Year 2 Staff Team 

Ruth Cousins: Year 2 Setting

Ashley Johnston: Van Gogh Class 

Sarah Millard: Dali Class 

Year 2 Academic Year 2020 - 2021

The Year 2 Team are delighted to welcome the children back to school. We are exciting for all of the wonderful learning experiences we have planned for the children. 

Important Days
Our PE days are Wednesday and Friday. Please ensure your child has their full PE kit including black/navy joggers, black/navy jumper and appropriate trainers at school every day. As we approach the winter months, it is very important that your child has joggers and a jumper in school. Please ensure you check your child's PE kit contains these items. 
 

Key Information 

Children will be read with once a week and books will be changed weekly/when finished. Please sign your child's reading record when you enjoy a book at home together.

Curriculum Coverage

This term we will enjoy learning about materials in Science, colour mixing in Art as well as learning sewing skills in DT. In History we will continue our learning about the United Kingdom. In Geography, we will be looking at the different continents and oceans, as well as the countries of the United Kingdom.

Keep an eye out on our class page for weekly updates! 

Week beginning 14th June 2021 

We all had a fantastic time during our 'Keeping Healthy' Cross-curricular days this week. As part of our learning, we found out how much sugar we should be consuming in a day. Did you know the maximum daily amount for a six year old child should be five cubes and for a seven year old child it is six cubes? We also conducted a little investigation in to the sugar content of some drinks. First, we ordered the drinks from the least amount to the most amount of sugar. Next, we used the Change4Life app to scan the barcodes and find out the sugar content. We are pleased to report that we ordered the drinks correctly making us very sugar smart :) 

Week beginning 7th June 

And the masterpiece is complete!

After weeks of hard work, the children have finally completed our to scale sculpture of Round Diamond Primary School. The children have developed a wide range of skills which they have continuously improved as the sculpture was built. They have learned how to: paint evenly selecting appropriate brushes to cover larger areas; apply paper mache by smoothing and moulding it around corners and they have worked successfully communicating, working together within groups.

They children are really proud of their achievements!

Thank you very much for all the cardboard, kitchen tubes and newspaper you have provided us. 

Week beginning 17th May 2021 

What a wonderful well 'bee' ing afternoon indeed!

Despite the pouring rain, the children absolutely loved their well being afternoon with Mr Haig. The children learned about the importance of pollinators in our local environment and took part in planting lots of seeds all around the school grounds. They loved being outdoors in the fresh air and learned some invaluable skills: working together in teams to dig, plant and cover the seeds. 

The children also used a variety of colourful paints to make their own butterflies. We are going to be laminating them to remind the children of the importance of looking after their local environments. Thank you Mr Haig!

Week beginning 10th May 2021 

As part of our History learning this week, we have been finding out about the New Towns Act of 1946. Did you know Stevenage was the first new town approved for development? We identified that new towns needed to offer good quality housing, built around a primary school, a pub and shops. After we had found out all about the new town development, we created persuasive television adverts to encourage people to move here in 1951. 

Earlier this week, Year 2 went outside to conduct their science investigations! The children have been learning about the 7 life processes which they remember through the acronym ' MRS GREN'.

They had to go onto the KS1 playground and find an example of something which was living, dead or never alive. They came up with some great examples and really enjoyed a discussion about how a wooden bench is classified as 'dead' because it was previously alive as a tree!

Week beginning 26th April 2021

What a jam packed week for Year 2! We have had such a wonderful week and the children have thoroughly immersed themselves in all things theatre! We have learned about the different job roles from light technicians to make-up artists. We've looked at scripts, we've written scripts and even acted in front of an audience.

Here are some photos of some of the performances we saw. There are so many budding actors in Year 2. Miss Millard and I hope we get invited to a show in the theatre when you make it....

Summer term - Home learning activities 

Please find below the Summer term home learning activities for English and Maths. For English, there are some recommended texts and VIPERS style question and discussion prompts and for Maths there are some fluency facts to focus on. Remember to also login each week to Google Classrooms to access your weekly English and Maths home learning. These activities will be set on a Friday and due in on a Wednesday.

