Hill Top Primary Academy

Spring 1

ART - This half term out unit has been 'Expressive Painting'. We looked at different artists, explored primary and secondary colours and then created our own collages in our ART books.

History - We have learnt all about the Fire of London over the last half term. Towards the end of our topic we learnt about the changes they made to the city of London and how it was rebuilt. We became architects and designed our own new maps of London including important features such as the monument and St Paul’s Cathedral. 

GFoL workshop!

Mrs Secker delivered a workshop for us to help consolidate our knowledge of the Fire of London. We learnt how to be safe around the fire, watched our 1666 houses burn down, baked bread and played a water race to see who would be the quickest at putting out the fire! We had lots of fun and we are now looking forward to forest school in Year Three!

We took part in a Northern Ballet workshop this week. We learnt lots of different ballet skills and used them to tell the story of Hansel and Gretal. The leader was really impressed with our creativity and performance skills. We enjoyed learning a new style of dance!

English - We are working on writing newspaper reports over the next few weeks about the Great Fire of London. First we looked at different examples of newspaper reports and found the different features we need to include such as headlines and captions. 

Music - This half term, we are learning all about different families in an orchestra and the different sounds they make. We have listened to different orchestral pieces of music and thought about the dynamics, tempo and timbre of the music. Today, the children began to compose their own music for Little Red Riding Hood and thought how tempo can show actions, dynamics shows emotions and timbre can be used to show the different characters.  

PE - This half term our topic is gymnastics. We have learnt some different gymnastic shapes and poses. This week we demonstrated them on different types of apparatus. 

World Religion Day!

We celebrated world religion day in our RE lesson this week. We learnt about the 6 main religions of the world and then created posters to show our knowledge of these! 

Science - This term our new topic is all about animals including humans. Over the last two weeks, we have looked at the new term ‘offspring’ and matched baby animals to their adults, while learning the different names for baby animals. Today, we investigated the question, ‘Do all offspring look like their adults?’ We found out that some animals do look like their parents when they are born but some go through a big change called metamorphosis. Over the next few weeks we will be learning more about this as we learn about life cycles.

Computing - Today, the children were very excited to continue learning about ScratchJr. This week, we used algorithms to help with our programming. The children were able to take their instructions and turn them into ‘code’ so that the computer could understand them. The children used the different blocks to create their own jokes. Here are few examples of the fantastic codes they made. 

Autumn 2

During the final week of term, we spent a morning at Tingley Methodist Church. We learnt all about what the Christingle represents and then had a go at making our own. We were very lucky as the church members even gave us juice and biscuits! We finished by singing a song and listening to the Christmas story. 

Science - Today, the children completed their TAPS assessment for ‘Living Things and their Habitats’ and investigated the question ‘What kinds of habitats do invertebrates live in?’ We discussed what a habitat is, named the different types of habitats we have learnt about and named some of the habitats we would find certain animals in. The children then chose some different microhabitats they thought they might find invertebrates and conducted their investigation. Finally the children wrote down their conclusion to the question.

Geography - We have been learning all about 'Wonderful Weather' We have looked at how we find out about the weather and even became weather reporters for one lesson! We did a great job at using the correct vocabulary and locating different parts of the UK.

Maths - We have been using our knowledge of the properties of shape to sort them. We worked in groups to think of lots of different ways to compare them.

Computing - This week, we started to tinker with a new application called ScratchJr. The children explored the program, changing characters, backgrounds and working out what the different blocks do. The children are very excited to learn more!

Our Big Bad Pig Characters!

English - We are looking at Twisted Tales in English this half term. We have started by reading the story 'The True story of the 3 little pigs'. The children LOVED how the story was changed and lots of us thought the wolf was telling the truth! We then designed our own twisted tale character - A Big Bad Pig!

In Maths, we have started our shape topic. We have looked at some of the properties of shape including ‘sides’. We did some problem solving with a friend to make different 2D shapes with the correct amount of sides - including irregular versions of shapes such as hexagons. 

PE - We are learning about Dance in PE this half term. We have learnt how to count in beats and then looked at adding different dynamics to our chosen actions. We performed our routines based on garden animals to the rest of the class. Have a watch!

Science - Today, the children played a game, looking at why animals and plants live in different habitats. The children learned about suitability and were able to explain why certain animals and plants live in the different habitats. The children then created their own animal that was suited to a given habitat.

Maths - This week, we began to look at subtraction. We started by using base 10 to help us solve subtracting a two digit number from a two digit number. Once the children were confident, we looked at column subtraction. The children at becoming very confident at using this method for both addition and subtraction. 

RE - This half term our topic is all about making good choices. Today, we looked at the rules we follow in school and why. The children then chose one rule they thought was the most important in our classroom and wrote it down. In groups the children then had a debate and tried to rank them from the most important to the least! This ignited a lot of discussion and working as a team!

Autumn 1

Science - Over the last few weeks the children have been researching different habitats around the world. The children found out about the climates, types of plants and animals which would be found there and then shared their finding with a partner. The children have really enjoyed conducting their own research and especially sharing it with others!

Music - Our new music topic is all about call and response. Last week, the children looked at different animals found on safari and thought about the different instruments and noises we could make to replicate them. Today, we started to think about sound pattens. We began the lesson by learning different sound patterns for the different animals. After this, we tried to clap and say the sound patterns together and finally we were able to clap the sound patterns to a piece of music. The children were so proud of how far they had come from the start of the lesson, that they asked me to share their final performance. I think you’d agree, they did a fantastic job at clapping the sound patterns along with the music!

All Around the World Day!

We visited Australia for our 'All Around the World day'. We made passports to begin with and then travelled to Australia to find out some facts! We learnt about how important the aboriginal culture is for them and acted out an aboriginal story. In the afternoon, we created some aboriginal art and then tried a children's party favourite of FAIRY BREAD!

PSHE - Our focus was Keeping Ourselves Safe this week. We had the objective of tying our shoe laces and it was perfect as it was non uniform day! We learnt a song to help us and then tried out the skill on some of our friends shoes! We kept trying as lots of us found it difficult! Can you practise at home?

Computing - Today in Computing, we learnt that all computers need inputs and outputs. We looked at a range of different devices and discussed how buttons, touchscreens and micro phones tells the computer what to do and that the computer shows what it has done using screens, lights and speakers. The children then designed their own robots with input and output devices, that could dance, make cupcakes and we even had a few goalkeepers!

ART - This half term our topic is ‘Artists as collectors and explorers’. We have looked at different artists and how they use objects in their environment to create art. This week we became the artists and used objects we found in our school environment to create our own pieces of art. 

Year 2 information sheet

Class Councillors

This years elected Class Councillors in Year Two are: Mallory and Jax. They will meet with the school council regularly and listen to the voices of their peers.

Interfaith Week!

This week we celebrated Interfaith week in school and Year 2 looked at the BA HAI faith. We learnt about the religion and what they think is important for the world. We enjoyed finding out about a new religion and created posters to show what we had learnt.

Children in Need Day 2024

PE - In fundamentals we have been trying to master the skill of skipping! It has meant we have had to try really hard to not give up and we are getting better each week.

Science - This term in Science, we are learning all about living things and their habitats. Last week, we looked at what makes something living and discussed the 7 life processes. Today, we recapped what we had learnt and started to think about different types of habitats. The children then used what they had learnt to find things that were living, dead or had never been alive in a woodland habitat. All the children did a fantastic job and even mapped out what they had seen!