Class 2 Blog

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

It has been such a busy week in class 2. There has been an absolute whirlwind of activity. Firstly the children finished off their letters to Santa and posted them in the class post box which was very exciting for them. They have also been experimenting with printing techniques to produce some highly original and individual Christmas cards which are looking fantastic. On Tuesday Key Stage One performed their school play to the rest of the school. Despite being a little nervous at having a live audience, they all sang and danced their hearts out and said their lines very clearly. We very much look forward to welcoming you to watch the performance on either Tuesday or Wednesday next week. All tickets have been allocated. On Wednesday it was Christmas Dinner Day with most children choosing to enjoy one of Mrs Gell’s delicious school dinners with roast turkey and all the trimmings follow by a snowman biscuit. All of the children looked amazing in their festive Christmas jumpers and they enjoyed pulling crackers with their friends.

No homework this week other than to read at least three times and to do some final practising of your lines for the play. Do look out for some optional festive activities that will appear on Seesaw and Purple Mash towards the end of next week to keep you busy until Santa arrives!

Food tasting

To begin our exciting Design and Technology unit, the children have been trying different soups and bread rolls. Oxtail was surprising the biggest hit, although Mrs Joplin’s homemade pumpkin soup didn’t go down so well!!! The children are going to be investigating different flavours in order to make it extra yummy and making their own pumpkin soup and carrot soup to serve to parents as they attend the play next week. So please come ready and prepared to try one of our homemade bread rolls and delicious soups!

Reading

Unfortunately, our reading percentages dropped slightly from last week to 68% Let’s have one final push for next week and see if we can get a Christmas miracle of 100%!

We know each and every one of you can do it!

Our classroom is looking very Christmassy this week. We have our tree and nativity scene up and some very twinkly lights. We have lots of Christmas themed stories that the children can choose to read and we have been sharing some of them for story time too. The school post box for Christmas cards is out in the entrance, please remember to post any cards by 15th December. Next week we are performing the dress rehearsal of our KS1 production ‘It’s a Cracker!’ to the whole school. Reminders have been sent out that all children need to come to school wearing a Christmas jumper on Tuesday 12th December ready for this. The usual school shorts, trousers, leggings or skirts are fine with their Christmas jumper. They will also need to wear a Christmas jumper on the following day, Wednesday 13th December, as this is our Christmas lunch day, Christmas jumper day and Christmas activity day all rolled into one!

Class 2 have started their new English unit this week and it’s a festive one! The children will be practising their letter writing skills in order to write a polite and informative letter to Santa (without too many demands!) We have looked at the structure of a letter and the importance of having an introduction and conclusion alongside using questions with correct punctuation. We even have our own class 2 post box which we can use to send the finished letters on their way. We have also been looking at the use of effective questioning in our new computing unit. We will be continuing this over the next two weeks. Maths has been VERY tricky this week as we tackled the difficult concept of two-digit subtraction crossing a ten (for example 72 – 38). Everyone has worked their socks off to try and understand this work and we have had lots of practical apparatus in use for support.

Ladies in Pigs visit

On Thursday of this week, we were really lucky to have a visit from Ladies in Pigs. They are a fantastic organisation who work alongside primary schools to deliver workshops on farming, food hygiene and food preperation. The children thoroughly enjoyed making sausage rolls, whilst learning what is like to live and work on a farm. Not only did this tie in really well with our up-and-coming Design Technology unit on food, but it was also a great reminder of what the children had previously explored during their ‘history of farming’ unit.

There is no additional homework this week so the focus is on practising being clear and confident with your lines for the play, getting those three reading signatures and practising your spellings.

Spellings

This week the focus is on some of the common exception words that children are expected to know and be able to spell by the end of year 2. There are some different ideas for practising them at the bottom of the post. The spelling quiz has also been added to the 2do section on Purple Mash so you can complete this at home if you want to.

Reading

This week our reading score improved greatly. By working as a team and giving our friends lots of encouragement we managed to achieve a reading percentage of 93%!

Well done class 2. What a brilliant improvement. Please try and keep this up for next week!