Year Two 2018-19
Step into a story
Welcome back! A brand new half term and a brand new theme. This half term we will be ‘stepping into stories’ with a focus on the author Oliver Jeffers. We will also be spending a week learning about WWI and taking part in various activities.
Take a look at our Learning and Reading Lighthouses to see what we will be learning across all of our subjects.
reading lighthouse – Stories by the same author
Learning Lighthouse – Step into a story
Shane the Artist
Year 2 have been learning new painting skills today with Shane. We have been mixing colours to create dark shades and using the brushes to paint different sized lines. We have been inspired by war artist Paul Nash and his painting ‘Springtime in the trenches’. We are looking forward to put our new skills to good use next week when we create our final painting for the competition.
Habitats
We have been looking at life processes and what we need to stay alive. We looked at local habitats and discussed what animals and plants live there and explained why it is suitable.
Kindness
Year two have been showing kindness to each other all day. We read the story about Alex the Alley Cat by Wes Fessler and discussed how a little kindness can change things and bring happiness. Well done to Riley for winning the Kindness certificate for being friendly, generous and considerate.
Fire Safety
Year 2 have had a visit from the Fire Service this week to give us information about keeping safe in a fire. The told us about their roles and responsibilities and we talked about the importance of having a fire plan at home. We had lots of fun dressing up as fire fighters and acting out a story to help us understand what to do if there was a fire at our houses.
Writing Instructions
In English, Year 2 have been making their own kites by following a set of instructions. We looked at what we need to write instructions including, a heading, bullet points, numbers, clear sentences and bossy verbs. We wrote our own instructions so that other people could make the kite. Next week we will be reading a story by Oliver Jeffers about a kite that gets stuck in a tree. Watch this space!
Let the adventure begin…
We have had a great start to our Year Two adventure!
Take a look at our Learning and Reading Lighthouses to see what we are going to be doing this half term.
Learning Lighthouse – Adventures
reading lighthouse – Story on a theme
Computing
We have been making our own e-books in Computing using an app called ‘Book Creator’. We learnt how to insert text and images. We then edited the text by changing its size, colour and font. We liked reading each others books.
Making shelters
In Science, we have been investigating materials to find out which one would be suitable to make a shelter. We found out that plastic was the most waterproof and we have been using our resilience to build our own shelters.
English
Year two have been reading the story ‘Where the Wild Things are’. This week we have been sequencing the story and discussing the main events. We were very good at retelling the story in our own words.
Science
We have been looking at materials and what they are used for. We were very good at finding materials around the classroom made from paper, plastic, wood and glass.
Where the Wild Things Are!
In English we are reading the book ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak. We have looked at some new words and written descriptions. We are looking forward to find out where Max goes on his adventure.
Year Two 2017-18
Sandylands does Glastonbury 2018
What a scorcher of a day we had on Friday for our festival day. We loved making our tie dye t-shirts and we got groovy when learning how to do Bollywood dancing. We danced the day away and had a great time soaking Mrs Oddie after school at the fair.
Values – Unity
Year 2 have been learning about our new value ‘Unity’ and how what we can do to show this value at school. We read the story ‘Once there were giants’ by Martin Waddell. We had discussions about our family and linked this to our school community and how we can support and appreciate each other in the classroom. We had good fun in the hall when we took part in some activities to give us the opportunity to support each other.
Summer Term – 999! What’s your emergency?
What a sizzling half term we are going to have. We will be looking at our emergency services with a focus on the fire service which will link into our learning about the Great Fire of London.
Our reading will focus on non-fiction texts (2O’s favourite). Have a look at our reading lighthouse for more information.
reading lighthouse – Non-Chronological reports
We love Reading in Year 2
Who doesn’t love a good book? Well Year 2 certainly do! We have read a lot of our reading spine books this year and we have said what we like and don’t like about them. The most popular was ‘The Twits’. We are looking forward to the next book! I wonder what it will be?
Marvelous Maths
Over the next couple of weeks we will learning about time. Can you solve our problem of the week?
Achievements
Well Declan for achieving the most coins in Key Stage 1 on your Times Tables Rockstars! The first one to receive the trophy in our class. Excellent!
