Week 7: There goes the first half term!

Hello Class 2 Parents,

Just like that, we've done a whole half-term in Class 2!

The children are definitely ready for a break. They've done a fantasic job as the new Class 2 together and we've packed a lot into the past few weeks. 

It has been good to catch up with you all in person this week! I'm always happy to talk throughout the year - just catch up with me after school or book an appointment through the school office. 

In bookbags you will find Times Table Rock Stars logins (Year 2 only) and some reading book underground maps. The maps were created by a literacy teacher to help children to know what to read, depending on which authors or themes they like. I hope you will find them useful when looking for books for your children. 

This week:

Spellings. 
In lieu of phonics and spelling lessons, I have been testing children on their common exception words. I have highlighted all of the words your child spelled correctly (in orange this time), so spend some time congratulating them and over half term continue to practise the ones they can't yet spell!

Maths.
We've been looking at addition within 20 by:
* using counters to add two groups together
* adding the ones and recognising how number facts with single digits can help with bigger additions (for example, if you know that 3 + 3 = 6, then 13 + 3 is quite simple!
* counting on from the larger number, rather than starting from one each time. 
* using a blank number line (Year 2s) to add by counting on. 

Our story.
Despite designing and building a species-appropriate enclosure for the penguin, the Lost and Found officers realised that it still wasn't happy. They decided to find out more about the penguin's natural habitat (Antarctica) to help. They've been making leaflets detailing the features, wildlife and climate of Antarctica. Tomorrow (Friday) we will visit Antarctica in our story to see what we can find out. 

Homework. 
I'm not setting any homework over the half term. Enjoy the break!

However, if your child (or you) likes a project, you could:
* make a poster about the seven types of penguin found in Antarctica. 
or
* draw and colour a life-sized Emperor penguin with all of its feature. 

I've had bad luck with the ipad this week - I deliberately took some photos for you, but they just don't want to upload to my laptop. I will persevere and hopefully put them on the next blog. 

Have a good week - I'll see you on Tuesday 5th November!

From

Mrs Simpson

Week 6: more penguins and some sunny weather.

Hello Class 2 Parents,

We have had a brilliant week in Class 2. 

Firstly, tomorrow (Friday) the children will be baking some penguin shortbread biscuits as a treat for filling up their marble jar. The children earn a few marbles each time they work well as a team - for example, if everyone is ready to listen when an adult asks them, or if they line up quickly and quietly. They filled up their marble jar for the first time this academic year, and wanted to do some baking!

In our story, the children designed a suitable penguin enclosure. Initially, they decided to put our penguin visitor into the 'bird' room of the Wildlife Lost and Found offices. However, it didn't thrive and the children discovered that Adelie penguins are adapted to living in Antarctica, not the UK. With that in mind, the children designed some enclosure with ice, rocks, very cold water, wind machines and wave machines so that the penguin would feel at home. 

They learnt about food chains and filled the water with fish and krill for the penguins to eat, then added algae for the fish and krill to feed off. They put windows into the enclosure so that the algae would have sunlight. 

In maths we have continued work on number bonds to 10 and 20. 

Year 1 homework is here and will be in their folders.

Year 2 homework is here and will be in their folders. 

In phonics the children have been looking at trigraphs - air, ear and ure. 

In spellings the Year 2 children have been learning that 'c' can make a soft sound before e, i and y. Their spellings are here. 

Next week I will be checking the children's common exception word spellings (the cards they have in their purple homework folders). I will highlight any words they have learnt to spell over the past few weeks. 


I hope you have a good weekend - I look forward to catching up with you on Tuesday or Thurdsay evening next week!

 

Week Five: A penguin (and other things).

Hello Class 2 Parents,

Firstly, thank you to those of you who came along to our Harvest service. The children did a great job of telling the story of The Enormous Turnip. 

Our story. 
There have been some interesting events this week in our story. Firstly, the Lost and Found officers rehomed most of the animals in their charge. For this, they learnt about which British animals lived in which habitats (woodland, pond, marshland, hedgerows and so on). The Lost and Found offices seemed very quiet after that...

until a box was left on the doorstep. 

