Autumn 2
Significant People
This half term, we are learning about significant people from the past who have shaped the way we live today.
After receiving a postcard from Paddington Bear, we discovered that he’d ended up in hospital after slipping on some marmalade and hurting his paw! Paddington wanted to know how nurses knew what to do — so we set out to find out!
We learned all about Florence Nightingale, who transformed hospitals by making them cleaner, providing healthy food, and even opening a training school for nurses.
As part of our learning, we also compared hospitals in Victorian times to hospitals today, noticing just how much things have improved thanks to Florence’s hard work and dedication.
We had a wonderful end to our first half term in Year 2 by attending our very own tea party!
Although it wasn’t at Buckingham Palace like Paddington’s, we all agreed that we had the best time together. There were smiles all around as we celebrated our fantastic learning and the brilliant start we’ve made to Year 2.
Well done, Juniper Class – what a lovely way to finish the half term!
To finish our learning about The Great Fire of London, Juniper Class became bakers — just like Thomas Farriner himself!
We learned that flour comes from wheat grains which are ground down before being used in baking. Using flour, salt, sugar, water, and yeast, we carefully measured, mixed, and stirred our ingredients. After letting our dough rise, we kneaded it into rolls — and what a fantastic job everyone did!
The classroom was filled with the delicious smell of freshly baked bread. What master bakers you are, Juniper Class!
In Juniper we have been learning a song called 'Tony Chestnut', with actions and then with our partner we had to listen carefully to the notes and then teach ourselves how to play the song on a glockenspiel. Everyone did a fantastic job at writing down the notes once they'd worked out which notes sounded correct. Good work Juniper!
This week in Juniper we thoroughly enjoyed making our moving vehicles. We all followed our designs and loved decorating them in our own unique way. Paddington has some fancy vehicles to travel in when going to his Tea Party!
The children enjoyed having their photos taken alongside Paddington himself.
As part of our continued learning about materials, Year 2 have been diving into the fascinating world of what things are made from – and why!
We used Michael Rosen’s playful poem Woolly Saucepan as inspiration to think about how different materials are suited to different objects. Using our imaginations, we explored all sorts of unusual and funny mismatches – like glass trousers or chocolate teapots!
Then, we got creative and wrote our own versions of the poem, coming up with silly and surprising object-material combinations. Through this fun and imaginative activity, we deepened our understanding of the properties of materials, while also developing our poetry skills.
In Juniper Class, we’ve been using our growing knowledge of adjectives, nouns, and verbs to write our very own poems all about The Great Fire of London.
We thought carefully about the sights, sounds, and feelings of 1666, using powerful describing words and action verbs to bring the fire to life on the page. The children worked so hard to capture the drama and emotion of this historic event through their writing.
What a fantastic job, Juniper Class! Your poems were full of imagination, strong vocabulary, and creativity – we’re so proud of your brilliant work!
In history, we have started learning all about The Great Fire of London and what life was like in the year 1666. It has been really interesting to find out how people lived such a long time ago!
As part of our learning, we looked at lots of different pictures and had to sort them into two groups – pictures from 1666 and pictures from the present day. We saw old houses made of wood, old-fashioned clothes, and fire engines that looked very different from today! We also saw modern buildings, clothes, and fire engines that helped us understand how much things have changed.
This activity helped us spot the differences between the past and present, and it made us think about how people might have felt during the Great Fire.
We are excited to keep learning more about what happened during the fire and how London changed afterwards!
This week in Year 2, Juniper Class has been learning all about Information Technology and how it’s used in everyday life. In our most recent lesson, we focused on the role of technology in supermarkets.
We discovered how barcodes are used to store information about products. Each barcode is unique, like a fingerprint for the item! When the barcode is scanned at the till, it tells the computer exactly what the item is and how much it costs.
It was a fantastic opportunity to connect technology to the real world. We’re excited to continue exploring more ways technology helps us in everyday life!
To celebrate National Poetry Day, Year 2 Juniper Class learnt the classic poem The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear. As part of our learning, we used Makaton signs to help bring the poem to life and support everyone in joining in.
We were thrilled to share our performance with the children and staff from The Birchwood Nest — it was a lovely opportunity to come together and celebrate poetry in an inclusive and creative way.
Super learning, Juniper Class – we’re so proud of you!
