Autumn Week 3: A box of penguins.

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

Despite the shortened week, we have managed to squeeze a lot into our time in Class 2!

In our Lost and Found story this week:

Having learnt about animal habitats and rehomed our residents, all was quiet in the Lost and Found offices. The team was, in fact, a little fed up with having nothing to do. They were pleased, if a little confused, when a box was left at their door. It was addressed 'South Pole, Antarctica' and had labels on such as 'This Way Up' and 'Do Not Drop'. 

It also appeared to have air holes in it. 

The team carefully opened to box to reveal... 24 penguins. It was a bit of a shock. Luckily, we had some fish and a cold place to keep the penguins, so we temporarily housed them while we decided what to do. To begin with we took photos of the penguins and identified their species. There was a range: adelie, emperor, king, macaroni, rockhopper, magellanic and chinstrap. Then we learnt a bit more about penguins, looking closely at their features and adaptations. You could see if your child can remember any of the useful features penguins have, and why they are so well suited to life in Antarctica. 

For a YouTube video about penguins, click here. 

Next, we began to learn a bit about Antarctica - unfortunately, we can't keep the penguins indefinitely and so will have to return them soon. For this, we started by locating Antarctica on a map and learning that it is one of the seven continents. This song is useful for learning the names of continents!.

Maths:

We continued to look at numbers and place value. 

Year 1 have been learning to build teen numbers, recognizing that there is a group of 10 in every teen number. 

Year 2 have been partitioning numbers to 100, recognising how many 10s and 1s are in each number. They also began to look at more flexible partitioning - for example, 57 can be partitioned into 50 and 7, 40 and 17, 30 and 27, 20 and 37, 10 and 47. 

For extra practice:

Year 1 children can practise writing numbers to 20 correctly. This can be done on paper, outside with chalk, with a finger in a tray of paint, or any other way. The important thing is that the numbers are the right way around!

Year 2 children can complete this sheet. There will be a copy in their home learning books. To help, you will need some 10s and 1s. You can use 10ps and 1ps, or pieces of card cut into rods (1s) and small squares (1s).

Phonics and Spellings:

The phonics group have revisited ai, ee, igh and oa. Their spellings are here. They are also focussing on writing whole sentences using these sounds, so for an extra challenge you can do some sentence writing using words such as rain, keep, light, boat, goat, moat, train, sheep...

The spellings group have looked at words beginning 'wr'. Their spellings are here. 

In other news, we have started to prepare some self portraits in the style of Oliver Jeffers. The children did a great job of sketching some ideas!

Have a good weekend!

From Mrs Simpson