Tremendous Topic Work!

Date: 26th Nov 2020 @ 8:28pm

Hello everyone!

We have had a lovely week here in Year 2 and, as always, have been working very hard. Mrs Ryan and Mrs TD continue to be blown away by the fantastic attitudes and behaviour for learning that is shown by everyone day in and day out. A special mention to all those children who have recently received stickers, house points, critters, certificates of achievement in class, “superstar status”  and the weekly “Good Work Award”. Please see the newsletter for more details.

We are all really enjoying our latest topic, ‘Heroes and Villains’. Here is a snippet of what we have been up to recently:

We began our topic by completing a ‘KWL’ grid all about The Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Under ‘K’ we wrote down anything we already knew about the Gunpowder Plot; In the ‘W’ column we wrote down any questions we would like to find the answers to; and finally in the ‘L’ column we have been writing down things we have learnt about the Gunpowder Plot as we have been going along. The children have shown a real interest and enthusiasm for this topic and were all very interested to link the events of the Gunpowder Plot to our recent Bonfire Night celebrations.

As part of our History lessons, we have been sequencing the events from the Gunpowder Plot in chronological order. This then led us on to completing timelines of key historical events such as when the First World War began and ended and when we were born. We understand that chronological order means the order in which events have occurred.

In Computing, we used “Word Art” to create some displays using key words from the Gunpowder Plot. We each chose a symbol (e.g. a crown, a fire, the Houses of Parliament) and displayed our words in these shapes. The outcome was very effective. We have also been using ‘2Create A Story’ on Purple Mash to combine text, images, sound and motion to create moving picture stories all about The Gunpowder Plot.  

We have even written newspaper reports all about this event. Like real writers, we first carefully planned and drafted our work. Then, using our “purple pens” we edited our writing, checking to make sure it was the best it could be. We have now all written up the final versions of our newspaper articles and Mrs Ryan and Mrs TD have been SO impressed with not only the content of the writing, but the children’s use of vocabulary, joining words (connectives) and use of punctuation. We really are immensely proud of everyone!

Over the next few weeks, we are going to be planting poppy seeds and storing them in different conditions to find out what a plant needs in order to grow well. Although this is a Science experiment, it links nicely with our ‘Heroes and Villains’ topic as we know the poppy is the symbol of remembrance and hope. We spent time at the start of this topic talking about the real-life heroes that have fought in wars and why it is important to remember them.

We also have some lovely Christmas activities planned including making some very special Christmas cards and Mrs TD has been very busy planning our Y2 nativity- with a difference. More details to follow soon!

We hope that everyone has a fantastic weekend. Thank you all for your continued support.

Take care.

Mrs Ryan & The Year 2 Team laugh

St Mary's Birchley Catholic Primary School

Birchley Road, Billinge, Nr Wigan,

Lancashire WN5 7QJ

Main Contact: Mrs Janet Ollerton

SENDCO Contact: Mrs Andrea Hymers

Tel: 01744 678610

Email: stmaryrcbp@sthelens.org.uk