Autumn Week 9: A Polar Bear

It's been a fairly eventful week in Class 2. Having had a break from their Lost and Found duties, in order to learn about Ernest Shackleton, the children came across a problem. A crowd of people had gathered outside on the road and were making a commotion. To the children's surprise, they soon saw the reason why - a large polar bear was on the pavement! 

It had a note around its neck, but no indication of where it had come from. The team set to work, luring it into a strong container with some fish before researching the species.  

They decided that the polar bear belonged in a very cold habitat and identified many of its adaptations (as your children about polar bear noses and the clever trick they can do). They learnt that the Arctic provides a suitable habitat for polar bears, not only because of its cold temperatures, but also due to food it provides. This led to some learning about Arctic food chains. 

Next week we will look into relocating the bear, heading to the opposite end of the globe to our Antarctic adventure!

In other news:

Phonics group: the phonics group have continued to learn new sounds. This week - oy, ir, ue, aw  (as in boy, bird, clue, jaw). Their spellings are here. 

One main rule I teach about phonics is that the oy grapheme usually (though not always) goes at the end of a word.

Spellings group: Having learnt the -le ending last week, this week it is the -el ending! Their spellings are here. 

The -el ending is usually used after  m, n, r, s, r or w. 

Maths:

All of the children have been learning to recite doubles and halves to 20 this week.  Use Hit the Button to practise these. 

Year 1 children have been doing lots of addition. The trickiest part has been missing number problems - for example 7 + ____ = 9. Their homework to practise this is here and will be in their books as usual. If you want to give your child an extra challenge, print this sheet or write a few similar problems for them. 

Year 2 children have been using their bonds to 10 in lots of ways - to add to the next multiple of 10 (e.g 34 + ___ = 40) and to add across a multiple of 10 by adding to it first. 

Their homework is here and will be in their books. 


Tomorrow (Friday) we will be looking at Remembrance Day and this term's new value of peace. 

I hope you all have a good week end!

From Mrs Simpson.

P.S. I delivered a few unnamed items of clothing to lost property in the office, so if you are missing something please check there.