so it was strong enough to carry a small train, linking to our All Aboard topic. Speaking of which, we also have been writing instructions about how to make a jam sandwich to take as a snack to eat on a train journey. Well, we couldn’t make it to the Polar Express so we ate them in our classroom instead this morning. We have also been learning about Hanukkah and made a menorah which looks so pretty when the light shines in to our classroom. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah everyone.
Wednesday 17th November 2021We have been learning all about everyday materials in Science and have learnt lots of new vocabulary too! First, we sorted different materials (like wood, plastic and glass) into what we thought was absorbent or waterproof. Then we labelled objects from the classroom with their properties. Finally this week, carried out an experiment to test the absorbency of fabric and by adding a layer of wax crayon to it. Our hypotheses were not always correct, but that is OK, because we are scientists and we like to investigate.
Friday 5th November 2021Year 2, and ‘Guy’ wish you all a safe evening at Crondall Village Bonfire. The children enjoyed making the guy for the village and have really loved seeing children jump when others have spotted him standing outside the classroom.
Wednesday 20th October 2021Another busy week in Year 2. We have learnt about Yayoi Kusama, a Japanese artist, then sketched and painted pumpkins in her polka dot style. We have planted bulbs for the Spring (thankyou all for your kind donations) and we have written plenty of poems. Plus we have been introduced to Black History Month. However, team games in PE this week has been one of our highlights as we were able to demonstrate some ball skills, but we also worked hard as a team. And of course we all laughed lots while we tried to do the Penguin Shuffle!
Wednesday 13th October 2021We have been learning about Harvest Festival in class but Rev. Tara came in and talked about why and how Christians observe it too.
We also learnt about Sukkot, the Jewish Harvest Festival. We discovered that Jews build a Sukkah (a shelter or hut) and decorate it with fruits and flowers and sometimes children hang lanterns and paper chains too. The fruits and flowers remind Jews to be thankful to god for the Harvest.
Then, in groups we decorated a picture of a Sukkah, but best of all, we made and decorated our own Sukkah for our classroom!
Wednesday 29th September 2021What a few weeks it has been, readjusting to school life, remembering all the classroom expectations and school values! As a class, Year 2 thoroughly enjoyed Democracy Day and taking part in an election. I was extremely proud of all the children who put themselves forward for House Captains and like the children, I am very excited to find out the final result. Year 2 have been learning all about time conjunctions for their recount of the trip on the Watercress Line and they were particularly enthusiastic in acting out various scenarios from the day :).
Friday 10th September 2021All aboard Crondall Station! Welcome to Platform 2 (aka Year 2) We are all so happy to see your smiling faces again and to hear all about your lovely summer holidays. It has been full steam ahead this week. Not only have we visited the allotment to see the wonderful flowers and delicious vegetables growing but we have talked about our ideal classroom and been introduced to Boomwhackers! Most importantly though, was our Stunning Start – our school trip to the Watercress Line. We were very excited to get a golden ticket for our return trip from Ropley to Alton. We were luckily enough to eat our lunch on the train too! We learnt about the history of the station and looked at some of the engines. We are now right on track and ready for Year 2. Choo Choo!
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YEAR 2 2020-2021
Wednesday 7th JulyThis week, we have been focussing on traditional tales such as Goldilocks and the three bears. We read the Lauren Child version and then compared it to the version by Anthony Browne. We have retold the story, written a recount from Goldilock’s point of view and we even met Goldilocks and helped her to write an apology letter to the bears! In our DT we planned and made a hand puppet in order to perform a puppet show for Year 1. We used a template to cut around the felt, to knot our thread, thread a needle and do a running stitch. We were very pleased with the results. Here are just a few. Can you guess which character they are?
Wednesday 23rd JuneWell the sun came out for us today on a wonderful sports day! Although our parents were unable to attend due to government restrictions, we had a lot of fun. Here are some photos of the day.
We also had a final of Crondall’s Got Talent, where one of the runners was a singer from our class! Well done to all that took part – what a talented bunch you are!
Wednesday 9th JuneYear 2 have been really busy over the last couple of weeks. First we have been looking after and observing the life cycle of some butterflies as they went from caterpillar, to chrysalis, to fully grown butterfly. Yesterday we set them free to find nectar and pollenate plants.
We have also been measuring our sunflowers to see whos is the tallest. We have one that is a whopping 83cm!
Today we were lucky enough to be joined by the fire service who told us all about what to do in a fire and how to keep safe.
Finally we went down to the woods to have our very own teddy bear’s picnic! This was part of our marvellous middle of our topic. We introduced our teddies, found some mysterious objects left by some bears in the woods, sang songs and of course ate our snack. What a great afternoon!
Wednesday 12th MayOur Wanted posters worked! The girl with green hair returned, and, as it turns out, she actually has a book all about her (it is written by Emily Hughes). Her name is Wild and she was actually born in the woods. We have spent lots of time writing a diary as if we were her and they are spectacular. This week we were particularly excited to begin learning the Boom Whackers. They are a percussion instrument and we had great fun learning ‘Dance Monkey’! Next week we go onto looking at Sunflowers and how they grow. I hope the children’s seeds have germinated and are beginning to grow…
Wednesday 28th AprilWell, this term has started with a great stunning start for our new topic – ‘Into the Woods’ and oh my word I have so much to tell you! Some children have in fact said that this has been the best topic so far! We had Sadie from feathers and fur come to talk to us about some woodland birds of prey, such as barn owls. She also showed us some urban birds of prey, like the Peregrine Falcon. Did you know they are the fastest animal on earth? We were lucky enough to hold one!
