Five half terms done!

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

There goes a half term! It's been so incredibly busy that it has flown by even faster than usual. 

This week:

* Miss Pratt joined us on her second year teaching placement. You'll be seeing her around a lot as she's with us until 12th July. The children are already treating her like part of the class!

* In our Mantle of the Expert story the children have continued to track their turtles. They also started to do some science around turtles: their adaptations, diets and habitats. Here is the turtle tracker on our wall (in its early days - the turtles have migrated quite far since then).

* In maths we have continued working on fractions, looking at halves and quarters. 

* In spellings and phonics we have been testing the children on their common exception words. I have set every child up with a set of 15 words to learn by the end of the academic year - you will find these in their book bags on Friday. I'll talk to the children about this challenge next half term, and we will of course be practising in class too!

* In writing we have started to make some non fiction books about green turtles. 

Due to staff absence, we've had a lot of different adults in and out this week which has meant reading groups have been tricky to run. Instead, your child will come home with a new badger book and an individual reading book they have chosen. Please read as much as you can over the half term holidays, both to and with your children. 

The only other homework (optional) if you choose to undertake it is for your children to produce an information poster about green turtles! It should have images and writing on. See if you can find some facts about green turtles that we haven't already learnt in class. Please have any posters handed in to me in the first week back. 

I hope you all have a good week. I look forward to seeing the children soon for the final half term :0)

From Mrs Simpson

Summer Week 5: Becoming Turtle Watch

Happy Friday Class 2 Parents,

Apologies, I forgot to click 'publish' on Thursday even though the blog was all ready to go.

I hope you've all had a good week. Class 2 has been going well!

On Monday the children became Turtle Watch. They met Dr Lucy Ellis working on a beach in Mombasa, Kenya. She asked them to help her attach trackers to a number of green turtles on the beach and to monitor their migration and feeding habits. The children named each turtle, measured its shell, estimated its age and attached a tracker. We did some work on continent names, ocean names and compass directions to make sure the children would be able to fill in their daily turtle tracking logs. 

Homework this week is to have a go at this online puzzle with the aim of practising your continents and oceans. You can choose how many pieces you tackle under 'difficulty'. You could even start with an easier one, then challenge yourself with more pieces!

In Maths, the children have started a new unit of work on fractions. They have learnt that a half is one of two equal parts and practised finding half of shapes and amounts. 

There is no Maths homework this week because I've set you geography homework (see above).

In phonics, the Year 1 children revisited the graphemes oy, i (as in find, mind, kind) and ow. In spellings, the Year 2 children started to look at contracted words such as hasn't, couldn't, wouldn't, don't. 

I will be checking children's common exception words next week, so their spelling homework is to practice those! Please make sure their spelling cards are in their homework folders next week. Thank you!

On Monday we have a student teacher starting in Class 2, Miss Megan Pratt. She is in her second year of a teaching degree. She will start off by getting to know the class next week and will gradually start teaching some lessons under my supervision after half term. 


I think that's everything for now. 

See you next week!

Mrs Simpson

Summer Week 4: A Turtle, some letters and some symmetry.

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

It seems the summer term has finally arrived, weather-wise. I hope you all enjoyed the bank holiday! Naturally, children and staff alike were confused with the Tuesday start to the week. 

In our writing lessons the children have been writing a letter in role as Noi's dad, from the Storm Whale. They've been persuading Noi to put the whale back into the ocean. Next week we will finish reading The Storm Whale to see how it ends, and then find ourselves another book for whole class reading. 

In maths the children finished off their work on shape by looking at symmetry. We have also been revisiting addition and subtraction facts for 10. Homework is to spot symmetrical things! Either bring them in to show the class, or take a photo and send it to me. 

In phonics the children have continued to revisit graphemes - this week, aw, ou and ir.  They also looked at the days of the week - their homework is to have a go at learning to spell them. Some are very tricky, so I have highlighted the tricky parts to focus on. Just have a go!

In spellings Year 2 looked at adding the suffixes - ful and -less to words, and how they change the meaning of a word. Their spellings are here - when I test them, I will either ask them to put either suffix on (so they will learn to spell 'hope', I might ask them to spell 'hopeful' or 'hopeless'. 

In other news, a while ago the children started their new Mantle of the Expert story, and this week it continued. The children had learnt that, many years ago, some sailors found themselves in trouble following a storm and a shipwreck. They thought they were going to drown, but were rescued by a giant turtle - in Hawaiin, a Honu. The honu carried them to a small Polynesian island, where they settled and made their lives. The children created this island together, and then yesterday they imagined themselves as the travellers. They created a statue of the Honu, and thought about what they would say to it if they could meet it again. Next week, they will be writing an 'Ode to the Honu' to thank it. 

Next week the story will continue. 

Enjoy the sunny weekend!

Mrs Simpson

P.S. On a Friday I tend to put children's new reading books and their reading records into their homework folders. Just in case you can't find them!

Summer Week 3: Printing, 3D shapes and more visitors

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

Well, life is very busy at Little Houghton School at the moment. Following last week's Ofsted visit, today we had our SIAMS inspection focussing on the church school aspect of the school. The children were once again fantastic during our R.E. lesson and when they were talking to the visitor. 

Aside from that...

Reading books. 
Your children have chosen individual reading books this week. We will continue with reading groups next week. This means they may not be as familiar with the book as usual and will need extra practise, and lots of help with fluency and comprehension!

An art project. 
We spent a lot of the week doing art! The children learnt about Orla Kiely and her prints. Theo kindly  brought in a book of hers for us to look at and the children were fascinated by the patterns and colours. They had a go at printing using a range of objects. Then they drew a turtle, mixed shades of green, and used printing techniques to fill it in. It was interesting to see the different prints created by unifix cubes, glue lids, cotton reels and other things!

Maths. 
We've continued looking at 3D shapes, sorting them by their properties. The children have been using the words 'faces' 'edges' and 'vertices' to describe them and to sort them. 

Maths homework is here and will be in book bags. 
The first sheet is for all children.
The second page is for Year 2 children and any Year 1 children who would like to complete it. 

In phonics the Year 1 children continue to revisit previously learnt sounds. They do not have any phonics or spelling homework this week. 

In spellings the Year 2 children have been looking at spelling patterns following a 'w' - 'or' (as in worm, work, worth) and 'ar' (as in war, warm). Their spellings are here and will be in book bags. 

A final note about P.E:
For logistical reasons I have moved P.E. to a Friday morning - but it is helpful to have P.E. kits in all of the time in case we need them!

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend!

From Mrs Simpson