The Year 2 Team 

Week beginning 19th April 2021

In Maths fluency today we were practising finding one more and one less than a number. We played a game in pairs and selected cards to make a two-digit number. Then we needed to identify the number one less and one more than our number. Check out our learning in the pictures below! 

Week beginning 12th April 2021

This week the children have started a new fiction book called 'How To Catch A Star'. The children have enjoyed reading the story, learning about the characters and using their inference skills to predict what might happen in the story.

They have acted out sections of the story in groups using actions to accompany their re-telling. We were very impressed with their creativity!

This week the children have started a new fiction book called 'How To Catch A Star'. The children have enjoyed reading the story, learning about the characters and using their inference skills to predict what might happen in the story.

They have acted out sections of the story in groups using actions to accompany their re-telling. We were very impressed with their creativity!

Week Beginning 22nd March 2021 

This week we have been making the pitta pizzas that we have been designing for Design and Technology. 

We practised using a range of tools to create our own pizzas and finally we got to eat and enjoy them. 

We have written instructions for pizza making and also evaluated our end product. 

Week beginning 15th March 2021

This week in computing, the children have enjoyed developing their skills using an app called 'Scratch'. The children had to create a background with their sprite and programme it to move in multiple directions. They also learned how to make their sprite bigger and smaller, as well as making their sprite repeat an instruction. 

Week beginning 8th March 

This week we have been continuing our learning all about plants! The children learned about the life cycle of a bean plant and planted their very own bean! We will be checking on their progress over the next few weeks and closely follow the stages of the bean plant life cycle. It has been so wonderful to see the children checking their beans at the window each morning and afternoon. They are very excited to see what will happen. 

Week Beginning 8th March 2021

We are so excited to be able to see you all back in school from the 8th

of March. If you need a little reminder of how things will be in school we have attached a return to school transition booklet.   

Week beginning 1st March 2021 

Today Year 2 are celebrating World Book Day in style. Check out our fabulous outfits that we shared in a virtual costume parade. We have also enjoyed a wonderful virtual visit from author James Campbell, who told us the story of 'The Umbrella Tree'. Then we planned and wrote our own versions of his story. We have had a fabulous time :) 

Week beginning 22nd February 2021

This week, we started a bran new unit of learning in science. The children were all very excited. We looked at different plants that grow in the wild, in the garden and even learned that trees are plants too. I was really impressed at how many plants the children could name. They completed some excellent online learning: labelling the different parts of plants and even went out into their gardens to look at some plants to draw. 

Week beginning 8th February 2021

This week, the children have been exploring partitioning 3 digit numbers in different ways. They had to think about the value each digit represented to partition, but also, they needed to explore different ways of making that number. 

They did such a fantastic job. I was really impressed with all the ways they partitioned the numbers. 

Week beginning 1st February 2021 

Our Science learning this week, continues with the theme of 'Inventors'. We learnt all about Florence Nightingale and Alexander Fleming and their discoveries around germs. We watched an experiment involving glitter and another invloving bread. We discussed the importance of washing our hands. We then used our ideas from this discussion to create either a poster, a collage using Jam board or a news report. Take a look at some examples of our learning below. 

Week Beginning 25th January 2021

We are delighted to share with you two examples of learning we have received from the 'Humanities home learning challenge' set before Christmas. Take a look below at one submitted by Jessica and one submitted by Yuvraj. Well done on some fantastic home learning!

There is also a link to the google arts and culture app for you to explore. 

Week beginning 11th January 2021

  LI: To describe 

 SC *Adjectives *Appearance *Conjunctions - and because

In Year 2, we have been looking at the story of Dogger by Shirley Hughes. 

We have written recounts and descriptions. We wrote descriptions of Dogger as lost posters. 

Here are some pictures of our learning. 

Week beginning 14th December 2020

We have spent the day looking at the Christmas story with help from the local churches 'Bridge Builders'.

We travelled back in time to meet Matthew, Luke, the shepherds, Anna, Simeon and the Magi. 

We finished our journey by meeting Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus. 

We have had a fantastic time and engaged in some art learning to remind us of each of the characters that we met. 

Merry Christmas! 

