Class 2 Blog

Highlights:

In English we have been working on our storyboards for innovating the story of Katie in London. The children will be drawing on their knowledge gained in their history lessons on the Great Fire of London to invent a new drama happening in Pudding Lane! In maths we have completed our money unit and the end of unit test. We also made a start on our Food Technology unit by looking at the Eatwell Guide and discussing different food groups.

Next week:

We will be focussing on our Food Technology unit. We will be investigating the processes involved in bread production and taste testing different breads before finally baking our own bread. We hope to offer our breadcakes for sale after school on Wednesday for a voluntary donation. We will also be learning about the importance of Easter to the Christian faith.

Spellings:

This week’s spellings. These focus on examples from all of the spelling patterns we have covered this half-term. Please continue to practise the weekly spellings at home.

Class Focus: 

Reading, reading and reading. Well done to everyone who really tried to improve their home reading this week. We had lots of children reading five times and earning themselves a postcard home and a visit to Miss Northen. Please keep this up as we are undertaking Read Write Inc group assessments this week and want everyone to be able to show increased reading fluency.

Dates for your diary:

On Wednesday this week we will be undertaking our traditional egg-rolling competition. All classes will participate and prizes will be awarded. All equipment will be provided so the children don’t need to bring anything.

Highlights:

In English we have completed our retells of the story Katie in London in readiness for innovating the story with our own ideas next week. I wonder where Katie, Jack and the lion will go….maybe abseiling down the side of the Gherkin Building or The Shard! In maths we have continued our money unit and have been working on making £1 with different coins, adding and subtracting money amounts and giving change. Please continue to practise this life skill at home. In science we learned about John McAdam and his huge influence on modern day roads as the finale to our unit om materials. We recreated his road structure using digestive biscuits, raisins and chocolate. Unlike McAdam, we got to eat our road!

Spellings:

This week’s spellings. Please continue to practise spellings at home.

Class Focus: 

Reading, reading and reading. Come on class 2, we are consistently near the bottom of all the classes when it comes to anouncing the reading percentages each week in Special Mentions assembly. 72% this week means that only 13 children in the class read three times or more at home. Congratulations to Isabelle who was our star reader this week. We need you to be reading at least three times at home to an adult and getting an adult signature. Reading fluency and stamina are an extremely important life skills. We also want you to be able to enjoy reading for pleasure independently by being able to select an interesting and engaging book to curl up with. Next week, every class 2 pupil who manages five reads or more at home, evidenced by adult signatures and who can talk about what they have read, will get to got to Miss Northen’s office where she will will reward you with a prize or a biscuit for your effort. We will also send a postcard home to recognise your achievements.

Dates for your diary:

In maths we have started our unit on money. The pupils have realised how they can apply their times table knowledge to counting amounts of 2ps, 5ps and 10ps. Next week we continue this work and will be looking at adding up money amounts for notes and coins and working out giving change. If you can help support this life skill at home by letting your child count different amounts of money or set up a little shop, this would be really useful. In English we have been writing character descriptions for the main character of the story Katie in London. We have worked on structuring our sentences in different ways and we have practised different sentence starters. In RW the children were keen to share and discuss our visitors that came last week. It was lovely to see the children so enthused. In computing we been working on coding and learning how to give actions to make something move.

British Science Week:

Class 2 had a brilliant time joining in with British Science Week. On Monday they took part in an engaging workshop run by Energising Futures as part of the Northen Gasworks education programme. The educator, Dave, was amazing with the children and pitched the presentation and activities just at the right level for the children. They learned alot about Net Zero and looking after the world they live in. On Wednesday the pupils worked in groups to answer some scientific questions aimed at developing their scientific vocabulary. One of the questions they discussed was ‘What if paper was banned in your school?’ They looked at the possible positives of this (no writing!) as well as considering the negatives (no books to read). Finally they took part in an investigation to test the dunkability of different biscuits. They loved doing this and concluded that chocolate digestives dunked better than plain ones and then they gave their reasons why. Of course we had to finish by eating a chocolate biscuit before hometime! Thanks for all of the parents who supported the event.

Spellings:

This week’s spellings. Please continue to practise spellings at home.

Class Focus: Independence – The children are not new to class routines now. We are looking for children who can follow our class routines independently without needing lots of reminders. Writing – We are having a big focus on writing. Please encourage your child to have a go at writing when possible, this could be shopping lists, writing jokes or writing about their favourite part from their reading book.

Dates for your diary:

Highlights:

In English we have completed our postcards from London. The children wrote enthusiastically about all of the London landmarks they had learned about from reading the book Katie in London and from going on a virtual tour of London by watching a live action version of Katie in London. We will have all of the postcards on display in the classroom next week. In maths we have almost completed our work on measure. The children have been learning about the mass of an object and also capacity in liquids. They have been learning to use the standard measures gram, kilogram, millilitre and litre. In science we have finished the shoelace investigation that we started last week and made our final selections for the best material for a shoelace. In PE we have started our Spring 2 units of orienteering and gymnastics. In RW we have looked at the inside of different Mosques. We took a virtual tour inside and the children enjoyed seeing the features we have been learning about including the prayer mats, washrooms and Mirhab.

