It has been such a lovely first week back in school and the children have settled back in quickly and brilliantly.

In maths this week we have been consolidating our new learning of adding with renaming. We have found this quite tricky but the children are showing a fantastic growth mindset and persevering. We want to make sure the children are really comfortable with this so they are having plenty of opportunity to practice. To help us we came up with a rap so we could remember all of the steps. It goes like this…

Write it! (We write the calculation so we don’t get confused.)

Make it! (We make the numbers.)

Check it! (We double check we have made the numbers with the correct amount of tens and ones.)

Push the ones down! (We always add the ones together first.)

Count it!

Rename it! (If we have over ten ones we need to rename them. We rename 10 ones to make 1 ten.)

Push the tens down! (We then push down and count the tens.)

Add it altogether! (Finally we add everything altogether.)

As you can see there is a lot to remember and we want to make sure the children have a really good understanding of this method.

In English we started with writing our recounts of our half term. The children were brilliant at including many of the skills we had learnt before half term! It sounds like everyone have a brilliant week off.

After lunch on Tuesday the children came back into a dark classroom. The room was full of fairy lights, glow sticks and on the whiteboard was a roaring fire. We spoke about where we get light from and discussed how God created light for us. We read a story called ‘Amy’s light’ and discussed where we get light from and how we feel in the dark. As it was bonfire night we had our own firework display on the whiteboard to introduce our new topic called ‘Light it up!’ The children created some lovely artwork of light sources using watercolours and glitter. I then found an old looking suitcase in the classroom which had some strange items in (a diary, cheese, an old map of London, a picture of fire and a quill). We discovered that the items were about a big fire that happened a long time ago in London. We became historians and asked lots of questions about the event.

In guided reading we were introduced to our new book called ‘Vlad and the Great fire of London’ and made out predictions about what would happen. We discovered that Vlad is a flea who lives in between his rat friends ears! How strange!

In English we explored our new text type – a diary. We discussed who can write diaries, why people write them and who should read them. We spotted lots of features which include a date, a greeting, I, different tenses and feelings. We were introduced to the past, present and future tense in writing and were super at recognising them. Suffixes –ed and –ing help to give us clues as to if something is written in past and present tense.

In PE we had our first jump rope session which was so exciting. We learnt how to hold a skipping rope correctly and how to skip forwards and backwards. I was really impressed with the children hard work and perseverance. Soon we will be ready to learn some tricks.

In RE the children finished our ‘Who created the world?’ topic by answering the question ‘What is the best thing that God created?’ The children came up with some really insightful ideas.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend everybody!

Wow what a brilliant first half term in year 2!

I am amazed by the progress the children have made so far!

Thank you everyone who attended the Harvest Festival on Thursday morning. I’m sure you will agree that year 2 sang beautifully! I was so proud!

In maths we have been building up our confidence when adding and renaming. We have also consolidated all our other methods.

In English we have recapped what makes an accurate sentence ready for writing our grog instructions. The children have worked so hard to include all of our skills and paid close attention to our capital letters and punctuation. I think Captain Cook will have no trouble following the children's amazing writing! 

In Guided reading we predicted what would happen next in the story and the children came up with some wonderful ideas! We all really enjoyed the book.

In Geography we continued our continent and ocean work and in DT designed and made our wheels. In Computing the children completed coding challenges on scratch and were given algorithms to program. In science we observed how much our bulbs have grown! We measured the shoots and drew our observation and noticed how much had changed.

I hope you all have a wonderful half term and I look forward to seeing the children back here safe and sound on Tuesday 5th November!

We have had such a busy yet brilliant week in year 2!

The trip on Thursday to the Beeline festival was such a lovely day out and the children really did Tardebigge proud. We watched a clever performance of ‘The Selfish Giant’, visited the hive and made book covers for Matilda. We then had a quick look in the Worcester Infirmary Museum which was very interesting!

In English this week we started by being detectives and cracking the code of a set of instructions. We are brilliant at spotting features now including a title, opening, commas in a list, verbs in commands and contractions. On Friday we received another letter from Captain Cooke!! He is going to Captain Beastlies birthday party next week and would like to make him pirate grog so has asked us to write some instructions for him. Captain Cooke had kindly given us some ingredients to explore and smell so we could write our lists. The children loved choosing between sea water and rum (which was coke haha!), cinnamon and sugar, lime and orange, coconut and honey and many others.

In maths we have recapped out place value chapter and continued to add using different methods. When adding 10’s we can count on in ten and we noticed the ones will not change. We can also partition numbers into tens and ones and add the ones together then the tens to help find our answer. Finally we began to add numbers using the column method. We practically made both numbers, added the ones first and then the tens!