Week beginning 30th November 2020

In Maths we have been learning how to read scales. 
We have looked at reading a scale on a ruler, a thermometer, a measuring jug and weighing scales. 

This week during our DT lesson, the children have been practising a running stitch in preparation for making our Christmas decorations.

We spent time learning how to put the thread through the eye of a needle and then tying a knot. The children needed a lot of perseverance for this task. Initially I heard, 'Miss Johnston, we can't do it, it's too difficult', however, by the end of the lesson after lots of reassurance and encouragement I heard, 'I did it!', I tied the knot.

Well done to all the children in Year 2. We can't wait to have a go at a back stitch next week :) 

Week beginning 9th November 2020

In Science, we discussed natural and manmade materials and sorted them. 

We made this learning really exciting by collaging the letter N for natural in natural materials and M for manmade materials. 

Year 2 had a wonderful Art lesson on Thursday afternoon. They painted fireworks inspired by their History learning about Guy Fawkes.

As a special treat, we gathered the children in Dali class and watched a fireworks display as a Year group. The children were issued tickets as though they were attending a real fireworks display.

Week beginning 19th October 2020

The children had a wonderful Science lesson learning about different types of food. We discussed the different food groups they had eaten for breakfast and lunch that day. 

The children were then set the task of making their own fruit and vegetable faces. They thoroughly enjoyed making them using a variety of ingredients and particularly enjoyed eating their plates afterwards!

Week beginning 5th October 2020 

In Maths this week we have been learning all about multiplication. We watched this video in class to help support our learning with using arrays to multiply. 

Week beginning 28th September 2020

In English we have been looking at the book Dogs Don’t Do Ballet. 
Biff the dog loves ballet but her owner’s dad won’t let him join in classes or go to the ballet. We worked in pairs to think of ways in which we could persuade dad to let Biff join in. Next week, we will write letters to dad to see if he will change his mind. 

Maths, Maths, MATHS!

All this week in Maths, Year 2 have been focussing on partitioning. We have been partitioning 2 and 3 digit numbers. We have been using whole part models and dienes to support their learning as shown in the picture above. 

If we were looking at the number 15, the children understand 15 is the whole number - this goes in the top circle. The children understand that 15 is made up of one group of 10 (one part) and 5 ones (the other part). The 10 and the 5 go in the circles underneath the top circle.

They have then been learning how to partition in different ways. For example 15 can also be partitioned into 7 + 8, 14 + 1, 12 + 3 etc.

Well done Year 2! 

Week beginning 7th September 2020

LI: To retell a story.

SC

*Sequenced

*Fairy tale vocabulary

*Dialogue-expression

In English, we looked at the traditional tale 'Rapunzel'. 

We thought about the different vocabulary which is used in traditional tales and what the different characters might say to each other. 

We went out onto the playground and used the equipment to act out the story. 

If you or your child have any questions about starting Year 2 in September, please email them to faqs@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

2019-2020

2019 - 2020

A very big welcome to Year 2!

The Year Two Team

Class Teachers:

Mrs Jan Figueiredo (Van Gogh)

Miss Sarah Millard (Dali)

Miss Martha Hall (Learning Lodge)

Teaching Assistant:

Ms Sally Dove

Important Days of the Week

PE will be taught on  Tuesday and Wednesday - Please remember all children need the appropriate school PE uniform on these days.

Music will be taught by a Specialist Music Teacher every Thursday.

Spellings and MyMaths home learning are set every Friday. Spellings are tested each Thursday to support teacher assessments. The spellings do not need to be returned, but if your child wishes to share their practise with their teacher, they can show us their sheets for a house point. 
 

Login details for MyMaths and Bug Club remain the same as Year 1. If you have any questions regarding these, please speak to a member of the Year 2 team. 

Week beginning 20.07.20

Hi Year 2! Hope you're all well. We would like to wish you a fabulous summer holiday and we look forward to seeing you in September 

Attached below is an overview of the transition learning for you to complete at home with your child, alongside resources. Please feel free to complete this learning in an order that best suits you and your home learning environment.

As always, thank you for your support. If you have any questions regarding the learning, please email Mrs Figueiredo:

jfigueiredo@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

Week beginning 13.07.20

Greetings Year 2! Hope you're all well and enjoying the learning set!

