Class 2 Blog

So many things going on this week! We started the week with the Brandesburton Bake Off. There were so many fantastic entries with some really amazing ideas. A very well done if you took part in this. It has certainly provided much needed funds for non-fiction books in the school library.

Also this week saw the start of British Science Week. A big well done to Fred who won the whole school poster competition on the theme of Time. His entry will now be sent off to the National British Science Week competition. We have all been participating in some key events to celebrate science. On Tuesday we carried out an investigation to see how many towers of ten multi-link the children could make in two minutes. The highest amount was two towers as the multilink cubes were very tricky to click together! We will be comparing our results with other classes. Continuing the theme of time, we also investigated some questions such as ‘What if there was no night?’ and ‘What if there were no clocks?’ The children came up with some really creative ideas for this. Finally we spent sometime looking at and reading a selection of non-fiction STEM books that form part of the Ryal Society Young Peoples book prize finalists. Every year schools are invited to act as a judging panel and receive free books to keep in return for evaluating and giving opinions on them. We are lucky enough to have been chosen as a judging panel school for the last three years.

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Homework:

This week please use the website Topmarks to improve pace and accuracy with arithmetic. The link will take you to the Hit the Button game where you can practise a wide range of maths skills . https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Spelling:

This will be out final week on learning and practising rules for suffixes. This week we are focusing on adding -ed, -ing, -er, -est and -y to words of one syllable ending in a single consonant after a single vowel.

Reading

This week, we had a little dip in our reading score. Only 75% of us read 3 times or more. For the final week, can we have one really big push and aim for 100%? Remember, it is fine to reads books of your own choosing from home and the children can write in their records as long as they write what happened in the story/book they read!

D&T week

Next week is design and technology week. We will be designing and making our own Punch and Judy style hand puppets. If any parents/grandparents are available to help with some sewing on Thursday and Friday afternoon, could you please let us know! We would really appreciate the extra hands!

We have had a great week finishing off our versions of The Three Little Pigs stories, the children really engaged with the task and it has also been lovely to see some more children being motivated this week to write their own stories at home. Well done to Cerys, Esme and Rowan. Next week we will be moving onto newspaper reports and we have some exciting events to report!

In maths we are coming to the end of our unit on fractions and our work on finding 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 2/4 and 3/4 of numbers and shapes. We will keep revisiting these as part of our daily maths Quick Starts.

There has been some very neat handwriting posted on Seesaw this week which was last week’s homework task. If you haven’t uploaded your handwriting yet, please do so by Monday.

Working at the expected standard:

After the parent SATs meeting I said I would post the end of year national age related expectations for pupils in reading, writing and maths. Please bear in mind that children are all unique and have different strengths and they all work at different paces, we want to support the children in making the best progress possible and to make them feel very proud of their learning this year.

World Book Day:

What a blast World Book Day was this year. We had some of the most fabulous ‘book in a box’ entries from Class 2. I have no ideas how the judges possibly decided, every entry was incredible! If you haven’t seen them, please check out the ones in this week’s newsletter.

Here is Fred’s winning entry!

In addition, the whole school worked together to write a Brandesburton Primary School story, ‘Larry’s adventure’. This story is about a little lobster who goes on an amazing journey. Again, you can find the full story in the newsletter, this week.

Homework:

There will be a few SATs style maths fraction questions posted on Seesaw. Please either annotate the Seesaw template or write the answers in your homework book and upload a photo. The questions are shown below for information. Some children can their knowledge of fact families relating to the 2 times table and division to work these out, some like to draw two circles to find a half (dividing by 2) or four circles (dividing by 4) and share out the number by drawing dots or using counters.

Spelling:

Following on from last week’s spelling work on suffixes, we are continuing to practise these and learn what happens when we add the endings -ing, -ed, -er, -est and –y to words ending in –e with a consonant before it.

Attendance

We need to give Class 2 a massive shout out this week. Today marked their third week in a row of 100% attendance! What a huge achievement! Can we possibly make it to 4 weeks?

Reading

We are keeping up the reading too! Once again 85% of us read three times or more this week! Class 2, you are making us proud! Well done!!