In DT the children finished making there levers which their friends evaluated and began labelling their world maps in geography. In computing the children continued to predict, write code and debug to direct their pirate sprites to an ‘X marks the spot’. In RE we explored how we felt when something we had spent time created was destroyed and how God might feel when his creation is being destroyed. We talked about litter, trees being chopped down, vandalism, rubbish in the ocean and the world becoming hotter and what that means. In HeartSmart we talked about having a ‘gratitude attitude’ because if we think about all the things we are grateful for our hearts become stronger and we are happier.

Thank you everyone who attended parents evening on Tuesday. It was so lovely to meet with you all properly and to share the brilliant work your children have achieved so far.

Have a lovely weekend!

What a fantastic week!

In guided reading we have continued reading Captain Beastlies pirate party and worked on our sequencing skills. The children are really enjoying this book and think Captain Beastlie is very disgusting!

In maths we recapped partitioning a two digit number into different combinations and used sweets (which were very hard not to eat!) to compare numbers. Towards the end of the week we moved onto our next chapter of addition and subtraction. We began by adding a one digit number to a two digit number by counting on. We also learnt that adding it commutative which means you add numbers together in any order.

For example

3 + 5 = 8

5 + 3 = 8

We finished the week by exploring related addition facts. If I know 3 + 5 = 8 then I know 30 + 50 = 80!

In English we started the week by exploring our new text type which we quickly spotted were instructions. We spied lots of features which include a title, an opening, lists with commas, steps and commands. We practised lots of new skills in our writing this week which included using commas in a list, verbs in a command and contractions. Verbs are action word and contractions are phrases that have been shortened which some letters replaced with an apostrophe.

From Mrs Medlicott: The past few weeks have seen us investigate how materials can be used for the same object. We looked closely at a metal, wooden and plastic spoon and considered what we thought was the most appropriate use for each spoon.  We investigated how materials can change in shape by bending, stretching, twisting and squashing. The children had solid prior knowledge for this and their predictions were good.

We have started to look at the suitability of materials. We carried out a What if? activity, where we had the questions:

What if my coat was made of paper? What if my car was made of glass? 

We received a message from Jim Lad and Matilda (characters from the class reading book) who need help to move some treasure. We will carry out an experiment to find the strongest paper to use to move the treasure next week. 

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to carry out the science experiments at home with our class science bag. The children enjoy sharing their experience with the class and the class love to listen! 

In DT this week we began to make our levers and in geography we have continued our work exploring our world’s continents and oceans. On Wednesday we had a visit from the England netball player – Jade Clarke. The children loved the opportunity to learn some new skills and hold her medals! In computing we continued coding on Scratch Jr editing our stages, sprites and programming using efficient algorithms. We had a short RE session retelling the creation story with freeze frames. We finished Friday afternoon with a lovely visit from baby Theo! The children were so excited to see him and he amazed us by standing up all on his own! We predicted that he might be walking the next time we see him. Thank you again baby Theo.

I hope everyone enjoyed cinema night and has a lovely weekend!

I look forward to sharing all of your children’s amazing progress with you on Tuesday!

We have had another brilliant week in year 2!

Over the past couple of weeks I have been reading with all the children to check fluency and comprehension skills. From this and speaking with adults from our guided reading groups we may have changed your child’s home reader colour. It is really important that your child is reading at the correct level in terms of word reading, word understanding and comprehension of the text. Thank you for your support and for all the amazing reading at home!

In our whole class guided reading we began reading ‘Captain Beastlies pirate party’. The children took it in turns to use the text to act (very convincingly) as Captain Beastlie. We then discussed what kind of character he is and what adjectives describe him.

In English we have written our non-chronological reports titled ‘How to be a pirate’. We have tried so hard to include different types of sentences, description and conjunctions to be successful. As well as including these features we have made sure our sentences are accurate. We then decided to plan our own non-chronological reports. The children were very excited and have come up with a range of exciting reports such as how to be a rapper, author, DJ and farmer.

In maths we started to count in 3s and 5s and notice patterns. We have then recapped our place value knowledge by completing part-part whole models. We are much more confident at this now which is brilliant!

In DT we designed simple levers which we will make next week and in geography we painted our world maps and keys. The children through daily dashboard have continued to name and locate the 7 continents and have started to learn amazing facts about Asia and Africa! In PE we discussed why we need to be fit and healthy and played team games to get our hearts racing. In computing we continued to code and used Scratch Jr to do this as well as editing the background and sprite. The children are much more confident at using key vocabulary such as algorithm, predict and debug. In RE we discussed the importance of rest and how it links to the story and Creation.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend – I am looking forward to Monday already!

What a rainy week!

Even with the distraction of the rain year 2 have worked so hard.

In maths we continued our work with place value by partitioning 2 digit numbers. We continued to prove the place value and partitioning in as many ways as we can find. By the end of the week we have been focusing on number patterns. The children have used 100 squares and their 2 and 10 times table to help them recognise patterns. We can identify if a pattern is counting forwards or backwards and if it is in 2s or 10s. We have worked so hard with this.