P4C
We have been working with Gina in our P4C lesson. We thought about what it was like be happy or sad. We used pictures as a stimulus and then we thought of our own philosophical questions to discuss. We discusses the question ‘Is happy a smile?’. We came up with our own opinions and listened well to each other.
PE
2O have been developing their balance and co-ordination on the equipment in PE. They enjoyed the monkey bars the most and showed excellent upper body strength.
Story Writing
This half term we have written a lot of stories inspired by African Folktales, including ‘How the elephant got his trunk’, ‘Why monkey’s swing in trees’ and ‘Tortoise’s Gift’. We have also enjoyed learning about African animals and created our own fact files.
Tinga Tinga Art
We have been painting in the style of Tinga Tinga art, which uses bright, vibrant, bold and eye catching colours of Africa. We had used the animals from our Tinga Tales and cotton buds to create the patterns.
Humility in Year 2
We have been looking at this terms value today and we read the book ‘When the Teddy Bears Came’ by Martin Waddell to help us understand how we can show Humility within our classroom. We talked about thinking of others before ourselves and Mrs Greenwood’s assembly helped us to see the value as a way of praising others for what they have achieved even if we feel we have done better. We discussed as a class that we are going to work hard to show this value in our school.
Summer Term – Tinga-Tinga Tales
Reading Lighthouse – This half term we will be focusing on African Myths and Folktales to help us build our vocabulary, learn about stories from other cultures and to inspire our writing. Have a look at our Reading Lighthouse to find out more.
reading lighthouse – Stories from other cultures
24 Hours Around the world
Year 2 were welcomed onto school today with the sounds of Spain with Guitar music and Mrs Oddie trying to do some flamenco dancing. We had a fact filed morning making posters and we tried some traditional Spanish Cuisine. The olives did not go down very well. In the afternoon we had had our own La Liga football tournament with Barcelona, Valencia, Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid going head to head for the Cup! Real Madrid won with Kacper achieving Man of the Match!
Sophie’s Dancing Achievement
Sophie came into school today feeling very proud of herself for achieving a certificate at her dance class that she attends after school. Well done Sophie, we are all very proud of you too!
Fantastic Mr Fox
The children in 2O have finished reading another book today. We have been reading ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ by Roald Dahl. Lucy brought her dad’s copy of the book in to share with us. Here is what some of the children said about the book:
“It was fabulous” – Chloe
“I like it when Mr Fox and the two little foxes met Mole and they all went to find food together” – Aimee
“It was Fox-tastic” – Phoebe
“I liked it when Mr Fox and Badger said the Rat was drunk” – Harry
“I liked the part when Mr Fox nearly got caught behind the cider jars by the Woman” – Riley
Science – Plants
Year 2 have been carrying out a comparative test. We have planted some seeds and placed them in different conditions around the classroom. Some had water and sunlight others had no water and no sunlight. Today we made our observations and recorded the results.
World Book Day
We had some amazing characters in Year 2 this year and we had fun learning all about The Twits. We are really enjoying hearing about the tricks they play on each other.
Freedom
Year 2 had the special job of creating ideas for the Values display in the hall. We discussed how we can understand each other and value each others opinions. The class agreed that listening to each other is important.
DT Project – Wheels and Axles
Take a look at some of our finished ‘Get Away’ vehicles.
Year 2 trip to Judges Lodgings
Year two have had a busy day experiencing life as a Victorian. We played Victorian games with Mrs Jolly, visited Mr Powell, the under butler’s cottage, met Mr McKnight in the schoolroom and helped Mr Dunbar the butler, clean the silver and set the table. We are looking forward using our experiences to help us with our work back at school.
Luca said “I like playing with the toys and Noah’s ark”.
Spring Term – Horrible Histories
Learning Lighthouse
Take a look at this half terms Learning Lighthouse. The year 2 children are keen to learn about the Victorians.
Learning Lighthouse – Horrible Histories
Reading Lighthouse – This half term we will be looking at non-chronological reports and instructions to help us learn about the Victorians and Egyptians. Have a look at our Reading Lighthouse to find out more.
reading lighthouse – Horrible Histories
Safer Internet Day
In year 2 we discussed staying safe online and thought about our digital footprint. We make a poster that displayed our activities online and how we can work together to build a better internet.
