Week 1 Term 4

Wow! The children have made an excellent start to the term. We really enjoyed participating in the Great Fire of London workshop. It was a lovely way to start our learning question.

Term 3 How is Kings Hill different to the Arctic?

This term has flown by. The children have really enjoyed reading and using 'The Great Explorer' by Chris Judge. With this text the children have learnt about contractions, conjunctions and homophones. The children have written short, descriptive paragraphs and they have written a story. To complete our topic the children have compared Kings Hill to a small village in the Arctic, called Alert and they have used their skills to write a poster comparing the two places. As part of our Geography learning the children have learnt about the seven continents, five oceans and where the equator is! In English we have developed our reading and spellings using our validated scheme FFT 'Success for All'. 

The children, in maths have learnt about 3d shapes, patterns and they have learnt different methods to add and subtract.

In PE the children have looked at maps of the school to find to locate different items and they have learnt the skills of attacking and defending.

In Science the children have explored materials and used scientific language to describe the properties of materials and why they are used for certain things. The children have learnt the words transparent, opaque, absorbent and waterproof.

In Art the children have explored different media and tools inspired by the artist Corey Barksdale and the illustrations in 'The Great Explorer'.

We have also learnt lots in other subjects including PSHE, RE, Computing and Music. We have also participated in Mental Health Week, Internet Safety Day and Forest School.

Phew! I think the children need a break, ready for a fantastic term 4.

Here are some photos of the children at work!

Year 2 Performance of 'Three Kings'

We loved performing this song from our Christmas Play for our Carols in the Hall performance!

Sewing

The children really enjoyed their special DT day. They explored, designed and made their very own Christmas Stocking. The children used a running stitch to join the fabric. It took a lot of of perseverance and patience. If you came in to help us with the sewing, thank you, it was so lovely to have you.

A very muddy Forest School visit!

The children in Gilbert class went to Forest School this week. The morning group got very wet and the afternoon group got very muddy. Both groups had a wonderful time, learning how to dig, drill, keep themselves and others safe in the Forest. Thank you to Mrs Chapman for providing so many fun and educational activities for us. 

Raising money for Remembrance

Thank you for sending in donations to the Royal British Legion. The children not only enjoyed spending their money and buying lovely Poppy items, they also understood the reason behind Remembrance Sunday. 

Odd Socks Day

As part of Anti-Bullying week we wore our odd socks to school to remember we are all different and special. We discussed what bullying is and what to do if it ever happens to us or a friend. 

Pumpkin Poetry Week 1 Term 2

We explored pumpkins using our senses. The words we created to describe the pumpkins are called adjectives. We are going to use these words to write our own pumpkin poems!

Diwali Celebrations 

We participated in our whole school celebration of Diwali. Year 2 were challenged to make Mendhi hand designs. These are normally made with henna, but we used paint and an icing bag. It looks really easy to do but it is actually very difficult. We persevered and had a lot of fun. We really enjoyed the assembly with a visitor who told us all about Diwali celebrations and the special story of Rama and Sita.

Year 2 Term 1 2022 2023

We are so proud of the wonderful start the children have made to year 2! They have been busy developing their friendship skills through our learning question 'What is Friendship?' The children have been learning about friendship in our PSHE lessons, English lessons and through daily collaborative work. We also had a special visit from Fantastic FRED, (Food, Rest, Exercise and Devices) which helped the children learn about taking care of their well being.

Learning in 2021 -2022 

Term 6: Computing with Lego Wedo

This week the children in Year 2 have started to create algorithms using Block Code.  They transferred their knowledge of how to code simple floor robots into a new type of programme.  The children used an app called Lego Wedo.  They had to build their own robot called 'Milo' and then use their coding, debugging and problem solving skills to enable him to complete specific tasks.  The children had great fun exploring the programme and learnt lots about how to code!  Have a look at some of their creations below.

Term 6: Do all minibeasts have 6 legs?

Welcome to Term 6! We can't believe that we have just one term left before moving on to Key Stage 2. What an exciting start we have had; we had a bit of a shock when we returned to school to see that the Year 2 classrooms had minibeast infestations in our book corners. We thought it was important to let Miss Gobell and Miss Baker about them so immediately wrote to them asking for help.

To add to our minibeast excitement, we had a visit from Zoo Lab and we were introduced to Gary the African land snail, Batman the hissing cockroach, Twiggy the stick insect, Tank the scorpion and Marmalade the snake. The children (and adults) were very brave and held or stroked all of the animals (except for Tank who we admired at a distance!). 

We can't wait to see what other exciting experiences Term 6 brings.

Term 5: The Platinum Jubilee

Wow! What a lucky women Queen Elizabeth II is for having so many children create such wonderful work for her! This week we celebrated the Jubilee by painting water-colour portraits, completing Queen quizzes and organising events in the Queen's life into chronological order on a timeline. 

