Summer Term Week 3: another short one!

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

Another short week flew by quickly, but we have managed to get quite a lot done. 

Firstly - reading books:
We have been focussing on whole class reading this week so the children don't have a group reading book. They do instead have enough Badger/Squirrel books to keep them going. Remember - if they can read their book fluently, help your child to add expression to their reading and have lots of discussions about the book. If the book is quite tricky for your child to read, do lost of echo reading (you read, then they read, but making sure they are always looking at the text so they are reading it, not just memorising it). 

Maths:
Both year groups have started a unit of work on muliplication. This involves:

* knowing how to make equal groups

* recognising how many groups there are, how many are in each group, and how many there are altogether.

For Year 2, this is the learning leaning up to the x symbol. The children have learnt that x means 'groups of', so for example  4 x 5 would be understood as 'four groups of five'. 

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

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

The children also completed their maths challenges, so take a look to see how your child got on and what they need to practise this week!

Phonics:
The children revisited the 'oo' graphemes this week - oo, ew, ue and u_e. We have also done a lot of practice of spotting digraphs in real and alien words. I've taught the children how to put sound buttons and sound lines on their words in order to read them. 

Phonics children have this week's QR code in their homework folders - please help your child to practise reading alien and real words by spotting the digraphs we have been learning. 

Spellings:
The children learnt that where a word ends in y, you can add the suffix -ing without changing anything! The main thing to remember is to write the root word first, before adding the suffix. Some of the words they've been learning can be found here. 

Our story:
The Wildlife Explorers Travel Agency had an intersting client. Professor Rufus Johnson, zoology expert from the University of Northampton, came to them with an interesting proposal. He happens to be a crocodile expert, and he happens to love The Enormous Crocodile (from the Roald Dahl book). He'd received a phone call, telling him that there is a rumour going round that the Enormous Crocodile is, in fact, real and that he is, in fact, still alive. Professor Rufus told the team that the crocodile is rumoured to be in Kenya. 

The children are keen to help the Professor, and have started learning a bit about Kenya. 

Below are some photos of the children in role as travel agents and clients.

That's all for now,

Have a good weekend!

Mrs Simpson

Summer Term Week 2: sun and travel agents.

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

I hope you've all had a good week and have managed to get out into the sun in between work and general life chores! The children have been absolutely loving the warm weather. 

In Class 2 this week:

The phonics group has continued to revisit digraphs ready for the phonics screening check. This week we've look at:  igh  ie  i_e  y  (all 'igh' alternatives) and oa  ow  oe  o_e  (all 'oa' alternatives). 

Another slip will be in their bags with a QR code taking you to more phonics screening practice. In addition, you can play 'Picnic on Pluto' - select 'phase 5' and choose one of the digraphs we've been practising. 

The spellings group has looked at ways to spell /l/ at the end of words - al and il. The words we've focussed on are here. 

In maths we have rounded off the addition and subtraction unit with some problem solving. The children needed to think about whether it is an addition or a subtraction problem by reading the words carefully. Then Year 2 solved problems using pictorial representations while Year 1 used counters. 

Year 1 homework is here. 
Solve the problems using counters or pictures. 

Year 2 homework is here.  Draw 10s and 1s to solve the problem. The children have been learning how to exchange a ten for ten ones, or ten ones for a ten, if necessary. 

Our weekly maths challenges have resumed - please continue to practise with your child. Thank you!

In other news: the children began to set themselves up as a team of travel agents. To help, we watched some videos about what a travel agents' office does. If you have the opportunity this weekend (or any time!), it would be great to take your child into a travel agents' to have a look around and talk to the people who work there. 

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend!

Mrs Simpson

Welcome to the Summer Term!

 Hello Class 2 Parents and welcome to Summer Term!

I hope you all had a good Easter. We've had a great start to the summer term in Class 2. The children were incredibly happy to see each other on Tuesday and spent the day catching up and comparing notes on Easter and lost teeth. 

The week has been a short one. The children have:

• Worked on subtraction in Maths. 
  Year 1 children have been subtracting within 20 by using counters and then crossing out pictures. Year 2 children have been subtracting a 2-digit number from another 2-digit number. 
  
  
• Heard the story of The Enormous Crocodile and done some writing around it. This story will be important in our Mantle of the Expert story this term. 
  