Unbelievably it is March already and we are more than halfway through the school year, time is passing so quickly but we still have lots to fit in before the end of term. We are looking forward to meeting with you at the upcoming parent consultation evening to discuss your child and how they are progressing in more detail.

The class were very excited in their science lesson on Tuesday. They were investigating how modern roads were developed by the inventor John McAdam. They were very happy to find out that recreating his method would involve using chocolate, biscuits and raisins. The class all worked really well in their groups deciding on how many biscuits to break up into large rocks, smaller stones and gravel. Of course the fun bit was smashing the biscuits to make gravel. It really did give the pupils a clear understanding of how this process would be carried out in the real world as well as extending their knowledge of materials and also the melting process and solids and liquids.

Reading:

This week we maintained our 85% reading score from last week! We are doing really well to regularly read at home, so a big thank you to all of you! Over the next term, we will continue to develop fluency, by reading as regularly as possible, but we will also be working on our comprehension. When you have finished reading your book, discuss what happened on the pages you read. You could talk about the characters and how they feel or try to remember the order of the events. Why not test your grown up by asking them some questions about what you have read to them too!

Homework:

HANDWRITING!!!!

Your homework challenge this week is to choose a page from your reading book and copy up the text in your neatest handwriting! Some of us have forgotten how to keep our writing super neat this half term so this is a great way to practise. Your writing needs to become so fluent that you don’t need to think about it! Please post your super neat pieces onto Seesaw for us to see!

Spelling:

This week we are revisiting suffixes, with a focus on adding ing, er, ed and est.

It was lovely to see all of class 2 settle back into this half-term and hear about what they had been up to in the holidays. Thanks also to everyone who sent photos in on Seesaw. We were able to see the sights of London, the animals at Cannon Hall farm, the exhibits of the museums in Hull and also a fantastic Lego model that has been made.

This week the children have participated in an assembly workshop and follow-up activities delivered by the NSPCC. They even got to meet the NSPCC toy speech bubble mascot Buddy, who they all loved. The children were really engaged in carrying out this work and had such a sensible attitude when learning about how children can be harmed. They are now much better informed to ‘Speak Out Stay Safe‘ if they have any concerns and have nominated trusted adults in and out of school that they would be comfortable talking to. They are very excited that we are going to try our some of the online activities on the Childline website as part of out computing lesson next week. The link for this was posted on Seesaw earlier this week in case you would like to visit this site together at home but here’s a reminder of the web address https://www.childline.org.uk/toolbox/buddy-zone-under12service

We have also started a new narrative unit in English based on the traditional story of The Three Little Pigs. The children will be reading and discussing lots of different versions of this before starting to write their own version such as The Three Little Badgers and the Big Bad Fox or maybe the Three Little Hippos and the Big Bad Lion! We can’t wait to see what they come up with. The Three Little Pigs theme was continued through to our work on materials in science as they children considered which material would be most suited to building a house and why.

Reading:

This week the children continued their good run with 80% of them completing three reads or more. Many of the children have changed their reading books this week and we are getting lots of great feedback about the books in our class library. Please continue to read as much as possible at home, to help develop the children’s reading fluency!

Homework:

Linked to our English work, every pupil will bring home a copy of a Three Little Pigs reading comprehension in their bookbags today. Please support your child in completing this but try to allow them as much independence as possible. Perhaps you could share the story together and then let your child answer as many questions as they can on their own. All pupils do need to attempt this homework as we are working on building our reading comprehension skills as we progress through the year. Homework should be returned and placed in the homework tray in the classroom by Monday March 4th, thank-you.

Spelling:

This week’s spelling rule focuses on the possessive apostrophe.

Volunteers

In last week’s newsletter, a request went out to parents asking for reading volunteers. If you have a few hours available at any point during the week and you would like to come into school to read with our children, please just let the office know your availability. Many Thanks!

