Blwyddyn Dau (2) 2023-2024
Croeso i Flwyddyn Dau
Teacher: Mr Green
P.E. days - Monday and Thursday
Forest School - Friday afternoon, alternate weeks (beginning 15.09.23)
Please click here for our Class Information Leaflet.
Class update
Summer 2024
24.6.24-5.7.24
Year 2 have been researching planets, they have been assembling the information they collected and putting it into posters. They have also enjoyed learning about constellations and looking at their own birthdays and star signs. We have been expanding our maths skills with column addition and column subtraction and have been consolidating our understanding with fun maths games. Some time this fortnight was taken up with end of term assessments which the children took in their stride. Da iawn Y2! They have been learning and practicing a planets song which they are enjoying. They have also enjoyed using chalk pastels to create space and planet pictures. They have also been making plans using pictures and building a framework of words and sentences for characters and settings. What a busy few weeks, only two more to go until the summer holidays. Have a lovely weekend!
10.6.24-21.6.24
In the last few weeks we have been busy in Y2, we have made Father's Day cards and acrostic poems to say thank you. In numeracy we have been making amazing patterns using tessellations. We have also been playing fun games that are helping us learn our 3- and 4-times tables. Help us practice our tables at home. In literacy we have used inference from pictures of the rainbow fish and explored the 5W’s (what, where, when, who, why) within the story and we created story maps. In forest school we looked at traditional tales and then we made our own stories up in small groups, we then acted them out showcasing our creative and storytelling skills. In science we have bene looking at planet names and ordering them. We are finding interesting facts about them and are busy researching. We have also been making songs up about the rainbow fish in our exploring time, adding to our express yourself topic with songs and art, we have even been using chalk outside to draw the rainbow fish. Have a lovely weekend all.
20.5.24-7.6.24
Welcome back to our final term of Year 2! This week we have learnt about direct speech and speech marks in our literacy lessons, we have also been learning about how to communicate more effectively with past and present verbs. We have also been introduced to shape poems and look forward to writing our own shape poems. In maths we have explored regular and irregular shapes, as well as learning about 2D and 3D shapes, ask us to identify shapes and name them when we are out and about. We have also been talking about their qualities and making models too as well as completing our big maths learning. We have also been working with an adult different ways we can present our work. We have been busy practicing for sports day and have enjoyed being out in the fresh air with some sunshine, we are hoping for more of the same next week. We have also been busy putting the finishing touches on our amazing artwork and Mrs Llewellyn has created a beautiful display of them in the corridor for all to see. Did you know 6.6.24 was the 80th Anniversary of D-Day? We made notes on it and discussed our understanding of it. Woody even shared with us a family medal and Evie shared some written facts and memorabilia of her family too. Diolch for your continued support.
7.5.24-17.5.24
It has been great to see the sun during the last fortnight and the pupils have enjoyed their learning activities outside. They have been able to estimate the weight of household products as well as other objects and weigh them. On the theme of maths outdoors they have also used the kitchen and shop to buy things and calculate change. Pupils have also looked for objects that are transparent, translucent and opaque around the school. This is linked with our science lessons on light and sound. The children have written recounts based on their Brookes Dairy Farm trip and planned their own alternative fairy story based on the work of John Scieszka, Mrs Llewellyn and I have been really impressed with the concentration of pupils during their expressive arts. They have studied two Welsh artists and created their own pieces of work in the style of their chosen piece of art. Pupils have once again loved their Commando Joe mission. They had to transport the giant’s treasure in a team from the castle and down the beanstalk without dropping any.
22.4.24-3.5.24
During outdoor learning week the pupils engaged in a variety of activities. These included playing a game to learn about what seeds need to grow and what animals could eat them; learning batting skills with a cricket bat; using directional language to aid a blindfolded peer around an obstacle course in numeracy and sketching a landscape at Forest School. We have been coding Micro:Bits (which are very small computers) to display patterns and names in ICT lessons. The children thoroughly enjoyed doing this. We have written our own acrostic poems in literacy and been learning about capacity and volume in numeracy. For our expressive arts we have compared and evaluated two pieces of art by the Welsh artists Gayle Rogers and Martyn Evans. The pupils were able to notice the differences and similarities as well as notice the type of media used. They have also begun sketching out their versions using the style they preferred. Thanks to Mrs Hockey, who helped to arrange the visit, year two enjoyed a morning at Brooke’s Dairy Farm. They learnt about the process of making cheese and ice cream, visited the milking parlour and the cattle shed to see the Jersey calves. They had the pleasure of tasting some of the cheeses available but were more impressed with their tub of ice cream each. Smiles all around!!
8.4.24-19.4.24
What a busy couple of weeks back! In our first week we showed off our wonderfully confident performance skills during our successful Welsh Taster afternoon with the song Dau gi bach (2 little dogs). In literacy we have used adjectives and similes to describe a setting; used commas for lists and apostrophes for possession. We have also written an explanation text on either the lifecycle of corn or a butterfly. In numeracy we have been interpreting data, problem solving and calculating addition and subtraction with money. The pupils enjoyed their cricket session in PE; striking a ball with a bat and had lots of fun in their Commando Joe session in which they had to navigate an obstacle course and not wake the sleeping giant. Great communication and teamworking.
