Friday 18th October
We have enjoyed our penultimate week before a well-deserved rest over half-term for all of Year 2! We are looking forward to talking to you all on Tuesday or Wednesday next week about how your child has settled into this new academic year. Please do take a quick look at the mini report that was sent out, as we will be discussing these targets.
In English this week we have written very successful pirate stories, and what an adventure some of the pirates had! Sea monsters, dangerous lagoons and ferocious enemy pirate crews, to name a few of the 'problems' in our stories.
For Maths, we focused on addition strategies and will continue to do so next week.
We has some time thinking as philosophers in RE, this week. Having learnt such a lot about what many Christians believe that God is like, we spent some time thinking about our own personal beliefs and actions.
In art, we have started our mini beast collages and cannot wait to finish these off next week!
Spellings next week: As Tuesday is our Pirate Day, we will change spelling tests to Wednesday next week. New spellings will be given out before the end of the week for a longer time to learn them over half-term.
Mini report from Mrs Bennett about Wednesday's PE sessions:
This half term, we have focused on improving three key physical skills: agility, balance, and coordination.
Agility: To develop agility, we performed a variety of circuit activities, which helped us practice quick movements and changes in direction.
Balance: For balance, we used equipment in the hall, including ropes, to challenge ourselves and improve stability.
Coordination: Our coordination skills were enhanced by focusing on dribbling and kicking techniques, helping us better control our movements, especially with a ball.
Thank you so much for the donation of boxes of tissues. They have been really appreciated!
We are looking forward to having fun as a crew of trainee pirates on Tuesday. Please can they wear clothes/shoes that are suitable to go outside for our usual break times.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mrs Collett & Mrs Lee
Friday 11th October
We have had another busy, hard-working week. Well done to Year 2 for increased stamina and resilience.
In English, we have been working diligently to write our own version of 'Captain McGraw and the storm'. We have been really pleased with their creative ideas and well-chosen vocabulary, and are looking forward to reading their finished, crafted work next week.
In Maths, we have explored number bonds to 10 and 20. Next week we will be focusing on a number of addition skills: using related facts, adding ones, adding to the next 10, making number bonds to 100.
In Geography, we started to plan and draw our own treasure map.
In PE, we learnt a sequence of movements for our unit on water, whilst dancing to Funk Monk's 'Beach Bongos Part 1'. Great fun!
We investigated the term ‘durability’ in Science, and tested various fabrics to see which one would be the best option for playing outside.
Today in Art, we started designing our own mini-beasts ready to make them using a collage style next week.
Spellings: we are aware that some find learning spellings more challenging than others. If your child is struggling to learn their spellings and gets a word wrong 3 weeks in a row, we will simply leave that word for the time being and return to it at a later date. If you are finding spelling challenging at home, please come and talk to us.
Next week you will receive an email with a mini report. This is to show, ahead of parents evening consultations, your child's learning behaviours in Year 2 as well as a target for Maths, reading and writing. We will discuss these at the consultation in the final week of this half-term.
Pirate Day - a reminder please that Pirate Day is on Tuesday 22nd October. It would be great if your child could come to school dressed as a pirate on that day! Thank you
Further donations of boxes of tissues would still be really appreciated as we go into the colder months.
We do hope you have a wonderful weekend, and look forward to seeing you all on Monday.
Mrs Collett & Mrs Lee
Friday 4th October
We enjoyed being at the Church on Wednesday for our Harvest festival service. We looked very smart too! A huge thank you to all parents who donated food and toiletries.
In English this week, we read alternative texts, spending time particularly exploring 'Inside the Villains' where we learnt all about the giant and the wolf characters from many fairy tales. The class really enjoyed this book! Keeping our focus on vocabulary, adjectives and the 'Power of 3', the class are prepared for next week when we will begin to write our own versions of a pirate tale, using these same writing techniques.
We have completed our Maths unit on place value. Next week we will be revisiting number bonds to 10 and 20 before exploring addition more fully.
On Wednesday afternoon, we welcomed in Karl and Shaniah, from Wellspring Church, who helped us to understand how and why many Christians worship by singing.
In Geography, we learnt about compass directions, and in science we investigated the term ‘rigid’ by testing the strength of different rulers using weights.