This week, Year 2 Juniper began their Infant Agility journey by focusing on aiming and throwing – and what a fantastic start they've made! Their concentration, coordination, and enthusiasm were brilliant to see.
Infant Agility is all about developing fundamental movement skills, and over the coming weeks, the children will explore:
Running
Jumping
Dodging
Balancing
Aiming
Throwing
Catching
Reaction and response
These fun, skill-building activities help build confidence, coordination, and a love for being active – and Juniper Class are off to a flying start!
Well done, everyone – we can’t wait to see how your skills grow!
This week, Juniper Class have been diving into the world of materials! We began by recapping our knowledge from Year 1, reminding ourselves of the names and properties of everyday materials.
Next, we explored a wide variety of materials and worked hard to classify them based on their properties – is it bendy, rough, transparent, or soft? The children really enjoyed hands-on investigations and thoughtful discussions about the different objects they examined. Well done Juniper Class.
This week, Year 2 Juniper have been building their confidence with adding and subtracting two-digit numbers. We used a variety of manipulatives, including bead strings, part-whole models, and base ten blocks, to explore the different strategies we’ve learned over the past few weeks.
The children worked brilliantly to solve problems, explain their thinking, and choose the most efficient methods. We then moved on to practising written strategies, showing our working clearly and carefully.
It’s been fantastic to see how much progress everyone has made – well done, Juniper class!
A big well done to our wonderful Year 2 representatives!
Cooper – our new School Councillor
Eva – our thoughtful Eco Councillor
Mylo – our brilliant Digital Leader
We are so proud of you all and know you will do a fantastic job representing Juniper Class.
Juniper Class have been busy exploring fixed wheels and free-moving wheels this week, all in preparation for a very important task – designing and building vehicles to help Paddington get to his royal tea party!
The children have loved investigating how different types of wheels work and thinking about which would be best for their own vehicle designs. Lots of great teamwork, problem-solving, and creative ideas are already rolling in!
We can’t wait to see the finished vehicles – Paddington is in for quite the ride!
This half term, Juniper Class have been learning all about two-digit numbers – exploring their value and how they can be partitioned into tens and ones.
This understanding has really helped as they've now moved on to adding and subtracting two-digit numbers. It's been great to see their confidence growing as they use different strategies to solve problems.
Great work, Juniper Class – keep it up!
Juniper Class have been really enjoying their weekly trips to the library! It’s been great to see everyone so excited to pick out books, share favourites with friends, and spend some quiet time reading.
These visits are helping the children build confidence as readers and get more familiar with how libraries work.
Well done, Juniper Class – keep up the great reading in school and at home!
Juniper Class had a wonderful time this week making the most of the beautiful autumn sunshine! We headed out to the trim trail for some fresh air, fun, and a chance to stretch our legs.
The children loved balancing, climbing, and jumping their way along the trail – and there were lots of smiles and laughter all round. It was the perfect way to enjoy the crisp autumn weather and stay active together!
Well done, Juniper Class – you showed brilliant teamwork and energy!
What an exciting first day back we've had in Year 2!
This morning started with a surprise – we stumbled over a mysterious suitcase and a red hat! We quickly guessed that they must belong to Paddington Bear! Of course, our curious minds just had to take a look inside...
To our amazement, we discovered a very sticky invitation to a tea party – covered in marmalade, of course! Poor Paddington – he couldn’t read where the party was supposed to be. Luckily, there were some clues hidden in the suitcase to help us figure it out.
We found:
- A toy taxi cab
- A tube ticket
- A picture of King Charles
- A postcard of Big Ben
- A Union Jack flag
Using our fantastic inference skills, we discussed each clue carefully and soon worked out that the tea party must be in London!
As well as solving Paddington’s mystery, we also got stuck into learning about the features of non-fiction books. We explored:
- Title pages
- Contents pages
- Glossaries
- Indexes
- Pictures and captions
We’re already showing brilliant teamwork and thinking skills – what a great start to the year! We can’t wait to see what the rest of the week brings.
Our Year 2s came back today full of smiles, stories, and energy – and we couldn't be happier to see them! From catching up with friends to diving into new learning adventures, it's already shaping up to be a fantastic year.
We LOVE how quickly they've settled back in, ready to learn, laugh, and grow together. Here's to a wonderful Year 2!