Attached below is an overview of the English, Maths and afternoon learning for you to complete at home with your child, alongside resources. Please feel free to complete this learning in an order that best suits you and your home learning environment.

As always, thank you for your support. If you have any questions regarding the learning, please email Mrs Figueiredo:

jfigueiredo@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

Week beginning 06.07.20

Bonjour Year 2! Hope you're all well and staying safe! 

Attached below is an overview of the English, Maths and afternoon learning for you to complete at home with your child, alongside resources. Please feel free to complete this learning in an order that best suits you and your home learning environment.

As always, thank you for your support. If you have any questions regarding the learning, please email Mrs Figueiredo:

jfigueiredo@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

Week beginning 29.06.20

Hola Year 2! Hope you're all well and enjoying the glorious sunshine! 

Attached below is an overview of the English, Maths and afternoon learning for you to complete at home with your child, alongside resources. Please feel free to complete this learning in an order that best suits you and your home learning environment.

As always, thank you for your support. If you have any questions regarding the learning, please email Mrs Figueiredo:

jfigueiredo@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

Week beginning 22.06.20

Greetings Year 2! Hope you're all well and staying in from the rain! 

Attached below is an overview of the English, Maths and afternoon learning for you to complete at home with your child, alongside resources. Please feel free to complete this learning in an order that best suits you and your home learning environment.

As always, thank you for your support. If you have any questions regarding the learning, please email Mrs Figueiredo:

jfigueiredo@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

Week beginning 15.06.20

Hello Year 2! What a wet and dreary week it's been! Fingers crossed for some more sunshine soon 

Attached below is an overview of the English, Maths and afternoon learning for you to complete at home with your child, alongside resources. Please feel free to complete this learning in an order that best suits you and your home learning environment.

As always, thank you for your support. If you have any questions regarding the learning, please email Mrs Figueiredo:

jfigueiredo@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

Week beginning 08.06.20

We hope you're all happy, safe and well! 

Attached below is an overview of the English, Maths and afternoon learning for you to complete at home with your child, alongside resources. Please feel free to complete this learning in an order that best suits you and your home learning environment.

Thank you for your ongoing support. If you have any questions regarding the learning, please email Mrs Figueiredo:

jfigueiredo@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

Week beginning 01.06.20

We hope you've all had a lovely half term break and enjoyed doing some of the challenges set. Below is the learning overview for this week, along with the resources you'll need. Keep challenging yourselves, and keep smiling! 

Week beginning 25.05.20 - Happy Half Term!

Well done to you all for your hard work and dedication this half term. The term has looked very different to what we’re all used to, but we’re so proud of your resilience and determination to keep being successful!

Below are some challenges you might want to explore over the next week. Whatever you do, remember to stay safe and keep smiling! 

We hope you have a wonderful, restful half term break. ☀️ 

Week Beginning 18.05.20

We hope you have been able to enjoy some of the sunshine this week and are all healthy and happy.

Attached below is an overview of the English, Maths and afternoon learning for you to complete at home with your child. Please feel free to complete this learning in an order that best suits you and your home learning environment.

Documents have also been saved below to match the learning. Where necessary, there are sheets or example photos for your guidance, but please note that not all activities will have a supporting document.

Thank you for your ongoing support. If you have any questions regarding the learning, please email Mrs Figueiredo:

jfigueiredo@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

Week Beginning 11.05.20

We hope you are all well and keeping healthy and happy. Don't forget to exercise your bodies as well as your minds. Miss Hall's challenge this week is to see how many 'spotty dogs' you can do in 30 seconds - see overview to see how many she did. Can you keep going for longer than 30 seconds? 

Attached below is an overview of the English, Maths and afternoon learning for you to complete at home with your child. Please feel free to complete this learning in an order that best suits you and your home learning environment.

Documents have also been saved below to match the learning. Where necessary, there are sheets or example photos for your guidance, but please note that not all activities will have a supporting document.

