Over the last few weeks, we have been watching the caterpillars in our class change, as they ate and ate, grew bigger and bigger, developed cocoons and then emerged from their chrysalises as beautiful butterflies. We even created a beautiful bee and butterfly garden in our outside area, which the insects will be able to visit when they need to collect nectar and drink. This week, we were overjoyed to let our butterflies go free – some fluttered away straight away, but some brave butterflies stayed close to us for ten minutes, so that we were able to get a really close look at them. Your challenge as you take a look through the photos is to Spot the butterfly!
This week, we planted up the herbs that came into school as part of the Coronation of Mary liturgy. They smell wonderful and we are looking forward to watching the bees and butterflies visit them once they start to flower through the summer. Take a look at our infant gardens as you pass through them to see what you can spot.
During our May Day liturgy, the Chaplaincy Team led us as we gave thanks for Mary, the mother of Jesus. All the children created a poster that celebrated Mary’s role as Queen and these have been used as a prayer focus for all the classes. Thank you so much for all the amazing plant donations that have been used to really show how deep our thanks is to Mary. Our service ended with a tremendous May Pole dance by Year 4.
We are all overjoyed to finally receive our set of new reading books. Here we are, juggling with five books each – it was trickier than we thought to hold the books out and look at the camera at the same time! We shall enjoy reading them at home along with a library book that we choose from our Top 50 reads for Year 2. There are so many books to choose from!
In preparation for our May Day liturgy, we wrote prayers asking for help as we try to keep the peace in our own lives. Here are our beautiful Mary, Queen of Peace posters that we were very proud to show everyone in school. Thank you so much for contributing such wonderful plants for our floral display. We shall enjoy planting and caring for them and then watching them grow across the next few months.
We have kept ourselves very fit this week and enjoyed running the Golden Mile. We learned that if we run around the junior field eight times, we will have run a mile. Well done to all of the children who challenged themselves to keep running as far as they could. The children also enjoyed the wonderful new playground markings and each day, it is great to see them developi all kinds of fun and imaginative games to keep themselves active! Added to this, the children were very pleased to go to the swimming pool again this week and it was brilliant to see how any initial nerves from the first visit had disappeared and the children were super excited! What great resilience, everyone!
Running-the-Golden-Mile keeps us fit.
Eight-laps-1-mile
Enjoying-our-great-new-playground-markings-
We found an interesting place to read to an adult!
We have been learning about life cycles, so it has been wonderful this week to see chicks hatch out of their eggs and listen to their sweet tweetings. As part of this learning, the children have created slide presentations that show animal life cycles. The children have worked hard to learn how to insert images, shapes and text boxes and organise where they are on the page, so that the slide shows the life cycle clearly. It has been wonderful to see the children’s computing skills develop across the week. When they are next on the Googleclassroom, ask your child to show your their lifecycles, which can be found in the Year 2 Classwork section.
This week, we have celebrated Earth Day, St George’s Day and attended swimming lessons for the first time as a class.
St-Georges-Day-dressed-in-red-and-white
On Earth-Day-we-created-a-drinking-station-for-the-bees-and-butterflies
For Earth Day, we-planted-lots-of-bee-and-butterfly-friendly-plants
Here we are in the dark, ready for our Light and Dark workshop.
Alex-helps to teach-us-about-the-earth-and-the-sun.
We had fun exploring mirrors and torches.
We-reflected-light-off-a-mirror. and onto different surfaces.
We made kaleidoscopes in our Light and Dark workshop.
Swimming superstars!
On Earth Day, the children had a fun science workshop and learned about the topic of Light and Dark. We had a great day and also set up one of our flower beds to make it bee and butterfly friendly. We have planted plants that will have lots of nectar for the insects to collect and created a watering station for the bees and butterflies. As part of our Christian mission to look after the earth, we will make every day Earth Day and care for our garden over the next term. As you pass the garden, please keep a look out for the plants growing and see if you can spot any insects arriving at their new feeding and drinking station.
