Summer Week 2: A new story.

Hello Class 2 Parents,

Firstly, I must apologise for the delay in this blog - apparently I forgot to hit 'publish'!

It's been a sunny week in Class 2, including...

The start of a new story. 
We have started our new Mantle of the Expert story. So far, the children have created an island. It's a Polynesian island, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, and it has many interesting physical features so far. They learnt that, many years ago, the first humans to land on the island came due to a storm. Their boat was wrecked and they thought they were going to drown. Fortunately, a large turtle rescued them and took them to safety on the island. The island was given the name 'Honu Island' (Honu being their name for 'turtle'). The children learnt that the first people on the island created statues of the Honu to honour it, so we created a representation of Honu Beach with those statues on. 

In maths:

The Year 1 children continued their work on place value. They revisited how to represent numbers using tens and ones, and then learnt how to partition numbers by splitting up the tens and ones. 

To practice this they can play Ducky Dispatch. 
Select 'order limit' 1-99
Then choose your order and time limit. 
Children have to select the correct number of 10s and 1s to create the number ordered. 

The Year 2 children have continued their work on fractions. They have now been taught that:

a half is one out of two equal parts.
a quarter is one out of four equal parts
a third is one out of three equal parts. 

To practise this at home, they can play Firepit Fractions - select 'Year 2' or if your child needs more challenge 'Year 2 and above'.

In phonics the Year 1 children have continued to revisit some graphemes. Please do continue to practise reading alien and real words with your child using games on Phonics Play. The Phonics Screening Check takes place after half term, and the more practice they get, the merrier. 

In spellings the Year 2 children have been dropping a y to add an i when adding the suffixes -est and -er.  Their spellings have been added to The Spelling Shed. Please let me know how you are getting on with The Spelling Shed - I've not used it before so would be interested in how you are finding it. 


At Forest School:
We had another lovely morning, including:
* making clay monster heads
* extending our wildflower meadow thanks to Seth's seed donation
* watering the trees
* hunting for minibeasts in their habitats (linking to the science Mr Garbutt has been teaching the children)
* and relaxing in the hammock

I hope you have a good weekend!

From Mrs Simpson

It's the summer term!

Hello Class 2 Parents,

Summer term is here!

As with every year, it's lovely to see the summer term but I can't quite believe how quickly the academic year is going. 

The children have had a great week back at school...

We finished off our 'castles' topic.

All of our non-core learning this week has been focussed on The Battle of Hastings. We ran out of time last term during our 'castles' story last half term (it was so short!) so we finished it off this week with a history week on The Battle of Hastings. See what your children can tell you! We mainly focussed on the three contenders to the throne, the events of the Battle of Hastings, and the fact that William became William the Conqueror and introduced castles to England. We looked at the Bayeux Tapestry as well. 

There is a great interactive version of The Bayeux Tapestry here - have a look with your children and see what they can spot. 

In maths:

The Year 1 children have started a new unit of work on place value to 50. They have learnt how to represent numbers using tens and ones, and how to talk about how many tens and ones are in a number. 

For homework, they can have a go at place value basketball. Stick to numbers within 50 or 100 for now. 

The Year 2 children have started a unit on fractions. So far, they have learnt to identify one half or one quarter of a shape or object. 

Their homework is to have a go at this practically in any way you like. They could cut a sandwich into quarters or halves, or a pizza. They could find 1/4 or 1/2 of some sweets to eat. They could fold some shapes into quarters or halves. 

In phonics the Year 1 children have revisited the digraphs and trigraphs aw, au, al, oor and ore - all which make the 'or' sound. As we are coming up to the phonics screening check (after half term)  the more practice they can have of reading real and alien words, the better. 

This week, use phonics play again (buried treasure or obb and bob) and choose 'au' or 'aw' from the options. 

In spellings the Year 2 children have looked at adding - ing to a word ending in 'e', dropping the 'e' first. I've added a new list to the Spelling Shed. 

Back at Forest School...

It was so lovely and warm at Forest School and we had a really lovely morning. Lots has changed in the past few weeks - everything is growing, including the new trees we planted a few weeks ago. The children spent the morning....

* watering and labelling the trees
* relocating some daffodils, tulips and other plants that were getting damaged
* planting some seeds Benjamin brought in for us
* digging
* building an obstacle cours
* making an animal den
* climbing the tree

... among other things. It was very good to be back!

Have a good weekend,

Mrs Simspon

Happy Easter!

Hello Class 2 Parents,

The past half term has very much flown by! 

The children finished their Mantle of the Expert story this week. They were knighted - creating their own coats of arms (they will have brought home a shield bearing their own coat of arms) and giving themselves a knight's name. They also spent a few days learning about the artist Paul Klee and looking at his art work, in particular 'Castle and Sun'. Following this, they explored cubism and how to use oil pastels, before creating their own art work in the same style. In addition, they took part in a cricket taster session led by Northampton Cricket Club and performed 'We're Going on and Egg Hunt' at church. 

