Stanningley Primary School

Oh what fun we have been having in DT. We have continued our English/ Reading learning about the story 'Journey'. In class2 we linked this to our DT and the topic of Wheels and Axles. We have been discussing if we had a magic pencil what mode of transport would we draw. There were some fabulous ideas like hot air balloons, boats, flying carpets, space ships and even magic shoes that transport you to where you want to go. We then designed a vehicle, But the criteria was the vehicle MUST travel on land as well as other ways of moving. We decided that the vehicle must have wheel that turn. We have begun to invent our magical vehicle, But as we were making them, we found out that our designs didn't always work as we had planned it to. When we taped on our wheels they didn't turn. So we have now evaluated our model, made some note about the changes we need to made and are now looking forward to making adjustments to them. Watch this space for the completed models.

We always have fun in P.E . We have been learning to send and retieve a ball of various sizes with pace, control and consistancy to our partners.

What a great morning we had on Sports Day. We all came in our special coloured t shirts to represent our team. We worked hard together to compete and work as fast as we could. We all cheered on our friends and even the grown ups had a race. Well done to all that took part.

Year 2 have been looking at the story Journey by Aaron Becker. A book with no words. We have listened to some music. That made us feel like it was the Kings gaurds marching, then that you were flying and even flaoting. We have used lots of different skills to read this book with no words. It has been exciting, fun and we could not wait to keep turning to the next page. On Friday we used chalk in the playground to predict what the little girl might draw to save her from falling down off the water bridge after it had broken. We came up with some fantastic ideas. We also joined with our friends to draw together after a discussion about each of our ideas and we drew a combined drawing to predict what she would draw and how she would get out of the danger.

Class 2 have begun their DT topic of Mechanisms. We have begun to understand what a mechanism is and how it works. We have been looking at the environment around us and finding lots of different mechanisms, such as door handles, levers, hinges, even our writing pens have a mechanism. We have drawn some of the mechanisms that we have found around our classroom and homes. Then we used a variety of resources to build some of our own mechanisms. We had great fun.

Some of the Year 2 children have been choosen to take part in the Rainbow Sports Event which is a practise event to prepare the children for The Bramley Olympics. It was a very hot evening but the 10 children who took part still gave 100% to all the activities. It was great fun and we would like to thank all the adults and children from Leeds West Acadamy for putting on this great event. We had so much fun.

Class 2 have enjoyed learning about a local artest Bob Barker. Bob lived in Farsley before he moved to Eccles Hill where his studio is now. Bob uses lots of blacks and greys with very little colour. This inspired us to look closely at pencils. So we begun our investigation into pencils by experimenting with a variety of pencils. We drew a portrait of King Charles. Whilst we were doing this we have looked at the different shade and densities some pencils can make. We then looked into using a view finder to help us with our accuracy. We have now begun to draw like Bob, using his work as our inspiration.

We all had a lovely day on Friday 5th May 2023. It was a very special weekend ahead. We have learned some things about King Charles and his life. We were all invited to a very special picinic lunch. Because of the unpredictable weather we all sat in the school hall. It was amazing. The hall had been decorated in red, white and blue with special table cloths. We watched old videos of King Charles when he was little and of the last coronation of The Late Queen Elizebeth. It was lovely.

Class2 have begun the Measuring topic in maths. We have been learning how to measure using cm and meters. We all understand why we would use a meter stick to measure a large area and not centimeters. We have used our own cm rulers to measure lots of things around our classroom.

We have had a lovely time learning about Ramadan and celebrating Eid. We have made cards, pictures and even designed our own Mendi patterns. We celebrate Eid by having a little feast. We had lots of traditional dishes to taste. They were delicious.

Class 2 have continued their history learning this half term with a lovely walk in the local area to Bramley Baths. We have learned lots of things about this fantastic Edwardian building. We were met by Jenni, who talked to us about the building and showed us all around. We now know that the building is the last one of its kind in Leeds and that the very tall chimney can be seen over much of Leeds. Jenni helped us learn about the changes that have occurred over the years since it was bulit in 1903 /4 . Can you believe people used to come to get washed as well as a swim. It has beautiful stainglass windows and a very old ticket office. We had a great time. Thank you to all the staff at Bramley Baths, we had a good time.

As part of our healthy week and Science, we have been looking at how to grow and stay healthy. The children had a class discussion as to what healthy means. All the children could say we needed to wash our hands when handling preparing food. This was a great opportunity as we were planning to make healthy snacks. So we began to have a deeper look at how we wash our hands. We used a special ultra violet light and special lotion. Some children washed their hands first and some did not. We applied the lotion and all children had a go at putting their hands under the special light. Even the children who had washed their hands still showed lots of places where they had not washed their hand correctly. We all went back to wash our hands again. We couldn't believe it, STILL lots os lotion left on our hands. Back we went again, this time we sang the happy birthday song twice, just like we did during Covid Lock down. We ensured the soap got all around our wrists, thumbs, inbetween our fingers and even around our nail bed. The results were so much better. Now we were ready to prepare food.