World Book Day:

What fun we had dressing up as our favourite David Walliams characters and doing our catwalk. Congratulations to Chloe and Holly who won prizes for the best outfits. Thank-you to all the parents who helped sort outfits and to Mrs Irvin who helped lots of pupils with character ideas, props and books. The class also enjoyed the teacher book read swap. Mrs Joplin came and read a story to class 2, Miss McIntyre read to class 5 and Mrs Platten read to Foundation Stage. It was lovely that so many stories were shared. What do you think of our character dress-ups?

What’s happening next week:

Parents evening appointments are taking place on Tuesday. Please check your child’s bookbag for the appointment slip showing your time.

It is British Science Week. We will be taking part in an exciting workshop on Monday. On Wednesday you are invited into school from 2.30pm to take part in our Championing Science event where you watch your child’s investigative science lesson.

Spellings:

This week’s spellings. Please continue to practise spellings at home.

Highlights:

In English we have started a new unit based on the book ‘Katie in London’. This week the children have been following the story and and finding out about different London Landmarks that Katie visits so that they can plan a postcard home in the character of Katie. The children have enjoyed finding out about such things at the Crown Jewels and also the lions in Trafalgar Square. In maths we have started our mass, capacity and temperature unit. In science we carried out an investigation into which material would make the best shoelace, with the children testing out paper, elastic, string, felt, fabric ribbon and pipecleaners. We will continue this next week when they will evaluate and justify their choices based on strength, flexibility and ease of use. In computing we completed the making music unit and all successfully composed some music.

What’s happening next week:

World Book Day is happening on Thursday! Please see previous school newsletters for information. We are inviting every child to come dressed up as a character from a David Walliams book.

Spellings:

This week’s spellings. Please continue to practise spellings at home.

Dates for your diary:

Highlights:

This week has been art week. The children have thoroughly enjoyed exploring with painting, colour mixing and creating different textures. They have produce came fantastic work depicting the Great Fire of London with silhouette Tudor buildings. We hope to post our very own online gallery after the half-term break.
The recordings of the children’s story retell of The Three Little Pigs are all complete and are on the class Seesaw account. Please do go on and have a watch and leave a comment. The children are really proud of their work.

Safer Internet Day:

This was on Tuesday and we started with a class circle on how to keep ourselves safe online. We then read a story together about a young girl who was excited to go online on her new game and the problems she encountered. The children had emoticon faces to show how they would feel at each part of the story if they were in that situation (happy, sad, worried, scared, confused and angry. They held up their emoticon card and discussed their feelings and what steps they could take next. We finished our session with a discussion on trusted adults. The children came up with lots of suggestions for this in different places and scenarios including parents, grandparents, child minder, club leader, teachers and school support staff. We were very impressed with their knowledge of Internet safety.

What’s happening next week:

Next week is half-term! Time to have family time and recharge.

Spellings:

This week’s spellings. Please continue to practise spellings at home.

Dates for your diary:

Highlights:

In English this week we have completed our written retells of The Three Little Pigs story. The children have started to record them and they will be on Seesaw soon. They have also had a go at giving each other written peer feedback and a ‘wish’ for how they can improve their work even further. In Maths we have finished our multiplication and division unit and completed our end of unit test. We have started a short unit on measuring length and height and recapping on what centimetres, millimetres and metres are. In science the children worked in groups to investigate the best material for an umbrella for teddy. Two children extended their investigation at home – well done Hollie and Isabelle! In History we continued our learning on the Great fire of London. Well done Angelica for doing some research at home and sharing this information with the class. In computing we have finished our creating pictures unit and moved on to creating music. We used the 2sequence tool on Purple Mash and had fun composing our own tunes.

What’s happening next week:

Next week is art week. We look forward to getting arty and creative linking our work to the Great Fire of London.

Spellings:

This week’s spelling focus is the year 2 common exception words. Next week we will be testing all year 2 common exception words (the fish sent home in September). Please continue to practise both the year 1 and 2 CEW. This week we did the online spelling quiz, spelling bingo and rainbow words. What spelling activity can you do at home to help you learn the words?

Class Focus: 

Telling the truth and owning up when we have made the wrong choice. We have had a few incidents when this hasn’t happened this week. We will use circle times to reinforce this.

Dates for your diary:

We will also celebrating Safer Internet Day on 11th February and raising awareness of keeping safe when using the internet.

