Summer Week 9

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

It's been a busy week in Class 2 and the rollercoaster that is the British summer has kept us on our toes!

Firstly - Forest School open morning. 
Thank you to everyone who has responded regarding next Friday's open morning. If you want to bring a plant, but aren't sure what to bring, some good options are:

Buddleia
Californian lilac
Lilac
Rosemary
Comfrey

More information about the open morning will be emailed to you next week - but I plan to keep it all quite informal and please don't worry if you are not able to make it. 

In our Mantle of the Expert story this week:
The children set up their Honu Beach nature reserve. They fenced off the beach and bay and put up some helpful information and signs for Honu island residents and tourists. The beach was once again a peaceful place with no human interference. Soon after this they found Kekepania - the chief who originally sought their help - sitting on the beach. She explained to them that there was a tradition on the island, many years ago, of calling the turtles to the beach. The children joined her and, amazingly, the turtles came. 

The Turtle Detectives' work is done!

In maths we have contined to look at measure. This week the children have been learning about capacity and volume, in particular what 1 litre looks like and what 1 millilitre looks like (and knowing that there are 1000ml in 1l). They had a go at measuring capacity and reading the volume of sand in different containers. 

Over the past few weeks they have measured:
length and height in metres and centimetres. 
weight in grams and kilograms
time in seconds and minutes
volume and capacity in millilitres and litres

The best way for children to embed these skills and the related language is to do so practically. You could:
* use a tape measure to measure family members
* as suggested last week, do some baking by measuring in grams
* use an ipad to time family members doing different activites, such as running, doing star jumps etc. 
* make potions by measuring different volumes of different liquids in a measuring jug. 

In spellings the Year 2 children have continued to look at homophones and the Year 1 children have been learning about verbs and adding the suffix -ing to change their meaning. 

At Forest School this week:

It was a beautiful morning! The children enjoyed building dens (with some sticks and branches kindly brought in by Seth and Emma), climbing trees, watching butterflies and playing with some newly-acquired oil drums. 

Summer Week 8.

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

I hope you've had a good week and are recovering from the 20°c drop in temperature since half term!

This week in Class 2:

The Turtle Detectives have been busy. Having rescued turtle no.6 from the centre of Durban, South Africa, they learnt about some of the negative impacts that humans can have on turtles, such as:
* light pollution confusing turtles (especially hatchlings)
* vehicles on beaches crushing turtle nests
* vehicles on beaches compacting sand, making it hard for turtles to dig nests
* humans on beaches scaring turtles away
* boats in turtle habitats injuring turtles or damaging sea grass meadows

The turtle detectives got to work. They decided to re-design Honu Island to ensure that Honu Beach and Honu Bay remained human-free - a conservation area. They created maps to show where the human features should be, including the boat docks. Hopefully this means the turtles will have a safe, quiet beach and shallow waters to return to. 

In maths the whole class has continued to work on measure. The children measured some turtles on the playground in metres and centimetres. They also started some work on measuring mass using grams and kilograms. 

To practise at home, your challenge is to do some baking with your children using scales that measure in grams!

In phonics the Year 1 children completed their Phonics Screening Check! They did a great job. Results will go out with their school reports. Going forwards we will continue to revise and use phonics, but will also begin to look at some spelling rules. 

In spellings the Year 2 children have started to look at homophones - words that are spelled differently and have different meanings, but sound the same - eg bear/bare,  to/two/too. 

To practice, it would be great if they could play this game. 

In writing the children have finally finished publishing their turtle non-fiction books! It's been a long process and they are very proud of their work. At some point they will bring their books home to share with you. 

In other news the children have been learning about Islam in R.E. recently. If you are around and about and happen to see a Mosque, please point it out to your child! 

I think that's all for now - have a good weekend!

Mrs Simpson

Summer Week 7: important Turtle work.

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

Welcome to the final half term of the year! I hope you all had a good week last week and managed to enjoy the sun. 

Firstly - no Forest School next week. 
The older children in school are going to have a chance to experience Forest School, so Class 2 can come to school in their school uniform and will have a morning with Mrs Neal. 

The children have had a great start to the half term. Daphne joined our class this year - she is in Year 1 and so will be with us next year too. The children have been very friendly and welcoming and it's lovely to have her with us. 

In our story the Turtle Detectives had an important job to do. During their turtle tracking before half term, they discovered that one turtle had left the ocean and was on mainland South Africa. Yesterday, they found out why. The turtle had been following the moon, but became confused by some beachside street lamps on Durban beach. It followed those lamps instead of the moon, and found itself in the middle of Durban! The children of course agreed that a city is not a good habitat for a green turtle, so they set to work rescuing it. They went on to discover that Honu Beach, on Honu Island, also has several lights on it that glow all night... they are going to have a closer look at this next week, to see whether this might be another problem for turtles on Honu Island. 

In maths the two year groups are joining together for a few weeks to do some work on measure. This week we looked at measuring length and height using cubes, cm and m. To practise this at home you can measure anything you like! Encourage children to estimate first whether it is longer/shorter/taller than 1 metre, and then help them to measure accurately. A fun project is to measure the heights of all the different family members, or to draw around hands and feet and measure those. 

In spellings the Year 2 children have looked at words ending with -tion. I have added these to The Spelling Shed as well. 

In phonics we have had our final week practising alien and real words, ready for the children's phonics check next week. They will just carry this out 1:1 with me, they don't know they are being tested and they have had lots of practice. Please help your child to practise reading alien and real words over the weekend using these QR codes - practice really does make a difference!

In English the children have been making some turtle books. Before half term they spent time writing five different chapters, and this week and next are set aside for publishing their work!

At Forest School this week:

With all the sun and rain we've had, Forest School is looking lovely! It's very green and everything is growing. The children spent the morning making wild crowns (using the many different grasses that have appeared), making mud potions and spotting dragonflies. 

Have a good week end - see you next week!

Mrs Simpson