This afternoon Year 2 had an amazing Wonderful Women exhibition as a culmination of all our history work this half term. First, in the classroom, we showed our adults the self portraits that we created inspired by Frida Kahlo. We also showed them the posters that we created in our History lesson either about Florence Nightingale, Nellie Spindler or Mary Seacole. With our adults we did a history quiz about the three nurses and created our own portraits of Wonderful Women. After this it was our turn to go to the hall and look at everyone’s amazing home learning projects about so many different Wonderful Women including Greta Thunberg, Amelia Earhart and Mae Jemison.

2CN have had a fantastic, slightly hot, trip to Lotherton Hall today. The main purpose of our visit was to take part in a Florence Nightingale workshop. ‘Florence’ started by asking the children what they already knew about her and then telling them about more about her life growing up and all about how she became a nurse despite her family not wanting her to. She then showed us around the house and told us a bit about the rooms. We split into two groups and one group looked at some old artefacts that Florence Nightingale would have used such as a box for keeping medicine in and the lamp that she was famous for carrying around. The other group were at the teddy hospital, taking care of their injured teddies using some equipment like bandages and filling in forms to say what was wrong with them.

We also had some time after the workshop to go and explore Wildlife World where we saw penguins, flamingos and capybaras. Then we ate lunch and had some time to explore the grounds at Lotherton Hall, walking though the shady woods to keep cool and having a quick go on the playground. We were very glad to get back on the coach at the end of the day and cool down with the air conditioning. A huge thank you to all the parents who helped, these trips wouldn’t be possible without your support.

On Monday in our Grow to schools session, we picked the pea pods that we have grown and shelled the peas. We then picked some things from around our garden area and created a cafe for a chosen animal. E, R and H made a cafe for a hedgehog by collecting some mini apples and using twigs for cutlery and leaves for plates. Rachel ended the session by asking us some yes, no or sometimes questions such as ‘Have you eaten any of the plants you’ve grown?’

This afternoon we had a great time at our Science Fair. Key stage 2 children had made some really interesting and informative experiments for the children to experience. The highlight for most was definitely the coke and mentos experiment. A huge well done to all the children who had an exhibit!

On Tuesday our school is came together in a sea of green for Wear It Green Day! By wearing our favourite green clothes and accessories, we are helping us shine a bright light on mental health and show everyone in our community that their wellbeing matters. Green is the international symbol for mental health awareness, representing hope, growth, and the fresh starts we can create together.

Last week in Science we planned an investigation to see what would happen to plants if they did not get water or sunlight. We talked about how we need to make it a fair test by keeping some things the same such as the type of plant and having them all in the same soil. We made predictions about what we thought would happen to each plant and why. Today we had a look at how each plant was doing so far. Plant A has been outside in the sunlight with water. Plant B has been put into the cupboard and has on’y been getting watered. Plant C has been on the windowsill so that it was still in the light but got no water. Finally plant D has been in the cupboard with no light and no water. We are going to leave the plants for another week then record our results and see if our predictions were correct.

In our Art, we have been looking at the painting called ‘Painted Iris and Summer Snowdrop’ by James Bolton. James Bolton was born in 1735 near Halifax in West Yorkshire. As well as being an artist he was also a botanist (someone who studies plants.) During the lesson we imitated the painting by James Bolton, using a pencil to sketch the outlines of the flowers and leaves. Come back soon to see what we will do next!

Today in our Science lesson, we became plant explorers! We went outside into the school grounds to look closely at the different plants growing around us. The children were very excited to discover how many plants we could find in different areas.

As we walked around, we spotted a variety of plants including dandelions, daisies, bluebells, clover and tulips. We stopped to carefully observe each one, thinking about what made them similar and what made them different. The children noticed things like the colours of the petals, the shapes of the leaves and where each plant was growing.

We also had an important discussion about what plants need to grow. The children shared fantastic ideas, explaining that plants need sunlight, water, air and space. We then started to think more deeply: why are plants growing in certain places? For example, we saw many plants growing in grassy areas and near flower beds, but not as many on hard surfaces.

This led us to an interesting question: would a plant grow in the middle of the playground? The children thought carefully and decided that it would be very difficult. They explained that the playground doesn’t have soil, and plants wouldn’t be able to get the water and nutrients they need. They also mentioned that people walking over the area could damage any plants trying to grow there.

After our exploration, the children completed four observational drawings of different plants they had seen. They took great care to include details and then labelled each drawing with the correct plant name. It was wonderful to see their focus and enthusiasm.

We had a fantastic time learning outdoors today, and the children did an excellent job thinking like scientists—observing, questioning and explaining their ideas!

This week in 2CN we had an exciting start to our new science topic all about plants!

We began our lesson by learning what plants need to grow strong and healthy. Then it was time to get our hands a little messy… we planted our very own bean seeds! We carefully filled our pots with soil, made a small hole, placed our bean inside, and gently covered it up before giving it some water.

After planting, we became sequencing experts! We worked together to put the instructions for planting a bean into the correct order. This helped us understand each step and why it is important to follow instructions carefully.

We are very excited to watch our beans grow over the next few weeks. We will be observing any changes and learning even more about how plants grow.

We can’t wait to see whose bean will sprout first!