Class 2 had a fantastic time skipping with Jodie. We had to use our listening ear to wait for the click, Jodie called go and we ran and jumped in. It was so good, most of us picked up the skipping rope at playtime to practise.

This week the whole school have been celebrating Healthy Week. In class 2 we have linked our DT topic to our Healthy Week & Science . We have been looking at Animals including humans in Science and how we need a well balanced diet to grow strong and stay healthy. In DT we have be researching different fruits and vegetables, where they come from and how & where they grow. We have designed a super healthy snack. Our design brief was a healthy snack to eat at a picnic. We all needed to ensure we chose the fruits and vegetable we liked. We all discuss if the chosen fruits needed to be peeled or not. We were all surprised to hear that you don't need to peel a kiwi, eventhough it is a bit furry. We all did prefer to peel ours. We needed to ensure that the topping would stay on the snack and not fall off in transit. As the weather wasn't too good we ate our delicious picinic snack in doors. They were yummy.

This half term we have been learning about Animals and Including Humans. We have looked at how some babies are born looking just like their adult but much smaller and some babies are born looking nothing like their adults. We have discuss and shown what we know about the stages of human life and have made our own life cycles of a variety of animals including humans. Do you like our drawings?

We have had a grewat time during World Book Week in year 2 . We have completed lots of different activities such as, book Scavenger hunt, online research of our author of the half term, you choose posters, design a potato, took part in an online live book day event, We also took selfie photos and wrote a story or a character description about our chosen character. We even had a special World book day PE session with Gaz.

We have had a visit from the Leeds 23 art project. We linked this project to our History and DT. Looking at buildings across Leeds.

We have been using coins and notes to put money in value order, make amounts and even work out word problems, such as, how much change do you need, what is the total and what is the difference and how many ways can you make an amount.

We are so lucky in year 2 to have Jamie from Chance to Shine Cricket come to support us, each week this half term in our PE. We started the week off with a whole school assembly, Jamie asked us questions and we watched some other children playing cricket on a video. Jamie even told us how we can join some of the local clubs. We have begun the sessions of cricket learning new skills such as; catching, throwing, bowling, fielding and many more things like team work. It is so much fun. Have a look at some of our photos.

What a lovely treat we had today. We got to sit with some of our adults who were enjoying a bun and a much earned cuppa. What a lovely treat and all the money we raised is going to help us enter the competition for Hunt the Bear in Leeds this summer.

Year 2 have been using 2d and 3d shape to complete math tasks. We have learned new vocabulary such as; vertex, vertice, edges, faces, prisms, cube, cuboid. pentigan, octagan. We have made repeating patterns, sorted shapes in to particular catagories. We have even had a little fun playing with the shapes and building with them.

We enjoyed working with Dave actually COOL DAVE ! He has helped us learn about the internet and how we all need to keep safe. We looked all the different app and games and learned that some games are not appropriate for young children. We know that we must always tell an adult if we find something that isn't appropriate for us to see. We even did a Cool quiz with Cool Dave.

We have been looking closley at plants, seeds and bulbs. We have been investigating what a seed or bulb needs to grow into a healthy plant. We first went for a walk around the school grounds to see if we could identify healthy and not healthy plants. Then we looked at seeds and bulbs. We have planned an investigation, written instruction how to plant a seed. Then we followed our own instrution to plant a variety of seeds, bulbs and even tomatoes seeds straight from the fridge also some old carrot tops from from Mrs Bs Sunday lunch. We then ensured we created a fair test. Each seed, bulb carrot top was put in the same place and treated the same, one set of seeds will be feed water get sun shine and warmth, others will be kept in the dark and watered. Some will be left out in the cold with water. Some will be fed water but not have any soil. We are very excited to find out which one grows best and which one grow and stay healthy. We have chosen plant monitors to look after the plants and record what they find.

We have had a great time learning about Eva Pritchatt a local artist, who used wall parper to creat her amazing art. We have linked our art with our geography and observed our local area. We have looked at maps, google maps and even drawn our own. When our art work was finished the teacher made a display for the whole school to see. It looks fabulous. Have a look at out amazing art, we think you'll like it too.

What a great afternoon we had learning to play percussion instruments withTim, from Rhythmicity. We all took turns in playing all the different instruments.

Year 2 have been using collage as their focus this half term. We have read books and looked closely at the illustration in Eric Carle books and also a local artist from the past, Eva Pritchatt. Eva was born in Germany and came to London, England at the age of 5. Eva began her interest in art at the age of 11. She moved and lived her later life in Leeds. Eva used a large range of techniques in her work, like cuting tearing bending and layering to product her collages. We have been following in her footstep using a range of materials as she did. Eva used lots of waste wallpaper in her art work as this was a free resource in the 1950s. We have been exploring how colour shape & texture can be use in collage.