The children were brilliant when we went for our first class swimming lesson this week. It was a wonderful trip as the coach journey was just as exciting as the swimming. Well done to all of you!
Please take a look at the Year 2 Quicklink to find out about this half term’s learning in RE.
What a surprise it was to have snow after a few days of warm sunshine!
We had great fun in the snow as it grew heavier and heavier.
To make our Easter cards, we mixed powder paint together to create our own colours.
We used the paint we mixed to make finger prints.
Do you think there is enough paint for printing?
Look carefully and you will see the cross on our Easter cards.
Take a look in your child’s bookbag for their beautiful Easter card.
The children should be very proud of the amazing Easter gardens that they brought in as part of their Easter Challenge. What a creative bunch you are! Click on the slide show to see all of our gardens.
During March, we have been busy using colours as a way to mark different events and also raise money for charity, as part of our journey with Jesus through Lent. Here we are in all our colourful glory.
Yellow daffodils for St David’s Day
Having fun raising money for Comic Relief.
Celebrating St Patrick’s Day
Yellow and Blue for Reach out for Refugees DAy
Bright colours to celebrate Easter
Break the rules fay!
Well done for all the hard work, fun and fundraising that the children have been involved with this term.. They have certainly earned a relaxing Easter holiday. Have a very happy and holy Easter together.
A gentle plug. Thank you very much for all the amazing books that have been bought for our class library. If you would like to order a book for the children’s library, our list can be found below. Thank you very, very much for your wonderful generosity! Year Two class library wishlist
As part of our journey through Lent, this week, we have had our own Holy Week and Easter liturgies. The week started with a very thoughtful Stations of the Cross service led by our inspiring Year Six Chaplaincy Team. They created a tableau and reflection for each Station of the Cross and the children sang beautifully as part of this service.
We are raising money for the Catholic Children’s Society
Year 6 and Year 4 lead our Stations of the Cross liturgy
Stations of the Cross
A song to finish off our liturgy
In our Easter bonnets …
… with all the frills upon it.
Our amazing Easter gardens
Inspiring artwork
Created by KS2
We used many different media.
Our school choir sings loud and proud!
With thanks to our wonderful Chaplaincy Team
In contrast, our joyful Easter Parade celebrated the children’s amazing creativity. Children from Foundation Stage made some superb Easter bonnets, Key Stage One children created brilliant Easter Gardens and the Key Stage Two children displayed their immense talents with a wonderful mix of liturgical art. The Chaplaincy Team had the unenviable task of choosing two winners for each class, but we were very pleased to celebrate everyone’s wonderful artwork. Well done to you all!
Monday was our St Albans wide Reach Out for Refugees Day. We read the very poignant story of Lubna and Pebble and reflected on how difficult it must be to leave the place, people and possessions that you love.
As part of our English learning on the book ‘If all the world were …’, we have each written a poem and here is our very thoughtful class poem, which includes a verse from every member of the class.
If all the world were …
If all the world were scary, I would hug, hug and hug until the scary darkness was gone.
If all the world were poor, I would welcome the poor into my cosy house.
If all the world were awful, I would pick a red, shiny rose and smell it so I try and forget about it.
If all the world were hideous I’d suck it up and fill it with happiness.
If all the world were darkness, I would light the world up.
If all the world were poor I would give everyone a home.
If all the world were wonderless, I would hug my family.
By The Amazing Alligators
If all the world were …
If all the world were sorrowful, I would give away my teddy bear.
If all the world were poor, I would fly to them to give them a blanket to sleep with and some more money.
If all the world were empty, I would give the poor love.
If all the world were full of worry, I would bring some people to the sandy, windy beach to see the sun set.
If all the world were sad, I would give people my teddies.
If all the world were unhappy, I would give people my shiny money.
By The Fabulous Foxes
Blue and Yellow to mark Reach out for refugees Day
If all the world were …
If all the world were death and destruction, I would fill it up with love.
If all the world were sad, I would give away my teddies.
If all the world were full of poor people, I would give them medicine.
