Year 2 Lexia learning
Nearly 50% of the class have either achieved the end of Year 2 certificate (Level 9) for Lexia or are currently working on this level. Well done to all those children!
As we start our final half term in Year 2, it would be great to see as many of the class as possible achieve this target by the end of this year.
Just ten minutes a day, at home, can help to achieve this.
Please let us know if you have any difficulties with your child’s log in.
Living and Learning: Body image
Body image, as part of our Living and Learning curriculum, uses a focus on self-esteem to promote a positive body image. There is a strong emphasis on appreciating and celebrating everyone’s unique qualities, talents and abilities.
We want to enable pupils to feel proud and confident about who they are and to value their own and each other’s individuality.
Firstly, we talked about what makes us special – maybe something physical or personal. Here are some of the children’s ideas.
I’m special as I love reading books.
I’m special because I can make new friends.
I’m special because I hard try hard with my learning.
I’m special as I’m brave by swimming in a big pool.
I’m special because I’m good at helping others.
Next, we discussed why we have names and what if everyone was nameless?
If we didn’t have names, we wouldn’t be as special as we are.
We have names because we are unique and special.
We need names as we wouldn’t know who people are.
A name makes us special.
Then, we considered why we like different activities.
We like different activities because we are different people.
Some people like different things.
Not everyone likes the same thing because we are all different.
It would be boring if everyone liked the same things. It is good to share each others’ successes and interests.
Remember – not everyone can be good at everything but everyone is good at something.
Finally, we thought about why we look different and what things we can change and what things we can’t change about ourselves.
You can change your personality because if you don’t share with others, you can learn to share.
You can’t change your skin colour.
Listen to this text, Your Body is Awesome, with your child. What is brilliant about their body?
It’s always great to hear the children discussing and sharing ideas in our Living and Learning sessions. The children always have such a lot to say about this key area of our learning. A special mention to Erica who showed fantastic listening skills to all the children as they shared their ideas in this lesson.
Science this half term
This half term, in science, we are biologists and we are learning all about plants.
Here is a summary of the key learning and also the vocabulary we are using.
We used our observation skills when looking at the parts of a plant.
We’ve also been planting seeds and measuring our plants as they start to grow.
In this video, have a look to see what goes on underground when a seed has been planted. What parts of a plant can you see?
We’ve also been doing some gardening in the front playground planters.
It’s been great to see the children spotting plants in their garden and in their neighbourhood.
Can you identify any of the plants? What parts of the plants can you see?
Today, we finished our plants learning with a walk around Moortown Park to see what plants we could spot. We used the Seek App to help to identify plants that we found.
Skipping festival
We are working hard on our skipping skills, that we learnt with Jodi from Skipping School, ready for the Year 2 Skipping Festival that is coming up after half term (Thursday 9 June).
We are very much looking forward to cheering on our friends, watching some great skipping skills and most of all having FUN.
All children will need to bring a packed lunch to eat on our return to school. They should also bring a fruit snack and full water bottle to take with them to the festival.
Please return the permission slip and the photograph permission form to school by Friday 27th May 2022.
Don’t forget that skipping ropes can be purchased from the office at a subsidised cost of £3 for your child to practise these skills at home.
Martial Arts
Today, we enjoyed a martial arts session from Premier Martial arts.
The children were excellent throughout learning some key martial arts skills. They had great focus, listening and enthusiasm. Well done Year 2!
Please refer to the letter brought home tonight, if your child is interested in attending the club.
We are geographers!
This half-term, Year 2 are becoming geographers. As part of our Explorers topic, we’re comparing a place in the United Kingdom with a place in another country. This week, we started to compare Kenya to the United Kingdom and Nairobi to London. We focussed on the physical and human geography of these two places and noted the similarities between the two capital cities. Ask your child to tell you all about Nairobi.
As well as visiting Kenya, we have been learning about the seven continents, five oceans and about how the equator splits the earth into two hemispheres.
We have really enjoyed learning the continents and oceans by listening to and singing along to the great songs.
How can you help?
Google Earth is a brilliant tool to help develop children’s understanding of space, place, scale and interdependence. Zoom right in on your home and then zoom out to reveal the area of Leeds that you live in. Zoom further out to see what city you live. Zoom further for the county. A little further and you might start to spot some national parks. Further still and you can see the country that we live in. Keep zooming and you’ll see the continent we live in (though this isn’t labelled).
Quizzing your children about some locational knowledge will help them to remember important information.
- Which continent do we live in?
- Which country do we live in?
- In which hemisphere is our country located?
- Which county do we live in?
- Which city do we live in?
- Which part of Leeds do we live in?
- Which four countries make up the United Kingdom?
Summer term after-school clubs
Edit: places can still be booked for after-school clubs.
We have spaces available on:
Tuesday – basketball Y4-6 now open to Y3
Tuesday – rugby Y1-3 now open to reception
Thursday – multi-games Y4-6 now open to Y3
After-school clubs will be restarting next week and they will run for eight weeks until week commencing 4th July. Places can be booked via Gateway.
Our physical activity clubs continue to be heavily subsidised through the investment of our PE and Sport Premium.
Each club has a limit on the maximum number of children who can attend. As numbers are limited we ask that you limit your child to one club initially. If there are clubs with remaining places, we will then offer these as a second club.
Please contact the office if you have any queries about the clubs or the booking system.
Living and learning: mindfulness
As a happy and healthy school, we encourage pupils to look after their mental health as well as their physical health. Read our mindfulness newsletter for ideas and techniques to try to support this.
As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, Chirpy, in Chapel Allerton, are hosting FREE after school Mindfulness Moments For Minis workshops. A time for children to reconnect and calm their minds.
Wednesday 11th May 4:30pm – 5:15pm Age 5-10
Thursday 12th May 4:30pm – 5:15pm Age 5-10
Friday 13th May 10am -10:30am pre school
Bookings can be made here.
By teaching mindfulness to children they learn the skills they need to build self-awareness, confidence and cope with stress. Mindfulness can help children deal with tough emotions and help them learn ways to relax and calm the mind and the body.
Leeds Fun Run 8th May
The Arena Group Leeds Fun Run is back for 2022, taking place on Sunday 8th May.
It offers a great opportunity to get families together, while staying and active and healthy at the same time.
Children of all abilities are encouraged to take part as they wheel, walk, jog or run the 1.3 km route around the city centre.
Living and Learning: democracy
This week, Year 2 spent our Living and Learning session considering what is democracy and how we can become involved in democratic decisions.
Democracy, one of the British Values, means ‘rule by the people‘. It comes from the Greek words dêmos (people) and krátos (rule or strength).
Democratic means people having a chance to say what they think should happen.
Our Junior Leadership Team elections and voting for our new school charity are ways the children can take part in democratic decisions at school. These events will take place in the autumn term.
All children can still use their pupil voice to make suggestions for the JLT meetings by telling their junior leaders or putting a suggestion in the Living and Learning box.
This week, we took part in a democratic decision by voting for the Wake up Shake up song. We also discussed a future class vote to decide our next whole class reward when we complete our class ladybird spots.
Before learning about voting in real life, we heard about a Go Givers story about voting.
How did Anna feel when her choice didn’t win the vote?- What is the best way to behave if you lose a vote?
- Ahmeti didn’t want others to know what she had voted for. How did the Go Givers solve that problem?
