Summer is here!

For the last time this academic year...

Hello Class 2 Parents!

We've had a brilliant week to top off a really great year at school. 

Last Friday the children found the Enormous Crocodile! This had been the task they'd been set by their client, Professor Nash, quite a few weeks ago. The crocodile was found in part of the Mara River - luckily the children found him just as he was about to eat some other children. They bravely rescued the children. They weren't sure what to do with him, but when they asked the Professor she thought he should be left alone to live peacefully, as long as he didn't eat any children of course. The children made posters (including taking photos of the crocodile to go on the posters) which they put up around the Maasai Mara. 

The children finished their Mantle of the Expert story by making some souvenirs to take home from Kenya. They learnt about Kenyan soapstone carving and created some clay model crocodiles in the same style. You will have seen their crocodiles - the children worked very hard on them and are  very proud of them. Don't worry if they break - they can be fixed with superglue! 

The children filled up their marble jar at the start of the week and voted to have a party as their treat, so on Thursday that's what we did. The highlight was 'draw the eye on the crocodile' (like pin the tail on the donkey, but a picture of a crocodile on the board that children had to draw an eye on). 

Aside from that, the week has been filled with finishing-off things, making cards for various people and just getting ready for the summer.

Thank you for all of the support you've given your children this year. We have all had a really great year in Class 2 - I've loved my first year at Little Houghton and I've appreciated all of your friendliness and support. 

Goodbye to Alice, Aurora, Billy, Florence, Florence, Henry, Kaia, Kayleigh-Ann, Leo, Leyton, Lola, Oliver, Olivia and Taylen. You have been brilliant Year 2s this year: helpful, hard-working, kind and fun. Have a wonderful time in Class 3.

And to Arlo, Arlo, Eliza, Izzy, Layla, Mason, Reuben and Theo: see you in September. You are going to be fantastic Year 2s!

Over the summer please, please keep reading! You can sign up to your local library and find lots of books to keep your child busy. 

You can also:

* Practise your times tables (Year 1s: 2s, 5s and 10s. Year 2s: 3s and beyond!)
* write a postcard to someone if you go on holiday (I am always happy to receive postcards at the school address, if no one else is available to send one to!)
* Practise your spellings (in your home learning folder)

Finally - thank you all so much for the kind cards, gifts and words over the past few days - they are all greatly appreciated. 

Most of all - have a really lovely summer. See you all in a few weeks!

From Mrs Simpson

Summer Term Week 12: science, sports and other things.

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

What a brilliant week we've had in Class 2!

Science day was so much fun. We joined with Class 1 in the morning and all of the children took part in three experiments:

* can you make a ball of plasticine float?

* can you make a balloon rocket zoom along a piece of string?

* can you move a bubble without touching it?

We also had a visit from various parents, including Alex Hamilton and Zoe Laughton from Class 2. It was brilliant for the children to meet so many scientists and learn about how science is used in real life. They really had a great day - thank you to Alex, Zoe and all of the other parents who helped out. 

We also carried out another science investigation this week: what would happen when we put a gummy animal in the bath (plain water) and in the sea (salt water)? The children made predictions and set up their investigations. They enjoyed observing the sweets over the next few hours, and the next day wrote up what they had found out. There was some fantastic scientific thinking going on!

The children did a fantastic job of sports day! I was very proud of their good sportspersonship, trying their best and cheering others on. They also behaved exceptionally well in between races and earned themselves lots of marbles for their jar. Hopefully the jar will be filled up next week, so they can have one more treat before the end of term!

In R.E. this week the children continued to think about how they should treat other people. We wrote a 'golden rule' pledge stating what we would all try to do. Then the children made lots of emoji cards, with kind and positive quotes written on the back, to give to every other child in the school. They put a lot of effort and love into their emojis and loved taking them around the school - the children in classes 1, 3 and 4 were very surprised and happy to receive them!

The children also finished writing their reviews to go to the Royal&Derngate theatre, so I will get those posted off. 

What a busy week! 

As you will have seen, I am going to take in all reading books tomorrow in order to begin the sorting process. Please do lots of reading of library books and other books with your children over the summer - six weeks is a long time to go without reading! And, of course, enjoy reading plenty of books to them as well. 

I think that's all for now. I won't be setting any homework this week, but will put some general holiday ideas for you all on next week's blog!

Have a lovely weekend, 

From Mrs Simpson.

Summer Term Week 11: Moving up, crocodile removal and the Maasai Tribe.

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

It's been a varied and busy week in Class 2 this week. 

In our writing lessons the children have been writing reviews of Zog. The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive and I'll be contacting the theatre to let them know. It has been fun to use writing skills in a slightly different way this week. 

On Monday we had move-up afternoon. The Year 2 children had a great afternoon in Class 3 and have been telling me all of the tongue twisters Mr Howard taught them. The Year 1 children loved being Year 2s for the afternoon; they were exceptionally helpful to the Reception children and were very good role models. 


Our story has been moving along nicely. The children revisited their Autumn Term roles as Wildlife Lost and Found officers. They were contacted by a ranger from Maasai Mara who asked them to relocated a number of Nile crocodiles. The team used their knowledge of crocodiles to plan and carry out the operation. Using Google maps, they decided to relocate them to Embu County, an area of Kenya with rivers and swampy forests. If you want to explore Kenya further with your child, we had fun dragging the little person icon onto Kenyan roads to see what it looked like. We even saw a sign saying 'No swimming' with a picture of a crocodile on it!

To celebrate the successful relocation of the crocodiles, and therefore the Maasai Mara becoming safer again, the children were invited to watch some traditional Maasai singing and dancing. After that, we used ipads to find out more about the Maasai tribe. 

In maths we have continued work on weighing objects. We had a great session where the children were challenged in teams to find single objects that weighed exactly 5, 10, 20,100,200 or 500g, or 1kg. It turns out there are not many heavy items in our classroom - the children found all sorts of things weighing up to 100g, but 200g, 500g and 1kg eluded them! 

Maths homework this week is therefore to see if your child can find an item weighing 1kg by itself! (or.... as close to 1kg as you can manage). If you manage it, ask your child to either bring the item in (if it would survive a trip to school) or let the class know!

In spellings the whole class has been looking at verbs and suffixes. This has served as a recap for Year 2, who managed to remember some rules but not all, while Year 1 have looked at it for the first time. 

Year 1 spellings are here. 
Year 2 spellings are here. 

Homework note: I will not be setting any more spellings or homework after this week as we will be doing lots of assessments and other end of term activities. In the last week of term I will send some general home learning ideas for the summer!

Have an enjoyable weekend! 

From Mrs Simpson