Hello and croeso to the page for the fabulous Year Two's at Hengoed Primary School!

We are a bright and brainy bunch who just love to learn and express ourselves at school, take a look as see what we get up to. Please use the handle @year2_hengoed on Twitter and connect with us on Class Dojo to keep up to date with our adventures and learning journeys. 

This Spring 2023 term we are focusing on Antarctcia within our whole school theme of Frozen Planet! Our Big Question this term is 'Why do Penguins and Polar Bears never meet?' and this we are exploring throughout all elements of our school's Flourish Curriculum! So wrap up warm, its going to get cold in Year 2!

LLC: Year 2 will be exploring lots of different texts this term. We will be looking at all the elements surrounding letter writing and we will be applying our understanding by writing a letter as if we were a Penguin to the Polar Bears in the North Pole. To ensure that our Frozen habitats are safe for furture generations, Year 2 will be learning about the importance of protecting our planet and fighting climate change within our class. We will investigating ways in school that we can save a bit of engery and to reduce, reuse and recyle where we can. We will share our findings by creating a persuasive leaflet and broadcasting our suggestions using our fabulous radio station. We will be meeting Mari Lwyd too, he's come to our door, but we won't let him in - we will be exploring the traditional Welsh tale and documenting and debating our rationales as to why we would not let him into our classroom!

Humanities: LLC and Humanities this term will go hand in hand. We are exploring the Polar regions of Antarctica and addressing our misconceptions of the landscape, habitants and climate. We will also be addressing our misconception of what we know a desert to be...is it always a hot and sandy place? We are exploring Penguin populations and how climate change may be affecting this. Climate changes will be compared from past to present, which will allow us to find the key ways of which have impacted the environments health today. We will be looking at statistics, using visual sources of changing landscape and comparing how climate change has affected us here in Wales and in Antarctica.

Maths: Along with our Maths No Problem scheme of work, we are also practising the 2's, 5's and 10 times tables. This will come in handy with our column addition and subtraction, division and investigating length, weight and capacities! Some cup cake making will surely make an appearance...all in the name of maths of course!

Expressive Arts: This term we are lucky enough to have the wonderful On the Beat join us for all things musical, dramatic and creative! So far we have written and learned a song about Frozen Antarctica, accompanied this with insturments and got to know all the technical names of musical elements. In Dance we have choreographed our own piece, affectionately known as 'Happy Feet: The Musical' where we will explore the movements of Penguins and perform a poem all about Antarctica. We hope to perform to our school friends and invite our parents into watch too...it's too good to miss! With lots of investigations into the Antarcic ice plains, we will be creating our very own icey scene using recycled materials we can gather from around school and from our homes to make a mini shoe-box Antarctica.

Health and Wellbeing: Within PE we will be looking our athletic skills, including throwing, catching and developing our co-ordination skills. Jigsaw is in full swing, this is where the children explore the world around them, self identification and protecting their hollistic wellbeing. A very calming afternoon!

Science and Technology: This term we will be getting creative! Once we have explored the environment of Antarctica, we will be learning about Welshmen past and present who have ventured out on expedititions to Anatarctica. So with that in mind, we will be designing and creating protective clothing for an explorer in the South Pole and designing and constructing a warm and safe shelter for them to sleep in.

Luckily with the snow we have had in Hengoed recently, we had a head start on our ice-melting investigations! We conducted a test in order to see which environment would melt the snow the quickest. We had 4 stations around the school with a bowl of equal amounts of snow in it, a thermometer and an iPad in order to record the time. Whilst we waited, we made a massive snow ball to weigh and measure the hight and diameter. We had a lot of fun!

Useful Information:

• Dinner money is now paid online, please see the office for more information on this as each Year Two child will be eligable for Free School Meals.
• PE kits is only to be worn on Thursdays please.
• We love to see you in school uniform!
• Snack money is £1.50 per week if you would like your child to have a snack at breaktime provided by the school, if not, please provide your child with one.
• Please ensure that your child has a warm coat for the colder months for any out door time.
• Please ensure that your child brings in a refillable water bottle everyday.
• If you need to get into contact with Miss Williams regarding a concern or issue, Dojo messages are available between 8:00am and 5:30pm.
• Please bring in your book bags back in on Fridays so we can see how much you've read and swap over the texts.