If all the world were selfish, I’d stand up for people.
If all the world were scary, I would give people my teddy.
If all the world were miserable, I would try to cheer people up and make a better place.
By The Marvellous Monkeys
If all the world were …
If all the world were horrible, I would give someone a great, red and beautiful rose.
If all the world were empty, I would fill the world with love.
If all the world were war, I would give them a home.
If all the world were poor, I would empty my money box for charity.
If all the world were worrying, I would tell people that they’re the winners.
If all the world were painful, I would wrap my lovely sisters, mummy and daddy in a warm blanket.
By The Wonderful Wolves
What an amazingly creative and talented group of poets we have in Year Two!
If you would like to hear the story of Lubna and Pebble again, then follow the link below to hear it read by the author herself.
Over the last ten weeks, we have been measuring the growth of our amaryllis bulbs, so we used Science week as an opportunity to review and compare each group’s plant. It has been very exciting to see these bulbs growing so quickly.
We are also very lucky to have had a mystery parcel arrive and inside we discovered five tiny caterpillars. We have been researching the life cycles of different animals this week and over the next few weeks, we will be watching animals grow in school, so watch this space so that we can tell you more!
Alessia said that it must be something very special inside as the box says ‘Fragile’ on it.
We opened the box very carefully.
Inside, we found five tiny caterpillars. They are eating up the layer of food at the bottom of the pot and we will watch them to see how they change. It is exciting!
The caterpillars are already starting to grow quickly and we are watching them carefully to see when they start to spin their cocoons.
To start our Wellbeing workshop this week, we thought about all the wonderful things we have enjoyed learning in Year 2. We talked about the poetry we have been writing in English, learning about Walter Tull in history, exploring concentric circles with Wassily Kandinsky in Art and Design as well as division in maths.It makes us feel very proud when we learn new things. One very wise comment was ‘Sometimes, we need to learn things to keep us safe’. We thought about how learning new things will help us when we choose what job we would like as an adult. Maybe we will be a police officer, singer, vet, doctor, zookeeper (in an aquarium) or even a teacher!
Be active
We all know how important it is to keep ourselves active so that we feel healthy and happy. We brainstormed a huge list of ways in which we can keep ourselves from ballet or Beavers to fencing, cheerleading or football. These activities will all help to brighten our day.
Give
Henry said that we should try to be kind and that giving things to other people also makes us feel good too. The children had lots of ideas for Mother’s Day gifts that they could give to their mum, which won’t cost any money, but would be lovely to share, such as home made cakes and cards, breakfast in bed, lots of hugs or flowers from the garden!.
What have you enjoyed learning this year?
Keeping active is fun!
Watch us jump in the air!
Give an act of kindness says Roisin every day.
May wrote a great list of different ways in which you can Connect, Give, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Be Active.
Harry’s top tips for good mental health.
Look at Harper’s wonderful examples of ways in which you can improve your wellbeing.
We have had a wonderful week opening up all the parcels filled with library books. Thank you to everyone!
The children are very proud of the way in which they have given books to the class library for everyone to share. Thank you so, so much to everyone for your very kind donations. Follow this link if you would like to buy a book for our class library: Year 2 library books
Connect
Chatting with each other, giving one another compliments and learning something new about a classmate are all ways in which we can connect with our friends. This is a wonderful way to help us feel good about ourselves and also help our friends to feel great too. It is important to believe in ourselves and one another!
Take notice
We all have negative thoughts and we learned how taking the time to notice other things instead will help us to make sure that these thoughts don’t become overwhelming. We tried some different techniques to help us focus on the present and enjoy the moment rather than letting unhappy thoughts overwhelm us. Next time, we are filled with negative thoughts, we will breathe in for 5 seconds and then out for 5 seconds and then try to play the 5 senses game where we think about …
5 things we can see, 4 things we can hear, 3 things we can touch, 2 things we can smell and 1 thing that we can taste.
Once we’ve thought about all those things, we hope that our worries will feel less overwhelming. Why not try this strategy at home when you need to?
