Thursday 14 December 2017

Christmas Lunch!


We enjoyed our Christmas lunch today. We all ate together in our classroom whilst listening to Christmas music.




Wednesday 13 December 2017

Sock Snowmen


Today Year 2 have been busy making sock snowmen.

We used; a plain white sock, elastic bands, rice, a small coloured sock and felt pens.

The children really enjoyed making them and will be bringing them home on Monday so they can be in your home for Christmas.






Friday 8 December 2017

The Christmas Story


The children have thoroughly enjoyed making their own Christmas Nativity story book this week.
They worked so hard - some children were writing on and off all day!

We are very proud of how much their writing has progressed already in Year 2.
It's also lovely to see them proud of their progress too.

The children will be inviting you into class after school to show you their books.


Thursday 30 November 2017

End of Topic Project


We are now finishing our Towers, Tunnels and Turrets topic ready for Christmas to take over next week.

Our final project was set for us by the 3 little pigs. They had a problem with the Big Bad Wolf blowing down all their houses and needed some help to build a safe fortress.

The children worked in groups to identify the features of a safe fortress. We had some amazingly creative ideas such as having a secret door that looks like a bookcase to trick the Big Bad Wolf.





The children then worked independently to make a design for their fortress, thinking about what tools and materials they may need.



Finally, the making process began.
The children worked very collaboratively and overcame problems along the way.








Monday 27 November 2017

The magic of Santa


Here a few photos of this morning's discovery.

The children were so excited and did some of their best writing when writing letters back to him.
They told him what they had done that was good this year, what they would like for Christmas and why (including a gift for the whole family to enjoy) and ended with some questions.








Wednesday 22 November 2017

Self-Portraits

Today we have been busy drawing self portraits.

We began by using mirrors to look carefully and the shape of our faces and the location of our features. We drew and oval shape and made a cross to help us position them correctly.

We then watched a video called 'Austin's Butterfly' which encouraged us to give each other feedback on how to improve before doing a second draft.

We added crowns to make us look like a King or Queen.








Friday 17 November 2017

Weekly News 17.11

On Monday when the children arrived in the classroom there were lots of mysterious objects on the carpet. We completed a ‘free writing’ activity which involved choosing an object and writing in any style or genre such as; a story, a letter, a description or a poem. We made the focus handwriting and encouraged many children to start applying joins.

Later in the week we looked at the story of the Billy Goats Gruff and had a class debate / hot seating where we discussed reasons for and against crossing the bridge, for example ‘If you keep crossing the bridge you will give me a headache from all your trip-trapping.’

In Maths this week we have started to look at subtraction on a blank number line. The children find this more difficult than adding due to counting backwards in tens from any number so if you get a chance to practise this at home that would be great. We also solved subtraction word problems using our preferred method (mental, blank number line or 100sq).

In Science this week we have performed a simple experiment using newspaper. The children were challenged to create a bridge between two desks that would hold the weight of a goat figure. They worked in small groups and were only allowed to use 4 sheets of newspaper. The test showed some interesting ideas and the children thought carefully about how to make the newspaper stronger by folding, layering, rolling and twisting.


Whales class visited Mulbarton Church on Wednesday afternoon. Many thanks to Reverend Adrian for showing the children round and performing a pretend wedding. Shark class are looking forward to going next Wednesday. 

Friday 10 November 2017

Thursday 9 November 2017

Weekly News 10.11

Weekly News
This week we have been very busy writing our tunnel adventure stories. The children showed fantastic imagination and tried hard to include lots of detail to interest the reader. Everyone tried to use capital letters, full stops, finger spaces interesting sentences starters and adjectives. Some children even added similes and speech marks.

In Maths we have started learning how to use a blank number line to add. The children used their understanding of place value to add the tens and ones separately. We had three levels of challenge;
Bronze: Add a 2 digit number and a 1 digit number.
Silver: Add a 2 digit number and a tens number.
Gold: Add two 2-digit numbers (tens and ones)
Below is a picture to show the strategy:



In Religious Education we have started to look at Christianity by looking at the features of a Christian church. The children drew and labelled a church and some children went on to write facts about Christianity including the symbols, holy book and festivals associated with the faith.

You will see in the children's home learning books that there is a reading activity. This will count as one piece of home learning and must be completed by Monday the 20th as part of our 'Reading for Pleasure' whole school focus.

PARENT HELP PLEE
On Wednesday the 15th of November, in the afternoon, Whales class will be walking to Mulbarton Church where Rev. Adrian will be showing the children around. We would really appreciate a few parent helpers to come with us. Shark class will be doing the same trip during the afternoon of Wednesday the 22nd. Please let the class teachers know if you are available to help on either week.

Both classes are also attending a Multiskills festival at Easton College on Thursday the 23rd (morning). We would like to have 2 adult helpers to help with this too, if possible. Again, please let us know if you are free to help.

Friday 3 November 2017

Forest School


We have just enjoyed our first forest school session, and what fun we had!

We played games, built dens, climbed trees, went on the rope swings and sat around the fairy circle.