Summer 2

Week 5

Another exciting and busy week in Year 2, starting off with our Mini Musicians performance in Wimbledon! The children were absolutely fabulous, singing and performing at St Marks Church. We were extremely proud of our children and how well they displayed all the Hillcross values even in the heat! We continued our whole school topic learning by designing and creating stained-glass windows, choosing images that represented their character or what was important to them. The week ended with the Knight to Remember workshops. The children were able to take part in different exciting events, including falconry, archery and a meet and greet with a real knight and their horses. 

 

Week 4

This week the children have been focusing on medieval monarchy, hierarchy and judgements. As historians, we have been gathering facts about William the Conquerer and the different roles people had in the medieval era. National writing day was very exciting! As authors, the children created similes which were then used to write fantastic poems about dragons. The week ended with a thought-provoking P4C session where the children used their imagination to become the King or Queen of Hillcross, creating their own new rules for the school. Following this, the children had a class debate to decide which rules were deemed to be the most popular, with the children putting forward convincing arguments both for and against. The children demonstrated many of the Hillcross values, suggesting aspiration rules, responsibly listening to others' opinions and challenging ideas respectfully.

 

 

Week 3

As biologists working scientifically, we have been making observations on the seeds we planted last week and how the different conditions have affected growth. As musicians, the children worked collaboratively to design their own Medieval character. Using different instruments and timbre, they skilfully layered sounds to create a soundtrack to represent their character. Learning was taken outside for maths, where children practised quarter, half, three-quarter turns both clockwise and anti-clockwise. As writers, we have been using expanded noun phrases to write character profiles and describe the different settings from the 'Paperback Princess' story book.

Week 2

Another busy week enjoying Whole School Topic activities. This week we visited Woodland Lodge for our P4C enquiry question - 'If I had a castle I would.....' where the children shared many thought-provoking ideas, from looking after injured people, to making a castle out of diamonds and 'candy'! As geographers, we explored castles within the UK before extending our research to the whole of the world. As mathematicians, we have been learning about different units of measure and making comparisons. Finally, we have been thinking scientifically, making predictions as to what a seed needs to grow, and we will be engaging our observational skills over the next few weeks to see if we are correct.

Week 1

This has been an incredible week as we launch the whole school topic - A Knight to Remember. Our main focus this week has been D & T and, as designers, we have been researching the features of castles, what we need to ensure we have a strong structure before designing and making our own castles, forts or palaces. Our first official working visit to the new Innovation lab was met with much excitement and inspired the most fabulous creations. In other areas, as mathematicians, we have started to explore measurement - in particular centimetres and metres, and as writers, we have started to write our non-chronological report about castles.