We were excited to sketch some real life insects in Art today! We observed and sketched the insect’s details closely and enhanced our sketches by adding colour, using pastels.
Library - Apologies for the change of day with Library this week. We have discussed keeping Library changing day on a THURSDAY now as a permanent move. So please do encourage your child to bring in their library book each Thursday.
Homework: a small number of parents have raised questions/made comments about the new homework system. These comments are really valuable so please do let us know if you are having difficulties.
Next week, we have school photos taking place on Monday (individual as well as siblings), so Year 2 will need to come to school in their smart uniform, with their PE kit in a bag, as on Wednesday for Harvest festival.
Looking ahead - Pirate Day is only 2 and a half weeks away, when Captain Whitebeard will be back to choose a suitable crew for his next voyage. Please could we ask that all children come dressed as a pirate on that day (Tuesday 22nd October). Parents evenings are also in that final week of half term so please look out for the email and sign up to discuss your child's progress.
We would appreciate donations of boxes of tissues please. The colder weather means we are blowing our noses more!
We wish you all a wonderful weekend
Mrs Collett and Mrs Lee
Friday 27th September
We have had a busy week in Year 2 and have enjoyed exploring our foundation topics. As pirate explorers, we have been learning about the 7 continents and 5 oceans, ready to use a compass to navigate the seas next week!
In English, we continued with our text all about Captain McGraw and have spent the week learning about and writing using the Power of 3 and 2A sentences. Next week we will be reading alternative texts to extend our vocabulary and experience, ready to write our own stories. 'The Eyebrows of Doom' and 'The Villains' are both fantastic books, which we are confident the class will enjoy.
In Maths, we have learnt to place numbers on a number line, ready to order and compare 2-digit numbers next week.
For Science we investigated how stretchy different fabrics were, by placing 4 oranges into 3 different thicknesses of tights, and seeing how far they stretched.
Art was exciting this week, as we were challenged to do a continuous line drawing looking carefully at different mini beasts. We also tried a variety of different sketching tools to produce these images.
We are looking forward to welcoming a visitor in next week's RE lesson who is coming to talk to us about why Christians sing in Church.
Our Harvest festival service is on Wednesday so please drop off your child, at St Mary's Church Hall (round the back of the church); at 8:45/8:50am ready for our 9am service. If you can stay and walk back to school with us, that would be really appreciated. All food and toiletries donations will be going to the Foodbank charity.
Library books can be changed on Tuesday next week.
Spellings:
Spelling sheets were sent home on Thursday. These will be tested on Tuesday next week and new spellings will be sent home on Wednesday.
We hope you have a lovely weekend
Mrs Collett & Mrs Lee
Friday 20th September
It was great to see many of you at our 'Meet the teachers' event on Tuesday morning. We hope that it was useful.
We have uploaded the PowerPoint slides in which you can find a copy of our Autumn class timetable and our curriculum overview for this first half-term. If you were not able to be there, please do come and ask any questions you may have. We are keen to work well together to bring out the best in each and every child. No comment or question is too small to ask.
This week we launched our new English scheme and started with a clue finding session to see if we could work out the main character in our first text. Clues of a peacock feather, a gold hoop earring and a beard kept us amused! We then spent the rest of the week exploring adjectives, 2A sentences and the 'Power of 3' as techniques found in the story, which we are hoping to use when we write our own pirate adventure in a few weeks' time.
In Maths, we have continued embedding understanding of 2-digit numbers, partitioning into tens and ones using Dienes, place value charts, number lines counting in 10’s and part/whole models.
In RE we read and acted out the story of Jonah; for Geography we named (and sang) the 5 oceans on our planet. Next week: the continents!
In Art, we continued to learn about the works of our chosen artist Van Kessel, and we had the opportunity to enhance our own sketching skills!
Science provided us with a challenge to find a suitable material for the Three Billy Goats Gruff to use to build a new bridge; we loved testing all of the material options to find the strongest one.
Library books were chosen this week. We are still working on a set day to visit the Library but for now, any Year 2 who would like to change their Library book can bring it in on a Tuesday, and we will aim to change them that day.