In English we have written our next paragraphs of our reports with the subheadings ‘what do pirates wear?’ and ‘where do pirates live?’ The children have worked so hard to include description and conjunctions in their paragraphs. By the end of the week we were editing our writing with pink pen checking our spellings, capital letters and punctuation.

A message from Mrs Medlicott: Year 2 have worked enthusiastically through our science afternoons! We have looked closely at different types of materials in the classroom (man-made) and outside on the playground (natural). They produced a word bank of the properties of materials: pointy, bendy, stretchy, rigid, fragile, and fluffy. We have conducted experiments to classifying materials, predicting what was in the bag and the suitability of materials for purpose. These experiments will continue over this half term and we will be starting to look into our environment and observe a tree during all four seasons and start a section of our plants topic, where we will plant spring bulbs ready to observe later in the year.

If your child is given the science bag please could you bring back into school on Monday, so we can share their experiment during our science lesson.  

It is lovely for me to see Year 2 children on a Monday afternoon and observe how they are maturing; we certainly are on a journey together!

For DT this week we designed and made working sliders. The children really loved making their pictures come to life and move! In Geography we are still focusing on our continents and oceans and the children began sketching their very own world map.

In PE we focused on getting our hearts pumping and different ways of travelling around a space. In computing we practiced all of our skills and completed coding challenges. The children were able to program into the iPad and debug it if it didn’t work. We also had a brilliant discussion on how to stay safe online. In RE we were understanding the importance of Christians being grateful for the Creator and his creation. We had a lovely discussion about how Christians show they are grateful and how they believe they should live in his world. We have also been introduced to a robot called Borris and read a lovely book introducing him. Borris is HeartSmart which means he loves himself and others. We will continue to work with Borris to think about our own hearts and being kind to them.

In our whole class guided reading we looked at the front cover of our class book, ‘Captain Beastlies pirate party’. We were able to comment on what we could see, think about questions and predict what the story might be about.

Hopefully the maths homework books are correct this time. For SPAG homework children are practising the skill of writing questions and commands. I would also like to mention how impressed I am with how much everyone is reading at home. It really does make a big difference!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

This week has absolutely flown by! WOW!   In maths we have continued to focus on place value of 2 digit numbers, identifying the tens and ones. We have also become more confident comparing two numbers. We know to look at the tens first and then compare the ones. The children became very hungry crocodiles and demonstrated eating the greatest numbers. We have recalled number bond facts to 10 and will continue to explore related facts. By the end of the week we were exploring how many ways we could partition a 2 digit number.   E.g  42 = 40 + 2 42 = 30 + 12 42 = 20 + 22 42 = 10 + 32   In English we have been detectives cracking the code of our ‘How to be a cowboy’ non-chronological report. We then identified all the features in the different sections of the report. We identified questions, commands, description and conjunctions. We then received a message in a glass bottle! It was from Captain Cooke asking us to write a non-chronological report about pirates! We were very excited by this so spent some time gathering information all about pirates. By the end of the week we started to write the title and opening of our report.    In DT we looked at wonderful books with moving parts. We explored them and identified the different mechanisms in each book. The children evaluated the products and were able to discuss what they liked and what could be better. In geography we continued our work naming and locating the 7 continents and 5 oceans on world maps. We also looked at atlases for the first time and explored the different maps and keys. In PE we focused on balance and in computing we inputted our predicted algorithms (instructions) into beebots. The children were very accurate with their instructions and were able to debug (fix) them if they weren’t quite right. In RE we were able to retell the story of creation and explored what Christians are thankful for.    Many apologies again for the mix up with the maths homework. I will ensure next Friday that every child has the correct book. For SPAG homework children will be identifying proper nouns (names of people, places, days of the week and months) and editing my sentences!    We have school photos on Monday.    Have a lovey weekend everybody!   

What a brilliant week in year 2 which has gone by so quickly! Everyone has settled in really well this week and we are all use to the new routines.

In maths this week we have continued to look at the place value of a 2 digit number. We have learnt a lot of new vocabulary. We have done lots of learning with concrete materials to really consolidate and prove the value of each digit in a number. For this we have used place value charts and part, part whole diagrams. It can be quite tricky to understand the difference between tens and ones and we will continue to prove this. By the end of the week we have started to compare numbers using the language ‘greater than’, ‘more than’ and ‘equal to’ as well as using symbols > < =.

In English we learn using text types and have explored non chronological reports. These are non-fiction, fact based reports. We have identified the features in them such as titles, headings, facts, questions and pictures. We then spent the rest of the week learning new skills to put in our writing. We have used different types of sentences (questions and bossy commands), description (using adjectives) and conjunctions (to join clauses together).

The children started their science topic this week with Mrs Medlicott:

Autumn Term 2019 -Materials Matter. Blog update.