We also planted sunflowers and are being looked after at home so we can start our sunflower competition. How are you getting on with them?
Last week we had Earth day, so we looked at the importance of trees and what deforestation can do to our world. We wrote some beautiful poems that we cannot wait for you to see!
This week, we have been surprised as we came across a Wild child in the woods. We decided to look after her as we did not know where her parents were. Unfortunately, she caused havoc in the classroom and has now disappeared. We hope to make some Wanted posters tomorrow to help with the search. Will we find her? Only time will tell…
Phew – what a lot has happened in 2 weeks!
Wednesday 10th MarchWelcome back! It was so nice to see all the children’s smiling faces walk through the door on Monday after being off for so long. The children have adapted back to school life really well and we are so pleased to have formed our Year 2 team again! As the first week back, we have been practising and sharing all the skills we have learnt since lock down and taking part in lots of PSHE activities like circle time, teamwork art, team games and discussing how to improve our concentration, focus on self belief! We have been enjoying our show and tell too. Next week we will be back to our learning on Amelia Earheart, so watch this space!
Wednesday 17th December
Well, today was our fabulous finish! We used all the information that we had gained about Neil Armstrong and Christopher Columbus to create some persuasive speeches to tell Year 4 all about it! We presented their cases, so that children could make the choice as to who would win the ‘eXplorer Factor’!
The results are now in….. Neil Armstrong was voted as the greatest explorer of all time, because he worked well in a team with Micheal Collins and Buzz Aldrin, he went to space which required lots of training (he had to learn to be a pilot and most astronauts need a degree and to speak Russian before they can become an astronaut) we went into space and would have had to eat freeze dried food (which is an aquired taste!) and he helped America to win the Space Race between them and Russia!
Wednesday 9th December
This week we have worked on our space buggies. They are fantastic and lots of thought has gone into them. Alongside this, we learnt about wheels, axles and chassis and how they are used on vehicles.
Friday 4th December
We have started opening our advent calendars at home, but at school it is all learning as usual! We have been finishing off our learning on Neil Armstrong, which finished with us creating our own stamp design to commemorate the day the first man landed on the moon. During our time learning about this, we have even met and asked questions to Neil Armstrong himself! We even had a go at tasting some real space food, although we are divided in our opinions about whether we liked it!
We have also started our space themed DT project. We are designing our own space buggies and making them, while learning all about wheels and axels. He began this week by learning all about chopping wood with a hacksaw. More about this will come soon!
Wednesday 18th November
Well well well, what a month we have had! We started off the second half term with our democracy day, where we learnt all about voting and voted for our own class house captains, school council members and eco-warriors. I will just say that the high quality of the presentations made it very hard voting.
Then, we have been getting stuck into learning about space exploration. We have just started looking at Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. We have also been using our knowledge on capacity to power our rockets with the correct amount of fuel and we created our own rockets in order to investigate whether a longer or a shorter rocket travels further.
We have also taken part in a fantastic sponsored walk and a cracking campfire to raise money for our outside area. It was lots of fun and we hope to enjoy another one soon! Here is a video of our antics: CBIF0750
This week is Anti-Bullying week, and we started off our week with a circle time and by wearing odd socks. We discussed that the odd socks show that everyone is different and we should celebrate this! We have also created some awesome posters and a lovely poem about friendship. Here is our class poem…
If
If we can work together forever,
If you will not let me down,
If you will share a toy with me,
If you can be my friend forever,
If you can share my pencil,
If you could share a desk,
If you can help me up when I am down,
If you could make sure I never frown,
If you can play with me and also make me smile,
If you can love me forever,
If you are lovely,
If you sit next to me,
If you can have a sleepover with me,
If you are not a beast when I have a midnight feast,
If you can play with me at break time,
If you could hug me when I am sad,
If you could get sweets for a midnight feast,
If you could tell me a ghost story,
If you could party with me!
Then, and only then, you can sit next to me in class my friend.
By Year 2
Wednesday 21st October
We have had such a busy last week of the half term. We have finished our portraits, which look absolutely outstanding in our classroom…
We were also lucky to be visited by Mr James Stein (Charlie’s Dad from Year 1). He is a military instructor so he was teaching us all about how to be prepared for the expeditions! We looked at what he might pack, looked at what kit we might need for diving exploration and practised our compass directions with a game!
Wednesday 30th September
Well well well! Year 2 have been hard at work over the last 2 weeks. We have been looking at our new book, ‘Flat Stanley’ and have been writing letters as we have learnt that Flat Stanley was so flat that he could post himself to California!
We have also been busy learning how to draw our own maps and I have been so impressed at how good we have got at reading aerial photographs.
The highlight of my week has to be our PE lessons. We have been learning dance and have been creating our own dance to ‘Thriller’. We are really good at it and can’t wait to find the time to show everyone!
Wednesday 15th September
This week we have been looking at our art. We have been looking at portraits of people from the past and looking at the hidden meanings behind the objects found in the background. We then had a go at creating our own photo portraits! Do you like them?
We are going on to painting our own portraits looking at proportions on our face. We can’t wait to show these off!
Wednesday 9th September
Welcome back everyone! It is so nice to see all the children back in school and adapting so well to the many hand washes of the day!
On Monday, the children were sent to Explorer school to see if they have what it takes to gain their explorer license! With wellies on, they headed to the field to take part in lessons such as shelter building, bug hunting, digging for gold and map skills. It is safe to say that they are well on the way to becoming wonderful explorers! Watch out world – here comes Year 2!