As discussed in the 'Meet the Teachers' presentation, the Homework letter sent out at the end of last week contained some inaccuracies regarding our spelling system. Spellings will be tested on a Tuesday and new lists sent home on a Wednesday. Most children will receive 6 each week. We will be working from the assessments given to us by Miss Devlin at the end of Year 1. Our focus will be Common Exception words.
We will print out and send home the Maths Knowledge Organisers next week, for you to use at home.
Home Learning
Doodle Learning - green zone in English and Maths by Monday morning
Please read 5 times and sign the Reading Record book.
We will send the first spelling lists home next week - you can always do some Doodle Spelling for this week
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Collett and Mrs Lee
Friday 13th September
We have successfully completed our first full week in Year 2; the children have worked very hard.
It has been a busy week so a restful weekend might be in order!
In English this week, we have been exploring 'Into the Blue' as our class text. The poem explores an imaginary journey of a person holding onto a blue balloon as it floats over landscape and then pops, leaving them to land on a cloud. We discussed vocabulary and adapted ideas to compose our own version. Next week we will be starting our new unit on character description looking at texts all about pirates and characterisation.
In Maths, we have embedded understanding of teen numbers and begun to make, draw and write 2-digit numbers to 100 in different ways. We will continue this next week.
We have launched into many of the foundation subjects, including Geography where we had a surprise visit from a pirate in search of new crew! Captain Whitebeard will be back in 6 weeks on our pirate day (Tuesday 22nd October) to choose pirates to join him on his next voyage.
Next week, our fledgling pirate crew will learn about the oceans.
In RE we begin to explore the story of Jonah to understand what Christians believe about God.
Our investigation work in science was all about looking at different materials and their properties, and we will continue to explore these further next week.
Today we really enjoyed starting our Art project on ‘Flora and Fauna’ and discovered the work of Jan Van Kessel, who was really inspired by nature.
Next Tuesday morning at 9am, we look forward to welcoming you to our 'Meet the Teachers' presentation where we can unpack Year 2 systems, routines, structures and expectations.
Home Learning:
Please read 5 times each week and sign the Reading Record book.
You will receive an email from Mrs Maxwell about the expectations of home learning on Doodle Learning. We will share more information at our 'Meet the Teacher' session on Tuesday. Please e ncourage your child to used Doodle Maths and Doodle English.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Mrs Lee and Mrs Collett
Friday, 6th September 2024
A warm welcome to Year 2!
We hope you have had a wonderful Summer holiday.
The children have been excited and enthusiastic starting in Year 2. We have introduced them to the classroom routines and spent time talking about the school Code of Conduct 'Respectful, Ready and Reflective' and our school vision, thinking about how we can shine our light. Yesterday afternoon we celebrated the return to school with a 'Family Group' afternoon. They had great fun with a variety of activities, including a scavenger hunt.
Our class page will be used to keep you updated on learning, events and key information, and will be updated weekly.
Home Reading
All children will be bringing their reading records home from Monday, after we have completed our initial assessments.
Please sign their Reading Record each time you hear them read; 5 times a week is the aim so that children can get their star stamps and begin collecting their badges. The books (including the signed Reading Record) are required in school every day but will be changed on the allocated day only - written at the top of their Reading Record.
Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange levels: Please read each book with your child 3 times so that they have opportunity to build up their fluency of vocabulary and understanding of the text.
Turquoise, Purple, Gold, White, Lime levels: read the book through once as they are significantly longer but check for accuracy of unfamiliar vocabulary.
In English next week we will be exploring the poem ‘Into the Blue’ before writing our own version and publishing it in our new publishing books. In Maths we will be revisiting numbers to 20 and then learning how to read and make 2-digit numbers to 100. We will also be launching into many of our foundation subject topics, including our main topic: Pirates.
Mrs Lee will teach on Monday and Tuesday, Mrs Collett on Thursday and Friday with a day of shared teaching on Wednesday.
Homework will start next Friday. Further details of this, class routines, expectations and curriculum will be shared at our Meet the Teacher Meeting on Tuesday 17th September at 9am in the classroom. In the meantime, Mrs Maxwell has challenged year 2 to earn some stars by completing some learning on Doodle Learning.
PE days are Monday and Wednesday - please can children come to school dressed in PE kit.
We hope you have a wonderful weekend and look forward to a great year together.
Mrs Lee and Mrs Collett