What an outstanding week we have had working our our art unit on collage for this half-term. The children have been busy studying the work of two artists Megan Coyle and John Piper. Both artists are renowned for their collage work. They worked hard recreating a well-known collage by Megan Coyle called Blue Landscape. They were able to practise lots of different techniques such as cutting, ripping, folding and scrunching. Linking their collage work to our geography unit on the seaside, the children then worked collaboratively in groups to plan, design and create their own original seaside collages. The results are amazing and all of class 2 can be very proud of their work.

Have a look at some of the fantastic art work they created!

On Tuesday, we also carried out activities relating to Safer Internet Day. We started with a class circle time to see which pupils do use the internet, what they use it for and what devices they use. We discussed different emotions they might feel when using the internet and what they should do and who they could talk to if anything made them feel anxious, upset or frightened. The children listened to this very sensibly and everyone was confidently able to say that they would tell a trusted adult if they found anything online that was a concern. This was followed by a story about two characters called Mo and Jaz who did indeed feel upset when a video they were watching about penguins finished and a new video about ghosts started. The story was very sensitively told through simple animation and gave us the further opportunity to discuss what they would do if they were in the same situation. The children then completed their Mo and Jaz story sheets which they have taken home.

Homework:

We want all the children to have a lovely family break and recharge their batteries ready for the next half-term which will be just as action packed as this one so no formal written homework is being set. Please do keep up with your reading though and evidence this in your reading log. If you wanted to, you could log onto Purple Mash and use 2paint a picture to do some additional artwork relating to the seaside or complete any of the 2dos that you haven’t done. You could also log on to TT Rock Stars too to make sure you are getting quicker and more confident with your times tables. If you go anywhere nice or do any fun activities, please do send photos to Seesaw as we love to see them.

Spelling:

The next spelling pattern we will look at when we come back to school will be the /n/ sound spelt kn and (less often) gn at the beginning of words and the /ʒ/ sound spelt s. Here is the example word list for you to look at.

Reading

We had a tough one to beat from last week as we scored an impressive 85%. We did it though…95%!

Outstanding work class 2.

Enjoy your half term! We can’t wait to see you all refreshed, raring and ready to go for Spring 2!

Well here we are in February already and almost at half-term! It really doesn’t seem two minutes since it was Christmas but we have already completed so much of our Spring term curriculum since then. This week we have been completing our English instruction work. The class have been really creative with writing their instructions for making a dragon machine. Special thanks to Leo and to Nancy who made dragons at home based on a set of instructions that they were evaluating in class. We must also thank Eliza who demonstrated her excellent ability in following instructions when she made a model fireplace from a kit with an electrical circuit and working parts!

Next week we are looking forward to taking part in Safer Internet Day on Tuesday. We will also be undertaking our Key Stage One art project for this term which is going to be based on a seaside collage linked to our work on seaside holidays in history. We are really looking forward to showcasing the pupils’ work with you. We will also complete the last parts of our maths unit on multiplication and division and also money.

Reading:

This week, our reading percentage increased dramatically! 85% of us read regularly at home! What a fabulous improvement. Please do your best to keep this up again for the final week of term, next week.

Homework:

There is a maths money worksheet for you to complete on Seesaw. No need to print it, you can type your answers over the top of the sheet. we have also set an optional maths money problem solving challenge for you. You could also try the toyshop money game on the Topmarks website. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/toy-shop-money

Spelling:

The last spelling pattern that we are focusing on before half-term is the pattern for words ending in the /l/sound spelt ‘al’. Please see the list below for some examples. Can you find any more in when you are doing your reading?

Over the half-term holidays please take the opportunity to also revisit the year one and year two tricky words that were send home on the fish templates.

Art week

Next week, we are going to be immersing ourselves in our art curriculum and our focus for this time is collage! We are going to be creating collages of the seaside, using scraps of old wrapping paper, magazines and packaging. If you have any unwanted paper, which would be suitable for our collage unit, we would be very grateful if you could send it in on Monday. This could be old magazines, old Christmas or birthday wrapping paper, old wall paper etc. We can’t wait for you to see the collages we create!

