We have had another brilliant week in year 2.

In guided reading groups we have started to have follow up tasks to work on and retrieve information from the books we are reading. The children are showing a good understanding of what they are reading! In whole class guided reading we have continued to read ‘Man on the moon’ (which we are really enjoying) and been able to sequence his morning routine. We started to look at inference by imagining how Bob would feel cleaning up the moon and what he would be thinking.

In English, the children began the week understanding how to use an apostrophe for belonging (e.g Miss Cooke’s leg). We labelled our body parts using the apostrophe to show who they belong to. It was great fun sticking post it notes to each other! Once we were secure we then began to write sentences including apostrophes to show belonging and contractions (it’s, won’t, couldn’t etc). We recapped writing different types of sentences, cracked the code of a story spotting the skills we’ve recently covered and practiced topic words in handwriting.

In Maths we started our new unit of division. We have explored that in division we can divide into groups or divide by equally sharing. Sometimes it can be tricky to notice the difference but it is something we are having a growth mind set about and will keep trying to get that secure understanding.

In science the children were introduced to their new topic of ‘animals including humans’ by looking at life cycles. They have paired up to research the lifecycle on an animal to then present later on. In art this week we looked at primary colours (red, yellow, blue) and mixed them to create secondary colours (orange, green, purple). From this we added black to colours a little bit at a time to create shades. In history we ordered events on a timeline and asked lots of questions about Emmeline Pankhurst. In computing we continued to test games and notice the rules and in RE we reflected on which part of the gospel we think is most important.

Keep reading at home as much as possible as it really does make a huge difference at this stage!

Have a lovely, restful weekend!

Happy New Year to you all - it sounds like you have all had a wonderful Christmas break. The children have settled back into year 2 without any problems and have had a brilliant first week back. 

We have introduced our new topic this term called 'Little people, big dreams' by asking ourselves what our big dreams are. We created art work and have started to read our new class chapter book, 'The BFG'. 

In maths we have recapped partitioning a 2 digit number into tens and ones and also different combinations. We have also completed from place value reasoning and problem solving tasks. We then recapped addition of two 2 digit numbers including renaming using a partitioning method. We add the tens first, then the ones and add out answers back together to find our whole. 

eg. 

45+37 =

40+30 = 70

5+7 = 12

70+12 = 82

We then recapped subtraction by using a pictorial method of drawing the first number (the whole number) to represent the tens and ones and then crossing out the part to find out our other part. We finally put everything into practise by solving missing number problems. We firstly decided if we were adding (part + part = whole) or subtracting (whole - part = part) and then use the correct method. 

In English we started the week writing recounts of our Christmas holidays to share what we had done. On Tuesday we started exploring our new text type of stories. We read some, discussed what features a story has and read some more to find these features. We agreed that stories are fiction, have characters, settings, illustrations and a plot. From reading 'How to catch a star' we spent time creating descriptive expanded noun phrases to describe the moon, Earth, stars, aliens and rockets. We were also introduced to a new type of word: adverb. An adverb describes the verb (action word) and we spend some time identifying them and including them in sentences. 

In computing we continued our work be games testers and were able to successfully log onto our laptops, find and open documents and right click to open links. I was very impressed! We tested games and worked out the rules in them. In heart smart we discussed what we love and why and who loves us and why. We always need to remember to let love in to be heart smart. In RE we recapped our new question 'What is the good news that Jesus brings?' We remembered he brings friendship because he welcomes everyone and forgiveness. We explored how Jesus also brings piece to us and thought about what makes us feel peace. 

Homework for this term is maths and reading as usual but now we will send home reading comprehension. 

Year 2 have had a very successful last term learning all about Materials in science. They have worked with great enthusiasm during each session to predict, conduct and evaluate experiments on diffetent materials, their properties and the suitability of materials for purpose.  We then moved onto working scientifically , which involved alot of group work and independent work. Everyone enjoyed this session very much - myself and Mrs Friday included! I love coming into Year 2 and observing them as they are maturing through the school.  Next term we will be looking at animals, including humans in science on Monday afternoons.   Mrs Medlicott

I hope you all have a brilliant weekend! See you on Monday!

 

Wow! What a week it has been!

We kicked off the week with our Christmas play dress rehearsal in front of the school and the children performed so brilliantly. Some were a little nervous as many of year two had speaking parts, a dance or singing parts but they really did shine. On Tuesday, we performed in front of you and oh my goodness it was the best performance the children had done. The speaking, singing, dancing and of course the acting was just brilliant from absolutely everyone. A big thank you to all for the costumes that you provided and for coming to see the performance if you were able to!

