We are really enjoying our Land Ahoy theme but we encountered a problem! Our pirate only has one hand and there are lots of jobs to do on a ship. We designed a remote control to help him with his daily tasks and we added a variety of buttons for weather reports, kidstube, loud speaker (to shout at the crew). We also made it water proof because as you know pirates spend most of their time voyaging around the seas.
As part of our Land Ahoy theme we have been looking at different types of boats and how they move. We looked at pushing and pulling and decided that we would design and build a transport for our boat which would then be used to launch our boat successfully into the water. We used a range of materials and had great fun designing and redesigning our prototypes. We realised that some ideas may sound good but when we tried them they did not work so we had to work as a team to problem solve and complete our mission.
We have been looking at the impressionist painter Claude Monet. We loved his use of colour and shades in ‘The Waves’. We made a graduated colour chart to show the different blues we could make and then we tried our best to recreate the famous picture. 
As part of our PE this half term we have been looking at different ways our bodies move during dance. We have imagined ourselves as explorers and we have travelled through different terrains. This week we were imagining we were pirates seeking treasure however, when we found the treasure it was too big to move. Using dance we had to create a movement that would help us transport our treasure. We had so much fun as you can see!
Year 2 were invited to take part in a poetry writing competition with Young Writers. This competition was open to many schools across the country and some of our amazing writers were chosen to have their work published. We are so proud our our amazing authors!
Our R.E. day this term looked at how light is used as a symbol in all religions. Diwali with the lamps, Hanukkah with the Menorah, and Christianity with advent. We found that Christianity uses light as a representation of hope and joy. We made a Christingle and talked about what each part represented. The orange = the world, the ribbon = Gods love, the candle = Jesus, the sticks = the four seasons and the sweet treats = all of Gods creations. We enjoyed creating our Christingle and were excited to bring them home to talk about them with our grown ups.
In 2 blue this week we have been using computers and texts to research our favourite hero from our theme ‘Zero To Hero’. We wrote down all of the information we thought was important. We then went to the computer suite where we were shown how to use ‘Word’ to produce our writing. We were then taught how to change the size, type and colour of the font and how to search for, and insert a picture of our hero. We really enjoyed using these skills to make our work more interesting.
We have been looking at the artist Christy Brown. We found out that he had Cerebral Palsy and that his only working limb was his left leg. He created his fantastic drawings with his left foot. We were so inspired that we decided to have a go ourselves and we soon found out that it was harder than we thought it was going to be. Christy Brown is certainly a hero!
Over the last week we have been looking at all the different components of a circuit, bulbs, batteries, wires and switches. Today we used our knowledge to create a working circuit. We used the crocodile clips to attach our components and watched what happened when the circuit was broken. We created a simple circuit and then drew a technically correct drawing using the correct symbols for each component.
We took part in our first gymnastics PE session with the coach. We looked at the correct form and posture needed to create a safe and controlled forward, pencil, tuck and backwards roll. We had a great time and can’t wait for next week to learn new skills.
