Our Lady's School is a caring family, where, with Jesus in our hearts, we value everyone and encourage them to be the best that they can be.

Welcome to Class 2!

Hello! My name is Miss Watkinson and I am your class teacher.

Miss Naz will be working in class with us on Mondays and Tuesdays and Mrs Troughton will be working in class with us on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. 

Book Bags

Reading book bags are expected to be in every day to take important letters home. We may also listen to your child read their home reading book on any day and record this in their reading record so this is needed in school daily. Two reading books will be sent home every Friday: a phonics book for your child to read aloud and a story book that can be read to the child by an adult. It is important that children are read with daily at home and in school. Children should read their phonics book every day, so that the book becomes familiar and your child becomes more confident reading it each time to build up their reading fluency.

Harder to Read and Spell flashcards

Children will be sent home with Harder to Read and Spell flashcards. Please practice reading these words, writing these words and spelling these words. Children will be tested on these at the end of each half term. 

P.E.

PE will be on a Tuesday and Wednesday each week. Children should come to school wearing their PE kit for outdoor sports. They do not need to bring their uniform on this day. 

In Year 2 we hope to learn lots, have fun and grow together in God's love.

Homework

Year 2 pupils will be set homework on Purple Mash.

- Reading should be daily (books changed on a Friday).

- Maths homework will be on a Wednesday.

- Harder to Read and Spell words will be sent at the beginning of each half term. 

Maths homework needs to be completed by the Wednesday of the following week. 

Purple Mash allows us to set homework, allows your child to send it back to us and allows us to provide feedback on their achievement.  

Any problems using this please let us know, as we are eager for children to continue their learning at home.

More information about what your child will learn in class can be seen on the curriculum page.

Useful Websites

We use websites such as Phonics Play, Topmarks and timestables.co.uk  as well as resources from Essential Letters and Sounds and Oxford Owl, to support children when teaching phonics and reading.

Any Questions?

If you have any questions regarding the curriculum your child is being taught, please contact school.

At Our Lady's we are always pleased to meet our parents, I will be available to talk to you any day before 8.45 and after school. If you would like me to ring you, please leave a message at the school office.

Many thanks for your ongoing support,

Miss Watkinson 

Spring 2 - On The Farm

Our completed salads!

We made our salads! The children learnt the bridge and the claw cutting technique and sliced, chopped and grated their chosen vegetables.

In Science, we have been dissecting beans to learn how they are able to germinate. We observed the seed coat, food store and baby plant!

As part of our science learning, we have learnt how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants as they germinate, grow roots and then grow a shoot before growing their leaves and becoming a flowering plant that produces fruit or seeds. Today the children made 'greenhouses' to watch their bean seeds germinate and grow! 🌱🌺

Year 2 thoroughly enjoyed celebrating World Book Day in class! They enjoyed all things reading: reading buddies, listening to stories, reading aloud, making bookmarks, a library visit, a book quiz, guessing the masked readers, drinking hot chocolate and reading our brand new world book day books that we can take home. Everyone said what a great day they had had! 

As part of British Science Week, Year 2 investigated what would happen when they added water to skittles. They predicted, observed and discussed their results. They then wondered what would happen if and wondered why things happened before learning the science behind it!

As part of their DT work, Year 2 taste tested salads to evaluate the ingredients based on their appearance, smell, texture and flavour. They will be designing and making their own salad later in the half term. 

In science, the children learnt the conditions seeds need in order to grow into plants. They then 'planted' cress seeds which they will take care of the next few weeks to grow into cress. The children will then harvest their cress and put it into their salads in the DT work.  

We are really excited because our cress has germinated and started to shoot! We are really enjoying checking on it each day and observing its changes and watering it to help it to grow!

Spring 1 - Explorers

On Tuesday 11th February, we celebrated Safer Internet Day to learn about scams and how to be safe. The children listened to a Digiduck story read by members of our OLPS squad, considered who their trusted adults were that they would tell, what is safe and unsafe online and played the game 'Interland' to spread kindness and think about the reality of a situation when presented with a scam. What great fun whilst learning something so important! 

Year 2 have been busy sawing wooden dowel as part of their 'Vehicles' unit in Design and Technology whilst making their vehicles. This is because they evaluated this as the best material fit for the purpose of an axle due to it being strong and sturdy. 

As part of children's mental health week, the children have enjoyed taking part in activities we can do to help calm ourselves when we are feeling overwhelmed with a feeling. These included yoga, painting, laughing yoga, breathing techniques and mindfulness colouring. We then finished the week celebrating National Read Aloud day with our families in school as reading is good for our mental health!

Year 2 went across to church for the RE lesson to listen to Father Ged as he talked about and showed us the different books used during Mass.

Following on from our lunchtime prayers, together as a class, some children gathered around the focal point for spontaneous prayer. 