Inside the box was a penguin. An adelie penguin. The team decided they had to look after it (they imagined how it might be feeling, and thought about what it would need to survive). Next week we're going to learn more about adelie penguins in order to prepare us for caring for this one. 

Phonics. 
The year 1 children have learnt two new digraphs this week: oy and ay. 

Spellings. 
For the third week in a row, the children have been looking at the sound 'j'. This time, with a 'g' at the start of words. 

The general rule (though there are always exceptions in the English language) is that 'g' can usually be found in words before e, i or y. Their spellings are here and will be tested next week. 

Just to reiterate - I only ever expect children to have a go with their spellings. If they are really stuck during a spelling challenge I will always help them - it's more about the process of learning, than the test!

Maths. 
We've started a unit on addition and subtraction. This week, the children looked at part whole models and finding number bonds. Both year groups need to know their number bonds to 10 off by heart, so homework this week is to play number bonds to 1- pairs. 

You can play online here.

or

you can play using playing cards from joker to 10 (the joker represents 'zero'). 

For an extra challenge (Year 2s should be able to do this!) write down all of the number bonds to 10 in a logical order (e.g. 10 + 0 = 10, 9 +1 = 10) and then write all of the subtraction facts (eg 10 - 0 = 10, 10 - 1 = 9). 

Below are some photos of the children this week including some children with the box, and in role as the penguin imagining how it might be feeling. 

Have a good weekend!

Mrs Simpson

Week 4:

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

I hope this blog finds you all well! What a wild week for weather - it's been so good to end it with some sun and some time outside. 

The week in Class 2...

Firstly - harvest words!

The children have some lines to learn for our harvest story. Please help them to learn them this week - they are in their homework folders. 

Drawing club. 
The children watched Pip, a trainee guide dog and did some writing around him and his adventures. It's a lovely animation - you can see it here. 

Maths.
We've been looking at number lines this week - placing numbers in their correct place, and estimating where numbers might be if the number line is blank. The children need a good knowledge of numbers to 20 for this!

Their maths homework is this game -  go to the image of the game, press 'play', then:

*Year 1s, start with a 0-10 number line and try the 0-20 line if you like!
* Year 2s, attempt the 0-20 number line. 
* Move the red flag to the position of the given number
* Press 'check' to see whether you are correct!

Choose whether to collect points or not. 

Our story.
The Lost and Found offices have been busy with animals coming in and out. The children learnt how to identify whether a creature is alive or dead, and then we went further to look at things that have never been alive. The children also learnt what creatures need in order to stay alive (air, water, food and shelter). This helped them in their roles looking after animals in the Lost and Found offices. 

Phonics and spellings. 

In Phonics the children have been revisiting  or, ur and ow. They have been reading and writing words with these sounds in. 

In Spellings the Year 2 children have learnt that  ge  makes the 'j' sound at the end of a word, after anything that is not a short vowel. Their spellings are here and will be tested in their yellow books next Friday!

I think that is everything for now - have a good weekend!

From 

Mrs Simpson

Week Three: rain and a Lost and Found office.

 

Hello Class 2 Parents,

The week started in a very soggy way - our new sandpit and outdoor area got a bit of a soaking! However, we've managed to get outside still this week at various points in between showers. 

An important homework note:
* Homework is set on a Friday via the blog and in folders if necessary

* I collect homework, reading diaries, group books and free choice books every Thursday morning, to go out again on Friday

* The only compulsory homework is reading, but any maths and spellings you do with your children will help them!

This week:

In Phonics the children have been revisiting oa, oo and oo. They've been reading and spelling words using these digraphs. 

In Spellings the Year 2 children have looked at the dge digraph - this is the 'j' sound that comes at the end of a word, after a short vowel. The children have learnt that words tend not to end in j. 

The Year 2 spellings for this week can be found here - their spelling challenge will be next week!

In Maths the children have been learning to use the phrases 'greater than', 'less than' and 'equal to' to compare numbers and quantities. The children have been using the symbols < > and = as well. 

Year 1 homework is here and will be in their folders. 

Year 2 homework is here and will be in their folders. 