Well this half-term is certainly flying by! Class 2 have fully settled back into their routines and are producing some excellent work. There is so much enthusiasm for lessons that is amazing to see. In English we are continuing the dragon theme but we have moved onto instructions. This week the pupils are following and then evaluating instructions and next week will see them start to write instructions for their own imaginary dragon machine. We are really looking forward to see what they come up with. Parents – you might find yourselves involved in junk modelling over the half-term break as so many of the children have said they might like to have a go at following their instructions to make their dragon machine!

In maths we have been continuing our work on multiplication and division. Please support with this wherever possible to help the children become confident with having quick recall of the 2x, 5x and 10 times table. TT Rock Stars is a great fun way to practise times tables too. Every day at the beginning of the maths lesson, every class completes a Quick Start activity to help consolidate current learning and recap learning already completed. On our year 2 Quick Starts there is always a times table grid to be completed. There are resources around the classroom to support with this but we are really keen for pupils to have quick independent recall of these tables where possible. Here is an example of what one of our daily Quick Starts looks like.

Also this week, class 2 have had the opportunity to undertake scooter safety training. Lots of our local children like to ‘scoot to school’ and so it is an important life skill that they learn how to do this safely. They had lots of fun during their scooter session.

TT Rock Stars:

We have been really impressed yet again by the number of children logging onto TT Rock Stars. A number of certificates are given out in Special Mentions assembly each week to recognize progress. We would love to be giving everyone in class 2 a certificate so get logging on and start nailing those times tables! Don’t forget, the more practise you do, the easier your tables become! One day, you could even be challenging Mr Mallison to a battle!

Class reading:

Here are the results for this week:

FS – 100%

C1 – 89%

C2 – 55%

C3 – 97%

C4 – 92%

C5 – 91%

Homework:

This half term, the children are comparing and contrasting seaside holidays from different periods of the past. As part of this unit, we look at how seaside holidays have changed over time and what they look like now. We also consider how seaside holidays abroad may be similar/different to British seaside holidays.

For homework, this week, we would love it if you could collect together any recent seaside holiday photos that you have, and send them into school in a named wallet/envelope, for the children to look at next Thursday (you could also email to me, if you’d prefer at joplinn@brandesburton.eriding.net). It would be even better if in pencil you could indicated where the photograph was taken. These photos can be a day out in Bridlington or two weeks in Spain, both are just as great!

Spellings:

This week’s spelling pattern is the /l/ or /ɘl/ sound spelt -el at the end of words. here is a list of example words that follow that pattern. There is an optional quiz to complete online on Purple Mash in the class 2do section and a practice sheet can be downloaded from there and printed if you want to. The spelling sheets and quizzes from previous weeks of the Spring term can be found there too. The children practise their spellings daily at morning registration time as well as have dedicated spelling lessons. How is everyone getting on with practising their year 1 and year 2 common exception word spellings and colouring in their fish? Do upload them to Seesaw as we would love to see them.

We have been very busy in lots of areas of the curriculum this week, in our first full week back. here’s a quick round up of what we have been up to. Firstly Class 2 started their dance unit in PE, based on Thriller by Michael Jackson. They have really enjoyed creating their monster moves!

In English, the children have been highly engaged in retelling the story of the Dragon Machine and have been amazing in their ability to recall the key events of the story (plus they are still looking for dragons everywhere!)

In maths we have continued with developing our multiplication skills and it has been great to see so many of you accessing TT Rockstars. We also held our school maths open morning this week. Thank-you to all that attended, please do contact us if you have any queries about any aspects of the year 2 maths curriculum.

In computing, we have started using the program 2Paint a Picture. This week we have focused on creating the Impressionist style of painting. The children loved creating their artwork and you can see some of their work below.

In science the children have been investigating what materials are suited to different purposes including looking at why some objects can be made form different types of materials but not all materials are suitable for all objects. For example, a spoon might be made of plastic, metal or wood but not chocolate! see below for this week’s homework relating to science.

Reading:

This week, we saw an improvement in our home-reading scores. 74% of us read 3 times or more at home this week! This was lovely to see. We have got lots of lovely reading books going home at the moment and those children reading regularly are really enjoying choosing from our every changing class library. Please make sure you read 3 times this week, to keep our upwards momentum going!

