Happy Easter!

Hello Class 2 Parents,

The past half term has very much flown by! 

The children finished their Mantle of the Expert story this week. They were knighted - creating their own coats of arms (they will have brought home a shield bearing their own coat of arms) and giving themselves a knight's name. They also spent a few days learning about the artist Paul Klee and looking at his art work, in particular 'Castle and Sun'. Following this, they explored cubism and how to use oil pastels, before creating their own art work in the same style. In addition, they took part in a cricket taster session led by Northampton Cricket Club and performed 'We're Going on and Egg Hunt' at church. 

Reading books and free choice books have all been taken in for the holidays. Please do have a search at home over the holidays for any school books and return them after Easter - we are missing a few. Please also keep reading with your child - the local library is a good place to find books!

Maths facts cards and spelling booklets have been updated, as long as they were in your child's purple folder. 

Over Easter, if you/your child wants some challenges, you could...

* practise reading alien and real words using Buried Treasure (mainly Year 1, but Year 2 can as well!) - choose 'phase 5'. 

* practise maths facts using Hit the Button. 

*  practise your child's maths facts and spellings (don't forget about The Spelling Shed). 

* help your child to learn to spell their first and surnames.

* teach your child to tie their laces, particularly if their school shoes have laces!

* help your child to write a postcard to me, from wherever they are (including home) telling me about their day.

* read lots and lots of books. 

* read more books. 

I hope you and your families have a good Easter. 

Mrs Simpson. 

Spring Week 10: Everyone will sleep well this weekend.

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

It's been a fantastic week in Class 2! 

... but firstly - notices. 

Mr Garbutt has joined us in Class 2 for the next 6 school weeks. He is in his second year of a three-year teacher training degree and is with our class on placement. Mr Garbutt will be getting to know the class and how a mixed 1/2 class works, and will gradually take on bits of teaching under my guidance. 

Reading books:
* children have two free-choice books this week
* Please check at home for any of our school group reading books and return them before Easter
* Due to the many events this week, your children may still have last week's free choice book in their bag! I will collect in all books next Thursday (free choice and group reading books). 

Next week:
P.E. kits as usual on Tuesday, and no Forest School on Friday due to end of term activities. 

This week in Class 2...

WE WENT TO WARWICK CASTLE!
The children had an absolutely wonderful day and were wonderfully behaved. They looked at features of the castle, recognising many from the previous learning we've done. They learnt about how to attack and defend castles (ask your child about murder holes) and climbed the mound, which was once the motte for the original motte and bailey castle. We had lunch while watching the bird of prey show, then climbed the battlements - an epic feat. Finally we visited the 'Kingmaker' exhibition where children learnt a bit about what it was like to prepare for battle. Around 1/3 of the class had a nap on the journey home!

Following which....

The children finally built a castle for Queen Matilda, on a hill in Scotland:

Finally... Forest School.
We had a lovely session making pancakes on the fire!

We did do reading, writing and maths in between times of course :)

Have a good weekend

Mrs Simpson

Spring Week 9: A sporty, castley week.

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

I hope your week has been as good as our one!

It started with the Rhino Multisports event at Hanslope Primary School on Monday. The children were in two teams and competed against 6 teams from other schools. They took part in seven events, including 'Floor is Lava', axe throwing, a penalty shoot out and a basketball challenge. We had a great morning and it was very well run by Rhino. Our teams came 5th and 6th out of 7, so it was a very good day for 'it's the taking part that counts'! The children were fantastic and showed great sportsmanship throughout. 

The rest of our week has been fairly ordinary - 

In maths the Year 1 children have continued their work on subtraction; using a number line to count back, and subtracting by 'finding the difference' between two numbers. 

The Year 2 children have been learning that the division symbol has two meanings:
'divided into groups of'
'shared equally between'

For example,  12 divided into groups of 3 equals 4 groups, and 12 shared equally between 3 equals 4 each. 

We've been doing a lot of practical division using counters. 

Year 1 homework is here and will be in their folders. 
Year 2 homework is here and will be in their folders. 

In phonics the children have been looking at trigraphs: air (as in chair) and are (as in stare), and ore (as in more) and oor (as in door). They are really enjoying phonics play games at the moment so it would be good if they could practise reading real and alien words containing these sounds using Picnic on Pluto or Buried Treasure. 

In spellings the children have learnt how to add the past tense suffix -ed to a word ending in y - they have to chop off the y and add an i. For example, try - tried, cry - cried.  I have added this week's spellings to The Spelling Shed. 

In our story, having reached Scotland and found the perfect location for a castle the children designed some castles to show the queen. They learnt about motte and bailey castles and stone keep castles, and decided that (while it would take longer to build) a stone keep castle was the best option. Working in groups, they created some example castles for the queen, featuring such useful things as thick stone walls, arrow loops, crenellations, moats and drawbridges. 

Here are the finished castles: 

Finally, at Forest School this week...
We had a lovely morning toasting marshmallows, playing 'Floor is Lava' and 'Wolf Hide and Seek' and making mud creatures. 

Note: The children completed their maths challenges on Thursday morning and I have put them into their purple folders. If they were confident in their particular maths facts, I've ticked them off on their maths cards. 

Have a good weekend!

Mrs Simpson

Spring Week 8 - World Book Day (and other things).

 

Hello Class 2 Parents,

It's been a bit of a different week! 

On Thursday the children enjoyed celebrating World Book Day. We focussed on the story of 'Pinocchio'. They made puppets using split pins and some children decided to add string as well. They also experienced what it might be like in the belly of a whale, using their senses of hearing, sight, smell and touch. Each year group collaboratively wrote a poem following theses experiences. In addition, Mr Howard came to read them some stories (while I went to Class 1) and in the afternoon the children from Class 4 came to share books with them. It was another lovely World Book Day!

Following this, on Friday we were joined by Ollie from West End in Schools. Class 2 took part in a dance workshop based on part of the story, and then at the end of the day the whole school performed the story together. 

A really good couple of days!

In other news....

In maths the Year 1 children have continued to work on addition and subtraction within twenty. This week, they learnt to find the missing part by subtracting a part from the whole (for example,   for. 15 - 3 = ____. or for 15 - _____ = 3, the children subtracted 3 from 15). They also used a number line to subtract a part from the whole. 

In phonics the children revisited oo and or alternatives - ue/ew/u_e and al/aw/au. We did a lot of practise of spotting these graphemes in words in order to read them. 

In spellings the Year 2 children learnt that when you add -s to a word that ends in -y, you have to drop the y and add -ie instead. As usual, I have added spellings to The Spelling Shed. 

Maths homework - Your children now have a 'maths facts card' in their homework folders. It indicates the maths facts for them to start learning, and they will also practise their individual maths facts in school weekly. When we are confident that they know them (ie they can complete a related challenge in a given time) we will tick it off their card. These won't be 'tests' - if your child needs help, they will get it!

In our story the children travelled along the (very different) Great North Road in 1026. It was a long journey. They only took essentials, such as a thick woolen cloak, sturdy boots and flat bread. Eventually they reached Scotland, where a Thane on the border stopped them and demanded 20 silver coins. Being poor serfs, this was a problem. However, they offered to work for the Thane for a month in exchange for being allowed into Scotland. 

A month later, the travellers started to explore Scotland, looking for the perfect location in which to build a castle - somewhere with a hill to build on, a forest for wood, a river for drinking, washing and catching fish, open land to farm on and preferably surrounded by mountains for protection. 

I hope you all have a good weekend. Don't forget to send your children to school in their P.E. kits for our sports morning on Monday!

Mrs Simpson