Year 2 DT project
Our project is underway and we reached the ‘Make’ part of our process today. The children have measures their own pieces of wood and learnt how to use cutting tools safely. We had great fun and we all have a frame for our ‘Get Away’ vehicles. We will be adding the axles and wheels next week.
Wolf antics!
Wow! We had a special visitor this morning in the form of the wolf. Fortunately, we had the Year 2 detectives on hand to question him about the recent goings-on in Fairy tale land. He was rather a huffy puffy wolf and he nearly blew the classroom down!
Achievements
Alisha (2O) is very proud of her trophy and medals that she has won for her football skills in our after school club Team Theme! Well Done Alisha.
Sandylands News Report – Big Bad Wolf on the run!
Year 2 have been presenting their news reports today. They all read aloud to the class with confidence. Let’s hope we find the Big Bad Wolf!
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!
Year 2 were helping Jack make some very important decisions today in English. Were the children for or against Jack climbing up the beanstalk? It was a tough decision to make and they all managed to put across their points of view beautifully – Well done!
Fairytale Fixers!
This half term we are going to be reading traditional tales with a twist. Have a look at our learning lighthouse and see what we have planned to do!
Learning Lighthouse – Fairy-tale Fixers
We will be reading a variety of stories – Have a look at our Reading Lighthouse.
reading lighthouse – Fairy Tales with a twist
24 hours in Science!
Year 2 had great fun doing experiments with light, inspired by the inventor of the electric light bulb, Thomas Edison. We tested materials to see if they were translucent, transparent or opaque. We use mirrors to reflect light and we had lots of fun making shapes with our shadows.
Year 2 Architects!
What fun we had making our sculptures with Shane yesterday. We made cylinder shaped buildings with cones roofs and spiral stairways. We refined our cutting and sticking skills to make our buildings more stable. Everyone got stuck in and we very proud of our creations.
Let the Adventure Begin…. Take a look at our Learning Lighthouse
Learning Lighthouse – Let the Adventure Begin
Wow! We are coming to the end of our first term and what an adventure we have had. We have read ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and written our own stories. We have helped the Secret Seven find the Pirate with our WANTED posters and we have written persuasive letters to adopt an endangered animal.
In Geography we have looked at maps and symbols.
In science we did an experiment to find the best material to make a shelter.
We made our shelters in our maths lessons by measuring lengths of straws to the correct size.
Welcome to Year Two!
Welcome to Year 2! What an amazing first term we had! The theme ‘Swallows and Amazons.. the adventure begins’ was great as well as Who’s who in Whoville. We went on our own adventures including a trip to the lake district to compare Morecambe with the Grizedale Forest as part of our local focus. At a national level, we will be taking part in 24hrs in the Pudding Lane Mysteries to commemorate 350 years of the Great Fire of London. Globally, we looked at the Awful Egyptians in our Horrible Histories theme. Spring term turned us into fairytale fixers where we had to sort out all of the terrible mix-ups that happened in the land of fairytales, with a number of visits from Big Bad Wolf and a one from a very worried Little Red Riding Hood. Our Horrible Histories theme continued on as we ventured into the years of the Vile Victorians which included learning about the National hero Florence Nightingale as well as a trip to the Judge’s Lodgings.
This term we are very much looking forward to taking a trip into Africa for a deep study in Tinga Tinga artwork as well as looking at the life cycles of plants and animals as part of our ‘Wriggle and Grow’ theme.
International Dance Day
Year 2 had great fun taking part in lots of different workshops as part of our International Dance Day. We street danced to Uptown Funk, used our feet and hands to keep the beat and tell stories in our Indian dance workshop and were part of a dance troupe to be featured in the new Bollywood blockbuster!
WigWamBam!
New term, new theme – Wigwambam! This Summer term we are studying the Native Americans as an introduction to this theme we have made coil pots out of modelling clay and as you can see the children made some fantastic coiled patterns!
Native American Animal Art!
We have used our computing skills to find some examples of Native American artwork. The children noticed that they were all animal related and using pastels, tried to replicate their designs, we even had a go at making our own inner Native American animals!
Ground Force!
We found our inner Alan Titchmarsh this week as we are investigating what plants need to grow healthily and survive. We are testing how a plant will grow if it has no sunlight, water or warmth!
Sandylands World book day!
Wow! What a fantastic day today! Thank you so much to everyone who made an amazing effort for our World book day. See below for a few of the fab outfits!
