Remote Learning

Happy Friday! We hope that you are all well and that you are staying safe on this windy and blustery day. For those who are able to do some activities today, here are some ideas that you can complete at home.

We are going to be meeting virtually if you are able to join us at 9.30 and 1.15 for around 10 minutes. Please see the email from the office with links to join. We’re also available at year2@damers.dorset.sch.uk for any home learning questions/photos to share tomorrow.

We’ve included some ideas below similar to what we’d be doing in class. You may also enjoy some of these ideas:

• Make a pillow fort with blankets and cushions
• Write a story about anything you like! 
• Enjoy a movie with your family if you can
• Help an adult make a healthy snack or tasty treat
• Listen to your favourite songs
• Show off your best dance moves 

Maths

In maths this week we have been learning about mass. You might want to have a look at the packaging of some food items and see how much these items weigh. Can you put these items in order of lightest to heaviest?

If you have access to scales then you could weigh different objects from around the house and compare their weights. Can you put these in order using the < (less than), > (greater than) and = (equal to) signs? 

Alternatively, if you don’t have access to scales you can order the objects by feeling how heavy they are, the lego brick is lighter than the book.

Online activities

My Maths – Many of you will have access to your My Maths password, there are lots of activities on here which you can complete even if they have not been set by your teacher. https://www.mymaths.co.uk/ 

We have set some mymaths work on measures for completion over the next two weeks. 

TT Rockstars https://ttrockstars.com/ 

Numbots https://numbots.com/ 

Hit the Button https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button 

Writing

We know how much you have loved becoming experts on Emperor Penguins so now we would like you to find out about an animal from the Arctic – the Polar Bear!

You can watch these links to find out more about polar bears (as always, adults please check any external links first as external adverts and comments may be enabled). 

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/polar-bear There are some facts on here and a video further down too.

Using the information that you have learnt about Polar Bears we would like you to create a non-chronological report. You can use the same structure and subheadings as we did for the Emperor Penguins (there is an example layout below or you can download the pdf). You might want to follow a structure similar to this:

Paragraph 1- introduction

Paragraph 2 – Where do polar bears live?

Paragraph 3 – How have polar bears adapted to live in the Arctic?

Paragraph 4 – What do polar bears eat?

Paragraph 5 – What do polar bears look like?

Wow fact – perhaps you could include a fact about polar bear cubs, how far they can swim or something that you find really interesting.

Home learning project

Our home learning projects are in full swing, thank you if you have shared this with us already. If you haven’t completed an activity yet you can find more information here: http://www.damers.dorset.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/HL-Y2-spr1-22.pdf 

***update. In light of adverse weather conditions, please see the email from Mrs Smith regarding remote learning sent on 17.02.22*** Please stay safe today (Friday).

It’s the end of another week and another half term. Can you believe we’re halfway through year 2?

Thank you for spending your time with us this week during our parent consultation appointments. If you’ve not been able to make it, please speak with one of us by the gate in the morning or afterschool.

In art we have finished our amazing works of symmetry using water colours and oil pastels. Can you tell which side is the photograph and which side is our art work? 

A few months ago, we ‘planted’ our hyacinth bulbs. They’ve started flowering now and produce such an amazing smell. Some of the children thought they smelt similar to soaps or lavender; others thought they were reminded of sweets! 

It has been a windy few days so PE with Mr Senior was spent in the large hall practising some throwing, ducking and moving techniques!

We’ve continued thinking about mass and weight in class. If possible, it would be great if you could follow a recipe together that involves weighing out some ingredients at home. If you have access to a device, you could use this interactive scale: https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/87/itp-measuring-scales 

In class we set the scales to 1000 (grams) with intervals of 10.

During wet playtimes we have enjoyed using Google Quick Draw on the whiteboard: https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com/

Over half term, we hope you have a wonderful week and a chance to rest after a very busy January and February.

You may have received an email about an ‘extreme reading’ challenge. Please find a copy of the contents below:

Another week done and dusted – where does the time go?! 

We’ve enjoyed using balancing and measuring scales to help us measure mass/weight in grams and kilograms this week. We’ve estimated, measured and read different scales to help us. 

We’ve been focusing on some sentence structures this week. We’re working on our lovely joined up handwriting and using words called conjunctions (‘so’, ‘or’, ‘but’) to help us extend our sentences. 

Thank you for sharing your ongoing home learning projects with us. It has been great seeing so many of your boat experiments too! 

We got muddy in PE this week using skills to help us dodge, twist, turn and maneuver with rugby balls. 

In art we’ve been thinking about what we see in nature. In the past we talked about spirals and circles. We’ve explored how we can often see symmetry in nature and have explored whether we can see this with animals’ faces such as owls and tigers. 

Internet Safety Day 

Today is national Safer Internet Day and we have spent time in class discussing how we use the internet in our day-to-day lives and how to stay safe when online or when using technology with a particular focus on online gaming. The discussions we had in class today might be a good starting point for a discussion at home about online safety so if your child can’t remember what they did at school today then ask them about how they can stay safe online and they might be able to give you a few pointers!

We also read a story about DigiDuck and his friends who used a device to play an online game.

 

For more information you can also look at our Online Safety pages on the Damers website here http://www.damers.dorset.sch.uk/parents/online-safety/ or you could also visit the national Safer Internet Day website at https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2022 

Happy Friday! We hope that you have had a good week, we can’t believe it is now February! 

We have been busy with our learning and have continued to learn about Emperor Penguins. Did you know that Emperor Penguins are the biggest of the penguin species and are around 115cm tall? We enjoyed measuring ourselves and working out how big they were compared with us. 

This week we have taken part in a Literacy Festival which has been kindly funded by the PTA.

We heard an extract from Catherine Emmett’s book, The Pet, and learnt about how she creates her characters and how the illustrator, David Tazzyman, then draws them. We also took part in a storytelling session with Emily Hanna-Graze Brook and a session with author Ross Collins too.

In art we have continued to look at Symmetry in Nature, this week our focus has been on owls. We enjoyed looking at the majestic barn owl and sketching its face. We have also enjoyed painting our own abstract owls too.

We are loving writing our own emperor penguin information books and can’t wait to get these finished.

Our home learning projects are in full swing. These can be shared with us whenever they are finished although we hope to see them all after half term. Follow this link for full details: http://www.damers.dorset.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/HL-Y2-spr1-22.pdf 

Some super effort was made here to create a life size emperor penguin complete with an information book in the style of an egg! Thank you for supporting the children at home with their additional learning opportunities and please continue to read daily with your children. 

A message from Mr Moore: 

The CPRE National Star count is back from Saturday 26th February – Sunday 6th March. If you want to get involved, choose a clear night between 26 February – 6 March 2022 and look to the skies to see how many stars you can spot within Orion.

https://takeaction.cpre.org.uk/page/95329/data/1?locale=en-GB