Author: year2
Arts Week
During this week we worked on our observational, sketching and collage skills.
The whole school looked at architecture as our theme for this year, while in Year Two we focused on Doors.
We began the week by going for a walk around New Romney to look at all of the different styles of doors we could find. The Children took photos of them, then it was back to school to sketch the different doors we had seen. We moved on to looking at artists, especially Henri Matisse and his approach to art. We created some artwork using his methods, looking at techniques, colours and shapes.
Our final piece was a door each, where the children used materials they’d collected at home and at school to recreate one of the doors we found on our walk.
The children did a fantastic job and we can’t wait to share them properly in a gallery format later in the term!
Science
Animals
This term Year 2 have been learning about animals and what they need to survive.
We had great fun making bird feeders to see which birds we could spot in our outdoor areas at school.
What birds can you identify as you walk to and from school, or in different environments at the weekends?
European Day of Languages
We started the day by looking at different European flags, identifying the colours and talking about some of the places that we, or our families have visited in Europe.
In the afternoon all of Year Two got together to learn some Dutch. Mrs Dunton had brought in some clogs, tulips and some traditional Dutch foods to talk about. We looked through the PowerPoint and listened to Mrs Dunton explaining it in Dutch.
We learnt a traditional Dutch rhyme about the King through which we could practice the colours red, white and blue in Dutch!
Here is our powerpoint if you would like to practice or have a look at home (it will open as a PDF) All about Holland
The Creation Story
This term we are looking at the story of the Creation, at St Nicholas we use a scheme of work called Understanding Christianity. We have this lovely Frieze displayed in each classroom, today we have been looking at the part of the frieze that depicts the creation, this picture stimulated some amazing conversations amongst the children and further questions for us to explore.
I wonder what you can see in the picture? The children discussed what might be in the closed tins!
Here is some of our work looking at the Creation and what God made on each day.
The Dot
During our first week of school we were lead through our Worship to look at what makes a Community.
This is our value that we will be focusing on all term, we talked about the wider community around New Romney, other communities we might be part of like clubs or teams and then we looked at our School Community. We talked about people who encourage us and how we can work together as a Class Community to be the best that we can be.
In this week we also read the story called The Dot
We loved how Vashti’s teacher inspired her to become an artist, just by asking her to sign her first picture.
We looked at this Dot song based on the story too!
The children across Year 2 created some artwork based on the dot, we loved how each piece was so unique.
Useful Information about Year 2
PE this year is on Mondays and Wednesday afternoons, we will be inside and outside during these sessions.
PE kit for all children: Navy Shorts and white T-shirt, plimsolls/ trainers. A navy-blue tracksuit for colder weather – further details can be found on the school website by following this link – School Uniform
The classrooms can be very warm with everyone busy learning, so please ensure your child has a clearly labelled water bottle with them in school each day to keep them hydrated and able to learn.
As a reminder, the school day starts at 8.30 am and ends at 3.15 pm. Please aim to arrive at school at 8.30am, as important Start Of Day Activities (SODA) take place during the time before worship and we would like all children to benefit from the maximum amount of learning time.
In Fox Class we have Mr Hooper and Miss Carswell
In Hare Class we have Miss Kay and Mrs Newman
In Rabbit Class we have Mrs Dunton (on Monday and Tuesday) Miss McHaffie (on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) and Miss Howes
Beginning Our Great Fire of London Topic
This Term we are immersing ourselves in the Great Fire of London
On September 1st 2023 just a few days before we started back at school the topic made national headlines
Great Fire of London: Man who first raised alarm identified
How fantastic to study a topic that is still making the headlines!
We began our DT project by building some Tudor houses, we wanted to identify if they were stable, and how we could improve them when we build our own Tudor houses later in the term. The children were fantastic at cutting out the templates and worked hard together to create the 3D shapes.
Welcome to Year 2
Welcome to Year Two, the home of Fox, Hare and Rabbit classes
This is where you will find a summary of our learning, photos of our hard work and some helpful links and documents to help support your child.
Here is our curriculum map for Term 1
Here you will find our Key Instant Recall Facts
To practice your maths at speed log on to Numbots
Music
Our school curriculum is driven and shaped by our school vision, which informs everything that we do.
St Nicholas provides a welcoming, inclusive and aspirational learning environment at the heart of its community. We nurture, encourage and support all children, adults and their families to be the best as God intended. Following God’s example of love and trust, we develop resilience and creativity in all we do.
Learning, loving and encouraging through Christ.
An uncompromising focus on pupils’ personal development has made St Nicholas Church of England Primary Academy a place where pupils always come first. Ofsted 2019
We love music here at St Nicholas whether that be music lessons, singing practice, choir or choosing our celebration song in Friday’s celebration assembly and value its place as an important part of our school life.
We all feel the enjoyment that listening or dancing to our favourite music can create, singing our favourite songs, and understand the power that a great soundtrack has to build drama or add tension to a film.
At St Nicholas we aim to give every child the opportunity to experience the power of music to enhance our lives, as well as capitalizing on the benefits it gives in other areas of the curriculum. We follow the Kapow scheme of work throughout the school in order to provide clear progression.
Singing, playing instruments, performing, and composing are enjoyable, creative and fulfilling learning experiences in their own right, but research shows that this learning extends beyond the musical curriculum.
- Making music in the early and primary years increases listening and concentration skills, and enhances a child’s ability to discriminate between sounds. This improves phonetic awareness and helps to develop language and literacy skills.
- There is a positive impact on spatial reasoning, which is linked to mathematical thinking and on physical co-ordination, which supports handwriting skills.
- Music-making in small groups promotes teamwork and the development of leadership skills, as well as being hugely enjoyable.
- Pupils’ confidence can be enhanced if they have opportunities to perform.
- Music-making has social and emotional benefits, helping children to improve their mood and relieve stress
At St Nicholas, we are lucky to be a part of Sing Up Education, where years 2-6 have a specialist teacher come in once a week to teach them music building on the skills learnt alongside the Kapow scheme. We will also be welcoming iRock into school to teach children rock & pop band lessons.
Skills of a music student at St Nicholas:
Listening – an important skill in music allowing pupils to respond to music they hear and perform.
Creativity – singing or playing music is an excellent way to express yourself as we all interpret and approach music differently.
Communication and collaboration – working as part of a team discussing ideas and supporting each other.
Perseverance – learning a new song or an instrument can be frustrating. It can take real perseverance and resilience to not give up, even though at times it can be hard.
Choir
Singing is an important part of our school life as a Church school – “To sing, is to pray twice,” St Augustine – and alongside weekly whole school singing practice, we run an after school choir which sings at all of our church services. At Christmas, we invite in the community for carols and cakes and each class sings a mixture of traditional and contemporary songs and this is an occasion enjoyed by both the children and the wider community. As well, we regularly take part in ‘Jam on the Marsh’ where the children perform as a group in the church.
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