It almost felt like summer for a few days this week, it was so nice to see summer dresses and shorts. Let’s hope that we have a bit of sunshine over the Easter break. It was lovely to have Mrs Medlicott back with us for 3 days this week and to meet Miss Lacey, who will be doing her final teaching practice with us after Easter.

In English we finished looking at the book, “The Way Back Home”, by Oliver Jeffers. We predicted the end of the story and thought about different endings to the story. We talked about what we thought might happen next. We also re wrote the story in our own words. In art the children designed and painted their own planets. We then completed two pieces of writing about our planets. One saying what our planet was like, thinking about temperature, seasons, geographical features, who would live there etc. The other piece was to describe what the planet looked like with clues about it to go on our display.

In Maths we have continued looking at measure, this week we have worked on word problems. As always it is often the words, rather than the maths which make them tricky. The problems moved to combining multiplication with length in the word problems. Such as 8 tables are joined to form one long table. Each table is 2metres long, what is the length of the long table formed?

In science the children re-visited the experiment they set up around biodegradable materials, to see what had happened to their items. They also made posters to stop pollution in the oceans inspired by Neal Layton’s book ‘A Planet Full of Plastic’.

In RE we looked at the Easter story and discussed aspects; including the trinity, symbols of Easter and how they link to the Easter story, hope and the idea of new life.

The children also practiced their Spring Chicken song and made their Easter cards. I hope you liked both. Have a wonderful Easter. I am looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks, ready for the summer term.

Mrs Welsh

We have had a busy week. The children have worked hard. We have continued working on our new topic of space whilst slowly assessing the children’s current knowledge and understanding especially in reading and writing. We obviously need to know where the children are, however, as I like to say, “You don’t fatten a pig by weighing it,” therefore, we need to get on with our learning, rather than continually assessing where they are.

On Monday the children looked at the book, ‘Aliens Love Underpants’. They thought about what an alien coming to visit them would like and enjoy doing. The children drew their own alien and wrote about the things their alien might love, they later designed underpants for their alien.

In Maths we have been looking at measure. This week we have looked at ordering length using the vocabulary, short, shorter, and shortest, tall, taller and tallest and long, longer, longest. We have compared length in metres, centimetres and compared the length of lines both straight and curved – using string to help measure the curvy lines.

In English we started looking at the book, “The Way Back Home” by Oliver Jeffers. We have completed a range of writing around the book, including; using time connectives to write instructions for how the boy gets ready to fly, solving the problem of how the boy will get off the moon, writing speech bubbles and dialogue between the boy and the Martian and writing a list of equipment the boy may need to rescue the Martian.

We have explored one of the NASA, “human computers”, Katherine Johnson. She was a mathematician who performed calculations that allowed NASA to put astronauts safely into orbit then onto the Moon. The children were really interested in the work Katherine did. As an adult the film, ‘Hidden Figures’ telling the story of the work Katherine and her fellow ‘human computers’ did is well worth watching!

We continued to look at Georgia O’Keefe’s artwork, we particularly focused on flowers. We attempted to create pieces of work in the style of Georgia O’Keefe, looking really closely at the flower and recreating it on a larger scale on paper. The children could choose if they used paints, watercolours, oil, or chalk pastels. We also watched Austin’s butterfly, a video about critique and feedback that teaches children to improve their work through peer-feedback which is kind, help and specific. Some children then chose to ask their friends for feedback and as Austin does in the video had a go at doing an improved second draft.

Next week, Mrs Medlicott and Miss Lacey will be in school Monday to Wednesday. Miss Lacey will be joining us for her final placement after Easter while Mrs Medlicott is at St Peters.

We have assessed all children’s reading and had a re-jig of reading groups. I have set new books on bug club, please keep reading.

Mrs Welsh

Hello everyone,

It is so lovely to have the children back in class. I am so proud of how well they have returned to school and settled into school life and routines.

