Class 2
We are Year 2 and 3 children.
Our class teachers are Miss Leijnse (Monday and Tuesday) and Mrs Ackroyd (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday). We are helped by Mrs Wright (Monday) and Mrs Mosley (Cover Supervisor on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday).
Weekly Reminders
Maths Homework and Test: Monday
PE: Tuesday and Thursday
Spelling Homework and Test: Friday
Library: Every 3rd Friday (the dates are shared via the half-termly Newsletter and the text messaging service)
Please click here for 'Books for Topics' recommended reads for Year 2 pupils
Please click here for 'Books for Topics' recommended reads for Year 3 pupils
Reading in Class 2
Click here to see a list of recommended reads for Year 2 children
Click here to see a list of recommended reads for Year 3 children
Class 2 Curriculum
Please click here to view our Long Term Plan
| Information about our curriculum | Our Class Newsletters |
| Autumn Curriculum 2023 | Summer 2024 |
| Summer Curriculum 2023 | Spring 2024 |
Our Photo Gallery
Scroll down the page to view our photographs and see what we have been up to...
Class 2’s Stone Age Exhibition
We have thoroughly enjoyed our Stone Age topic and welcomed our families in to our Stone Age Exhibition.
Please click here to view Class 2’s performance of their Stone Age song including singing, percussion and recorder playing whilst following their conductor.
Please click here to view our vocal warm up using our made up Stone Age names.
The videos are private and you will need the login that was emailed to parents.
Class 2’s Christmas Coffee Morning Friday 15th December 2023
Class 2’s Christmas Coffee Morning last Friday was fantastic. Well done to the children, their recorder playing was superb and they had also learned lots of songs. They were super smart and remembered their top tip to watch their conductor, Mrs Maitland very carefully.
Thank you to Mrs Maitland our music teacher for all her wonderful lessons and also to Mrs Ruth Ackroyd for playing the piano alongside the children at our performance.
Please click here to enter the private page to watch the video. You will need the login that was emailed to parents.
Christmas Journey
Our Year 2 pupils throughout the Federation took part in The Christmas Journey event at Almondbury Methodist Church on Friday. They travelled back in time to visit important scenes and learn more about why God sent his Son into the World.
DT
Here we are using our designs to sew our Christmas decorations to take home.
Art - Telling stories through drawing and making
We were inspired by Inbal Leitner’s tiger sketchbook and the work of Rosie Hurley to make notes in our own sketchbooks. We then explored drawing looking at Quentin Blake’s pictures and practised making our own sketches before looking at lines and shapes we could create. Using our English work we choose a traditional tale character that we could turn into a 3d sculpture using newspaper, masking tape, Modroc and paint. The children were very proud of their work. We wrapped lights around our traditional tale characters and exhibited them at Light up the Woods in Clayton West. See our Arts at Denby page for more information on Light up the Woods.
In our class crit at the end of the project children said;
‘I want to do more sculpture.’
‘It was hard making it with the paper, tricky but I’m glad now.’
‘At the beginning I didn’t get the head the right shape so I had to change it a bit to get the right shape.’
‘At first I thought it would be just sitting down without any legs and it didn’t sit down properly so I had to put on front legs and back legs.’
‘I feel proud. We finally finished them and are taking them home.’
‘I feel confident. Now I can do anything.’
Our local history topic
Using the knowledge of people in our community and the buildings around us, we asked questions and found the answers to learn our local history.
Gunthwaite Top Farm
Thank you to Alison Cook who welcomed the children into her home to help them understand what an early farmhouse would have been like. We particularly enjoyed hearing how the animals would use the well from the outside of the house wall and the people in the house would use the same well from inside.
Manor Farm
Thank you to Catherine Crossland who showed us many interesting features at Manor Farm, one of the earliest houses in Denby built in 1550 and rebuilt 1664. We learned about window taxes here and that some of the beams inside the house had been repurposed from a ships even though we aren’t by the sea.
Marshall House
Thank you to Mike Marsden who provided us with many details about his house. Did you know that after John and Elizabeth Outram lived in this house, the Industrial Revolution had a big impact on who lived in this house and how many people lived in it?
The Stocks
Thank you Pat Smith for inviting us to look at the stocks. Although not much is known about the stocks the children enjoyed looking at them and asking questions about them.
Pack Horse Track
Many mill workers would walk from Upper Denby to the mills in Denby Dale along the ancient cart horse route down Bank Lane. Cloth and coal would have been carried along here. Goods were carried to and from Huddersfield, Barnsley, Manchester, Penistone and Clayton West before roads were used.
We learned a pack horse track song in our music lessons and sang it on the pack horse track with Lyn Maitland our Music Teacher.
When we arrived in Denby Dale and stood under the viaduct we were in awe of the size of it. Can you imagine when the viaduct was made of wood and wobbling when a train went over it?
Presentation
At the end of our topic we were able to show all our topic work to the people who helped us including Dave Cook, John Cook, John Hislop and Dave Wilde. We also showed our art work and read our Eco-code to our visitors.