Reading books and free choice books have all been taken in for the holidays. Please do have a search at home over the holidays for any school books and return them after Easter - we are missing a few. Please also keep reading with your child - the local library is a good place to find books!

Maths facts cards and spelling booklets have been updated, as long as they were in your child's purple folder. 

Over Easter, if you/your child wants some challenges, you could...

* practise reading alien and real words using Buried Treasure (mainly Year 1, but Year 2 can as well!) - choose 'phase 5'. 

* practise maths facts using Hit the Button. 

*  practise your child's maths facts and spellings (don't forget about The Spelling Shed). 

* help your child to learn to spell their first and surnames.

* teach your child to tie their laces, particularly if their school shoes have laces!

* help your child to write a postcard to me, from wherever they are (including home) telling me about their day.

* read lots and lots of books. 

* read more books. 

I hope you and your families have a good Easter. 

Mrs Simpson. 

Spring Week 10: Everyone will sleep well this weekend.

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

It's been a fantastic week in Class 2! 

... but firstly - notices. 

Mr Garbutt has joined us in Class 2 for the next 6 school weeks. He is in his second year of a three-year teacher training degree and is with our class on placement. Mr Garbutt will be getting to know the class and how a mixed 1/2 class works, and will gradually take on bits of teaching under my guidance. 

Reading books:
* children have two free-choice books this week
* Please check at home for any of our school group reading books and return them before Easter
* Due to the many events this week, your children may still have last week's free choice book in their bag! I will collect in all books next Thursday (free choice and group reading books). 

Next week:
P.E. kits as usual on Tuesday, and no Forest School on Friday due to end of term activities. 

This week in Class 2...

WE WENT TO WARWICK CASTLE!
The children had an absolutely wonderful day and were wonderfully behaved. They looked at features of the castle, recognising many from the previous learning we've done. They learnt about how to attack and defend castles (ask your child about murder holes) and climbed the mound, which was once the motte for the original motte and bailey castle. We had lunch while watching the bird of prey show, then climbed the battlements - an epic feat. Finally we visited the 'Kingmaker' exhibition where children learnt a bit about what it was like to prepare for battle. Around 1/3 of the class had a nap on the journey home!

Following which....

The children finally built a castle for Queen Matilda, on a hill in Scotland:

Finally... Forest School.
We had a lovely session making pancakes on the fire!

We did do reading, writing and maths in between times of course :)

Have a good weekend

Mrs Simpson

Spring Week 9: A sporty, castley week.

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

I hope your week has been as good as our one!

It started with the Rhino Multisports event at Hanslope Primary School on Monday. The children were in two teams and competed against 6 teams from other schools. They took part in seven events, including 'Floor is Lava', axe throwing, a penalty shoot out and a basketball challenge. We had a great morning and it was very well run by Rhino. Our teams came 5th and 6th out of 7, so it was a very good day for 'it's the taking part that counts'! The children were fantastic and showed great sportsmanship throughout. 

The rest of our week has been fairly ordinary - 

In maths the Year 1 children have continued their work on subtraction; using a number line to count back, and subtracting by 'finding the difference' between two numbers. 

The Year 2 children have been learning that the division symbol has two meanings:
'divided into groups of'
'shared equally between'

For example,  12 divided into groups of 3 equals 4 groups, and 12 shared equally between 3 equals 4 each. 

We've been doing a lot of practical division using counters. 

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 (as in chair) and are (as in stare), and ore (as in more) and oor (as in door). They are really enjoying phonics play games at the moment so it would be good if they could practise reading real and alien words containing these sounds using Picnic on Pluto or Buried Treasure. 

In spellings the children have learnt how to add the past tense suffix -ed to a word ending in y - they have to chop off the y and add an i. For example, try - tried, cry - cried.  I have added this week's spellings to The Spelling Shed. 

In our story, having reached Scotland and found the perfect location for a castle the children designed some castles to show the queen. They learnt about motte and bailey castles and stone keep castles, and decided that (while it would take longer to build) a stone keep castle was the best option. Working in groups, they created some example castles for the queen, featuring such useful things as thick stone walls, arrow loops, crenellations, moats and drawbridges. 

Here are the finished castles: 

Finally, at Forest School this week...
We had a lovely morning toasting marshmallows, playing 'Floor is Lava' and 'Wolf Hide and Seek' and making mud creatures. 

Note: The children completed their maths challenges on Thursday morning and I have put them into their purple folders. If they were confident in their particular maths facts, I've ticked them off on their maths cards. 

Have a good weekend!

Mrs Simpson