In other news:

This week the children set up a Wildlife Lost and Found office. There are four rooms: one each for mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds. The children learnt to categorise animals into the four rooms. A few injured animals came into the offices and the children took care of them. 

I think that's all for now. The class is coming together well and the Year 1s are getting used to life in Class 2. 

Have a good weekend!

From Mrs Simpson

Week Two: Autumn leaves and a lot of art work.

Hello Class 2 Parents,

The children have very much been enjoying the autumnal weather this week - lots of sun but also blustery breezes and piles of leaves to play with!

This week...

In Phonics the Year 1 children have been revisiting ng, ai, ee and igh. They've been practising putting these sounds into words. 

They've also been spelling the tricky words today and of. 

In Spellings the Year 2 children have been looking at the 'wr' grapheme - as in write, wrong and wrestle. Their spellings are here

Note  a change for this year: instead of printing out weekly spelling sheets, I will put the week's spellings on the blog and the children will have a small book where they will do their weekly spelling challenge. That book will go home in their home learning folder, and needs to stay there please so we can use it each week. 

In Maths we have been looking at the place value of numbers to twenty (learning that every teen number has a 10 in it),  writing numbers to twenty the correct way around and finding 1 more and 1 less than numbers to 20. 

The Year 1 homework is here and will be in their folders. 

The Year 2 homework is here  and will be in their folders.

In Drawing Club our story has been The Three Billy Goats Gruff. See if your children can tell you the story themselves!

We've also been doing a lot of art. The children have been learning about the art work of Oliver Jeffers and this week created some self portraits in his style (a big head, dot eyes, simple body, stick legs and bold colours!). When I have them up on the wall I'll post a picture on the blog. There are still some finishing touches to do. 

Aside from all of that, the children have continued to learn through their Rainbow jobs. 

Here are a very few photos from this week - apologies if your child doesn't feature, but hopefully you can get an idea of what we've been up to!

 

The first full week.

Hello Class 2 Parents,

We've made it to the end of our first full week in Class 2. The children are doing a super job, and will probably need a rest this weekend!

A few notes:

Class 2 meeting
On Monday after school I'll be telling you a bit more about how the class will work this year. Year 2 parents, it will be similar to last year but you will possibly want to hear about it from a Year 2 perspective. 

Free choice books
Your children came home with a badger or squirrel book (a free choice reading book) this week, with a letter explaining how they will work. We will start reading groups next week, so a week today they will come home with their phonics/group reading book too. 

Water bottles. 
We encourage water only in bottles please. Squash spillages are sticky and messy! If there's a reason your child needs squash, please let me know. 

PE kits. 
It worked really well this week having the children come to school in their PE kits - it meant our lesson could be a lot longer! Thank you. 

Our learning this week:

Writing.
Our year is starting off with Drawing Club. Year 1 are already familiar with it and I will talk more about it on Monday at our Class 2 meeting. This week our book was Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. The children wrote a sentence each day based on it. 

Maths.
We're starting the year with the basics! We've been looking at numbers to 10 - how they can be represented so that we can recognise them easily without counting (subitising). For example, the arrangements of dots on a dice make it very easy to recognise numbers. We also looked at numbers to 20, recapping for the Year 2s and introducing for the Year 1s that teen numbers are made up of '10 and some more'. 

Phonics.
In phonics the Year 1 children have been revisiting sh, ch, th and qu. They've been practising putting these digraphs into words. 

Spellings.
The Year 2 children have looked at the digraphs kn and gn. 

Usually there will be some spelling homework - however, this will start next week!

The children have also been learning (or re-learning) how to do Rainbow Jobs. These were previously called Passport Jobs. They have 7-8 jobs per week that they can choose from, in between working on maths or writing with an adult. 

In the afternoons we have been doing some art - the children have been learning about the illustrations of Oliver Jeffers and will be creating a self-portrait in his style next week. 

We've had a good week. The children are getting used to each other (the Year 1s are getting used to being part of a bigger class) and are getting used to the new routines. 

I will endeavour to take some photographs next week - we've been so busy I haven't got around to it this week!

From Mrs Simpso