Year 2 - Local History
This afternoon, Year 2 set off on a local history walk to explore the events that happened when Gandhi came to visit Darwen in 1931. We visited the lodges that were home to mill workers and this was also the place that Gandhi stayed during his visit. The children learnt why Gandhi was invited to Darwen by Percy Davies the owner of Greenfield Mill. We walked past where this mill used to be and there is now a stone in place to show where it once stood (see photo). Mill workers wanted to speak to Gandhi to discuss his campaign for Indian independence from the British Empire which resulted in the cotton boycotts. One Darwen lady said ‘your boycott is putting us into poverty’. I’ll let the children tell you how Gandhi responded. The walk was really enjoyable in the sunshine, we ended with a story in Jacks Key. The story explores the remarkable life of Gandhi and the interesting events of his life.
Week 4- Sports club
This week we worked in teams to create our own obstacle courses for our team and the rest of the club to try. Each group got the same set of equipment and had 5 minutes to create a fun and interesting obstacle course for the rest of the teams to try. We had so much fun!
Year 2 - Science
This week in science, we continued our topic of ‘Animals including humans’. After investigating the importance of hygiene we investigated the importance of exercise. We discussed what exercise we do and how we could increase the amount of exercise we do each day. We explored the impact exercise has on our heart, lungs and flexibility. It was then time to see if we could see the effects exercise had on our body by getting outside and working hard. After participating in various exercises we observed the effects it had on our bodies. We decided that our breathing got heavier and our heart started beating faster. The children then reflected on their investigation and recorded why exercise is important .
Whole-School Worship: Hello Yellow Day
Today we are celebrating Hello Yellow Day for World Mental Health Day by dressing in yellow. In worship, our Heads and Deputies dressed as Mrs Ham's Minions and they explained all about Hello Yellow Day. We learnt that we all have mental health and there are things we can do when we don't have good mental health. We made each other smile and feel happy by dancing and singing together with the minions to 'Happy'. We then joined a special live assembly with lots of other primary schools in Blackburn and Darwen, which was led by the Mental Health support team. We talked about our worries and how we can shrink them using mindfulness techniques. Thank you to everyone for dressing in yellow to raise awareness of mental health and remember that it is good to talk to our friends, parents, teachers and other trusted adults if we are worried about anything.
Whole-School Worship: Jacob and Esau and God’s Forgiveness
Rev Matt joined us for worship today. He talked about good and bad, and then read the story of Isaac’s sons, Esau and Jacob. We then reflected on how God taught Jacob to be truthful and how He showed forgiveness.
Year 2 - Art
This afternoon we continued to develop our Art and Design skills. We revisited pattern making from last week and discussed how we can make our own patterns. This week we used clay to add texture to our patterns. To do this we drew patterns with our craft knives and looked at different techniques to create alternative textures and patterns. Next week, we will hone our skills and create our finished tiles. Using other tools to create more intricate patterns.
Celebration Worship
This morning, Rotakids welcomed us into celebration worship as we came in dressed in the colours of the Moroccan flag. They thanked us all for supporting our non-uniform day to raise money for Morocco who have recently faced an earthquake. They explained that our money would go towards medical supplies and other essentials such as blankets, food and shelter for those who were affected in the earthquake on September, 8th. We then said goodbye to Mr Tierney for his 7 years of service as our fantastic site supervisor. It was clear from the children’s memories that they shared and the video that Mrs Ham had made that Mr Tierney has had a hugely wonderful impact on our whole school family and that he will be greatly missed, especially for the joy and humour that he spreads on a daily basis. The children absolutely loved your goodbye song dressed as Santa Claus… what a way to end your time here at St Barnabas! We also said thank you very much to our amazing choir who sang at The harvest Festival on Sunday. We then said well done to Cici, Phoebe, Renee, Scarlett, James, Grace, Matthew and Charlie who were our value award winners this week and Isaac, James, Mila, James, Naomi, Lydia and Layla for being our out of school sports achievers. Well done to Isaac for showing good sportsmanship at football, James for being beaver of the week, Mila for attending rainbows for one year, James for achieving his stage 4 in swimming, Naomi for being extremely kind at rainbows and getting Olivia, Lydia for joining in and being a superstar at rainbows and Layla for being a wonderful footballer. We then congratulated River Darwen who are our value award point winners this week, Reception and Year 5 who are our amazing attendance award winners this week, our Year 5/6 football team for wonderful sportsmanship last night and winning all 3 games, our play leaders for completing their training and Eden and Esme for achieving their pen licenses. Finally, we ended with some lovely prayers wishing Mr Tierney all the best at his new job at Blackburn college and for those who are facing hardship in Morocco due to the devastating impact of the recent earthquake. Just a reminder that next Tuesday 10th October is Hello Yellow Day so all children are asked to wear something yellow to celebrate World Mental Health Day. We wish you an enjoyable weekend and thank you for all of your support this week.
Super sports club- Week 3
Week 3 was all about football. We learnt a very important word “control”. We learnt how to stop a moving ball, passing with the correct part of our foot and learning to dribble with control.
Year 2 - Library visit
We had an amazing time during our visit to Darwen Library. We were lucky enough to spend time with Ursula Hurst as she delivered a workshop for us. Ursula is a fabulous illustrator known for her book illustrations and murals of which many can be found in local primary schools. The children loved listening to her stories and seeing how she made words come to life. Then the children had their chance to become illustrators as they learnt how to draw different characters with different emotions. Ursula showed us some simple tricks to really emphasise our characters expressions. It was a brilliant opportunity for the children which they engaged really well with and had a lovely afternoon!
Year 2 - Pattern Making
During our Art lesson this week, we looked at how to create patterns. We spotted any patterns around our classroom and predicted what comes next in other patterns. It was then the children’s turn to create their own patterns. We created symmetrical patterns and alternating patterns using different shapes and colours. Next week, we will continue learning about patterns and design new patterns on different mediums.
Year 2- P.E
This week we worked on the perfect egg roll, forward roll and pencil roll. They all tried really hard to perfect their rolls.
Week 2 of super sports club
Our second session at sports club we looked at the correct hand position, the ‘W’ position. Then we moved onto using the correct hand position whilst passing the ball. Then we looked at a chest pass followed by a bounce pass. They worked really hard on these two passes before moving on to a game of netball.