Thank you for your ongoing support. If you have any questions regarding the learning, please email Mrs Figueiredo:

jfigueiredo@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

Week Beginning 04.05.20

We hope you are all well and keeping healthy and happy. Don't forget to exercise your bodies as well as your minds. Miss Hall's challenge to you this week is to see how many 'jumping jacks' you can do in 1 minute? Miss Hall did 90! Can you beat her?

Attached below is an overview of the English, Maths and afternoon learning for you to complete at home with your child. Please feel free to complete this learning in an order that best suits you and your home learning environment.

Documents have also been saved below to match the learning. Where necessary, there are sheets or example photos for your guidance, but please note that not all activities will have a supporting document.

Thank you for your ongoing support. If you have any questions regarding the learning, please email Mrs Figueiredo:

jfigueiredo@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

Week Beginning 27.04.20

We hope you are all well and keeping healthy and happy. If you haven't visited the Official Round Diamond Facebook page yet, please take a look as we have posted a little video message for you!

Attached below is an overview of the English, Maths and afternoon learning for you to complete at home with your child. Please feel free to complete this learning in an order that best suits you and your home learning environment.

Documents have also been saved below to match the learning. Where necessary, there are sheets or example photos for your guidance, but please note that not all activities will have a supporting document.

Thank you for your ongoing support. If you have any questions regarding the learning, please email Mrs Figueiredo:

jfigueiredo@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

Week Beginning 20.04.20

We hope you've all had a wonderful Easter break and are keeping healthy and happy!

Attached below is an overview of the English, Maths and  afternoon learning for you to complete at home with your child. Please feel free to complete this learning in an order that best suits you and your home learning environment.

Documents have also been saved below to match the learning. Where necessary, there are sheets or example photos for your guidance, but please note that not all activities will have a supporting document.

Thank you for your ongoing support. If you have any questions regarding the learning, please email Mrs Figueiredo:

jfigueiredo@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

03.04.20 - Easter!

We hope that you have enjoyed accessing some of the learning from our class page at home over the last two weeks. We are sure you are all doing a fantastic job in these uncertain times.

Please now enjoy the Easter Holidays! There are some Easter activities/craft ideas if you wish to explore these together. Keep safe and have a very happy, restful Easter.

The Year 2 Team

19.03.20 - Information to Support Learning at Home

The children will be bringing home packs they can work through over the next couple of weeks. In addition to these packs, the Year 2 Class Page will be updated regularly with ideas, tasks, links and documents to support you with opportunities to learn at home with your child. As we are approaching the Summer Term, the learning shared will be a consolidation of what has already been taught in Year 2.

MyMaths and BugClub will continue to be updated during this period, so if you require any login details to be re-issued, please ask a member of the Year 2 team as soon as possible.

Twinkl, an educational resource website which is used at school, has also given parents a free-month access code to use during this period of school closure. The free access code is: PARENTSTWINKLHELPS and can be used at www.twinkl.co.uk/offer

May we take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support,

If you have any questions regarding this learning please email jfigueiredo@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

The Year 2 Team

The English Faculty have been considering ways in which to make effective changes to our home learning expectations at Round Diamond. As part of this process, we have looked at opportunities to promote the enjoyment of high quality texts, both in school and at home.

To support this, each year group has created a ‘Summer Term Recommended Reading List’. The list has been put together by class teachers and has been designed to give children the opportunity to explore a range of texts at home, over the course of year.

Alongside this list are some question prompts which can be used to start discussions about what has been read. The questions are in line with our weekly VIPERS teaching, that focusses on individual skills within reading – Vocabulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, Summarise.

Please note that this home learning is not compulsory. We hope that you will be able to enjoy some (or all!) of the recommendations by  buying the texts if you wish. Equally, the question prompts can be used with any book you choose to enjoy with your child.

The video 'Adventures Are The Pits' can be found here:

https://www.literacyshed.com/adventures-are-the-pits.html#

Week beginning 16.03.20

The children have been throroughly enjoying using the scratch junior app as part of our computing learning and several have asked me about how they can download this to use on a device at home. Below is the link to the website with details of how to download. Alternatively, search for scratch junior in the app store. 

Welcome back after the half term break!

