Hearing Dog Visit

 Hello Year 2 Families

Yesterday, we were delighted to welcome Debs and Keith from the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People to our school. They brought along two very special dogs, Elmo and Shadow, who quickly became firm favourites with the children!

During the visit, Debs spoke to the children about what it means to be deaf and explained how hearing dogs provide invaluable support in everyday life. The children were fascinated to learn how Elmo and Shadow help by alerting Debs to important sounds such as the telephone ringing, someone knocking at the door or alarms going off around the home.

The children listened incredibly well throughout the session and showed great curiosity and empathy. They asked lots of thoughtful and interesting questions, demonstrating a real interest in understanding how hearing dogs help people to live more independently and confidently.

It was a fantastic opportunity for the children to learn more about disability awareness, inclusion and the important role assistance dogs play in supporting people’s lives. A huge thank you to Debs, Keith, Elmo and Shadow for such an engaging and memorable visit!

The Year Two Team

HELLO EVERYONE

 Hello everyone!

First off, I want to offer a huge apology for the radio silence on our class blog recently. Technology hasn't quite been our friend, and it has only just started working for me again! Rest assured, while the blog was quiet, the classroom has been anything but—we have been incredibly busy.

Here is a look at what we’ve been up to and what’s coming across the horizon.

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📖 English: Journeying from Ocean to Sky

We have been completely immersed in the beautiful world of our class book, 'Ocean Meets Sky'. To really get into the hearts of the characters, the children have been:

• Diving into Drama: Using role-play to explore the emotional journey of the story.

• Expanding our Vocabulary: We’ve been mastering expanded noun phrases to describe the whimsical landscapes and creatures we’ve encountered.

This week marks the grand finale of this unit. During our Big Write, the children will be drafting and polishing their very own versions of the story.

🔢 Maths: Master Multipliers

We have officially wrapped up Unit 7: Multiplication and Division. The children have worked hard to understand the relationship between these two operations.

A Quick Reminder: In Year 2, it is a key curriculum goal for all children to know their 2, 5, and 10 times tables. Any extra practice at home—whether it’s a quick quiz in the car or a song—makes a world of difference!

Next week, we are switching gears to explore Length and Height, where we will be getting hands-on with rulers and meter sticks.

🪡 DT: Getting Crafty

In Design and Technology, we have been developing our fine motor skills by learning how to sew. The children have already mastered the running stitch, showing great patience and focus. We are currently working our way through the class as everyone sews their very own pouches. They are looking absolutely amazing—we definitely have some budding fashion designers in our midst!

🌱 Science: Green Fingers

Our budding scientists are currently learning all about Plants. We have set up several investigations to see exactly what plants need to thrive. The highlight has been setting up our broad bean observations. We are watching them closely to see the very first signs of germination—fingers crossed for some healthy sprouts soon!

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🗓️ Key Dates & Reminders

There is a lot coming up over the next few weeks, so please pop these in your diaries:

• Monday (Bank Holiday): School is closed. Enjoy the long weekend!

• Next Friday 8th is Sir David Attenborough Day: We are celebrating the world's most famous naturalist! Children are invited to come to school dressed as an animal, a habitat, or an explorer.

• Friday 22nd May (Number Day): Let’s get mathematical! Children are encouraged to dress up as anything related to numbers. Think t-shirts with a favorite digit, a human domino, or even a cardboard dice.

Thank you for your patience while we got the blog back up and running. It’s great to be back in touch!

Best wishes,

The Year 2 Team

Unit 2.6: Creating Pictures - Pointillism

Today in Computing, our Year Two pupils continued their learning in Unit 2.6: Creating Pictures, exploring the artistic style of pointillism. 

We began by looking at examples of pointillist artwork and discussing what we noticed. The children were fantastic at spotting that these pictures are made up of lots of tiny dots of colour, rather than brush strokes, and that the colours sit next to each other rather than being mixed together.