Spelling:

This week our spellings focus on homophones and near homophones. Our daily practice as soon as the children come in at 8.45 is really helping with consolidating learning in spelling. The spelling quiz and practice template can be accessed on the Purple Mash class 2dos.

Homework:

To consolidate our science work for this week and to practise your writing skills, can you complete this diary about the wrong materials. This will be available on Seesaw as a template that you can write on or you can use a paper copy that will be sent home on Monday. Please return your science homework by Monday 27th January. We look forward to letting you share your work with the rest of the class and we will add some of your work to our science wall in the classroom.

It has been lovely to see everyone back in school this week looking super smart and ready to learn. We have loved hearing about everything you got up to during the holidays. It sounds like Santa really enjoyed reading those amazing letters that you wrote him at the end of last term.

We have lots of exciting learning opportunities for you this term so look out for the class newsletter that should be in your bookbags today. It will also be posted on Seesaw. We will be sending TT Rockstars logins home this week and showing you how to access the website, the practice arenas and any battles that are set up. We know lots of you have been very keen to get started with this! As our maths unit this half-term will be multiplication and division, accessing TT Rockstars will really help with your quick recall of the 2, 5 and 10 times tables. It will also help you to speed up and be more confident in answering the times tables questions on our daily maths quickstarts.

We will also be sending you home some fish! These are actually the templates for the year 1 and year 2 common exception word spellings. Our suggestion is that you pick two colours. Colour half of each word in that you can confidently read then colour the other half in when you can confidently spell it. Pin your fish somewhere where you won’t forget about them – like the front of the fridge or a noticeboard – and keep coming back to them regularly to update your progress. You can always send us photos of your fish via Seesaw as we would love to see how you are getting on.

Spellings

This week your spellings all end in ‘le’. You all thoroughly enjoyed playing a dice game to practise the spellings (below). Why don’t you have a go with a guardian or sibling? How many other ways can you find to practise these words at home?

Reading

This week we 2 scored a very beatable 64% on our home-reading. Next week all of us will be coming home with new phonics, guided reading, or reading for pleasure books. Please make sure we all read three times at home and get a parent to record it in your reading log. We are more than happy for you to write your own comment about what you have read and whether you enjoyed the book!

Dragons, dragons everywhere!

This week we have started a story in Literacy all about dragons. Since then we have been finding evidence of dragons everywhere! If you go out an about this weekend, please take the time to see whether you can spot any dragons hiding in plain sight.

Wow just wow! What an amazing Autumn term we have had class 2 and it has absolutely flown by. You have all been absolute stars on your learning journey this term and you have had so much enthusiasm for all aspects of the curriculum. From farm visits and village walks to author visits in the classroom and the Ladies in Pigs too, then there has been practising and performing the Christmas play and all of the challenging work you have completed across the curriculum. This week you became a chef extraordinaire when you completed your food technology work by making pumpkin soup, carrot soup and freshly baked bread. Your parents really enjoyed this treat at the Key Stage One performances and have given you some excellent feedback. Well done, all of that chopping, peeling, grating, kneading and shaping was worth it. A really big well done from us for all of your hard work and effort, we are really proud of you. Congratulations to Nancy, Emma and Leo, our end of term certificate winners for attainment, effort and behaviour. Class 2 you gave us a very hard job trying to choose just three people so it’s a good job we will be able to give out more certificates at the end of the Spring and Summer terms too.

We are looking forward to sharing our new, exciting Spring curriculum with you. Until then, three more sleeps until Santa visits, how exciting! We hope you have a fantastic school holiday with your families and we look forward to hearing all about it when you come back to school in January 2024. New Year – New Term, New learning opportunities and lots of fun to be had!

If mummies and daddies are a little busy in the next few days, you will find a few Christmas activities on Purple Mash and Seesaw to keep you busy too, but you don’t have to do these if you don’t want to. We would really love it if you keep up with your reading though, especially if you get any exciting books for Christmas and then you can tell us about them when we next see you.

Lots of love

Mrs Platten and Mrs Joplin