Last week we celebrated British Science Week with a range of events, the theme this year was, ‘Innovating for the Future’. On Monday 8th we had a magic show from Dr. Matt Pritchard (https://www.sciencemagicshows.co.uk) who blew our minds with a range of physic-based illusions. On Tuesday 9th we had a virtual chat with Michelle James from Severn Waste recycling, who helped us understand the journey our waste goes on and the importance of recycling. This was supported through Miss Albutt’s lesson based on the book, ‘A Planet Full of Plastic’. The children helped to set up an experiment to see how quickly materials biodegrade. Mrs Medlicott was given a top-secret mission for the children to make a Robo-bug, the challenge was to design and make a bug that would have certain abilities and adaptations. The children did an amazing job and the next day received a letter from the top-secret agency congratulating them. Alongside this we also engaged in a number of well-being activities and set up a display based around zones of regulations, more information at the bottom for this blog.

This week we have returned to a more familiar timetable, we are back to dough disco, handwriting and dictated sentences by 9.00am! The pace of the school day has come as a shock to all of us I think! The children have started work on length in Maths. In English we have finished working on Polar Bears. The children looked at the work of Neal Layton the author and illustrator of, ‘A Planet Full of Plastic’. He had written a letter to the world and after reading his letter the children had a go at writing their own letters to the world. These were so lovely. They showed lots of appreciation, gratitude and thanks for all the wonderful things we have in the world while also an understanding of the things that they don’t like in the world. They wrote sentences like, “Please don’t let deforestation happen” “Stop plastic being put into our oceans” and “Please let Covid go away.”

We have also said goodbye to Miss Albutt this week who has finished her placement with us. She really enjoyed getting to know the class in person over the last two weeks. Mrs Medlicott is back for three days next week and then unfortunately will be leaving to do her final placement at St Peters school (where she was meant to go this term). She will stay in touch and, covid allowing, will be back to visit when her placement finishes.

Also, we are not currently setting homework, but please continue to use Spelling Shed, Times Tables Rockstars and Bug Club. All these are there to support your children’s learning in class.

If there are any questions, please contact me on classdojo. If it is urgent please do contact the school office.

Mrs Welsh

Zones of regulation

These zones are a way of supporting children to self-regulate and develop their understanding of their own and others’ emotions. One way that we do this is through using the Zones of Regulation. The children explore these zones and learn to be able to identify which zone they are in.

Blue Zone - We feel down or moving slow when in the Blue Zone. Examples: sad, sick, tired

Green Zone (Safe to Learn) - We feel comfortable and in control in the Green Zone. Examples: happy, calm, thankful, focused. When we are in the Green Zone we may find it easier to listen and learn.

Yellow Zone - We feel stronger emotions and more energy in the Yellow Zone. We may feel excited, worried, agitated or frustrated. Our feelings are stronger but not overpowering.

Red Zone - We feel really big, powerful emotions in the Red Zone. Examples: angry, elated, out of control. We experience ‘big’ feelings in the Red Zone and tools can help us manage our Red Zone and keep everyone feeling safe.

*It is natural to experience all of the zones*

We are going to continue working on these zones and think about how we can alter which zone we are in, in order to get ourselves back into the green zone where we can learn most easily. The children in school have been really receptive and have used it as a way of talking about emotions.

Well, it was a very busy, very festive week. It has taken me until now to recover! I didn’t wake up until 11.15 on Saturday, thank goodness I have teenagers not toddlers! I must start by saying a huge thank you for all your generous gifts, cards and kind words. The children in school were amazing this week, often the excitement can bubble over and we have tears, but not this year. Well done Year 2!

Party day was wonderful, Year 2 were dressed to impress and enjoyed playing party games including, musical statues, musical chairs, (with a Mrs Clarkson twist), pass the parcel and best dancer. In the afternoon we had our party food, with thanks to FOTs and enjoyed watching Polar Express.

On Wednesday we went on a winter walk, we followed clues and had a magical visit to see Father Christmas. The children all had the opportunity to ask Father Christmas a question, they were such thoughtful questions ranging from what are the names of the reindeer? Why does Rudolph have a red nose? How many elves are there? How old is Rudolf? How is Father Christmas going to be safe from Coronavirus? (This one did bring a tear to my eyes, 6 and 7 year olds should not be having to worry about this virus). The children enjoyed seeing Miss Hill’s donkeys and ponies and having a drink of squash and a biscuit before walking back to school.

