Giraffes

Welcome to Giraffes!

Class Teacher: Miss Fulford

Teaching Assistant: Miss Joo

Student teacher: Miss McNicholas

General Information

This half term, our topic is 'Nurturing Nature'. In Geography, we will be comparing and understanding the differences in climate of Harrogate and India, as well as comparing and understanding the differences in the way of life and culture for people in Harrogate and an Indian village. In science we will be observing plants and trees, planting seeds and bulbs and doing a comparative test to understand what plants need to germinate and grow. In RE we will be learning about Islam. We will be finding out about Muslim celebrations and thinking about the religious meanings behind Muslim stories.

Reading

In Year 2 we work on key skills daily, through our daily Guided Reading sessions. Your child will also have a reading book to bring home, which we will change once they have finished it. Please read as often as possible at home, even if it's only a few pages at a time! In addition to this, we will regularly visit our fabulous library and be able to choose one to take home. Again, this can be changed as soon as it’s finished.

Phonics and Spelling

We have a daily phonics lesson, usually focusing on a few sounds or one spelling rule each week. Each half-term we have a spelling quiz based on our Year 2 tricky words, which we'll send home each week to practise.

P.E.

Our P.E. day is Tuesday. Please ensure your child comes to school in their full PE kit, with earrings taken out and hair tied back.

Show and Tell

Each week a different table will be invited to bring something in for show and tell on Fridays. Please encourage your child to bring in something either related to our topic or handmade. The dates for this are as followed:

 25.4.25 & 6.6.25 -  Tigers

 2.5.25 & 13.6.25 -  Leopards 

  9.5.25 & 20.6.25 - Camels

 16.5.25 & 27.6.25 - Lions

 23.5.25 & 4.7.25 - Zebras

 5.6.25 & 11.7.25 - Rhinos 

Exciting Learning Websites 

Below are some exciting websites where you can practise your writing and maths skills. 

This week, we've been learning about fractions. Using counters to help us, the Giraffes did a fantastic job of identifying halves and quarters of numbers!

As part of our DT unit, we have looked at what it means to have a healthy, balanced diet and practised using tools to help us prepare food. We made healthy pizzas to bring all of our learning together and they were absolutely delicious!

We're practising our balancing skills in PE, using our bodies and our partners to make interesting shapes. As you can see, the Giraffes did a brilliant job!

We had an incredible day when Rock Kidz came back to see us, for the second year in a row! In the morning we used TT Rock Stars to practise our multiplication and later we rocked out in the hall!

The Giraffes had an amazing trip to the Hepworth Gallery! They learnt so much about the incredible sculptures, as well as many skills ready to make their own once we get back to school. 

In D.T. this term, we have investigated wind-up mechanisms and created our very own wind-up toys. They are great fun, well done Giraffes! 

We've had an enlightening day discovering all about our brilliant brains, how they are different in wonderful ways and how we can look after them to keep them working as they should. The Giraffes have had some very mature conversations about how to recognise when we are feeling in different zones and what can happen if we don't look after ourselves (see volcano picture!).

In History, we're learning about schools in the past. Luckily our school is Victorian and there are lots of interesting features around! We found the punishment book, the cellar, bricks dating when our school was built and the 'Boys' and 'Girls' entrances. 

We went for a lovely Woodland Walk this week to collect and describe lots of autumnal objects. We're very excited to use these ideas to create a poem about autumn over the next couple of weeks!

In the first week of Maths, the Giraffes did a fantastic job of showing their understanding of numbers to 100. We used our dienes to represent the tens and ones in each number. Great job, Giraffes!

During the course of our writing, we have special SPAG days to help us learn a new punctuation or grammar focus. Here we began our writing unit by sorting nouns and verbs, two key components to producing accurate sentences. We learnt some fun rhymes to help us remember them, too!

What a fun afternoon on Friday! The bravery and resilience from everybody was inspiring, even when they were challenged with ramps and a limbo stick!