Click below for our latest Learning Lighthouse – Fairytale Fixers
We are now fairy tale fixers!
As part of our “Fairytale Fixers” theme we have designed and cut out some of the characters from some of the traditional fairy tales. We have had to concentrate on cutting out especially so that our character’s look like they do in the tales!
An unwanted guest!
Not so much of a treat today as the children of year two were visited by a very angry, sharp clawed beast! He has returned (because of our radio broadcasts) to find out where his son Little Wolf had disappeared to, luckily everybody managed to calm him down and survive the visit!
As part of our plans to help rescue the sweet little wolf from prison, Year 2 have been designing and making getaway vehicles. We have been learning how axles and wheels work as well as how to saw correctly and safely.
A special visitor
Today we had a special visitor, Red Riding Hood braved Storm Doris to get here! She came all the way from fairy tale land to answer the children’s questions about the recent mix up with the wolves.
NEWS FLASH!! Sandylands’ News!
News just in from the Sandylands news desk – reporting suspicious activities around the local area, involving a certain Mr Wolf!
Click below for our latest Learning Lighthouse – Horrible Histories
Celebrating the Chinese New Year in style!
Helping us bring in the Chinese New Year, Phase One were treated to a Chinese puppet extravaganza as well as taking part in a 24 hours in Chinese New Year!
A step back in time…
Year 2 had an amazing day today visiting the Judges’ Lodgings in Lancaster. We all experienced life as a Victorian child from being a chambermaid in the Judges’ Lodgings to playing with Victorian toys. We even had a rather scary hour in a Victorian schoolroom – very different to our school! See the Year 2 page for more pictures!
Blast from the past 24 hours in Florence Nightingale
As part of our time travels we bumped into a very famous nurse. One Florence Nightingale!
Year 2 made a very exciting discovery this week in English. A special delivery from the London Museum of Archaeology! We’ve been reading the Egyptian Cinderella and making comparisons with the fairytale.
We have also found out the gruesome way Egyptians preserved their dead – Watch out for the mummies!
Click below for our latest learning lighthouse for our new theme ‘Who’s who in Whoville’
Lighting up Whoville
After the floods in Whoville, all the lights went out and we were set the challenge to light up Whoville again. In Science, we looked at how to create a simple circuit to replace the lights in Whoville.
We programmed our bee bots to find our way around WhoVille.
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Picasso – a deep study!
As part of our Art work this term, we looked at the life and works of the famous artist Picasso. We used a variety of different materials to create our own collages in the style of Picasso.
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Who’s who in Whoville – Maps , directions and geographical features!
We have had great fun constructing our own Whoville – we thought about physical and human features as part of our geography and followed directions using our own Whoville maps. We even looked at simple circuits in Science to help the Whoville people light up Whoville after the floods!
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Children in Need 2016
We had great fun on Friday dressing up for Children in Need. We managed to raise lots of money for charity throughout the day and there was a super cake sale after school.
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Fire Fire!
Year 2 had a fire safety talk this week as part of their PSHE work. The children worked together to act out their own fire plans and watch a fire safety video.
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Look who visited Year 2 this week as part of our Dr Seuss theme. We had lots of questions for him before he got too hot and had to take a dip in the cool of the pool!
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Mathletics
2B are trialing Mathletics this week. They had an enjoyable lesson when the whole class used Mathletics and children can now access this at home as well as in school. This is proving really popular, with some children already earning certificates for their hard work.
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World Values Day – The look of love…!
Year 2 were looking at the value of love as part of World Values day this week. We talked about what love meant to us and how we know somebody loves us. We made our own ‘post- it- note’ heart with all our ideas.
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Grizedale Forest
What an amazing adventure Year 2 had when they visited Grizedale forest as part of their ‘Let the adventure begin..’ theme. During the day, they were building vocabulary word-banks to use in their senses poetry.
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Yesterday eight Year 2 children took part in Heysham High’s Multi-Sports competition and they did themselves and Sandylands proud.
They not only enjoyed themselves for 2 hours but they showed true sportsmanship by taking part in activities they had never tried before, a real credit to our school.
We are looking forward to the next competition in Phase One, watch this space for more details.
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Over the last few weeks Year 2 have been experimenting with different materials. We wanted to find out which would be the best materials for building boats for our adventures!
