In English, Year 2 relived the joys of last week’s trip to the Living Rainforest. The children were tasked with writing a recount of their visit, developing their understanding of how to structure a recount of an event. Learning activities included ordering photographs of the trip chronologically and discussing the day; using appropriate fronted adverbials to sequence events; and incorporating ambitious, engaging vocabulary into their writing. It was fascinating to read the range of perspectives and highlights shared by the children about this popular outing. Mr Smith was amazed by the quality of the outcomes and could hardly believe that this writing had been produced by Year 2 pupils—how fantastic!
In mathematics, the children have been learning about position and direction, movement and turns. They were excited to link the rich language required to access this topic to the algorithm work that they have completed in previous computing topics. They engaged in games and activities describing movement and giving instructions to move an object or person from one place to another. They realised that it is helpful to visualise which way an object or person is facing and which way it will be facing if it turns left or right. Use of the terms ‘clockwise’ and ‘anti-clockwise’ were introduced. The children then explored patterns that involve turns.
In science, the children have been observing the miraculous germination of our broad bean plants in class (plus examining a few “unlucky” seeds which didn’t manage to make it!). The seeds have transformed from seedlings into fully fledged plants, and this is supporting the children’s understanding of the stages of germination and what a seed and plant needs to grow. This will be concluded next week.