Art – Cloth, thread and paint
Having looked at work by Alice Kettle and Hannah Rae we studied the marks that artists make. We then sketched landscapes before choosing one to paint on to cloth. After that we ‘painted’ on the cloth using thread using the kind of marks that artists make to show direction and movement. The results were stunning, well done.
Eco-Walk
Class 2 had a fantastic time on their Eco walk this week accompanied by Countryside Officer, Dave Wilde. The children litter picked plastic rubbish, learnt about the river past and present in Upper Dearne Woods and even examined the creatures from a pond sample. A huge special thanks to Dave, Adam (Dave’s apprentice) and Robin and James from the Upper Dearne Woods Community group who shared their knowledge and expertise with us during our trip.
Cliffe House Woods
Class 2 visited Cliffe House Woods to support and enhance their science topic - living things and their habitats.
This was an opportunity to really look at biodiversity in our local environment. Dave Wilde, the Parish Council Countryside Officer joined us and helped children find minibeasts in different habitats such as over wildflower areas, in the woods and in the orchard. Children found a wide range of minibeasts when pond dipping too.
We were very lucky to have such lovely weather and had a super day.
Synagogue Trip
Class 2 visited The Jewish Synagogue in Sheffield to develop their knowledge and understanding about Judaism.
Rabbi Golomb showed the children around the synagogue and explained the significance of precious Jewish objects. The children learnt a lot about the Jewish faith and were able to ask Rabbi Golomb a range of thoughtful questions.
Thank you to Mrs Carmichael one of our Governors who accompanied Class 2 on their trip.
London Skyline Art
We experimented with our sketching and printing techniques before collaging our work into a London Skyline.
First we looked at the work of Stephen Wiltshire and then using it as inspiration we tried continuous line drawings using items such as keys, toy cars and fruit to draw. We then used famous London Landmarks for our continuous line drawings.
We also looked at local artist Jo Blaker’s sketchbooks and tried one of her techniques for sketching so we could enjoy freely sketching. https://www.joblaker.com/digitalresources
Using our sketching skills we then tried different printing techniques, carbon copy printing, monoprinting (and its negative print) and tracing. We also tried frottage (rubbings) to find different textures.
Then we took all the work we had produced and independently collaged it into our own London skylines.
South Yorkshire Transport Museum
Class 2 had a lovely day on Wednesday 16th March visiting South Yorkshire Transport Museum in Rotherham.
We explored many old vehicles as part of our transport topic. There were lots of old vehicles that had been restored back to their full glory. We got the chance to drive a milk float and a work bus, go upstairs on a double decker bus and listen to a 1980’s bicycle make lots of different noises.
At the museum we saw a real sedan chair and both a cart and coach that would have been pulled by a horse. We could see why the railways changed the world.
Weston Park Museum
As part of our Ancient Egypt topic, Class 2 visited Weston Park Museum on Thursday 30th September.
We were met at the museum by Caroline, who took us to visit the Ancient Egyptian gallery where we then met Djedma'atiuesankh, a young Ancient Egyptian who had somehow ended up in Sheffield. We asked questions and used primary and secondary resources to find out more about her life. We also explored what her story might be beyond her life and how she came to be in a museum in Sheffield. We even made a small artefact for Djedma'atiuesank.
In the afternoon we had great fun exploring all the museum had to offer. We would definitely recommend a family trip to the museum!
Healthy & Safe Week
We had a fantastic time in Class 2 learning about how to be healthy and keep safe during Healthy and Safe week. Here are just a few of the many activities that we took part in
- Daily Yoga
- Cricket
- Rounders
- Planning a personal workout
- Road Safety
- Internet Safety.
As you can see, we had lots of fun whilst learning some very important messages.
We also took part in sporting morning, we completed a carousel of activities and competed in some races. It was very hot and we thoroughly enjoyed our ice lollies afterwards!
David Hockney inspired Art work
Having been inspired by our trip to Denby Delf we discussed our opinions of Yorkshire born artist David Hockney’s landscape paintings. We created our own sketch books, practised different painting techniques and made our own landscape pictures. David Hockney had used iPad's to create landscapes too so we had a go at using digital media too. We quickly transferred our art skills on to the iPad's and were proud of the results.
Kirklees Cuckoo - Denby Delf
After taking part in Kirklees Cuckoo the children were so keen to see birds in our local area we wrote to Dave Wild the Countryside Officer persuading him to take us on a walk to Denby Delf. Dave wrote back letting us know he had been persuaded and would thoroughly like to.
On 23rd June Dave also brought with him guides, Geoff Lunn (Chair of Garganey Trust), Alan Coe (RSPB volunteer) and Phil Slater. The children heard and spotted yellowhammer and watched and talked about the differences between swallows and swifts. They also studied the Garganey Trusts wildflower meadow, identified the plants and found the new planted wildflower verge in Upper Denby. They looked at kestrels in the kestrel / owl boxes using binoculars and spotted two baby kestrels and used butterfly nets to sweep for insects and identify them.
We used our trip to support our local area geography topic. We also went over stiles as some children did not know what they were.
