Yellow Class

An insight into a year's learning in Year 2

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

This half term we are looking forward to an exciting new topic about castles.

In History we will be learning who built the first castles in the UK and why, who lived in medieval castles and how the use of castles has changed over time.

In Geography we will be finding out why castles were built on hills, which land features make castles easier to defend, naming and locating the capital cities of the UK and their castles and designing and using simple maps and keys.

We visited North Hertfordshire Museum and took part in a castle workshop. We learnt how castles were made and what they were made form. We looked at real artefacts and even got to try some of them on. It was very exciting!

In D&T we have designed and made our own castles. The children have made their own mechanism choosing from catapults, drawbridges and portcullises.

Spring 1

This half term our topic is London. Within our London topic, we will be covering skills in English, History, Design and Technology and Art. In History we will be learning about the Great Fire of London, why it happened, why Samuel Pepys is famous and what changes came about as a result of the fire.

In history we have been researching what the houses in London were like in 1666. In D&T we designed our own houses and made these out of paper and card.

As part of our Geography work we've been finding out what it's like in other countries. We plotted different landmarks on a map and compared them to the landmarks in London.

In art we have been looking at what the buildings were like in 1666 and what they are like now. We used different sketch pencils to create dark and light on our drawings.

We visited Hitchin Fire Station this week. We learnt about the job of a fire fighter and how fire fighting has changed since 1666 . We got to see inside the fire engine and look at the equipment they use to rescue 

As the Great Fire of London started in a bakery we have been looking at the job of a baker and some of the recipes they make. We have made salt dough for our role play and bread rolls which were delicious. When we were making these we were learning to measure the ingredients and follow instructions on a recipe.

Spring 2

This half term our topic is Space. We will be learning about the different planets and the moon landing. We will be following the children interests so who knows what else we will learn!

We have been making oil pastel pictures of the planets to help us remember the order. We looked at star constellations and made up some of our own.

In English the children have been using the iPads and books to research their own planet and make an information page. In English we have also been researching what happened on the first moon landing and use this to write a recount. During this time we have been learning to use indexes, contents pages and glossaries and look at how the writing in a fiction book is different to that in a non-fiction book.

In computing the children have been using the research they have gathered in English to put together a PowerPoint presentation about a planet of their choice. They will be learning how to add new slides, text and pictures, how to change the size and colour of their writing, how to add animations and transitions and finally how to show it as a PowerPoint which they will then share with other members of the class.

In D&T our focus is on wheels. We are busy designing our own vehicles that could go into space and we will be making fixed or moving axels and wheels for these.

In Maths we have been finding fractions of numbers and shapes, telling the time to the quarter of an hour and finding different ways to make the same monetary value.

Summer term

This week has been our Science Week. We have been learning all about discoveries at home, outside and the wider World. On Monday we had a visit from Forest Schools and had a great time down in our woodland digging, making bark and leaf rubbings and discoveries what lives there.

In class this week we have been launching paper cases off different bottles to see which will go the highest. We've investigated which fruit and vegetables float and which sink. We discovered that a Satsuma floats but once it's peeled it sinks. We came up with some good ideas to test how we could get it to float again.

Also this week we had a visit from SetPoint and were involved in a workshop called Splash. We had great fun taking part in all the activities. We tested boats with different hulls and sails to see which went the fastest. We did floating and sinking experiments. We made paddle boats and tried to get our boats to go faster and slower, forwards and backwards. There was also a great team building activity where we had to use the pipes to move the water from the reservoir (one tank of water) to the house (an empty tank).

The children had a lovely time celebrating the royal wedding. We enjoyed watching the Morris dancers and the picnic on the field.

In Yellow class our topic this half term is food. In Art we looked at the Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo who painted faces made out of different objects including food! We made sculptures made from real fruit and vegetables.

In groups we collaged our own pictures of fruit and vegetable faces.

Also in our Food Art Topic we made pasta faces.