In maths we worked on adding three numbers together. We looked at different strategies, including counting on, finding doubles or near doubles adding those and then adding to the total and finally adding any numbers that we know make a number bond and adding on to this. For example 8+9+2= Some children would add 8+2=10 and then add 9, other would do double 8 is 16 add 3, or double 9 is 18 add on 1.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t do our usual Christmas performance in the church. We worked hard to bring our own 12 days of Christmas to you. I was running around on Wednesday saying it will be a Christmas miracle if this is ready before we break up, but we did it!

Thank you for your support over this term, it has been an unusual one in school, where we have been on constant alert, phrases like, catch it, bin it, kill it and now wash your hands trip off the tongue. I hope it has been as normal a term as possible for the children, they have made amazing progress and make us feel so proud.

Wishing you a really ‘Happy Christmas’ Please stay safe this holiday and I look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

Mrs Welsh

We have had such a lovely week. The children have been amazing. We have undertaken the phonics screening check and have now sent the data off to County, the children were brilliant. For our advent event we have made a super origami Father Christmas, very cute reindeer, made a present for our parents or siblings, had Christmas dinner, made a door hanger and watched the panto, “Oh no we didn’t, oh yes we did!”

We have continued working on subtraction. The children have been really impressing me with their understanding. Next week I hope we can tackle ‘subtraction with renaming’, I will pop a video on Class Dojo’s again next week to show how it is done.

In English we set the green screen up to record our reports, however, for one reason and another we still have not managed to record them. The children have been writing their own Great Fire of London books. They are working extremely hard, and we are impressed with their effort and concentration. They turned their chairs to the other side of their desks, so they could see the working wall, this turned out to be the highlight of the day! “It’s awesome,” one child said.

Over the week we have also been trying to record bits of our Christmas Event. I am hoping it will all come together next week and I can post it on Class Dojo’s! The children are enjoying the experience.

Next week –

Tuesday – Party Day Children can wear their own clothes, remember sensible shoes, and warm coats. Please can the children bring an empty book bag to school? We will hand out cards, gifts and all the lovely things the children have been busy making.

Wednesday – we are going on an exciting winter walk, we are the first class to leave school. Please can children come to school dressed warmly for forest school – with clean wellies as they will have to wear them into the classroom. They will need to bring their school coat and school shoes to get changed into when we return from our trip. No PE as hall is being used for parties.

Thursday – No Forest school.

Friday – Last day of term – remember to wear your Christmas jumper with your uniform.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Mrs Welsh

It’s beginning to look a bit like Christmas! We have had a very exciting week. Last year, for our class advent calendar, we opened and read a Christmas book every day. This year we thought that we need Christmas to be extra special as it has been such a strange year. On the first of December we read a story about a little robin who gave his vests away to all the animals to keep them warm. Father Christmas finds him asleep and shivering on Christmas Eve and makes him a special red vest which he will always wear and will make him and other people feel warm when they see him. We painted a robin and every child made a vest for the robin. Day one of our advent calendar was to decorate our classroom, we had an art morning, painting Father Christmas, making vests for our advent robin and some other secret activities! Day two was making cards and writing letters to send to the Old Peoples Home. Day three was a visit by Miss Hill and Tony the pony and Tickety-boo, the children all had a stroke or hug. Day four was the Christmas Fayre, which was lovely. The children had so much fun decorating biscuits, making their own bag of reindeer food, playing Christmas games, taking part in a colouring competition and a chocolate raffle. The children could hardly carry all the goodies they had made or won.

We have finished our chapter on column addition with renaming. We have now started subtraction. We thought of the language involved and when discussing calculations, we try to alter our language such as subtraction, take-away, minus, fewer, less and difference between. We have carried on using our number bonds, double and near doubles to help work out calculations. Generally, the children seem to find subtraction easier than addition so I am hoping we can get this chapter finished before the Christmas holidays.

In English we continued working on the planning for our news reports, working on a heading, introducing themselves, the opening sentences, including the 5 w’s who, what, when, why and where. We will be writing our own news report next week and recording them using green screen technology!

In RE we have looked at incarnation, meaning, “in the flesh.” We discussed the Gospels in more details and listened to some carols and tried to decide if they were representing the Gospel of Matthew or Luke. We revisited the trinity, talking about God the Father, Jesus God’s Son, I asked what the last part was and one child suggested Samuel Peyps!

