Year 2

Communities may have different requirements to be successful.

1. An inquiry into the characteristics of communities for animals including humans.

2. An inquiry into comparing characteristics of communities.

3. An inquiry into inventing a new community.

Our local community

We explored our local community to see the different habitats and we considered what animals might live there.  This experience supported the children to write their own stories about a hedgehog.

Reading and Writing through inquiry

This term, Year 2 have been further exploring the reading rainbow lenses and have found out about setting, feelings and characters when looking at books such as 'Last Stop On Market Street' and 'Hodgeheg'. The children then used Hodgeheg as a starting point to write their own story about a hedgehog finding its way safely back to its habitat. The children invented their main characters name, description and the problems they would face on their journey.

 

Year 2 have also been using texts such as 'Mr Blue Sky' and Coming To England' to find out about life in Trinidad and write an informal letter to the main character Floella to find out more about her life living in a different country. The children then compared and found the difference between a formal and informal letter and applied this to write a formal letter to Maidstone Borough Council asking for funding towards their own community.

Maths

This term, Year 2 have been learning about 2d and 3d shapes in the environment.


Thank you to those children who searched for 3d shapes at home and uploaded their photos to the Google Classroom.  

RE 

Our big question this term, Who is Jewish and what do they believe? 


Abraham

Jews believe a man called Abraham was the the first person to make a covenant with God. Abraham was a Hebrew. Jews believe God named Abraham's grandson Israel. After this, the Hebrews became known as the Israelites. Abraham is considered the father of the Jewish people and the Israelites are his descendants.


Moses

Later, a man named Moses saved the Jewish people from persecution in Egypt when he led them to safety across the Red Sea. After this, the Jews lived in the desert where God gave Moses a set of rules which they should live by, including the Ten Commandments. Moses is the most important Jewish prophet.


What is the Jewish holy book?

The Jewish holy book is known as the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. The word Tanakh comes from the first letters of the three different parts of the book:

The Torah has 613 commandments which are called mitzvah. They are the rules that Jews try to follow. The most important ones are the Ten Commandments given to Moses.

The Torah is so special that people are not allowed to touch it. It is kept in a safe place called an ark in the Jewish temple and when people read from the Torah, they use a special pointer stick called a yad to follow the words.


PSHE - Health and well being 

What constitutes and how to maintain a healthy lifestyle including the benefits of physical activity and rest on wellbeing. 

To recognise what they like and dislike and how to make real, informed choices that improve their physical and emotional health.

To think about themselves, to learn from their experiences, to recognise and celebrate their strengths and to set simple, yet challenging goals.

Art - Stephen Wiltshire

Stephen Wiltshire is a British artist who is most famous for drawing and painting detailed cityscapes (picture of a city). He is extremely talented at creating realistic and lifelike cityscapes even when he may have only seen them for a short period of time.

The children then created this image of Mote Park in the style of Stephen Wiltshire.

Ralph The Reindeer

Well done to the Year 2 children for being excellent narrators during the Key Stage One performance 'Ralph The Reindeer'.

The Year 2 Team would like to wish you a 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Science - Living Things and their Habitats

This term, Year 2 have explored living things and their habitats by researching the needs that animals have in their habitats to survive, and how animals need different habitats depending where they are in the world. The children have explored the importance of food chains and the role these play in animals lives. They have also applied their knowledge from the Howletts trip to look at adaptation in specific animals and how they are able to change to survive in their habitat.

Note from the Year 2 Team

Please ensure that your child continues to read to develop their reading fluency as this is a key skill in Year 2.