Year 2

In Year 2, we offer a broad and balanced curriculum to prepare our children for a life in modern Britain.

 If you would like to view the curriculum map for the whole year, or for previous half term topics, click on the links below:

Year 2 Curriculum Map 2021/2022

Our Classrooms

 Have a look at our classrooms in Year 2.

Eid 2022

To celebrate Eid this year, our Year 2 classes looked at Ramadan and the celebration of Eid before creating their own Henna designs. 

Moving Vehicles 

As our Spring 2 Design and Technology project, we designed and created our very own moving vehicles. We looked at existing vehicles and the different parts that we may use. We discussed key vocabulary and their meanings. 

We are very proud of our moving vehicles! Take a look at them below.

Coding

During our computing lessons, we have been practising our coding on Scratch Jr. We recapped what an algorithm is and how we can debug any mistakes that we make. We then created our very own seasons animation on the app using our coding skills. 

Gymnastics

As part of our gymnastics lessons, we looked at and practised points of balance. We then put this in to action on our different gymnastics apparatus, as well as focusing on different movements on and around the equipment.

Measurements

Whilst looking at our measurements unit in maths this half term, we measured different items around the classroom before ordering them based on their length and height. We also did lots of partner work and rally coaching when looking at time. 

Year 2 Spring Hunt

Year 2 went on a trip to our local park to complete a spring hunt! We looked for different signs of spring and enjoyed exploring Boggart Hole Clough. 

The Great Plague

To start our new History topic, we looked at a range of sources and used them to think of questions we wanted answers to. We thought about what the sources told us about the past and how they might be able to help us with our learning, before presenting what we found out to the rest of the class.

CPR

We were very lucky to take part in a very important workshop today! We learnt a life saving skill using the tune of 'Baby Shark'. 

Reading Buddies

We brought some very special visitors in to school today and got to read our favourite stories to them. We had lots of fun!

Author Zoom - Joseph Coelho

Year 2 had the fantastic opportunity of joining a zoom with poet and author, Joseph Coelho. During our zoom, we learnt all about the different types of poems that Joseph has written and we even got a chance to listen to him read his new storybook about a little girl who finds her voice.

Afterwards, we had a go at creating our own alliterative silly sentences to create a class poem and it created lots of laughter! 

Great Fire of London Workshop - National Archives

This year, Year 2 were lucky enough to finish off their Great Fire of London topic with a zoom workshop hosted by The National Archives. 

We got to show off everything that we had learnt during our topic, use primary sources to help us deepen our understanding of the fire and learn more about Samuel Pepys! 

We also found out how the National Archives were created and we were quite surprised with what we learnt!

We had a wonderful session! 

Great Fire of London - Soundscapes

Year 2 have really enjoyed learning about the Great Fire of London in Spring 1 and we were inspired to include it in our music lessons! 

We had a class discussion about how we could use instruments or even every day objects to represent different parts of the fire. 

Have a look at Team 6 exploring lots of different instruments and Team 5 creating a wonderful Great Fire of London Soundscape!

Woodland Sketches 2022

We have been looking at plants in our Science lessons and all the different parts of the plants. For Art, we chose our favourite pictures of different plants you would find in the woods and used different materials to sketch them. We tried really hard to make them come to life using shading and different patterns. 

Great Fire of London Collages 2022

Our History topic in Spring 1 has been the Great Fire of London. We used everything that we knew about the fire to create some wonderful collages. We thought carefully about what colours to use to represent the River Thames, the fire and the sky. 

Have a look at our amazing work below. 

Christmas 2021

Our Christmas show is now on Google Classroom. You will need to use your Google Classroom login to view it.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Puppets 2021

As part of our Autumn 2 Design and Technology project, we have made moving puppets. We looked at lots of different puppets, designed our own and made them using lots of different materials. 

Our puppets look amazing! Can you guess the animals?

Road Safety Week 2021 

Team 5 were very lucky to be chosen to watch a special Road Safety show and take part in a workshop afterwards to raise awareness of Road Safety Week. We really enjoyed it and learnt lots. We were shocked to learn that 47 children across the UK are run over every week and the 6 steps we need to follow to make sure we cross the road safely.

