Happy Half Term!

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

And there we have it - the children in Class 2 have completed the first seven weeks of their new school year. They have done an excellent job over the past few weeks and they really feel like a class now, with Year 1 and Year 2 children working together on various projects and the Year 1 children learning what it means to be in Class 2. 

This week...

The Society for the Protection of Bog Babies went to survey the woods. The bog baby had returned to its pond habitat, much to our relief, but many other animals were spotted. The children learnt to categorise them into 'mammals', 'reptiles' and 'birds' and learnt some of the features of each of these groups of animals. 

Crackerjack the Tortoise came to visit us. He belongs to Mrs Aindow. The children had a lovely time observing him and asking questions about him. He was quite sleepy because he is due to go into hibernation soon. 

In Maths:

Year 1 continued their work on 'equals' and 'greater than' and learnt the phrase, and symbol for 'is less than'. (<)

Year 2 looked at number lines that go up in 10s or 1s, and learnt how to find out where different numbers sit on the line. 

We had a phonics break this week while Mrs Neal and I tested the children's spelling of common exception words. I have highlighted in orange the words they were able to spell. We will continue to work on these throughout the year. 

In other news:

We have been learning about 'special places' in R.E and focussed this week on the church. If you and your child happen to go near a church over half term, perhaps you could talk about what goes on in churches and why they are special to Christians. 

The children will have their marble jar treat tomorrow (Friday). They've done an excellent job of working as a team this half term. The jar has been emptied ready to fill up again!

It was very good to catch up with you all this week to talk about how your children are getting on - thank you for your time, and for the ongoing support you provide the school and your child's education. 

Half term is for resting, but here are some homework ideas if you want them!

Please definitely read your child's reading book at least three times, and enjoy their Badger book, and have a go at learning a few more common exception words. 

See you soon!

Mrs Simpson

Week 6: trying to keep the bog baby alive.

Hello Class 2 Parents,

Welcome to another recount of life in Class 2. 

Our story. 
Having found a bog baby last week that wasn't doing very well, the children learnt about what living things need to survive. They offered the bog baby water and food, and built him a shelter. Unfortunately he still didn't seem to be very well. Someone pointed out that his skin was very dry, so we sprinkled water on it. This seemed to help. It turns out that bog babies are amphibians! This led to some learning about what ampibians are. Hopefully now we know this, we will be able to help the bog baby further. 

Maths.

Year 1 have been comparing numbers using 'equal to' and 'greater than'. It's important that they start to use the word 'greater' rather than 'bigger' - we talked about how this is an important mathematical word. Their homework is here and will be in their book bags. 

Year 2 have been using their knowledge of place value to order numbers. Their homework is here and will be in their book bags. 

Phonics.

The blue group has been looking at 'ay' and 'oy' this week. See if you can spot any words with these digraphs in within the books you read together. 

The green group has had a whistlestop tour of alternatives to 'oa'.
The Year 2 spellings are here. 

In other news.

Simon came to talk to the children about being safe on the internet. It was a very good session and the children had lots of good ideas to share. The main things they were asked to remember were:

• if anyone sends them a message, they must show an adult
• if anything gives them 'butterflies' or the 'uh oh' feeling, they must tell an adult
• they should only use the internet when they are in the same room (or very close to) an adult
• they should use Youtube Kids and the search engine Swiggle.
• no devices at bedtime/ in the bedroom

Harvest. 

Your children have some words to learn in their homework folders. Please help them to learn them for Monday's rehearsal!

I am looking forward to catching up with you all next week!

Mrs Simpson

Week 5: A fence and a problem

 Hello Class 2 Parents. 

This week has passed by exceptionally quickly but I will try to remember everything we have been getting up to in Class 2!

Our story. 
Having found the bog baby pond last week, the children wrote some recounts for Emma (our client) telling her about their discovery. They created a fence around the pond in order to keep people out. However, they encountered a problem... one bog baby found itself shut out of the pond when the fence was erected. The children discovered it, laying under some leaves, not looking very well. They were rightly very concerned and came up with lots of ideas for how to help. This will lead to some learning about what animals need to survive, what category of creature a bog baby might be (mammal/bird/fish/reptile/amphibian) and why it might need to get back to its habitat. 

We will keep you updated about how the bog baby gets on. 

Other learning this week has included some R.E. about special places - perhaps you could talk to your child/ren about places that are special to you and your family, and why. We spent some time in the peace garden discussing why it is special - though with the diggers at work close by, it was not especially peaceful! The children are also in the middle of an art project to create some art in the style of Gwen Millward, who authored and illustrated The Bog Baby. 

In Maths:

Year 1 children have continued their work on place value: building numbers to 20 (and sometimes beyond) and identifying '1 more' and '1' less.  

Year 2 children have also continued their work on place value: learning to use a place value chart, and comparing numbers to 100 using the symbols  < (less than) > (greater than) = (equal to).

Both year groups have been counting in twos/ reciting the two times table. 

Year 1 homework is to play 'whack-a-mole' counting in twos. The link is here - choose 'steps of 2'. It is probably worth counting in twos with your child a couple of times before playing the game. 

If your child finds this very challenging, practise counting in 1s instead using Whack-A-Mole. 

Year 2 homework is here and will be in their book bags. You'll need to make the spinner, but if you don't want to do this you can roll 1 or 2 dice instead. 

In Phonics:

Blue group has been continuing to revisit digraphs and read words with consonant blends in. Help your child to spot digraphs in their books as they read to you.  Here are all of the single letter sounds and digraphs they have learnt so far, for you to help them to spot in their books. 

Green group has been looking at 'oo' alternatives: ue, ew, u_e.   They are learning that when the 'oo' sounds like it is in the middle of a word, it usually needs u_e. When it's at the end, it could be ue or ew. Year 2 spellings are here and will be in their homework folders. 

Have a good weekend!

Mrs Simpson