In addition, Year 2 were assigned the 1990s as our focus decade and we enjoyed listening to lots of music from that era from Spice Girls to 2Unlimited - there were 'no limits' to the music learning we did! We also studied the Battle of Britpop and decided whether we were Team Blur or Team Oasis (Oasis won by a very large margin!). Following this, we recreated some of their very coolest album covers. 

In English, we imagined that we were children growing up all those years ago and learnt about the toys that were launched. From Furbies to Game Boys to Moon Shoes; we wrote some very persuasive adverts to entice children to buy our toys. 

We celebrated our learning at our whole-school assembly and topped off the celebrations with a school picnic and concert on the field.

Happy Platinum Jubilee Queen Elizabeth! 

Term 5 Book Club Tea Party

After a very busy week, we all enjoyed a very civilised afternoon with a book club tea party. The children brought in their favourite book and enjoyed sharing it with their friends over some delicious delicacies. 

Here are some snippets of conversation:

Olivia brought 'The Way Back Home' by Oliver Jeffers.

"I like the end of it and how they help each other."

 Summer brought 'Judy Moody predicts the future.'

"I like all the Judy Moody books and I like this one because I learnt more things about her."

Holly Brought a book about guinea pigs.

"I love guinea pigs. This book helps me learn about my guinea pig, Ginger."

Term 5: Design and Technology

The Year 2 teachers learnt today that we are teaching a year group of very talented chefs! In Design and Technology, we designed a delicious and healthy wrap and then the children practised their peeling and grating skills. The evaluations of the products were overwhelmingly positive and the children felt very proud of themselves! 

Term 5: The Lady with the Lamp 

This term, our question for discovery is 'What makes a hero?'. We have been learning about Florence Nightingale who was a hero to many soldiers, doctors and nurses. In the 1800s, she worked to improve the hygiene and food in hospitals and raised the profile of nurses as valued members of hospital staff. We think that she is such a heroic person that we invited her into school!

During our workshops, Florence Nightingale taught us about the dreadful state of hospitals when she became a nurse. She took us on a journey to a warzone in Crimea where she helped thousands of injured soldiers and we learnt how to roll and apply bandages. 

Watch this space for another visit from our hero, Edith Cavell!

Term 5: Forest School

What a wonderful week back after a long Easter break! Edison and Attenborough classes celebrated our return with a forest school session. During the session, the children looked for signs of spring as well as displaying incredible teamwork skills to build dens and bridges. As always, much fun was had in the mud pit!

Term 4: British Science Week

Wow! What an exciting week of exploring and growing we have had. At The Discovery School, we have been celebrating British Science Week and learning all about the topic of growth. We launched our learning with a visit from Professor Lucy Bubbleworks who taught us all about how clouds and bubbles grow. Take a look at our exciting pictures below. If you want to join in with our British Science Week learning, make sure you visit the 'Science Zone' on the website!

Term 4: Wow Week!

What an exciting week in school! We started with our year 2 explorer day to launch our new topic, 'Why are places different'. As well as dressing as explorers, we became botanists for the day and explored our school grounds discovering the different plants which live here.

This week we also enjoyed a pantomime all about pants! It was very silly and very funny! Our cheeks ached from smiling and laughing so much and we loved joining in with dancing and actions. 

Finally this week we celebrated World Book Day by dressing as a character from a story that we love. We had a wonderful day exploring the book, 'Quest' which is the second part of the 'Journey' trilogy by Aaron Becker. We loved learning about 'Journey' so much, we are sure that we are going to love 'Quest' just as much!

Term 3: Our Science Eggsperiment 

During children's mental health week, we thought about how we can express ourselves. On Friday, we came to school wearing an outfit which expressed who we are or who we want to be in future. To add to the excitement, we also carried out an investigation into the best packaging to protect eggs. First we made predictions about which material we thought would be most effective. Then we made our packaging and tested the materials, using a plastic egg. Finally, we used real eggs to test the most effective packaging. We realised that some of our predictions were incorrect, but that's ok! We found that cardboard was the most protective material and paper was the least. We decided that next time, we would carry out the experiment on a harder floor as the carpet cushioned the fall. 

Term 3: A trip to Kent Life

We celebrated the end of our Great Fire of London topic with a trip to Kent Life. We all had a brilliant day meeting Thomas Farriner and Samuel Pepys. We were lucky enough to meet lots of farmyard animals and we even had the adventure playground all to ourselves! If you want to find out more, read Caroline's amazing recount of our day below. 

Term 3: A curious visitor

We have had an exciting start to our new topic, 'Who was Samuel Pepys?' We came in from play and the classroom smelled very smoky, then we found an unusual bag with a letter in it. The letter had (apparently) been delivered from London in 1666 and the writer asked us to look after his most treasured possessions; can you guess what they were? A bottle of wine and some stinky cheese!

The letter was from a man called Samuel Pepys who lived over 350 years ago and lived through the Great Fire of London. We are determined to find out as much as we can about The Great Fire of London and about Samuel Pepys, and we are sure that we will have great fun while we learn!