As part of our D.T. work, we have been exploring different materials and evaluating which are fit for the purpose of axles and wheels, giving reasons why. Here are some of the materials we explored and considered.

We learnt what happens when the Gospel is read in Mass to the parish and role played this. We know that the Gospel is a very special book and is treated with reverence. 

A lovely Celebration of the Word to reflect on the story of Jesus' Baptism. We thought about how we can live as children of God and shared what we would do, as we poured the water, as we go forth from the Celebration of the Word. 

In English, we took part in a conscience alley activity where we debated two different topics in role as Chrissy in the Bog Baby story: Should you keep the Bog Baby? Should you show your mum the bog baby?

As part of our new DT topic, Vehicles, we explored existing products to see how they have been made. We thought about how the wheels are attached to the vehicle, how the wheels are able to move and whether they were fixed or loose. 

Year 2 were surprised when they arrived in class after the holidays because something had arrived in our classroom whilst we had been off! There were clues left around it, along with a description of a creature in an envelope. We read the description and made what we thought the creature might look like, from the clues, using playdough.

Autumn 2 - Fighting Fit!

We visited the new prayer and reflection garden at the end of the school day to say our end of the day prayer. Cole then asked to say his own spontaneous prayer to God. It was a lovely way to end the day! 

All dressed ready for our Halloween Disco before our month of remembrance.

As part of our learning in RE about the symbols within the Sacrament of Baptism, Year 2 had oil put onto their hands to remind them that in Baptism, the baby becomes a special friend of Jesus because the Oil of Chrism is symbol that the baby has received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In Science, Year 2 have been learning about the importance of eating the right amounts of different types of food. They sorted the food into different groups and learnt about the 5 main food groups. 

A lovely Celebration of the Word thinking about how we can share our God given gifts as we Go Forth this weekend.

We role played wrapping the baby in a white garment at baptism to learn its symbolism: that the baby is now pure and clean of sins and that it is like God wrapping his arms around the baby in their life. 

The fire service visited us to teach us about the importance of having an emergency plan at home in the event of a fire, the importance of having working smoke alarms and what to do if our clothes were on fire! Look at the pictures to see some children practicing and demonstrating the STOP, DROP and ROLL sequence. 

Odd Socks Day!

We wore odd socks in class to kick start Kindness Week by recognising it is okay to be different and differences should be celebrated! God made each of us unique with individual differences, gifts and talents and we want to celebrate these! 

We had a very enjoyable time decorating the school Christmas Tree!

We considered an aspect of Advent: the white candle symbolising Jesus is the light of the world and used this theme to decorate a Christmas tree for our church! 

Following the first week of Advent, we had a Celebration of the Word with the theme, 'preparing'. We took away a mission to go forth and complete in order to prepare our hearts for Jesus at Christmas. 

What a lovely morning creating crafts during Christmas Craft morning! Thank you to all the parents who were able to attend - the children loved you being here with them. 

In our Key Stage 1 Nativity, Year 2 played the parts of the people and animals in the story. They did a great job remembering their parts!

We had a lovely Celebration of the Word to end the calendar year before Christmas, based on our theme in RE of 'Preparing' during Advent. The children set themselves a mission that they are going to complete in this last week, at home, before Christmas to continue to prepare their hearts for Jesus. 

Following our Celebration of the Word, the children reflected and responded on how it made them feel, what it made them think and what they wanted to say about it... 

Autumn 1 - The Place Where I Live

As part of their art learning in this topic, Year 2 went into the local area to complete observational line drawings. We chose to draw Father Ged's house and our church because of the different lines needed for the outlines. This will then lead us onto printing this scene later in the half term. 

In music, the children are learning to sing the song 'The Big Ship Sails Through The Alley-Alley-Oh' in unison, with expression and will later be adding both body percussion and percussion instruments to it. First, after learning the song, the children went outside to play the traditional playground game. 

We have been making rubbings of different textures in our school grounds. The children may, later in the unit of work, choose to add rubbings to their outcome if they wish. 

Mrs Shaw, who previously worked at this school for 37 years, and whose mum worked here before that, came as a visitor into school to tell us all about what our school playground was like the in the past when her mum worked here. We compared how it is different to today and then played traditional playground games from the past such as 'The farmer's in his den', 'Here we go round the mulberry bush' and 'In and out the dusty bluebells'. The children had a fabulous afternoon and learnt lots!

In RE, we played a game to remind ourselves that we are all God's children and that he knows each of us by name. 

"I know a child of God named....."

We have had lovely Celebrations of the Word each week based on the liturgical calendar. 

We ended our Come and See RE topic, about new beginnings, with a lovely Celebration of the Word

At the end of the half term, the children showcased their learning to their parents. They demonstrated their new skills and knowledge in music, PE and history!