Mastering Number

The children have been really enjoying our Mastering Numbers in the morning and were extremely excited to use the rekenrek to help them create numbers using number bonds. 

Keep the Beat!

For music, Year 2 have been looking at following and keeping a beat. We had lots of fun practising! Team 5 used their different parts of their body to create sound and follow the beat to 'The Greatest Show' from 'The Greatest Showman' whilst Team 6 clapped along to 'We Will Rock You'. We then created our own composition by looking at and listening to different sounds. We talked about how each note has a different pitch and had a discussion about which sounded the best. 

Odd Socks Day 2021

To start our celebrations of Anti-Bullying Week 2021, children and staff were invited to come to school in odd socks. 

Remembrance Day

Our Year 2 History topic for Autumn 2 is Remembrance Day. To start our topic, we thought about why people wear poppies at the start of November. We thought about other significant events throughout the year and placed them on a planner. 

To commemorate Remembrance Day on 11th November, Year 2 took part in a 2 minutes silence, created some beautiful poppy art and wrote some wonderful descriptions of poppy fields. 

Stay! Letter

Year 2 have been looking at the story book 'Stay!' and have been practising writing letters to Grandpa from Buster, the trouble making dog. The children have done such a good job of getting into character and recognising the features of a letter. 

Bonfire Night

In Year 2, we looked at the story behind Bonfire Night and why people celebrate. We learnt all about Guy Fawkes and why we see fireworks and bonfires on the 5th November. 

We then used pictures of fireworks as inspiration to create our own Bonfire Night pictures. We used chalk and pastels to help us create our amazing art work.

Diwali 2021

To celebrate Diwali this year, Year 2 looked at how and why the festival is celebrated. We read the story of Rama and Sita before making our own Rangoli patterns. We researched different patterns and talked about what we could see. We then used them for inspiration before making our own using paper plates. We made sure we used bright colours, repeating patterns and different shapes.

Marcus Rashford Day

 To celebrate the end of Black History Month at Moston Lane, we decided to look at someone who is considered to be a local hero in Manchester. We looked at Marcus Rashford who has achieved so much both on and off the pitch and talked about why he was thought of as a significant and important individual. The children took part in lots of different activities, including a penalty shootout and writing a poem inspired by Marcus Rashford. Take a look at some of our wonderful work below. 

Black History Month

To celebrate Black History Month this year, Year 2 have taken part in lots of different activities. We were lucky enough to take part in a zoom with Mayowa Precious Agbabiaka, who talked to us about her book ‘There’s Rice at Home’ which has been translated into 13 different languages! Mayowa spoke to us about how and why she became an author and where the idea for her story came from. She also read her story in different languages!

We have also looked at Rosa Parks and why she is such a significant person in Black History. We used our Art skills to draw a portrait of her as well as researching her to create a fact file.

In Art this month, we celebrated Althea McNish and her amazing textiles and prints. We looked at lots of different prints and spoke about what we liked about her work. We then used Althea’s work as inspiration and used it to create our own tropical prints in our sketchbooks.

Science - Animals including Humans

In Science this half term, we are looking animals including humans. We have spoken about how important it is to look after our bodies and especially how we can be hygienic. We investigated the best way to keep our hands clean by using glitter to represent germs. We used a paper towel to wipe the germs, we cleaned our hands in cold water and we cleaned our hands in warm water with soap to see which was the best way to clean our hands. We found that washing our hands in warm water and with soap got rid of most of the germs!

PE

In PE this half term, Year 2 are focusing on controlling our movements and putting sequences of movements together to form a dance. Take a look at some our incredible moves below!

World Mental Health Day 2021

Year 2 took part in World Mental Health Day this October by watching a stream by author Tom Percival. Tom Percival has written many books about emotions and some of our favourites are ‘Ruby’s Worry’ and ‘Perfectly Norman’. We spoke about how reading is good for our wellbeing and joined in with the ‘Take 10 Reading Challenge’ by spending 10 minutes of our day reading our favourite books.