  
• Caught up with our science investigation. 
  Before Easter we were trying to find out whether beans need soil to grow. We planted four beans: one in soil, one on cotton wool, one on a blue paper towel, and one on some kitchen roll. They didn't do much before Easter, so the children were excited to come and see the changes. We spent quite a while looking at photos of their progress over Easter and then looking at the current situation. 
  
  
• Participated in phonics and spellings. 
  The spelling group looked at words ending in -il  (fossil, pencil, pupil, gerbil and April). See if you can find any more of these in reading books! 
  
  The phonics group are going to be spending the next few weeks revisiting this academic year's graphemes in preparation for the Phonics Screening Check at the start of June.

        ... and a few other things too. 

Homework  this week! 

• If your child is taking part in the Phonics Screening Check this year, you will find a slip of paper in their bookbag with a QR code on. If you scan it, you should be taken to some phonics screening words to practice!

• Year 1 maths homework is here and will be in their folders. To work out subtractions, draw the whole number and have your child cross out the part, in order to find the answer. Alternatively, use counters!
• Year 2 maths homework is here - mostly addition, but it looked fun! Take your time over this, don't worry if it's not done by next Thursday, just enjoy it!
  (to help, your child can draw 10s and 1s to solve the additions, or use a 100 square such as this one). 

Have a good week end - see you all next week,

From

Mrs Simpson

Happy Easter!

 Happy Easter!

There goes the second term of the academic year. We've had a really good term in Class 2 learning about The Great Fire of London (and The Great Fire of Northampton, of course). 

I hope you've enjoyed the Easter open afternoon and church service - the children worked very hard on their 'hop hop hop' song and their Easter poem. 

This week the children finished off their mini D.T. project - designing and making a new loaf of bread for Thomas Farriner to celebrate the end of The Great Fire of London. They baked and decorated their mini loaf (roll) before evaulating its appearance, smell and taste. See below for photos!

Over the holidays:

Please read with your child as often as possible. The children have two free choice reading books to keep them going. 

Please help your child to learn their common exception word spellings. I've updated each child's spelling card in their folder to show which words they spelt correctly on their recent test. Any un-highlighted words are the ones they need to practice. 

Continue to work on your child's target maths facts with them (see their maths booklets).

If you and your child would like to do more, you could:

* Visit Northampton Museum and spend some time in the History section, learning more about The Great Fire of Northampton

* Send me a postcard c/o the school, telling me about what you've been up to (a few sentences would do for Year 1, around 4-5 for Year 2!)

* Do some planting! The children have been learning about the parts of plants and what plants need to grow (we've planted some sunflower seeds but they haven't got far yet).

I hope you all enjoy the next two weeks and particularly have a restful Easter weekend. See you soon!

Mrs Simpson

Spring Term Week 11: To the Museum!

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

Important note - reading books
We have not been doing our usual group reading this week because the children have been taking part in reading assessments. With that in mind, the children have some differnent reading books this week, or have two Badger/Squirrel books instead. 

Please could all phonics and Badger/Squirrel books be returned to school next week, so that we can check the reading book sets to make sure nothing is missing - thank you!

In Class 2 this week:

The main event this week was, of course, our trip to the museum. The children had a great day and they were very excellent representatives for Little Houghton School. They took part in a workshop all about The Great Fire of Northampton: firstly, they heard three different stories about how the fire might have started, before hearing about the fire itself. Then they became history detectives. On each table there was a collection of artefacts and the children had to decide which part of the fire the artefacts represented (life before the fire/the start of the fire/the fire spreading/fighting the fire/fleeing the fire/rebuilding Northampton after the fire). Next, the children acted out these six diferent aspects of the story with much dramatic flair. 

After lunch we had a look around the wider museum (including going trainer spotting for shoes made by Elliot's dad) before returning for the second workshop: designing and making firemarks from cardboard. The children learnt that a firemark was a metal plaque, fixed to the outside of a building to indicate that it was insured against fire. These came into play somewhere in the 1800s. There wasn't time to finish this activity so we will hopefully find time to  do so next week at school. 

Aside from that, the children have been adding two 2-digit numbers in maths (Year 2s have been crossing a multiple of 10) and have been participating in a range of phonics and reading assessments ready for the end of term!

No homework this week - I'll be setting some next week for the Easter holidays.