Abbey House Museum
What a great day we’ve had! Year 2 learned a lot about the past by being transported back to Victorian Leeds. At Abbey House Museum, the children found out how people lived over 100 years ago and explored different toys as part of our current history learning.
I liked it when Jill showed us all the toys from the past.
I liked to play with the yoyo but it was hard to do it.
I liked the pharmacy because all the potions looked interesting but they don’t look like the medicines we have now.
The old toilets in the street are very different to what we have now.
We learnt that people didn’t have electricity for their toys and games.
Help at home by discussing how life was different in the past. Ask your child what they remember from our trip to Abbey House Museum ready for their recount writing.
Topic – Grandparent visit
We’ve had such a wonderful afternoon welcoming two grandparents into our class to share their experiences of toys from their childhood. The children really showcased their oracy skills, using clear voices and good voice projection when asking their questions.
We found out that one of their favourite toys was a bounce hopper because they loved being outdoors and it kept them fit and healthy and a role-play post office set, which they could enjoy playing with alongside their siblings. We also learnt that many toys in the past were made from wood, metal or porcelain, whereas today most toys are plastic, although we still enjoy some wooden toys, such as train sets.
We also loved looking at the collection of toys and photographs they’d brought in to share with us!
Help at home:
Have a chat with your child about the toys you played with as a child. Are there any similarities or differences?
Yoga
Today, we’ve continued our yoga learning in PE. We’ve enjoyed creating different poses to show strength and balance followed by some relaxation at the end.
Help at home: if your child has enjoyed learning yoga, try Cosmic yoga to practise more yoga poses at home.
Topic Drop Down Morning
This morning, we’ve had a lovely time revisiting some of our History, Geography and DT learning from Year 1.
In History, we recapped two heroes — Nelson Mandela and Leonora Cohen. The children really wowed me with how many facts they remembered about both significant figures.
In Geography, we recapped the seven continents and looked at the four countries that make up the UK, labelling their capital cities. Once again, the children did this confidently, demonstrating fantastic remembering skills (one of our 8Rs for learning).
Finally, in DT, we explored the design process and discussed how it’s a continuous cycle of planning, making and evaluating. We talked about how this needs to be repeated, as designers are constantly evaluating their work until they’re happy with the final design. We also tested the stability of three different structures and found that the cylinder was the most stable.
What a fab morning of learning we’ve had in Year 2! ✨
History – Invitation for grandparents
As part of our History topic, Toys and Games, we’d love to invite a grandparent into school on Tuesday 03 February at 1.20pm to share memories of the toys they played with during their childhood.
During the visit, the children will ask questions such as:
-
What was your favourite toy when you were growing up?
-
What materials were toys made from in the past?
If a grandparent or family member is able to spare some time to join us, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Please contact the school office or speak to Mrs Palmer if you’re able to help.
Living and Learning: rule of law
In our Living & Learning lessons, for the past few weeks, we have been thinking about the different British Values (Democracy, Respect & Tolerance, Individual Liberty and Rule of Law) and how they affect us.
This week, our focus has been rule of law.
First of all, we used this opportunity to recap our school rules.
We’re respectful.
We’re safe.
We’re ready.
Whether rules are at home, school or out and about, they are there to keep us safe and to make things fair. We should respect these rules.
We considered the consequences of not following rules and laws.
You might get into trouble.
You would get told off.
You might hurt someone’s feelings.
It could be dangerous.
Finally, in our Philosophy Friday session, we thought about what it would be like to live in a place with no rules and laws.
People wouldn’t respect each other.
It wouldn’t be safe.
Cars would travel too fast.
We could use matches which are dangerous for children.
People would get hurt.
Help at home: think about different rules that you might have at home. How to they relate to our school rules?
Assembly stars
Well done to all the children for their Year 2 class assembly yesterday.
We are very proud of how the children learnt their lines, using their oracy skills to project their voice and worked together to support each other during our practices.
We hope you enjoyed seeing some of the learning from Year 2.
Skipping School
On Monday, Year 2 welcomed Jodi from skipping school to Moortown to show us lots of new skills.
The children were fantastic. Every child was resilient and determined. They gave the skipping 100% effort and some made amazing progress in one morning.
We’ll be practising in school regularly ready for our festival in June.
Topic: History
We’ve begun our new topic, History: Toys and Games. Over this half term, we will be exploring toys from the past and comparing them with the toys we enjoy today. Today, the children shared their favourite toy or game and talked about what makes it special to them. We also discussed whether their favourite toy or game might have been around when their parents or grandparents were children.
Help at home:
Please take a photo of your child with their favourite toy or game and email it to school so we can share it in class. You could also chat together about whether this toy or game is one you remember playing with when you were younger.
Bog Baby
This week, we have started our new class novel, Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis. You can read the text online here.
We will be using the text as a focus for learning reading skills such as predicting, word definitions and the author’s choice of words and writing skills such as using conjunctions (words that are used to join two sentences together including and, but, because and so).
Help at home: Reread the text with your child here. What do they like about the book? What would they like to ask the characters?