For the rest of the week we have been very festive making beautiful Christmas cards and in general just having a festive spirit. In maths we have continued our work on multiplication of 2, 5 and 10s. We now have a good understanding what the multiplication sign means (groups of) and are becoming more confident in recalling multiplication facts. In English we wrote recounts of the Christmas play ensure the events were in order and used time connectives to help our work flow. In spellings we have been introduced to more homophones (hear/here, sun/son, one/won) and practised the different spellings in very silly sentences! In our ‘Light it up’ topic work we explored historical sources to find our more information about the past and present to the rest of the class. We were also introduced to the term ‘eyewitness’ and learnt about Samuel Pepys’ diary. We sadly had our last jump rope session which the children have looked forward to each week! Our skipping had definitely improved!

Have a brilliant and restful weekend everyone!

It’s definitely starting to feel a lot like Christmas in year 2 (especially with a naughty elf roaming around!). The children made their decorations to go on our Tardebigge Christmas tree located in Worcester cathedral with the theme of the three wise men. We made very regal looking crowns which are definitely fit for kings! Our Christmas play rehearsals are also in full swing with all children performing brilliantly! We are looking forward to performing in front of the school in our dress rehearsal on Monday and in front of you all on Tuesday morning.

In maths we have continued our new multiplication chapter by understanding, learning and recalling the 2 times table. We will continue with the 5 and 10 times table next week.

In English we finished writing our diary entries of either Vlad or Boxton and then edited them to check they make sense and to include all of our skills from year 2. All the children had the opportunity to read their work to an adult and to then make effective revisions. After all the editing we wrote our diaries up focusing on a cursive style of handwriting. We have been exploring different spelling patterns including the ‘j’ sound spelt either j, g, dge or ge and the ‘s’ sound spent either c or s. We have been using the ‘does it look right’ spelling strategy to help us.

I would just like to say how amazed I am by all of the children’s fantastic efforts with their homework to build a 17th century house. They are all so so amazing! All children have been awarded 5 team points for their brilliant creativity and attention to detail. Homework for this weekend is for children to practise for our play next week.

I hope to see many of you at the Christmas fayre on Saturday!

Christmas is definitely on its way in key stage 1! We have been busy rehearsing whenever we get the chance and the children are being so brilliant at all their parts!

In maths this week we finished out addition and subtraction chapter. We explored ways to add three different numbers together and found we could do this by counting on, finding number bonds to ten and starting with the biggest number. We then explored the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction and the four facts we can generate from a part, part whole. Towards the end of the week we put all out brilliant counting in 2s, 5s, and 10s from our super mover wake and shakes into action. We started our new maths chapter of multiplication by finding equal groups. We noticed we could record multiplication in different ways.

EG.

5+5+5+5 = 20

4 groups of 5 = 20

5 x 4 = 20

4 x 5 = 20

We also found out that multiplication is commutative just like addition!

In English we created a map so far of the main events that Boxton and Vlad go through in the fire. This has helped us to finish our plans and begin writing our entries. We have been brilliant at magpieing vocabulary from our guided reading book ‘Vlad and the Great fire of London’. We came up with such a fantastic list of interesting words that the children are so keen to include. We will finish our diaries and edit next week. I can’t wait to read the final drafts!

In our nononsense spelling sessions we have been introduced to a new spelling pattern of the ‘j’ sound. This sound can be spelt as ‘j’, ‘g’, ‘ge’ or ‘dge’ so it’s quite hard to find the correct spelling for a word. Luckily we now know that ‘j’ and ‘g’ are found at the beginning of words and ‘ge’ and ‘dge’ are found at the end. The ‘ge’ spelling is found after a long vowel sound’ and ‘dge’ is found after a short vowel sound.

In jump rope this week the children were brilliant at persevering and helping each other with the new tricks we have been learning. We also love using the longer jumping rope! In computing we started our next unit of learning called ‘We are game testers’. We discussed the games children play online and how they play them. We also discussed how we can stay safe on these games and online and how games are age ratings so we know which are appropriate for us. We also thought about what would happen if we played too much online. In our daily dashboard we have become weather reporters. We have set up a weather station outside which will show us the temperature, rainfall and if it is windy. We are going to record the weather each day to find patterns.

After such a brilliant week year 2 all deserve a big big rest! See you next week!

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!