Today is Shrove Tuesday so we have been making pancakes in Year2. In science we have been learning about how materials can be changed. The pancake mixture started as a liquid and then we heated it until it turned into a solid. We talked about having them with ice-cream because then the ice-cream would melt into the hot pancake. When we tasted them, we used adjectives like ‘scrumptious’ and ‘sweet’ to describe them! We know that shrove Tuesday is in preperation for lent, which leads up to Easter. A lot of us want to give up chocolate for lent – but I doubt very much that we’ll all stick to it!
Pictures to follow
Will you be having pancakes tonight?
Year 2 learned how to use an iPad app called Junior Jam! They created their own pop song by playing and recording individual instruments. Here are some of the things the children said:
“The drum gives the song an introduction! It is called the rhythm or the beat.”
“It keeps tinging. I can hear the symbols, they are shaking!”
“One sounds bumping, one sounds rocking, one is loud and one is quiet. They’re all different!”
“It sounds like BOOM BOOM BOOM!”
“When I play it, I can hear all of the instruments together.”
- studying the city of Troy and using Geography skills to explore and compare it to where we live
- creating portraits on Greek pottery
- making our own Greek robes to wear in the role play area
At the beginning of the week we wrote a diary entry as part of our termly writing assessment. We pretended that we were suba divers and that we found the lost city of Atlantis at the bottom of the ocean!
This week is national book week so we are celebrating reading and discussing why we think books are so exciting! We had a visitor who read some really funny stories to the whole school and she even sang us a rap! We really enjoyed it! In the afternoon the same lady then came to visit us in class and showed us some of the best books we have ever seen! Some were scary (which is why we look scared on the photos), some were funny and some were 3D! We are still working hard to read our way around the world! I wonder who will win a reading prize?
 Dear Macey,
What an absolutely fantastic half term you’ve had so far this year! I don’t know what you ate for your Christmas dinner in the holidays, but whatever it was I would like to try some because it seems to have given you extra special brain powers!
You have always been a hard worker Macey but over these last few weeks everything has just clicked into place for you. Your handwriting is absolutely beautiful, you always remember your targets to improve your writing and you always give every task that you do your 100% all.
In addition to this, you do it all with the most beautiful smile I have ever seen. No matter how hard you have worked or how tired you are you always complete every challenge with a smile and can’t wait to show me how well you have done after.
You are speeding through your levels and are now at a level 2 for maths and writing! If you keep this up I know that you will catch up to a level 2 in your reading and continue to make outstanding progress!
So well done, and never stop being you!
Love from Miss Wright, Miss Nygovzyk & Miss Ward 
Look what Y2 found amongst some Greek ruins! We think they must be portraits of Greek Goddesses…Can you guess who they are?
Today, Y2 made their own Greek salads. We are learning about writing instructions, so as they created their masterpieces they wrote down each step that they came across on their fresh and healthy journey! They were using time connectives (next, then, after), imperative verbs (cut, slice, chop), adverbs (finely, carefully), connectives (and, because, so) and some people even used adjectives (watery, juicy, sweet) to make their instructions interesting to read! By lunchtime they had eaten so much salad that they almost didn’t want their own lunches! ALMOST being the imperative word there!
Dear Lucy,
Finally,
after all of your hard work and determination, you have made it as Y2’s star of the week, this week!
Let’s see… Where do I begin?
Becoming a Year 2 hasn’t been easy for anybody in our class as we have had to work so hard to become our best selves and to make the progress that we needed
to make! However, you started with a smile and that smile hasn’t faded yet! Not only do you enjoy every task that you are set Lucy, but you absolutely thrive off the every day challenges that you come across and have such a sense of achievement when you’ve completed them that your motivation rubs off on the whole class.
If I set you a target, you try it! If I give you a suggestion, you do it! If I ask you a question, you answer it! These are just some of the many reasons why you deserve to be chosen for celebration this week and many others to come!
So – Well done and keep up the hard work!
Miss Wright, Miss Nogovchyk & Miss Ward
This week y2 have been discussing ‘how to become a Greek God!’ We watched Hercules and saw how he tried to impress his immortal father (Zeus) by becoming a hero and also talked about how Perseus was sent on a scary mission to chop off Medusa’s head so that he could become an immortal God also. We have been writing instructions so that other people could try to become Greek gods or goddesses. To help us with our ideas we acted out some scenes from Hercules and captured them with digital photography. Here are some examples…see if you can guess what we are doing!
