Guiseley Primary School

Year 2 - Blue Class and Indigo Class

Year 2 Welcome Booklets

Curriculum overview

Spring 2

This half term, the children have really enjoyed learning about the local historical figure: Sir Titus Salt. They have learnt about what life was like in Saltaire during the Victorian period, the jobs children would have done working in a mill and what the houses looked like.

In Art, the children have studied the work of the famous British textile designer William Morris. They have taken inspiration from his nature inspired patterns and created their own prints in their sketchbooks. Using fabric pens, they copied their favourite design onto t shirts, producing some very trendy pieces!

We celebrated World Book Day by coming to school in our pyjamas or dressing up as our favourite book character. We spent the day sharing stories and reading books. We also took part in a teacher swap and had a different teacher read us a story.

We had a fantastic Science week and this year the theme was 'Time'. We completed lots of fun investigations including which material was the best insulator, which material made the best boat as well as learnt about the life cycle of a frog.

Spring 1

This half term the children have really enjoyed learning about the seaside town of Saltburn in Geography. As well as looking at maps, the children have compared human and physical features found in Saltburn to human and physical features found in Guiseley. The children then decided on their favourite place to live.

In Design Technology the children have designed and constructed a Ferris Wheel. They received a letter from the mayor of Fun Town. They were given a design brief to follow containing specific criteria, the Ferris Wheel must have at least ten pods for the guests to ride in. At the start of the topic, the children began by considering the materials, shape, construction and mechanisms of their wheel. Then they labelled their designs and began to build a stable structure with a rotating wheel.

In Computing, the children have learnt about algorithms. They’ve used bee bots to program algorithms and used maps to predict and invent their own.

In English, Year 2 have used the story ‘The Bog Baby’ to write character descriptions and a letter. In Maths, they have learnt all about money, counting money, finding change and solving problems.

Autumn 2

The children have had a brilliant half-term, which involved lots of Christmas celebrations. The children really enjoyed Christmas jumper and dinner day as well as the Christmas party and printing wrapping paper to sell at the Christmas fair. Our Christmas performance of ‘Twas the night before Christmas’ was wonderful. The children’s singing and performances were of a high standard and put everyone in a festive mood. The children also enjoyed a visit to Guiseley Methodist church where they learnt about the Christmas story and received a bracelet.

During Science, the children have been furthering their knowledge of materials. This has included investigating which materials would be the most suitable to build a rabbit hutch, materials that can be recycled and John McAdam’s invention for building roads.

In Maths, they have worked really hard to master the skill of adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers. In English, we used the book ‘Room on the Broom’ to inspire writing a character description about the witch which included lots of descriptive noun phrases. Leading up to Christmas, the children studied the character of The Grinch from the story 'How The Grinch stole Christmas' written by Dr. Seuss. They then wrote some fantastic descriptions of The Grinch, focusing on using adjectives to describe his appearance and his personality.

In History, the children have been learning about food in living memory. They had the opportunity to taste food from the 1950’s including Horlicks, Coronation Chicken and Jam Roly Poly. The children then wrote a recount describing their experience. A visitor also came in and the children had the opportunity to ask them a range of questions about food from the past.

In DT, children have been learning about a variety of food preparation techniques including grating, cutting and spreading. They taste tested a range of proteins, vegetables and dairy products and then followed a design brief to create a tasty, balanced wrap.

Autumn 1

The children have settled in well to life in Year 2. They enjoyed learning all about Explorers including Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong. They had lots of fun designing and making their own vehicle for an explorer, inspired by the Russian cubism artist Lyubov Popova.

We made the most of the warm weather by heading out into the playground on a senses hunt. We thought about and made notes on what we could see, hear, smell and feel. Then we wrote a setting description about our school playground. The children also took part in Guiseley Primary School's annual Art Week. We learnt all about the local artist Jo Dexter. The children experimented with mixing colours and developed their brush stroke skills.

In PE, we had a guest teacher for this half term, Marcus from Guiseley AFC, who taught the children gymnastic skills including rolls, jumps and positions. The children then created a sequence using apparatus.