Spring Week 4: Serfs at work and a muddy Friday morning.

 

Hello Class 2 Parents,

This week in Class 2...

In maths the Year 1 children have continued their work on place value within 20 and addition within 20. They practised counting on from one number, instead of starting from one every time, and used a number line to aid this. They also began to look at how they can use their small adding skills (or even better, their number fact knowledge) to help them to solve bigger additions. For example, if they know that 5 + 3 = 8,  that fact makes the addition 15 + 3 much easier. 

The Year 2 children have contined their new unit of work on multiplication and divison. They looked at the 'x' symbol today, learning that it means 'groups of' (it is, of course, generally known as 'times' but for the purposes of the next few weeks we will read it as 'groups of'). They practised drawing an accurate representation of a multiplication problem in order to find the product. 

Both year groups have been practising counting 5s, and for Year 2s, the 5x table. 
Year 1 homework is to play Whack-A-Mole, counting in steps of 5. Year 2 homework is to either do the same (as a rehearsal, or if your child is not yet counting accurately in 5s) and then also to play Hit The Button using the 5x tables. 

As a side note on homework - It would be very good practice for Year 2 to start playing TT Rock Stars regularly, as by the end of Year 2 the aim is for them to know their 2, 5 and 10x tables and division facts. Also, once they get into Year 3 this (and homework in general) becomes more of a focus. 

In phonics the children have continued to revisit the many graphemes they have been learning, focussing specifically on the oa and oo alternatives (oa/ow/oe/0_e and oo/ew/ue/u_e. 

In spellings the children have this week looked at -el endings, after last week looking at -le endings. One spelling rule that does help is that the words with double letters in the middle tend to end -le.  I have added the spelling list to The Spelling Shed and, again, I would encourage you to get your child playing these games to help their spellings. 


In our story the children have taken on the role of Serfs, working hard on the land surrounding our Medieval village. They learnt what it took to care for their plot of land (milking the cow, picking fruit, tending to vegetable plots, collecting eggs...) but also how hard they had to work for the landowner. When we stepped into the story, the landowner (a role taken on by Toby) travelled from plot to plot, giving the serfs extra tasks to perform at a moment's notice. The serfs found it very hard work!

Other things we've been up to:

Science this term has been focussed on materials. 
In R.E. the children are answering the question of 'What is the Good News that Jesus brings?' (so far - friendship, forgivness and peace). 
In P.E. they have been learning some basic skills needed in netball. 
In Music we have been learning a bit about dynamics (how loud or soft a piece of music is, and how this changes throughout a piece of music) and about using music to tell a story. 

The term is going very well so far. 

Forest School this week:

.... was exceptionally muddy! You will see when your child's clothes get home exactly why we ask for old clothes, waterproof clothes, and clothes that are allowed to get muddy!  They had a fantastic time carrying out a bear mud-crawl: the challenge was to get from one area to the other, under and over paracord, without touching any of it. We also created a tyre swing, during the creation of which several children had a go at climbing up a rope. 

Today was a very good example of just how good Forest School is for children's physical development!

Spring Week 3: More on the medieval village

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

I hope your week has been as good as ours!

Our new Mantle of the Expert story is under way. Having created the Medieval village of Hocton Parva and filled it will homes, other buildings and residents, the children learnt about the people on the edges of the village - the serfs. They learnt that the serfs were some of the poorest people in the village, who had to work very hard in exchange for very little. Each child was given a plot of land and asked to imagine that they were a serf, and this plot of land was theirs. They created their plots of land by adding a cottage, some crops, fruit trees and animals. Next, the children will be taking on the role of serfs and imagining what daily life was like as a serf. 

In Maths:

The Year 1 children have been comparing numbers to 20, using 'greater than' and 'less than'. They have also been ordering numbers to 20, describing them as 'the greatest', 'the smallest' and 'in between'. 

To practise this skill, they can play this caterpillar ordering game. If your child is confident, you can extend the numbers up to 100. 

The Year 2 children have started a new unit of work on multiplication and division. This week they have been making and adding equal groups, using the language of 'groups of ' and 'how many in each group'.  Their homework is here and will be in their folders.

In phonics the children have spent this week revisiting the many digraphs they have been learning since the start of Year 1. They have enjoyed playing Obb and Bob again - if you want to practise this week's graphemes, they have been looking at:

ai alternatives - ay ai a_e

ee alternatives - ee ea ie e_e y

igh alternatives - igh ie i_e y

In spellings the Year 2 children have looked at words ending 'le'. Some words have a double letter in the middle (following a short vowel), others don't.  The list has been added to The Spelling Shed. Please do login with your child and play some of the games - they are a fun way to learn spellings. 