We have been learning about the Author Julia Donaldson. Whilst we were reading the book, Stickman, a piece of card fell out of the book in the shape of a boot. The children have had some great conversations as to what it was and why it might be in the book. They came to the conclusion it was a stocking for Stickman. Not a very good one as it would not hold anything. So the children thought it would be good idea to design a stocking for Stickman and make it. We had more discussions about how to go about it and it was decided that we need to draw (plan it ) first. Following this it was discussed that we would need two pieces of card to make a template. After some experimenting one child came up with the idea that actually we could make it with one if we simply flip over the card and draw round it. Another friend said ‘oh and it will be less sewing too’. We talked about the size of the stocking and what fit for purpose meant. We wanted make a stocking that would fit a small chocolate bar. We spoke about safety and using needles. We were all very careful and had lot of fun. What a surprise on the last day of school when we found the stockings filled with a small chocolate bar for each of us.

We had a great day on party day. We made our own plates and coloured our table clothes. They looked great for the party in the afternoon. We played party games in the hall and pass the parcel in the classroom. We were all so excited for the music to stop on our pass. We had our party food that our grown ups at home had provided. It was lovely to have some cheeky treats. Then we had a phone call to say that we had been invited to a Zoom Meeting with someone special. Father Christmas was sorry he could not come to school because there had been a problem with the elves at the toy making shed. Santa wished us all a Merry Christmas and he left us all a gift.

Yum yum. Christmas lunch. We all had a lovely time at lunch today. The teachers served us our lunch then sat with us to eat their lunch. We then had a little extra time outside. Thank you to all the dinner ladies for making us such a lovely dinner.

In class 2 we have been continuing our investigation into Everyday Materials. We have this time being observing closely how we can change the shape of everyday materials. We have had many discussions and together we came up with an investigation question, Can all materials be, bent,stretched,twisted or squashed. We thought about an experiment and thought it would need to be a fair test and we would need to record our findings in some sort of a chart. We decided that a simple grid would be fine. So the experiment began. We had great fun and was very suprised by some of our results. Many of us had very good guesses and were right. The conclusion to the Question, Can all materials be, bent,stretched,twisted or squashed. No note all materials for example everyday bricks, pebbles can not. However some metals cans, such as pop tins.

We all donated to Children in Need and came to school dressed in colour clothes to support the wonderful charity.

Year 2 had a great time learning compass points this week in the big playground. We now know that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. We know Scotland is in the North and London is in the South. We can move or point to these compass point on a map. We can even say where the capital cities are. We learned a little mnemonic to help us remember the compass point too!

We have been learning how to mix colours. We all know the three primary colours. We used this information to create a colour wheel. This helped us to learn how to mix secondary colours. We now know how to make orange, green and purple. We then found that we could mix all of the primary colours to make brown. We looked at adding white and black to add tint, tone and shade. We used our new colour knowledge to paint portraits of Mary Seacole.

Year 2 have been so lucky to have the Leeds Raod Safety Team. Amber came to our class and help us learn to cross the roads safely. Amber talked to us about car seats and how all the children in year 2 must have car seats to travel in a car. rnIf you are taller than 1.35 metre you don't need to sit in a car seat. We measured ourselves at we are all shorter than 1.35m. We all learnt how to chant the green cross coade STOP ! LOOK! AND LISTEN!

Class 2 have begun to look at paint. The artist we are looking at is a Canadian lady called Michelle Jursa. She loved to paint outdoor pictures. She discovered that she always had more paint on her hands than on her brush. So she began to paint using her fingers. Year 2 have used paint brushes to paint their trees. They all checked their hands afterwards to see if they had any paint on them. We only provided the primary colours to paint our trees. Didn't we do well investigating by mixing the colours. Have a look at our first fabulous pieces of art.

Year 2 have enjoyed accessing Cooking in the Curiculum with Miss Hiuudson and Miss Di, They have had discussion on food types, healthy or not. They have talked about what everyone likes and dislikes. Then they created a healthy snack. yum yum.

Year 2 were so happy there was a little slot for them to visit the huge cake and bun stall at the MacmillanCoffee Morning. We all took our money to pay for our chosen cake. It was lovely to sit down and have a chat and a bun.

This week we have begun to learn about everyday materials. We have had discussions about material and now know that it is what the object is made from. We played musical materials using everyday objects and photos. We all had a turn to name lots of different everyday materials. Then we used a magnifying glass to look more closely at the material. We use adjective to describe what the material looked like and felt like.

Wow! What a great start to the half term we have had in Year 2. It has been lovely having the time to get to know our classroom, classroom adults and seeing our friends again after the long summer break. We have learned that our class author for this half term is Julia Donaldson. She was born, Julia Catherine Shields on 16 September 1948 in Hamstead Heath in London . She is best known for her popular rhyming stories for children. We begun our learning by listening to the story of ' THE PAPER DOLLS' It was an exciting story that we could all joini in. We had great fun making our very own paper dolls.