We have nearly finished this first term and the time has flown by! 

We have continued to look at fairy tales in school, spotting the features and talking about these in class. We have continued to focus on Baba Yaga in class and have enjoyed retelling the story to each other. You might like to retell the story together at home or you could watch this short clip with no words.

In maths we have started to look at using a numberline for addition. We have also looked at how we can use basic number bonds to help us with more tricky addition sums, for example, if we know that 5 + 2 = 7 we can use this to work out 50 + 20 = 70.

Well done to everyone who has been practising counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. We have handed out lots of certificates – keep this up!

We have been enjoying our music sessions and singing with Mr Baker, recognising the high and low notes on a xylophone and practising these with our voices too.

In PE this week we have continued to use the apparatus in the hall to practise our climbing, balancing and jumping skills. The children are getting really good at this!

Although it is still only October, we have been thinking about making Christmas cards so they can uploaded onto the website for ordering real greetings cards (a link will be shared with you in the coming weeks) so apologies if any Christmas songs have been sung early!

We’ve enjoyed making these using many art techniques; here’s a sneak peak of the backgrounds we made using water colours for the first layer.

Have a wonderful weekend. We’re back in school on Monday and Tuesday; the children’s half term break starts on Wednesday.

It’s been great to see so many of you over the past couple of evenings for parent consultations.

Thank you for your help with learning some of the times tables too; the children worked hard and were delighted to get a certificate. To clarify, the 2, 5 and 10s are a feature throughout Year 2 so they can continue learning these throughout the year and move on to others when they are ready. We’ll check periodically but the children can let me know when they’re ready and can aim to get their certificates throughout the year.

We have had a lovely time in school. Earlier on in the month we looked outside the classroom to think about different types of ‘micro-habitats’. We thought about the conditions and things that creatures need to survive such as food and shelter and enjoyed looking at the diversity of what we found. Last time we were out there were hundreds of crane-fly!

We have started learning about traditional tales this week and have enjoyed sharing some in class. We have enjoyed talking about what makes a traditional tale and spotting the features in the stories that we have shared together. You might like to share the story of Baba Yaga that we have been looking at in class as there are lots of different versions. You can see the story below.

In maths we have continued to look at the different ways numbers are composed and represent this using different ways such as part part whole and dienes. We have also been looking at number sequences such as the ones below. We have looked at whether numbers are going forwards or backwards and by how much so that we can work out the next numbers in the sequence.

We have also been spotting patterns when counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.

We have really enjoyed creating artwork ready for display in school. We have painted sunset backgrounds using watercolours and then sketched structures from around the world ready to stick on the background. Here are some pictures of what we have been doing.

We have really enjoyed our PE time this term. We’ve been outdoors practising our ball-skills with Mr Senior. This week we were improving our basketball skills and teamwork. On Fridays we have been using the apparatus to practise balancing, climbing and jumping skills.

We have enjoyed using different spelling techniques to help us learn ways to spell new words. ‘Noughts and Crosses’ has been a favourite!

We’re continuing to look at the bulb we ‘planted’ at the start of September. It likes being somewhere dark because it would be dark if it was buried under ground. The roots have grown even more since this photo!

Have a wonderful weekend. We can’t wait to see you on Monday!

Wow, it is October already and we are a month into Year 2! The weather is changing and there are definite signs of Autumn in the air. 

We have continued to look at Here We Are by Oliver Jeffers in our writing. We have been considering how we are all different and how this makes the world a more interesting place. We have also looked at diversity within the animal world. We used pictures from the book to write sentences about what the people are doing. We have focused on using adjectives to add description to make our writing more interesting and informative.

We loved listening to Louis Armstrong’s song ‘What a Wonderful World’ and enjoyed listening to David Attenborough recite some of the lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYXBJmrsxZU

We created our own versions of the poem and practised reading them aloud to the class – we did a wonderful job!

Next week we are looking forward to reading some Traditional Tales and starting to consider what makes them a traditional story.

In maths we have continued to look at the place value of digits and also discussed how to use the greater than and less than symbols to order numbers. You might want to watch this video that we watched in class about how to use the symbols. You might like to play this game: https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/574/Comparing-Numbers-using-Dienes

In art we have continued to look at buildings and structures – this week we focused on the Burj Khalifa and enjoyed spotting the shapes we could use to help us reproduce our own versions. We also looked at Dubai and where this was located on a map. We were amazed at how high it was but couldn’t believe how tiny it looked when we compared it next to Mount Everest!

We have continued to learn some new songs and find the pulse and beat in them. You might want to share this with your adults at home – penguins 

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard on their homework, we were so impressed with the work you have done, keep it up!