Spring 2024
11.3.24-22.3.24
Well, what a very busy half term this has been! First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to the Year Two pupils for their really confident performance in our Easter celebration. It was great to see them speak and sing clearly and with expression. The pupils have enjoyed World Book Day and Red Nose Day; dressing up and taking part in exciting activities such as artwork and collaborative Lego building. In literacy the pupils have been learning about non chronological features and written them about farming or a chosen farm animal. We have been improving our Welsh reading and comprehension skills with the text ‘Yn Y Siop’. In Numeracy we have been analysing and imputing data with Venn and Carroll diagrams. Ibn science, we have been making predictions and recording observations in the tables we have worked hard on to create. A big thank you to Corey and Alex from County in the community who have helped the year two children with awareness, speed, response times and team building skills through a range of fun activities. Have a great Easter break. Pasg Hapus!
26.2.24-8.3.24
Last week saw us enjoying another successful Eisteddfod in school. It was lovely to see the variety of talents being demonstrated for the different categories. There were great examples of handwriting, Welsh myth writing, sketches and collages, posters and photography, as well as singing and piano playing. Da Iawn Year Twos! In literacy we have looked at the features of non-chronological reports and begun to plan our own. In numeracy, pupils have created fact families for multiplication and division, calculated number bonds to 20, carried out reasoning problem solving and used number lines to work out the missing numbers in both adding and subtracting sums. In Welsh we have been reading a story and understanding it. We braved the weather to visit forest schools where we revisited measuring to find the length, width and height of natural objects. It was the first time that we were all glad to leave there early as our hands were freezing and I think we were tired following Eisteddfod in the morning.
5.2.24-23.2.24
Welcome back. I hope you all had a peaceful, enjoyable half term break. Before half term Year Two enjoyed lots of outdoor opportunities. We spent the time following our Daily Mile using wood chippings to tidy up the muddy patches around the reading shed and the nature area. It looks so much smarter now thanks to super teamwork. We also enjoyed taking the fraction work linked to our numeracy outside, took part in County in the community and learnt about road safety with Kerbcraft. Pupils have been uplevelling sentences by including punctuation, capitals and better choices of vocabulary in literacy. I have been really pleased by the effort and concentration shown. It has been great to see pupils engaging with reading buddies alongside year 6. In numeracy we have been recognising halves and quarters and completing procedural and reasoning online tests. Well done to the pupils for their resilience as they can be quite tricky. We have spent time revising Welsh language patterns and have carried out dialogues with partners. In humanities we have learnt about the uses of cereal crops. It was so funny that when barley was mentioned lots of pupils shouted out beer!
22.1.24-2.2.24
Year twos have written instructions on how to plant a seed, ensuring it has clear steps, imperative verbs, and it is in chronological order. They were able to develop the success criteria of what to include having highlighted the features of an exemplar instructional text. In numeracy, pupils have subtracted multiples of ten, added single digit numbers to two or three - digit numbers and solved written maths problems. In Welsh we have been expanding our use of the language and are now able to ask over twelve questions and answer them! In science we have been learning about the importance of soil and some groups have recorded videos of themselves explaining this. We really enjoyed our Winter walk around the wet meadow and forest school area, breathing in the fresh air; climbing over styles and up fallen trees; leaping across and stepping in brooks. Pupils have also been taking part in the pedestrian road safety scheme with Kerbcraft. We have also celebrated Santes Dwynwen, the Welsh saint of love, by creating cards. This falls on January 25th and originated way before the more commercialised St Valentine’s Day. Pupils had a wonderful time during their Commando Joes lesson in which they worked as a team, used thinking skills and motor skills to create a home for the three little pigs whilst navigating an obstacle course, keeping an eye on the time and avoiding the ‘Big Bad Wolf’.
8.1.24-19.1.24
Croeso i nol! Welcome back! I hope you have all had a fantastic Christmas. Year Twos have begun to use adverb openers for sentence writing as well as similes in their recount of the story: ‘Farmer Ham’. They have been learning checking strategies when solving maths problems; used reasoning skills to follow a partner’s instructions when creating a 3D Lego/cube model and have used games to learn number bonds to 10 and mental maths and strategy to ‘connect 4’. Pupils have been learning about the layers of Earth and how important it is to be eco-friendly towards our soil and the plants that grow in it. In PE we have started a Welsh country folk dance and been learning warm up skills and team building skills as part of County in the community with Newport County. In humanities the pupils have enjoyed sorting food into those from Britain and those from other countries of the world. They have also learnt about the crops that are grown here.
27.11.23-8.12.23
Can you believe it?! Just a couple weeks left, it will be Christmas and the first term will already be over. This last fortnight the pupils have been writing their own version of the fairy story: The Little Red hen using the clever writer approach as well as planning and writing their letter to Father Christmas using persuasive language. In numeracy we have been interpreting bar charts and also making up our own questions based on the charts. We have been estimating and measuring lengths. The pupils have been getting festive this week. They were very brave and confident to take to the stage and perform songs at Llanishen Hall in front of an audience. They were amazing and we are so proud of them as we did have technical issues.!We have also started work on our enterprise project in readiness for the Christmas fair. At Forest School the pupils created their own fitness trails, and they also took part in the planting of trees and wildflowers to improve our school grounds. Mrs Cornish and Mrs Marsh and Tom from Keep Wales Tidy have been impressed with their listening skills and hard work.
24.11.23
Year twos have been learning about symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes in numeracy. They revisited this at Forest School where they worked with Y3 to create symmetrical art using natural objects. I was very impressed with their focus and team work as trying to make these pieces of work was a challenge. In literacy, the pupils listened to the book ‘Giraffe is left out’ which is a message about how we should behave and is an anti-bullying story. They then planned and created an anti–bullying poster with some excellent pieces of advice. We have started to learn about family members in Welsh and how we ask if someone has a brother or a sister. Pupils are improving with their use of this sentence pattern: i’Oes brawd/chwaer da ti?’ (Do you have a brother/sister) and answering it with ‘Oes. Mae brawd/chwaer da fi.’ (Yes I have a brother/sister ) or ‘Nag oes. Does dim brawd/ chwaer da fi.’ (I don’t have a brother/sister.) We celebrated Children in Need Day with a special daily mile and by learning to draw Pudsey. There are some great artists in Year Two!
10.11.23
Croeso i nol, welcome back after a much-needed rest at half term. The weather wasn’t great but I hope you were able to enjoy the break.
Before we broke up the school had important visitors and I am really proud to say how well the pupils worked and behaved and this was noticed.
We have continued with story writing using the Clever Writer approach and we have also spent a lot of time on sentence structure, recognising that we really need capitals, full stops and to include a noun and a verb for it to make sense.
In numeracy we have been doubling using money and have classified 2D shapes and listed their properties. The pupils have made predictions about what will happen to eggs when placed in different liquids. This is linked to our work on teeth and how we need to look after them; the eggshell acting as enamel. In Welsh we have been reading a story, learning the related vocabulary and answering questions about the text.
20.10.23
During the last fortnight we have been busy learning about parts of the body in science and labelling templates. We have even learned a little about internal organs such as the heart, lungs and the liver. In Welsh we have started to use what we have learnt about colours to ask about hair and eye colours. The pupils have been enjoying linking this learning to create a bar chart on Just 2 Easy which shows us how many pupils have different eye colours. In numeracy we have been learning how to double numbers using the doubling diamond method and we have been counting on and backwards from 100 to complete the missing numbers in sequences. We have continued to develop our story writing skills using the Clever Writer approach looking at ways to start sentences and now expand on ideas with connectives. At Forest School we built Sukkot shelters to celebrate the Jewish festival. This links in with our recent lessons on special places. Once again, a big thank you to Mrs Cornish and Mrs Marsh for working alongside us to plant and develop our ever-improving outdoor space.
A huge thank you to the pupils of Year 2 on their behaviour at the church and their singing was fantastic!!
6.10.23
The pupils of Year Two have been very busy this last fortnight. They are enjoying our topic ‘People who help us’. They have sequenced events from the story: The Enormous Turnip and rewritten their versions of it using a range of time openers. We have made a very good start to our spelling tests with sixteen pupils getting them all right. Our new target is to get 17 or more pupils with all their words spelled correctly. In Numeracy we have been ordering numbers and used the greater than and lesser than symbols. As a part of our outdoor learning, pupils have been using coins to pay for items ‘sold’ from the ‘shop’ so they get used to language associated with money, calculate change and recognise the coins they are using. Pupils are improving their Welsh language skills through lessons, during registration time and milk time. In science we have been learning about the seven life processes and their meanings with the mnemonic: MRS GREN (Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion, Nutrition). The pupils have been identifying digital and non-digital technology in ICT as well as their uses. At Forest School we were very focussed when sketching natural objects, using shading and paying attention to detail.
22.9.23
We have had a very busy start to the year and pupils have been getting used to new expectations and routines. They have been learning about different sentence types in literacy in preparation for their clever writing sessions and have been taking part in Read Write Inc speed sound lessons. Pupils have been carrying out basic maths such as number bonds, place value and the use of a number square as well as creating fact families. In Welsh we have carried out a baseline assessment and we
have started to learn basic language patterns. The pupils are enjoying the range of activities in our outdoor area and have been working alongside Mrs Cornish and Mrs Marsh to dig and plant. They had a wonderful time on their scavenger hunt during our Forest School session, including collecting types of seeds such as cones and acorns.
We have also had a visit from Nurse Claire who told us about the work she does and shared the medical equipment with us. There was lots of interesting information and some great questioning from the pupils.