Using the Purple Mash ‘2Paint A Picture’ tool, pupils then explored the pointillism setting. They experimented with:

• creating pictures using dots instead of lines,
• selecting different colour palettes,
• changing the size of their dots,
• and even “diluting” colours to make lighter shades. 

The children showed great creativity and independence as they developed their own digital artworks. Some chose to use outline templates to help structure their pictures, while others created their designs completely from scratch. It was wonderful to see their confidence grow as they refined their work and used the undo tool to improve their creations.

To finish, pupils gave their artwork a title and “signed” it, just like real artists, before saving it carefully in their folders.

We also had a thoughtful discussion about how creating art on a computer compares to using real paint. The children shared brilliant ideas about the advantages of both—highlighting how technology allows us to experiment and edit easily, while traditional painting offers a different creative experience.

A fantastic lesson full of creativity, exploration and lots of #InspiredToLearn moments! 🌟

Exploring Impressionism with 2Paint A Picture!

This week in our Computing lesson, Year 2 began an exciting new unit called Creating Pictures! In Lesson 1, we explored a fantastic program called 2Paint A Picture, and our focus was on a very special style of art: Impressionism.

First, we looked at some famous impressionist paintings. We noticed how the artists used short, quick brushstrokes, soft edges and lots of light and colour to create beautiful scenes. The children were brilliant at spotting the key features of Impressionist art and could describe them confidently – well done, everyone!

Next, it was our turn to become digital artists! Using the Impressionism template on 2Paint A Picture, the children created their own masterpieces. From shimmering gardens to dreamy landscapes, each piece captured the soft and colourful feel of the Impressionist style.

🎨 Successes from the lesson:

• The children could describe the main features of Impressionist art, using great vocabulary like “light,” “brushstrokes,” and “blurry edges.”

• Everyone had a go at creating their own Impressionist-style picture using the digital tools in 2Paint A Picture – and the results were amazing!

We can’t wait to explore more styles of art over the next few weeks and continue developing our digital creativity. 

Y2: Let the Summer term commence!

Can't quite believe we are in the Summer term already! 

I hope that you have had a lovely break. Just a short blog with some key information for the week ahead. 

Mondays: PE in the afternoon (please can we have labelled PE kits in from tomorrow)

Thursdays: Swimming in the afternoon. All children will be going to the swimming pool to learn this vital skill of learning how to swim. We have had many chats about this as a class. Mr Spracklen will be taking the class swimming. Please can you make sure you have filled in the forms about their ability. Just a reminder that all girls will need a one piece swimming costume (not bikinis), all children MUST have hats and ideally goggles. There will not be time for showers. 

This Friday 17th from 3pm: Science Fair. 

You are invited to come and view all the entries. If you have any entries then please only bring these in on Friday as we have very limited storage for them. 

If you have any questions or concerns please come and see me at the door in the morning. 

🌏Mrs Thorpe and the Year 2 team 🌍

Y2: End of term learning and Easter challenge

 What a special end of the term we have had! 

Year 2 loved visiting Helios today at The Corn Exchange. We were curious, observant and relaxed looking at the movement and colours on the Sun. We all laid down and listened to Einaudi, which helped us to really look at all the colours and shades. Once we were back at school we then used out artistic skills we have learnt about mixing colours to paint our representation of Helios. 

We hope you all have a lovely Easter break. Home learning wise for the couple of weeks, we have printed of 2,5 and 10 times table sheets. Please can you practice these as much as possible. My spelling group have recently done an end of unit check on all the spellings we have learnt so far. I have sent home a copy of their results, please practice the words they did not get correct. 

Finally, I would really like to encourage you all to take part in the Science whole school task that focusses on making something for the Science Fair on the first week back. You should have had this in an email but if not then here is a reminder. 

See you in a couple of weeks! 

🍫The Year 2 team 🐣

Y2: Science trip to the Farm

What a fantastic trip to the farm we had today. Linked with our Science learning on offspring, the children learnt about lambing and got to stroke some of the lambs. We also went and saw the cows before coming back to school for a well earned hot chocolate. 

Thank you farmer Hazel for another informative trip and for all the parent helpers.