Living & Learning: body image
Our latest Living and Learning sessions have been focussed on body image and we started this learning by thinking about what is special about our own identity and how we can describe our own identity in terms of our physical appearance.
Our self portraits show just how unique we all are.
We also thought of other ways we might be different, on the inside as well as the outside. For example, we don’t all have the same personality and characteristics and we have different interests and hobbies.
We agreed that being different is a good thing and it should be celebrated as it would be boring if we were all the same!
In our circle time, we thought about good things about ourselves…
I am alive.
I can be on stage confidently.
I have a good imagination.
I care about the environment.
I care for others and help my friends.
I am funny.
…and what we like about our bodies.
I am flexible.
I like my long hair.
I am unique.
I can see and hear.
I like my eye colour.
My brain helps me think.
Help at home: discuss this learning with your child. Encourage them to think about their strengths and what they like about who they are.
Trip to Temple Newsam
Year 2 have had a wonderful day today visiting Temple Newsam Farm! We started off the day with a look around the farm and a visit to the playground.
Before lunch, we had a lovely walk around the park and saw some ducklings on the pond.
After lunch we headed back to the farm to see some teeny tiny piglets, some were just 2 days old! We learnt that despite their stereotype, pigs are one of the cleanest farmyard animals. This introduced our Design and Technology workshop about the Three Little Pigs. Pigs make nests to live in, so we decided to make some structures, much like the houses in the Three Little Pigs. We had to construct our own structure out of sticks (just like one of the three little pigs!). We tried really hard and we were really impressed with their structures.
We were very impressed with the children’s behaviour, engagement and attitude all day. They represented Moortown Primary impeccably.
WE HAD AN AWESOME DAY!!
Living and Learning: relationships
For the last few weeks, our Living and Learning lessons and circle times have been all about happy and healthy relationships between our friends, peers and families.
When thinking about our families, we thought about how we show we care for each other. We read some texts about how not all families are the same and that is ok. The children enjoyed sharing special members of their family.
The Great big book of families by Mary Hoffman
We have already learnt about consent in terms of permission seeking when online but here we thought about it when we are with others. We practised showing how we give and don’t give consent and how we can also change our mind if we want to.
Finally, you will have seen the children have brought home the NSPCC Pants Underwear rule. We revisit this important learning every year.
Help at home: read the NSPCC pants underwear rule with your child/children and think about how this keeps you safe. This parent guide is available too.
Numbots
With six Numbots certificates awarded this week, it’s great to see the children continuing to work hard at home to achieve their next level.
Certificates are awarded every Tuesday so let’s see how many more we can achieve before the end of the year.
Super skippers
This week, Year 2 took part in our Skipping School KS1 festival at Leeds Trinity University against four other Leeds schools.
The children have been learning lots of individual and group skipping skills and today it was great to see just how much the children have progressed.
All the class worked hard as a team to earn as many skips as possible in their events. Dexter’s 99 single bounce skips in 30 seconds certainly helped to contribute to our total!
After all the points (skips) were added up, the winning school was announced…
We were so excited and proud to hear we had won!
A huge well done to all the children for fantastic determination, resilience and team work. They have worked so hard by practising in PE, at lunchtime and playtime, at skipping after-school club and even at home!
The festival has been really fun. I feel happy.
I like it because I’ve learnt lots of different skips and people encouraged me.
I feel proud of my skipping.
This is the third year in a row our Year 2 classes have achieved this and we feel very proud of their success.
Design and Technology – What makes a stable structure?
First, we looked at the design process.
PLAN – MAKE – EVALUATE
This week, we have been looking at what makes a stable structure.
A stable structure is strong, has as flat base and is free-standing.
We moulded playdough into different 3D shapes and made predictions about which would be the most stable and why. We placed each structure on a flat surface (a whiteboard) and tipped it. We measured how high we could lift the board until the structure started to roll off.
Help at home by looking at structures in the environment and trying to use our topic vocabulary to describe the structures.
Tennis
Today, Year 2 had a great tennis session with a coach from Roundhay Tennis. This weekend, Roundhay Tennis club are inviting children to attend their free ‘Family Fun Tennis Opens Days’.
Living and Learning: physical health and fitness
Our latest Living and Learning sessions have been all about the importance of exercise and how we need to keep active to keep our bodies and our minds healthy.
We thought about all the things we had done since waking up. Then, we checked which ones were active.
Practised gymnastics
Wake up Shake up
Walking to school
Playing tig with friends at playtime
Classroom skipping brain break
Pull ups
The NHS guidance states that children and young people should ‘aim for an average of at least 60 minutes (30 minutes in school and 30 minutes out of school) of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity a day across the week’. We know that the exercise we need to do to achieve this, should increase our heart rate.
How do we manage to achieve our 30 minutes during the school day?
- Daily WUSU
- 2 weekly PE sessions
- Playtimes
- Lunchtime play – front playground, MUGA
- Go Noodle, Supermovers and active counting in class
- Jogging around the playground for brain breaks
- After school clubs
Help at home – try a new physical activity out of school – maybe a local junior park run, tennis lessons or have a look at our local physical activity guide for more ideas. Don’t forget to do skipping practice for our upcoming festival too.
Roundhay Tennis open days
Maths: length and height
It’s always great to hear about extra learning at home.
Here’s some great measuring.
