Year 2 have been very busy this week focusing on instructional writing.  We have been giving verbal instructions to each other, reading and understanding instructions (recipes) and identifying the key features of the genre.  We decided after trying to follow jumbled instructions to make a jam sandwich that instructions need to be in chronological order, have time conjunctions and an imperative verb.
The children were VERY excited because we followed a recipe to make bread rolls.  Once the bread had cooled down the children evaluated their bread by focusing on the appearance, smell and taste.  We then used our knowledge of instructional writing to write our own set of instructions on how to make bread rolls, making sure we used imperative verbs and time conjunctions.
Can you guess why we made bread rolls this week?  (The Great Fire of London started in the Kings bakery on Pudding Lane). 

​After learning about what natural and man-made materials are, we went outside and explored our school grounds to see what objects we could find that are made from natural or man-made materials.
Natural material - these are materials that are ‘naturally’ found around us. We may have to dig them out of the ground, grow them, or take them from living things.
Man-made materials - these are natural materials that are changed through chemical processes by ‘man’.

​In Religion this week we retold the story Matthew 2 1:12 (Visitors from the East). We then used Godly Play to re-tell the story.  As a class we discussed the significance of the presents the kings brought – gold, frankincense and myrrh.  We then had a collective worship and our mission was to then spread the good news like the Kings.
 
We then answered ‘I wonder what gift you would bring to Jesus and why’.
Chloe – ‘I would bring hope as I hope that Jesus will come back to earth one day’.
Evie – ‘I will bring a cross as Jesus died on the cross for us’.
Amelia – I will bring love as Jesus loves everyone of us and he needs to know that we love him as well’.

​Year 2 this week are learning about money in maths.  We have been looking at recognising the coins and thinking about their value.  We chose a coin and then with our knowledge of place value we used the diennes to make the coins value. 

​In religion this week the children in Year 2 are learning to describe Christian beliefs about the Incarnation.
We used Godly play to retell the birth of Jesus.
The children used the characters to retell the story.  We discussed:
I wonder what the place was like where Mary had her baby.
I wonder what the words ‘the Glory of the Lord shone around them’ means or what they may look like.
I wonder how the Shepherds found Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.
I wonder what it means that Mary ‘remember all these things and thought deeply about them’
I wonder what you think deeply about.
 
 
We looked at the painting ‘Radient Light’ by Elizabeth Wang and discussed what was happening in the picture and why.  We then created our own piece of art work to represent the Incarnation and described what we had drawn.  We then discussed what we had included in our pictures and what Christians believe about the Incarnation.

​In History this week we used photographs, books, the internet and other sources of information to compare fire fighters in 1666 and fire fighters today.

This week in Year 2 we have been learning about Advent.  We learnt that Advent is the period lasting the FOUR Sundays before Christmas preparing for the celebration of Jesus’ birth.
We learnt that the Advent Wreath is a symbol of Advent.
The four candles on the Advent Wreath represent the period of waiting during the four Sundays of Advent. Each Sunday, a new candle is lit.
 
The Candle of HOPE
The Candle of PEACE
The Candle of JOY
The Candle of LOVE

During our Religion lessons this week we have been learning the story of The Annunciation.  We have retold the story using Godly play, we have looked at the painting ‘The Annunciation Fresco’ by Fra Angelico and drawn our own version and then wrote a retell after listening to the Scripture.
We responded to:
I wonder why God chose Mary to be the Mother of Jesus.
I wonder how Mary felt when she saw Gabriel.
I wonder how Mary felt about being the Mother of Jesus. 

In English we have been studying the poem ‘The Candle Flame’ by Pie Corbett.  He uses similes to describe how the flame moves.  We wrote our own simile poem about the Great Fire of London, thinking about how the fire moves.