As the children have been so engaged with their History learning this term, we have based our optional Spring Term home learning project on the Victoria era. 
We look forward to seeing the outcomes on Monday 23rd April 😊

This week in Science, we have been learning about gravity.
 

We learnt:

-gravity is a force

-it pulls objects towards the centre of the Earth

-gravity was discovered by Isaac Newton

-there is no gravity on the moon

-gravity prevents us from floating around!

We carried out an investigation to explore how weight affects gravity. We discussed ways to ensure our test was fair and enjoyed drawing conclusions based on our results. 

Welcome back after the Christmas holidays! We hope you had a restful break and the children are ready for a new year of learning!

Please note that the PE days in year 2 have changed. PE lessons will now happen every Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. 

Over the Spring term, we will be:

-Exploring maps in Geogrpahy, comparing Kadoma with Stevenage

-Learning about different techniques to create landscapes in Art

-Researching significant people of the past in History

Here’s to a happy and successful 2020! 

Week beginning 16.12.19

The children have had a fabulous time learning about the story of 'The Nutcracker' and they have enjoyed writing their own versions of the story. They even had time to watch a modern twist on the tale and we're sure you might enjoy it too!

As part of our Maths learning on ‘Measures’, we will be exploring clocks and learning to tell the time. The below link may be a useful tool to support in making and telling the time at home:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/time/teaching-clock

Welcome back after the Half Term Holiday! Our new topic this term is ‘Toys’ where we will be:

-comparing old and current toys

-exploring materials that toys are made from 

-designing our own toys

-making our own felt toys

We will also use this topic to link to our English learning on ‘The Nutcracker’, in time for Christmas. We have a busy term ahead so watch this space! 

Week beginning 21.10.19

Just a reminder of the websites for Maths and reading home learning for during the holidays. Have a fantastic half-term and we'll see you soon. 

This week, Year 2 have enjoyed exploring Poetry! We watched Michael Rosen perform some poems like ‘Chocolate Cake’ and ‘Strict’, read a range of rhyming and non-rhyming poems and performed our own poems. 
 

Two groups had a go at writing and performing their own versions of ‘Caribbean Counting Rhyme’. We decided on the name ‘Round Diamond Counting Rhyme!’

Week beginning 30.09.19 - Expectations in Year 2

Now that the children have settled back into the routine of school life we would like to remind you of ways you can support your child with their learning at home. 
 

Please enjoy sharing books with your child as often as you are able to. Books are changed weekly at school but if your child needs to change them more frequently, they are able to do so during morning registration time. 
 

Spellings are sent home every Friday. These are a combination of words linked to the spelling rule that has been taught that week and common exception words (words that the children are expected to be able to read and write by the end of Year 2). To support our teacher assessment, the children will be tested on the spelling of these words in a dictation style exercise every Thursday. Please practice them at home on the sheets provided. 
 

MyMaths and Bug Club logins remain the same as those that were issued in Year 1. Tasks on MyMaths are set weekly and books on Bug Club are changed when your child moves onto the next reading level. 
 

As always, if you have any questions at all, please speak to a member of the Year 2 team! 😊

This week, as part of the Computing curriculum and our continued coverage on e-safety, the children have been introduced to ‘Jessie and Friends’. 

‘Jessie and Friends’ is a 3 part animation which aims to equip children in Key Stage 1 with the knowledge, skills and confidence to stay safe online. 
 

We have been learning that while the internet can be an exciting place full of fun and learning opportunities, this may not always be the case. The children were able to discuss their observations after watching the first episode - do ask them what they’ve taken from the animation so far!

This half term, Year 2 are discussing online safety; we are learning about ways to stay safe when using the internet. 

As part of this learning, everyone has signed a copy of Round Diamond’s Online Safety Rules. We are committed to using the Computing equipment at school safely and transferring these skills into our online activity outside of school. 

Fluency Facts have been sent home this week! These can support in learning/consolidating the rapid recall of number facts. 

If you need another copy, please let your child’s class teacher know. 

Academic Year

2018-2019

Friday 28th June 2019

Year 2 enjoyed the warm weather on our trip to Shuttleworth. We were able to observe the plants and animals as well as take a ride in the open topped bus.