At Forest School this week:

We had a lovely Forest School session, despite the cold and damp! The children toasted marshmallows, learning how to sit next to the fire safely. They also made some wind socks and enjoyed hanging them in the trees to watch the effects of the wind. A very popular activity was creating paint from crushed charcoal and water, and using it to paint stones and trees. 

We took many photos of the marsh mallow roasting, but sadly the Ipad had an issue and I've been unable to upload them!

Have a good weekend

From Mrs Simpson

Spring Week 2: A medieval Little Houghton

 

Hello Class 2 Parents,

It's been a fairly ordinary but good week in Class 2. 

Following our walk around the village last week and some work on the differences between villages, towns and cities, the children did some work making a map of the village including the key geographical features. Friday afternoon then started with, 'Let's say we are in Little Houghton, but it is 1000 years ago.' The children learnt a bit about what a medieval village might look like, comparing its features to modern Little houghton. They created a 3D map as a class, locating the features around a village green. 

In maths:
The Year 1 children have continued their work on place value to 20, learning how to find 1 more and 1 less than any number to 20. They used the words 'before' and 'after' to describe numbers on a number line, for example '18 comes before 19' and '13 comes after 12'.  They also looked at numbers to 100 to understand where 0 to 20 come, and completed some 100-square jigsaw puzzles. 

The Year 2 children have finished their unit of work on addition and subtraction by learning how to add and subtract multiples of 10 using a 100- square. 

Year 1 homework is here and is also in their folders.

Year 2 homework is here and is also in their folders.

In phonics the Year 1 children have been looking at alternative 'oo' graphemes -  ue, ew and u_e. These can be pronounced 'oo' as in June, blue, threw, or 'yoo' as in few, rescue, tune. 

In spellings the Year 2 children have looked at words starting wr - I have set the list as an assignment on The Spelling Shed as usual for them to practise in their own time. 

At Forest School:

It was lovely to be back at Forest School after quite a few weeks away. The children enjoyed a fire and some of them had a go at whittling sticks to a point (using vegetable peelers) ready to toast marshmallows next week (hopefully, weather depending!). They also had a great time creating a giant obstacle course - lots of core strength development and turn taking went on!

Happy New Year!

Hello Class 2 Parents,

I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year time. 

We have had a good week back, only enhanced by the little bit of snow at the start of the week! The children have enjoyed getting reacquainted with one another. 

In Maths:

The Year 1 children have started a new place value unit, looking at numbers to 20. This week they learnt to represent numbers 11 to 19 using a ten and some ones. They learnt that numbers 11 to 19 all contain one ten and that the '1' in the tens column is worth 10. 

To practise this, the children can play this game of pairs. 

The Year 2 children have been revisiting work they started before Christmas, adding and subtracting two-digit numbers, crossing a ten. 

I am not setting any Year 2 homework for maths instead please take the time you would have spent on maths, to visit the Spelling Shed (see below). 

In Spellings the Year 2 children have been looking at words starting with 'kn' and 'gn'. I have set these words for them to practise in The Spelling Shed. Instead of maths homework this week, please take the time to visit and get to know The Spelling Shed (all children received logins last term and there is information here if it is your first time using it).

In Phonics the Year 1 children have learnt some alternative 'oa' graphemes - ow, oe and o_e. We also played a game which they enjoyed - Picnic on Pluto.  This game is great for practising using the different graphemes to read words. Pick 'phase 5' and choose on of the graphemes we have learnt so far. Children read the words and decide whether they are real or nonsense, feeding them to the relevant alien. 


In other news we started a new music unit of work looking at tempo, a new R.E. unit of work looking at the good news that Christians believe Jesus brings and to start of our Mantle of the Expert story we took a walk around the village, learning a bit about villages versus cities. 

I hope you all have a good weekend! 

Mrs Simpson

Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Firstly - THANK YOU!
Thank you so much for all of the kind cards and gifts I've been given. You are all very kind and I very much appreciate them all!

