Hill Top Primary Academy

Welcome to Year 2

The staff in Year 2 are - Miss Monaghan (Mon/Tues/Fri all day, Wed AM), Mrs Butterworth (Wed PM and Thurs all day)

Support staff - Mrs Ayeni

Autumn 2

In Geography our topic has been 'Wonderful Weather'. We have learnt about different climates and the seasons that the UK has. We created our own weather forecasts based on a particular season and then presented these like real presenters!

Our DT topic this half term has been about 'Baby Bears Chair' which linked with our English work on 'Twisted Tales'. We learnt about what makes a strcture stable and then designed our own chairs to seat Baby Bear. We tested them with a small teddy to see if they were strong enough!

Spring 2

Computing

Today, we continued our learning about the ISS and discussed how sensors are used on board to monitor things up such as temperature, water, food, sleep and the astronauts health. The children then pretended to be sensors and collected the temperatures of different rooms in school and inputted their data into a spreadsheet. This was the first time the children have ever used Excel and they did a great job at entering the data they had collected. 

Science

This week in Sicence, we took advantage of the lovely weather and conducted an investigation to find out how exercise affects our bodies. The children worked in pairs to record how different exercises made them feel and which parts of the body they were using.
We then discussed which exercises we found the hardest and which we found the easiest. After we talked about why we exercise and how it is good for our mental health, balance, helps us sleep better and how it makes our hearts, lungs and hearts stronger. The children then set their own challenge to help keep themselves healthy.

Science Week

Year 2 have loved talking part in this year's science week focused on curiosity. The children were given the question: Does toast always land butter-side down? This started a buzz of excitement and lots of discuss about how we could find out the answer. Needless to say, the children got stuck in straight away and enjoyed conducting their own investigation. We also invesigated if the thickness of the bread made a difference and what would happen if it didn't have butter on. The children concluded that more often than not, the toast would land butter-side down. They were so invested in the investigation, they even suggested other questions that we investigated as a class, such as, would it make a difference if we used jam, what would happen if we cut the toast in half or cut the crust off. The afternoon was full with curiosity.

PE

This half term, we are learning all about poses and creating flows in yoga. In this lesson, we focused an awareness of flexibility when completing yoga poses. The children imagined they were on safari and performed the poses: cobra, elephant, lion, giraffe and tree. 

World Book Day

What a day we've had! The children have enjoyed every minute of World Book Day! They started the day by planning what they wanted to share about their book and then presented it to the rest of the class. They even got the chance to share their book with year 6 children. The children also enjoyed taking part in a live lesson with BBC, hearing from some different authors, finding new books to take home and designing their own bookmarks.  

Computing

This half term, we are learning all about the International Space Station and how astronauts survive on the ISS. Today, the children learnt why the ISS is important and what it looks like inside. The children used an interactive map to label the different modules and explored some of the things found on the ISS. 

Music

This half term, we have learnt all about how events, actions and feelings within a story can be represented by pitch, dynamics and tempo. We have listened to lots of different pieces of music and analysed the changes within the music to represent different parts of the story. The children then worked in groups to plan and compose their own pieces of music to the story of Jack and the Bean Stalk. The children did a fantastic job, working as a group, showing contrasts in dynamics and tempo and performing clearly and confidently. 

Spring 1

We started this half term in maths by learning about Money. We used our knowledge of the different coins to make totals in lots of different ways - we have enjoyed working practically during this topic!

Science

Over the past few weeks, the children have been learning all about life cycles and how not all animals go through the same changes. Today, the children were very excited to research their own life cycles using the internet and books. The children then shared and compared their life cycles discussing the similarities and differences between them. 

Computing

Today, the children were very excited to continue developing their learning of programming through ScratchJr. The children used what they had already learnt about the different blocks, how to change characters and backgrounds to program their own jokes. The children really enjoyed sharing their work with others. Here are a few examples of the children's jokes they have programmed.

Science

For the past two weeks, the children have been learning all about food chains. Last week, they learnt that all food chains start with a producer and that anything that eats something else is a called a consumer. Today, the children recapped what they had learnt and started to find out about different food chains by conducting their own research and labelled the producer, consumers, prey and predators. The children really enjoyed finding out new food chains and sharing them with the rest of the class. 

Computing

This half term, we are learning how to use a new application called ScratchJr. Today, the children explored what they could do in ScratchJr but predicting, testing and reviewing. The children are very excited to learn how to make their own programs. 

Music

This half term, we are learning all about call and response. This week, the children used the sound patterns they had already learnt to create their own call and response. 

Science

This half term the children are enjoying learning all about habitats. We have spent a lot of time exploring and observing our local habitats. This week we started to learn about different habitats around the world. The children used the internet, books and information sheets to find out as much as the could about their chosen habitat. The children made notes and are looking forward to sharing their research with their friends next week.