We will be doing the phonics screening check in a couple of weeks, so if your child came home with a phonics pack please continue to practice, practice, practice.

If you want your child to have milk in the spring term please send the form back by Monday. Check with your child that they really do want milk, as often we have to encourage children to drink it.

Many adults have commented on how Year 2 have matured and their sensible behaviour. Yesterday Mrs Cutler was in the corridor outside our classroom and said she could not believe how every single child was so focused on their work. This is especially pleasing as it is such an exciting time of year when sometimes behaviour can slip.

Remember warm clothes for forest school. Also, as we have to have our room ventilated some children have mentioned they are cold, if this is the case, please put-on extra layers. I am asking Father Christmas for thermals! Other children are sitting in class just in polo shirts. Next terms seating plan may well be based on warm blooded children being nearest the doors and windows!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Welsh

We have had a super week with a fantastic cinema afternoon on Friday to end it all off. I loved watching the children laughing, singing and dancing along to Nativity!

In maths we have continued with rapid recall of number facts with a total of 18. They are getting really speedy and I think it is amazing how they work the calculations out so quickly. In our addition calculation we had 8+6= and the children all got the answer correct. When asked how they worked it out, the answers ranged from; “I know double 8 is 16 and we have 8+6, the 6 is 2 less than 8 so that is 14,” “I know 8 and 2 is 10, so I took 2 off the 6 and that left 4, 10 and 4 is 14.” The more the children practice these calculations the faster they become.

We continued with the column method of addition with renaming. I have uploaded a video of how we do addition with renaming onto ClassDojo’s so you can see it in action. The children have sheets to do at home if they want to practice or you want to see how they are getting on. It is important they add the ones first and go through the process of saying their answer, say 15, then saying 15 ones is one ten and 5 ones, they can then place the ten into the tens column.

In English and history we have continued finding out about the Great Fire of London. The children sequenced the events as they occurred in 1666 and found out new information. They wrote a news report on the Great Fire of London, which was written as a, ‘cold task’ without much input beforehand. We then spent the next lessons looking at exemplar texts, comparative texts before we move on to magpieing good ideas next week and writing our own news report which we will record using green screen technology!

As we had the whole class in school, I thought we should take the opportunity to make our Christmas cards. There were a few different techniques involved in the task. The children had a lovely time singing Christmas songs and getting creative.

We will be doing the phonics screening check in a couple of weeks, so if your child came home with a phonics pack please practice, practice, practice.

Next week is the start of December, we know that life isn’t normal at the moment, so we are working hard to make it a special Christmas in school, with lots of work and lots of fun too.

Have a super weekend.

Mrs Welsh

Week Ending 20.11.2020

The children have been working so hard this week and are loving the topic, “Light it up”.

In maths we have continued with rapid recall of number facts, the children are amazing at adding one-digit numbers with a total of 10. We have said to try and learn these facts, so they become second nature. We have moved on to adding two one-digit number with a total of 18. We have encouraged children to use their knowledge on doubles and near doubles, so that if they know double 7, then they know 7 + 8 = (double 7 plus 1) 15.

We continued with the column method of addition and moved on to addition with renaming. This is a tricky concept to learn. We studied the expanded method before moving on to the short method. The children found it tricky to remember to rename their answer into tens and ones, many could do the calculation but not the process involved, which they need to work through systematically otherwise they become unstuck as the calculations become harder. We went back a step and added two one-digit numbers with a total of more than 10, then renamed. We had the sentence stem, __ tens and __ones are the same as __ ones, o,r __ ones is that same as __tens and __ones. I will upload another video to show how we set out column addition with renaming as it is not the doorstop method many of us learnt when we were young.

In English and history, the children have been finding out about the Great Fire of London. We have played the game I shared on Dojo, researched from books and watched a range of video clips. We have assessed how reliable a piece of evidence might be. We have worked on comprehension on the Great Fire and the children looked at retrieving information from the text. On Friday, the children spent the whole morning making amazing posters displaying the facts they knew about the fire. They are fantastic and creative.