Highlights:

In English this week we have continued with the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’. We have been working on retelling the story using all the vocabulary and sentence work we have done so far. The children have made some outstanding vocabulary choices to describe the pigs, the houses and the wolf. They have also practised using a range of different sentence starters and the conjunctions and, but, because. Next week we hope to video record the children reading their stories and add them to the class Seesaw account so watch this space! We linked our English work to our science work this week as we considered what materials would be most suitable for building the three little pigs’ houses. We decided straw definitely wasn’t a good option as it is weak,flimsy, fragile and not waterproof.

In Maths we have been working hard on consolidating our times tables and division skills. We will finish this block next week. Below is the statutory National Curriculum requirements that all pupils working at the expected standard at the end of year 2 should achieve:

Please support your child’s development in multiplication and division by playing times tables games at home and checking which times tables your child knows confidently. The link to the Topmarks maths games site has been added to the class Seesaw account. Multiplication and division will form part of the maths SATs test that all year 2 pupils will undertake at the end of May. Please do ask if you would like any further support with multiplication and division activities for your child.

On Monday afternoon Class 1 and 2 visited the church as part of our RW work. We were looking at what we could see inside a Christian place of worship. We found an organ, crosses, pulpit, lectern, font and pews. In computing we looked at surrealism artwork and had a go at creating our own, take a look below. Ask your child what different artwork we have created in our computing so far this term.

What’s happening next week:

Our championing writing event takes place on Monday. Thank-you to those who attended the championing maths event last week. We hope lots of you can make it to see the children write the final part of their Three Little Pigs story.

Spellings:

This week’s spelling focus is the /l/ or /ɘl/ sound spelt -al at the end of words. The children have worked really hard with their spellings in school, please continue to practise at home. It’s really important the children get to know the spelling patterns as this can really affect the spelling outcome. Ask your child what spelling tasks we’ve done this week, can they show you one of the spelling games we have done.

Class Focus: 

Cracking those times tables in maths. Continuing to develop our writing stamina by building daily sentence writing into our week.

Dates for your diary:

. We will also celebrating Safer Internet Day on 11th February and raising awareness of keeping safe when using the internet.

Highlights:

In English this week we have continued with the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’. We have been writing sentences to describe the characters and thinking about using expanded noun phrases in our writing. Thursday was National Handwriting Day and we worked extra hard on our presentation. You can see an example of one of our class 2 pupil’s work below.

In Maths we have been working hard on multiplication and division. This week we have looked at doubling and halving and odd and even numbers. Please continue to practise this at home and in the car etc. The children have enjoyed some of the Jack Hartmann counting and times tables videos so a link to these wil be posted on our Seesaw account. There are lots of games on Top Marks Maths;

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

On Monday, we completed different activities for ‘World Religion Day’ to link to our RW (Religion and Worldviews). Each class in the school created a page for our whole school fact file on Religion and Faith, we researched Hinduism. In History we were writing down what we knew about the Great Fire of London and also writing questions of what we would like to find out. In Dance, we have added the next part to our ‘Thriller’ dance routine. It’s looking great so far and the children have done so well getting into character for the routine. In science we investigated a range of different objects to see if they could be twisted, bent, stretched and squashed. We then discussed how this could be useful.

What’s happening next week:

On Monday afternoon, Class 1 and 2 will be visiting the church again and looking at the inside in closer detail for our RW topic. We will be continuing with multiplication and division looking at the 10 and 5 times tables. We also have our whole-school championing maths event on Wednesdaay and we would love to see you.

Spellings:

This week’s spelling focus is the /l/or /ɘl/ sound spelt -el at the end of words. The children have worked really hard with their spellings in school, please continue to practise at home. Ask your child what spelling tasks we’ve done this week, can they show you one of the spelling games we have done.

Class Focus: 

We will be continuing to work on our presentation and practise our joined-up handwriting. Miss Nothern and Mrs Altoft will be about with their secret Handwriting Heroes awards, who will get one this week?

Dates for your diary:

Please note date change for the championing writing event. We will also celebrating Safer Internet Day on 11th February and raising awareness of keeping safe when using the internet.

Highlights:

We’ve had a busy but great week. We started our new English writing unit and what excitement we had on Monday when we came in to the classroom to some items that had been left. The children were very curious and came up with some great ideas as to what it could be. They all guessed it was going to be ‘The Three Little Pigs’.

In maths we have been working multiplication sentences, arrays and grouping and sharing. History we continued to look at past and present London and in Dance we have made a great start on our dance routine. The children are enjoying this and the music.

What’s happening next week:

Next week we will be continuing with the Three Little Pigs. In History we will begin to look at the great fire of London. Don’t forget if you find anything out at home bring it in to share with the class.

Spellings:

We’ve continued to have a big focus on our ‘CEW’ (common exception words) this week and hopefully everyone has been practising at home. We have been testing the spelling/writing of these words this week. Please continue to practise all Year 1 and 2 common exception words. The children also got their new spellings this week which will be tested on Monday.

Class Focus: 

We are continuing with a big focus on handwriting and our writing skills. Can you do any writing practise at home?

Dates for your diary: