Year 2 Gallery & Work 23/24

Every Friday, Year 2 get the opportunity to visit the school library where we spend time sharing stories and choosing books to take home. We enjoy our visits as we love choosing our own books to read!

For Remembrance Day, we researched a person called Moina Bella Michael and the history behind why we wear a red poppy to remember the soldiers. We then made our own poppies using scrunched up tissue paper. We also took part in a Remembrance Day assembly ran by the British Legion which we all found very interesting and moving.

Last week in year 2, we were very lucky to take part in an incredible Science workshop called ‘Wild Cities’. We described the different characteristics and features of animals and how we could use these features to design our own buildings. We used Lego, different crafts and recyclable materials to create our amazing buildings!

In English, we have looking at expanded noun phrases! We had to use adjectives to describe a scene from ‘The Great Fire of London’ which will help us when writing a retell of the story ‘Vlad and the Great Fire of London’.

In History, we have started our new topic ‘The Great Fire of London’. We became detectives and compared modern London to the London of 1666 when the fire occurred. We discovered people dressed differently and the used a horse to travel, they did not have cars or buses. 

Before half term, Year 2 spent some time looking at the artist Yayoi Kusama and her work on pointillism. We had so much fun making our own pumpkins out of clay and painting coloured pumpkins using different dotting techniques such as stippling and dabbing.

In Writing, we are learning all about non-chronological reports! We have looked at the features of a report and have spent some time looking at how to make our sentences more interesting using adjectives. We can’t wait to show you the finished pieces of writing!

In History, we have been learning all about medieval peasants and how they rebelled against King Richard II! We hot seated a peasant and King Richard II and asked them lots of intriguing questions all about what life was like for them and their thoughts on the tax peasants had to pay.

“I think it’s unfair for the peasants because they have to give King Richard II all of their money!” said Evie M.

“The peasants were fair to rebel against the King but I think he would have won the fight because he has a much bigger army!” said Khalid.

As part of our Castle topic in Year 2, we have been writing a letter based on the story ‘The Very Last Castle’ by Travis Jonker. We tried to include questions in our letters and Mrs Crawford and Mrs Parsons have been so impressed by our amazing work!

In History we have been looking at the different parts of a medieval castle and why they were important. We have learnt lots of new vocabulary such as moat, portcullis, battlements and keep! We labelled the parts of a castle before describing how they helped the soldiers to defend the castle from attacks! 

In Art, we have been learning all about the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. She is the Princess of Polka Dots! We discussed her artwork and described what we liked and disliked about it before using a range of different materials to create our own polka dots. This half term we will be creating our own pumpkin sculptures and paintings inspired by her work!

We have been so busy recently in Year 2! Last week, as part of our Castles topic, we visited Lumley Castle for the day. We were all so excited to learn about the history of the castle! We had a tour of the castle and even read spooky stories in the dungeon!

“I loved looking around the castle! Did you know they had small windows to shoot arrows out of?” said Mikey.

“I enjoyed learning all about Lord and Lady Lumley and found it very funny when Mrs Crawford got knighted by the Lord of the Manor!” said Scarlett.

We have had such a wonderful start to Year 2! We have been very busy focussing on our new topic ‘Castles’ and discovering why castles were built! We have been reading the book ‘The Very Last Castle’ by Travis Jonker and we will be writing a letter to the guardsman in the story. Mrs Parsons and Mrs Crawford are so impressed with how amazing we have all settled into Year 2 and we cannot wait to show you all of the lovely things we get up to this year!