In Re we are revisiting the question, “Why does Christmas matter to Christians?” We look at this in a much deeper level than we did last year. The children told us everything they could remember about the Christmas story and its importance. We have begun to look at the Gospels and the difference between Matthews and Luke Gospel when re-telling the news of Jesus birth. I have loved the discussions we had about the Trinity, God being the Father, Son and Holy Spirt. One Child said, “In the old testament, before Jesus was born, He was still in Heaven, because Jesus is God and God is Jesus.” Another child just said, “WHAT?” One of the main focuses of our RE is about the incarnation.

As we have the windows open to ventilate the classroom and the weather is getting colder, some children said they were chilly on Friday. We got up and did wake and shake a couple of times, remember to layer up to keep warm and they will need hats, gloves, scarves for forest school as it is meant to be getting colder.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Welsh

To infinity and beyond!

British science week has been a huge success and the children have been so inquisitive about this year’s theme ‘Our Diverse Planet’. On Monday we introduced the theme and children investigated which materials would make as a good insulator for a coat for polar explorers. On Tuesday we were so lucky to have three actual scientists come and visit us to do another experiment using materials. The children looked at putting first on different materials and how well water washes it off. We were introduced to a lotus leaf and how it have self-cleaning properties. We were so amazed to see the water form droplets on the lead which could slide straight off! Wow! On Wednesday we took part in the whole school ‘Physics day!’ The children moved around to each classroom to participate in a different physics activity from sinking and floating, static, air resistance to magnet forces. On Thursday and Friday we rounded science week off with our year 2 space camp!

On Thursday the children designed and made space pizzas after exploring different cheeses and toppings. Astronauts need to be healthy in space and need a balanced diet to keep them strong. The children loved making their pizzas and arranged their toppings to look attractive to eat. We then look part in astronaut circuit training where we had fifteen stations to move around to keep our muscles and bones strong. On the evening children arrived back at school and settled their belongings into their space pods. From then we started our missions which included designing astronaut patches, solving puzzles with astronaut gloves on, navigating mazes blindfolded and making star constellations. These missions all encouraged team work and communication! We finished the evening by watching a space film and eating our space pizzas!

On Friday morning we got ourselves ready to have our well-earned breakfast and a space walk outside! We continued our astronaut training by participating in space yoga, a memory mission (memorising codes) and a translation mission (translating Russian words).

Space camp was a huge success and we hope it will be a unforgettable experience! Thank you parents and guardians for all of your support.

Earlier on in the week in English we planned and wrote an information text about Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield which we peer edited. In Maths we looked at finding fractions of amounts and the properties of 2D shapes.

Our week was very very packed so I hope you all have a relaxing weekend to recharge!

What another super week in year 2!

A big thank you to all the parents and guardians who attended parents evening. It was so lovely to share all of the amazing progress your children have made so far this year.

World book day was also huge success! The costumes were brilliant as well as year 2’s love of reading. We tried our hand at becoming cartoonists and drew step by step some characters from the Beano. The children’s growth mind set and perseverance was brilliant and really paid off in the end!

This week in guided reading we have continued looking at the book ‘The Darkest Dark’ written by astronaut Chris Hadfield. We made some brilliant character inferences by asking questions at different moments in the book and then answering them as Chris. To children had a really good understanding of his character to be able to answer the questions appropriately.

In English we discovered that our letters to President Lunar were successful and Bob has his job back! President Lunar has asked for our help with other things too so we have been busy at work already. We have been given the challenge to write an information text about Chris Hadfield so we have discussed appropriate adjectives to describe and used a range of conjunctions within our sentences. We have watched some amazing videos of Chris Hadfield on the international space station along the way and have been wowed with what we’ve seen!

In Maths we have focused on fractions this week. We have explored equal parts and been able to read and identify fractions of shape. We have also explored time and recapped prior knowledge of o’clock and half past the hour and been introduced to quarter past and quarter to. The children have picked this up really well with help from a few rhymes!

In Art the children have finished their paper sculptures based on Roy Lichtenstein’s ‘Explosion’. In RE we have explored the idea of ‘salvation’ based on the Easter story.

Thank you for returning space camp slips and contributions so promptly. We have a very exciting week coming up building up to this special experience!