On Monday 9th January, we had lots of special visitors in our school and classroom! As well as being lucky enough to have OFTSED visit us, we also got a visit from an ancient Greek myth. It was Pandora! She told us about the box that Zeus gave her and we explored what was inside it and why.
At the bottom of the box, we found a letter from Zeus himself! It was a challenge for Y2! We had to solve some greek problems by using our addition skills to break the curse that was set on Pandora’s box! Later that day a small group of children got to play in our role-play area. It is a heavenly kingdon where all of the Greek gods and goddesses live. We dressed up as explorers (to research the ruins of ancient Greece) and some children even made their own Greek robes.
Dear Jimi,
Wow! Celebration – You made it! And you really do deserve it Jimi so well done!
To say we have had a few weeks off school, you have come back like you have never been away! Your brain this week has been on fire! You have been answering questions, independently solving problems, reminding me of your learning targets, concentrating on the carpet and more importantly Jimi, you have enjoyed yourself and have always shown an absolutely massive smile at all times!
I was very impressed this week when I asked the class what kind of word ‘grab’ is and really quickly you stuck your hand up (with a beautiful smile on your face) and said “It’s a bossy verb!” – WOW!
Keep up this hard work Jimi because it really is starting to pay off! Well done!
Lots of love,
Miss Wright, Miss Nogowczyk and Miss Ward
Just when we thought our Ancient Greek BANG was over, on Thursday our week got even stranger…
When we came into the classroom we saw lots of images of a scary woman with snake as hair! We had to guess her name and who she was. We soon found out that she was called Medusa and, when she looked at people, they turned to stone! Miss Wright told us to close our eyes and think of Medusa and when we opened them again Medusa was in our classroom!! We asked her lots of questions and surprisingly none of us turned to stone! We decided to create images of her so that we could remember what she looked like and we used 5 different shades of pencil to look like they were made out of stone. After lunch some of us made snakes out of paper maché and others created Medusa’s head out of clay and made her snaky hair out of pipe cleaners. Surely this week can’t get any more exciting?
On Wednesday we turned up to school to find part of the sky in our classroom! We didn’t know what it was but made really good guesses like “heaven” or “where Angels lived”. Inside we found lots of pictures of Greek Gods and Goddesses! Then we got back from assembly and our teachers were dressed as archeologists! We learned about the ways in which people find out facts about the past. After that we used brushes and spades to look for ancient ruins in sand. We found an old Greek vase, parts of a Greek building and old columns that were used to hold up big buildings.
After searching for ancient ruins we were told a story about a lost Greek city called ‘Atlantis’. We created Art to show what we thought it would look like and tried to come up with ways to get there ourselves! We wonder what will happen tomorrow?
 This term, Y2 are going on an adventure to Ancient Greece! On our journey we will be meeting famous Greek soldiers and heroes, researching Gods and Goddesses, exploring Greek plays, visiting the lost city of Atlantis and tasting and creating Greek food!
As Historians we will be studying Ancient Greece and the influence of their civilization on the world today. We will be looking at factual evidence of what life was like in the past and looking at how life today is influenced by Ancient Greece and some of the grand designs of the Greeks. We will look at how they helped us to design some of our buildings, our sporting events, our theatres and the way our government works.
As enterprising people we will be working together as a class in planning and designing a Greek play – its script, organisation and marketing. The Ancient Greeks loved theatre and we will try to write a play that tells the rest of the school what we have found out about Greeks. We will be learning to persuade people to come to our show through an advertising campaign.
As writers we will be writing sets of instructions to:
- Help Pandora to close her box
- Help Hercules to become an immortal
- Tell people how to make Greek food
- Let people know how to get the lost city of Atlantis
To use and apply some of these skills, we will be using ICT to represent information, advertise events and to explain historical and geographical facts. We will also be using the Internet to research and explore facts, fiction, myths and legends.
We will be reflecting and evaluating life in Ancient Greece and comparing it to the lifestyles that we have today. This will promote our thinking skills and help us to speak and listen as a team.
We can’t wait to share all of our knowledge with you so keep checking the Y2 page on this website to follow our exciting journey!
It’s December and that only means one thing….
SILLY CHRISTMAS HATS!!
Bank End had their Christmas dinner today and in preparation for it we all made festive hats and place mats for our dinner to go on! We tried to use and apply our recent Art skills to create fun, but good quality, accessories! It has really got us in the mood for Christmas….we hope the pictures do the same to you!
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