We've come to end of a long but very good term. The children have worked very hard and every day has seemed so busy. A few things they've been learning include:

Art: The art work of Gwen Millward, illustrator of 'The Bog Baby'.  The final pieces can be seen below. 
D.T: The children have learnt a few key D.T. skills this term, ending by learning how to sew by making their Christmas stocking decorations.
Science: Through their 'Bog Baby Protectors' Mantle of the Expert story the children have done a lot of learning about animals and their needs as well as habitats. 
Geography: Again, as the B.B.P the children have done some learning about human and physical geographical features and have used Google Earth to look at the geographical features around Little Houghton to identify the best habitat for bog babies. 
History: We had a discrete history week, learning the story of Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night. 
Computing: Various skills have been practised during the children's Rainbow Job time including coding, recording videos and creating images on the Ipads. 
R.E: The children have learnt about various special places in Islam, Christianity and Judaism and have, of course, been focusing recently on the story of Christmas. 
P.E: We have focussed on the basic skills involved in rugby, dodgeball and hockey, as well as doing a lot of fitness and balance games. 

Amongst all of the above we have, of course, been doing a LOT of reading, writing and maths!

It's been a great term. Thank you for all of your support of the children's learning. 

Have a great Christmas - see you in 2026!

Mrs Simpson

This week - gingerbread men, films, Rudolph drive and other things!

Autumn Week 13: It's getting Christmassy!

Hello Class 2 Parents,

With Monday being December 1st, Class 2 has become decidedly Christmassy. We spent Monday afternoon decorating the classroom with paper chains, snowflakes and Christmas trees and have been practising the Nativity a lot this week. 

This week has been a little bit different - 

* we have been assessing the children's spellings, during our normal phonics/spelling slots, so there are no new sounds or spellings this week. 

* we have been doing whole class reading instead of group reading, so your children will come home with two free choice books instead of their usual free choice and phonics books. 

In Maths:

Year 1 children have been finding the missing number in an addition or subtraction sentence, by finding the missing part. For example,  in 3 + ___ = 7, they've used 7 counters and separated 3 of them to find that the missing part is 4. 

Their homework is here and will be in their folders. 

Year 2 children have been adding two two-digit numbers, first not crossing a multiple of 10 (eg 34 + 23) and then crossing a multiple of 10 (eg 37 + 28). They have learnt that it is important to start by adding the ones, so that if they need to they can exchange ten ones for one ten. 

Their homework is here and will be in their folders. 

(A note on homework - I have been looking at and marking it, and will return it all to you soon in your children's folders). 

In our story the children have thought about where best to relocate the bog babies. They used Google Earth to view Little Houghton and the surrounding area, looking for places with water. Eventually we decided to relocate some to the River Nene, and some to a lake near Little Houghton. The final job for the B.B.P is to step into the story and relocate the bog babies to their new home. 

The final Forest School of term:

We were so busy that I forgot to take any photos! 

The children enjoyed playing with bubbles, making snowmen from cobbles and reindeer using loose parts, digging in the digging patch and playing a variety of high-energy, keep-warm games! 

Forest school will resume on Friday 9th January unless you hear otherwise. Thank you for your ongoing support with regards to your children's clothing for Forest School - they have thoroughly enjoyed this addition to the timetable. 

Have a good week end, 

Mrs Simpson

Autumn Week 12

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

Another week has flown by in Class 2. 

In our story the children used D.T. skills to make bog baby carriers, in order to relocate the bog babies from the current pond to somewhere more secret and therefore safer. 

In art the children have designed their own piece of art in the style of Gwen Millward. Next week they will be finalising their work using watercolours. 

In maths the Year 1 children have been adding in two ways:

* adding two groups together
* adding by counting on (recognising that if you have 4 plus 5, you can start on '4' and count on rather than starting on one every time)

Their homework is here and will be in their folders. 

The Year 2 children have been subtracting from a multiple of 10, using their number bonds to 10. For example, if they know that 10-4 = 6, they know that 40 - 4 = 36. Their homework is here and will be in their folders. 

In phonics the children have learnt some alternative 'igh' graphemes:
y (as in fly, sky, why)
i_e  (as in time, line, smile)
ie  (as in tried, cried, pie) 

In spellings the children have looked at the letter c making the /s/ sound when combine with e, i or y - I have added this week's words to the Spelling Shed. I do encourage you to use the Spelling Shed as a fun way for children to work on their spellings. 

And in between all of this the children have been rehearsing their Nativity!

Forest School. 

Many of the children happily showed me their warmer socks this week, so thank you for your support with that! It was also a much warmer day which helped. We had a very lovely, chilled session with children playing our new musical instrument, painting rocks which will become bumblebee/ladybird noughts and crosses, making tents and relaxing in the hammock. 

Due to the impending Christmasness, next week will be our last Forest School of the term. It will resume on the first Friday of next term unless you hear otherwise.