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Dahltastic time and Twit fun!
We had a great time over the last two days – baking worm pies, measuring the length of Mr Twit and testing materials for Mrs Twit’s new dress (it needed to stretch!!).
Where the Wild Things are…..
Year 2 have started their ‘Swallows and Amazons forever’ Adventure theme with a look at the popular children’s classic novel Where the wild things are. We designed our own Wild things monsters and tried to work out how Max’s things appeared in our classrooms.
2015-16
Wow! What a full filled year it has been so far, and we are into our final term! We have studied 24 hours in Remembrance day, looking at its national importance. As part of our understanding of local environment, we have been for walks in our locality looking at physical and human features. Our local artist in residence, Shane, has worked with us on sculptures. Globally, we have taken part in 24hrs in Diwali as well as looking at Tinga Tinga artwork from Tanzania. We still have lots to look forward to – we can’t wait!
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Year 1 and 2 Sports day
Year 1 and 2 had a great sports day yesterday afternoon. The weather was kind and there are all definitely budding Olympians of the future! Well done!
Year 2 Brockholes trip
What an amazing trip we have had today! We went on a great mini-beast and animal spotting walk around the grounds and woodland of Brockholes. Have a look at the Year 2 page for more photos of the day!
Visit to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Year 2 had an amazing experience yesterday when they visited the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic to watch a music extravaganza.
The Owl and the Pussycat – We have started the summer term by looking at some classic nonsense poetry by Edward Lear. We have tried to recreate some pictures of the Owl and the Pussycat using oil pastels and the workings of Vincent Van Gogh.
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Wriggle and Grow Lighthouse – introducing our new theme. Click on the link below to see what we will be up to over the next few weeks!
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24hrs in… Queen Elizabeth
Year 2 were joining in with Queen Elizabeth’s 90th Birthday celebrations this week. They looked at her reign and became Kings and Queens for the day passing rules and taking part in their own tea party.
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Wriggle and grow!
Year 2 kick started their new ‘Wriggle and Grow’ theme this week by taking part in a Science experiment – testing different growing conditions.
As part of our ‘Wriggle and Grow’ theme we have been improving our art skills using a range of materials to make minibeast mosaics!
This afternoon we went on a hunt for mini beasts around the local area, we searched the school field and orchard. We found lots of different mini beasts as well as a family of frogs!
Quotes of the day
“That was awesome! It’s the first time I’ve held a worm!” – Ellis
“The ant was moving really quickly because I thought it was scared and trying to escape.” – Daniel A
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Our latest theme Hakuna MatARTa! Check out our Learning Lighthouse by following the link below!
Space landing!
Look what arrived in school for one day only! Each class had the chance to try on a real-life space suit and Year 2 were rocketed into a 24hrs in Space. We made space buggies and wrote some space poetry. We even pretended to be the different planets!
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We have been learning about the Tanzanian Artist Tinga Tinga and have created our own Tinga inspired Art work. We used the other end of a paintbrush to produce the well known dotty effect he creates (just in case you are wondering why we are all holding our paintbrushes upside down!). More photos of the finished paintings in our Gallery over the next few weeks. Watch this space!
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24hrs in the Circle of Life…. We have been looking at lifecycles as part of our Science work this week. We talked about animals and their young and learned about how to keep ourselves healthy.
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Zoo in school visit!
Black pool zoo came to talk to us the other day all about habitats and camouflage. We even got to hold a blue-tongued lizard. We have used all the information to help us with our Tinga Tinga influenced Art work. Check out the gallery below for more photos!
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24hrs 
in ….. Kung Hei Fat Choi
Chinese New Year was celebrated to the full in Year 2 this year! Dragon dancing, lantern making and food tasting to
name but a few of the things we experienced!
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Our theme at the moment!
Florence Nightingale’s friend Elizabeth came and did some nurse training with us – we had to mop mop mop the floors and learn how to bandage up wounded soldiers! We were looking at the life of Florence Nightingale as part of our whole school focus on ‘Inspirational women’.
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Our trip to Quarry bank Mill was a great success! We all became apprentices for the day and worked hard in the mill before taking part in a Victorian
school day back at school too!
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Year 2 have been out and about in the community this week as part of their local Geography and Art project. Look at the pictures below!
Latest Gallery
