Autumn 1 Week 2: 07.09.26

What another fantastic week we have had in Year 2! We have been busy learning, exploring and having lots of fun across all areas of our curriculum. Here is a little look at what we have been getting up to this week.

In writing, we have continued our exciting journey through our book A River. This week, we have been developing our descriptive writing skills by exploring and describing a range of different settings. We have travelled from the busy city, to the peaceful countryside, through the lush jungle and out across the vast oceans!

We have been working hard to make our descriptions interesting and exciting by using expanded noun phrases. We have also been practising our -er and -s suffixes and using both coordinating and subordinating conjunctions to join our ideas together. We have loved using our imaginations to bring each setting to life! 

In maths, we have continued our learning about place value. We have been using place value charts to help us understand the value of each digit in a number. We have been partitioning numbers to 100 into tens and ones, writing numbers in numerals and words, and practising writing numbers in expanded form. We are becoming more confident at explaining what each digit represents and showing our understanding in different ways.

In phonics, we have been focusing on the alternative sounds for e and oo. We have been reading and spelling words containing these different sounds and thinking carefully about which sound we can hear in each word. We have been working hard to apply our phonics knowledge when reading and writing.

In RE, we have been learning about the Bible and why it is important to Christians. We have learnt that the Bible is the Christian holy book and that it tells God's story. We have enjoyed discussing what the Bible means to Christians and why it is such an important book.

Our artists have been getting creative with clay! We have been exploring clay and experimenting with different materials and tools that we can use to create interesting textures. We have enjoyed seeing how different objects can make different marks and patterns in the clay.

In science, we have been recapping our Year 1 learning all about plants. We have been seeing what we can remember about the different parts of a plant and have practised labelling them.

We also revisited our memories of the plants we discovered in our local area when we were in Year 1. It was fantastic to see how much we could remember and to talk about the different plants we had found!

In geography, we have been learning all about the four seasons. We have been describing the different seasons and thinking about the changes we see throughout the year.

We have also learnt why Earth has four different seasons and discussed how the Earth’s movement around the Sun helps to cause these seasonal changes. 🌍☀️🍂❄️

We were very excited to welcome the Life Education team to school this week! We had a wonderful visit from Gerald the Giraffe and Harold. 🦒

We learnt lots about our feelings and emotions, including how we might recognise different feelings and how we can talk about them. We really enjoyed our visit and learnt lots of important things about looking after ourselves and our wellbeing.

With Mr Richards, we have continued our ukulele learning. 🎶 We have been practising our skills and building our confidence as musicians. We are enjoying learning how to play the ukulele and are looking forward to developing our skills even further!

In computing, we have been learning about staying safe online. We have focused particularly on the importance of keeping our passwords private and never sharing them with other people. We are learning how to make safe and sensible choices when using technology.

In PE, we have been developing our fundamental movement skills. We have been practising throwing, catching and skipping through a variety of fun games and activities.

We have been working on our coordination, control and teamwork, while also having lots of fun being active.

What a busy and exciting week of learning we have had. We are so proud of the enthusiasm, curiosity and hard work everyone has shown. Keep up the fantastic work, Year 2 — we can't wait to see what next week brings! 

Autumn 1 Week 1: wb 01.09.25

What a fantastic first week we have had in Year 2 at Hoddlesden St Paul’s! It has been wonderful to welcome everyone back after the summer holidays, and the children have settled into Year 2 incredibly well. We have spent the first few days getting to know our new routines and expectations, and everyone has made a brilliant start.

In Writing, we have begun exploring our new text, A River by Marc Martin. We looked carefully at the illustrations and made some thoughtful predictions about what the book might be about. We are already very excited to find out more and see where our learning takes us!

In Maths, we have been exploring grouping and counting in tens. The children have been working practically to make groups and have been developing their understanding of how counting in tens can help us count larger quantities more efficiently.

In Geography, we have started our new unit all about weather. We began by becoming weather detectives and carefully observing the clouds. We discussed what we could see in the sky and started to think about how clouds can tell us about the weather.

Our PSHE learning has focused on our ideal classroom. We thought carefully about what would make our classroom a happy, safe and positive place to learn and then wrote our own pledges about how we can contribute to making our classroom the very best it can be.

In Art, we have begun our new sculpture unit. We explored the work of artist Ranti Bam and looked carefully at her sculptures, discussing their shapes, forms and textures. We are looking forward to experimenting with our own sculptural ideas over the coming weeks.

In Phonics, we have been exploring the different ways we can make the /ee/ sound. We have been spotting these sounds in words and practising reading and spelling them accurately.

We have also spent lots of time getting to know each other, establishing our classroom routines and reminding ourselves of our school rules and expectations. The children have shown fantastic enthusiasm, kindness and maturity throughout the week.

It has been a brilliant first few days in Year 2, and we are incredibly proud of how well everyone has settled in. Well done, Year 2 — what a wonderful start to the year! 🌟