In this unit we will identify what everyday materials are made from and compare if there is another suitable use of the material. We will investigate how the shape of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching. We will explore materials in their natural and man-made form and conduct experiments to develop our skills to work scientifically, develop observation skills, gathering and recording evidence and identification and classification of materials.

Our investigations will include a classroom material hunt. We will learn about the properties of materials and conduct a “What’s in the bag?” Activity, making predictions of objects by touch alone. We will investigate the different forms of materials and consider using different materials for different uses, What if …? (my desk was made of fabric etc). And will we consider the best material to use to make a bucket to help with a sinking pirate ship. From this point we will research a famous scientist and finally, we will consider recycling and how we can help to be more proactive at recycling.

Throughout our science lessons each of us will be asked to work scientifically by three prompts; I see, I think, I wonder…. Using three prompts will help to focus their investigations to what they see, what they know and prompt a greater depth investigation for I wonder. We will use prompts both around the classroom and when recording findings in their science books.

Each week the Science bag will be sent home with a child. As a class we will look at your child’s experiment and hold discussions around their findings. Please send the Science bag back into school the following Monday ready for our next science lesson. Thank you.

I am looking forward to some very scientific investigation work being carried out in their Year 2 year! 

from Mrs Medlicott.

In geography we have been practicing the skill of locating and naming the seven continents on maps. In PE we had a quick session to get our hearts racing and the children really enjoyed the bean game! The children for DT came up with three designs for a pirate pebble, evaluated and chose their favourite design to make.

We had a very smiley visitor today from baby Theo and enjoyed seeing all the changes from the last time he came into school. The children were so excited and eager to interact with him and ask questions. Some children predicted he might be walking next time! Thank you again baby Theo.

We finished the week with RE and explored what the creation story meant to us. We could retell the story of creation and thought about which part we are most thankful for. We expressed this by creating a watercolour painting and the results are beautiful!

Homework has been sent out today. I hope you enjoy the noun hunt!

Have a lovely weekend everybody!

Welcome to year 2! I will be updating this blog each week with information all about year 2! I have updated the class 2 page with information such as key dates, homework and the days we have PE. The Ahoy Pirates medium term planning is also attached as well as year 2 pirate topic words.

We have had a brilliant week and have practised all our new routines in year 2. The children have settled really well and are becoming more familiar with the classroom, adults and expectations. Year 2 is a big step up in terms of learning and expectations but the children are becoming more independent each day!

We have done lots of maths this week and practised counting in different multiples as well as recalling number bonds. We have used these skills to start our Singapore maths number and place value chapter by counting up to 100.

The children have recounted their summer holidays (which all sounded brilliant) and familiarised themselves with our topic words. We have started to understand how to retrieve information from a text by underlining key words to give us clues in whole class guided reading.

We made fantastic 3D artwork in the style of Zoe Bradley by changing the shape, form and texture of paper. The end results were fantastic! We had our first coding computer lesson and became pirates to write algorithms to help us get to our treasure! We predicted, tested and debugged using ourselves as robots. The children had their first RE session thinking about ‘Who created the world?’

Guided reading will start next week. The book band level of the home reader your child brings home might change as we assess fluency and comprehension skills.

If you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to contact me.

Homework will be sent out on Friday.

The week has flown by and I think we are definitely ready for the weekend! Enjoy and see you on Monday!

What a delight it has been getting to know the wonderful new Year 3 to be. We began our week with a getting to know each other game ‘two truths and a lie’ and creating information sheets on themselves. Staff filled these in too, so the children could find out all about us also.

On Wednesday we created maths posters ready for September, using representations to show the numbers. We thought about ‘part, part, whole’, Base 10, counters and bar models. These will look fantastic when they are up to support us with our spellings and remind us of representations. Later in the week, we also started our new Year 3 Singapore Maths books, and the children showed what they have learned about Picture Graphs.

We then went on to read a lovely story called ‘The Dragon and the Nibblesome Knight’, and followed James the knight and Dram the dragon as they discovered friendship through showing their true qualities. We used these qualities to think about what qualities Year 3 knights would show, ready for September. The children also designed their very own armour!

On Thursday, we had such an 'eggsciting' discovery! We watched a video that showed a dragon flying over a nearby school , then searched our field for evidence of the dragon. We found small nests with eggs in, and pieces of burnt wood on the field! We quickly collected the evidence, then brought the eggs into school to decorate. This was the perfect time to annouce our new topic in September will be Dragons! On Friday, we celebrated the school's musicians, with the Musical Showcase in the morning. A huge well done to all that performed and impressed the audience with their talents. In the afternoon, we enjoyed a game of quick cricket on the field, before coming back to school to do some dragon sketching.

We look forward to seeing them all again on Monday, for their final transition day!

Mrs Horton and Mr Bennett.