In Geography this term we are looking at our local environment. We walked around school to look at the things we liked and disliked. We liked the flowers, trees the appearance of the school building. The children did not like the mud,noisy traffic and the litter that that had been thrown down.

On Wednesday 18th Janauary year 2 went out of school to look at their local environment and the importance of recycling. The children focussed on things they liked and disliked with a view to providing a solution to the things they disliked. A big dislike was the litter and squashed chewing gum on the ground. They thought peoples' gardens looked attractive and liked to see the trees and plants.

We walked down past the scrapyard looking at the vehicles and were lucky to see one getting picked up. There was lots of discussion about the necessity of scrapyards. The children understood the importance of recycling. The walk past the scrapyard to the woods was rather unpleasant due to all of the dog mess, rubbish and broken fences. The children and adults were disgusted by this. However they did like the allotments and the snow drops which were just appearing. We were lucky enough to go into one allotment and were able to see the hens and the vegetables.

We looked at our local recycling point and agreed this was a benefit to have in Ryton for our local environment.

On Wednesday 14th December Year 3 came to have a little party with our year 2 children. They took part in a christmas quiz together. We all had a lovely afternoon and it was so nice to see them all again.

On Tuesday 13th December Year 2 had their Christmas Party. Everyone looked great and all had a lovely time.

We would like to say a big thank you to Charlie's dad for coming into school to talk to year 2 about his time in the Navy. He allowed the children to try on his uniform and talked about his medals. The children enjoyed getting dressed up and asking him questions.
A big thank you from year 2.

On Friday 11th November Year 2 went to the Ryton War Memorial. The children drew a picture of the memorial. They looked at the names of the soldiers on the plaques who died in the two world wars and answered some questions. We also went into the church grounds where the children were shown war graves.
A wreath from each class was laid on the memorial. At 11 o'clock we all stood for the two minute silence.We remembered the soldiers who had died and sent thoughts of peace. The children were a credit to the school and showed great respect.

For homework over the first half term the children in year 2 were set the task to create their own planet and present it to the rest of the class. They were given questions eg. what they could call their planet, what life was like and what the environment and transport was like on it.

We made biscuits to have on the morning of the presentation. We enjoyed hearing about each others planets and looking at the art work. We visited each others classroom to see everyones projects.

Please take a look at the gallery to see the wonderful creations. We are so proud of the children and parents for the work they have put into this project. Hope you all had fun.

On Wednesday 28th September Year 2 went for a walk to the Willows. We were thankful that the weather was on our side. We looked in the woods first. We identified lots of plants such as ivy, fungi, moss, bracken, nettles, blackberries etc. We were able to collect some things from the woodland floor to take back to school to look at.

In science we have been looking at plants and animals which live in our local environment. In the classroom we predicted what we might find growing around school.

The children were great at digging in the soil and looking under logs to find lots of mini beasts. We found worms, spiders, ladybirds, snails, woodlouse and ants. We brought them back to the class to look at them with a magnifying glass.

We then looked at the plants which grow wild around school. We found elder, dandelions, lavender, daisies and lots more. The children drew pictures of the plants they saw and talked about where they found them. We also talked about which plants like to be in the sun and which like the shade.