Welcome back!

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

Welcome to Autumn Term part 2 - it really won't be long until Christmas now!

First - reading books. 
I must start with an apology - due to an admin error today the children *may* come home with the incorrect reading book. I think it's sorted, but if your child has the wrong book please let me know (they will tell you if it's wrong). I also did not manage to write their books down in their reading records. However, they all have new reading books and new free choice books. 

We've had a busy few days in Class 2...

The bear keepers found a large crate outside the Bear Sanctuary containing a bear. It had a label on it, asking them to identify it. Whilst it looked a little like a black bear and a little like a sun bear, the team decided it was neither. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a moon bear (also called an Asiatic black bear). Interestingly, moon bears have a thick mane of hair around their necks to keep warm. The children set about creating a habitat so that this (our seventh bear) could join the sanctuary. 

In maths:
The Year 1 children have been counting forwards and backwards within 20. Backwards is always more of a challenge! Any practice you can do of this would be beneficial. Additionally, any practice of writing numbers to 20 the correct way round would help. 

The Year 2 children have been working on addition within 20. This week the focus has been on adding 3 small numbers efficiently - for example, if they are adding 3 + 5 + 7, adding 7 and 3 together makes sense first because it's a known number bond to 10. Similarly, for 2 + 4 + 4  you can either start with doubling 4, or by knowing that 4 + 2 = 6 and 6 + 4 = 10. There is a game here that the children can use to practice with - it has different game formats on the right hand side to choose from. 

In phonics: we have been looking at reading compound words, such as raincoat, sandpit, starlight, carpark. The best way to tackle these is to read one word at a time, then blend the whole at the end. eg  c-ar 'car', p-ar-k, 'park' - 'carpark'. There is a quick game here to practice this - although there are a couple of American spellings to look out for! 

In spellings: the children have revisited verbs and how to change their meaning by adding the suffixes -ed or -er (eg  help - helped - helper/ walk - walked - walker). 

At Forest School - 

We had our first fire of the academic year! The Year 2 children demonstrated fire safety to the Year 1 children, such as sitting in the 'respect' position (see whether your child can show you this, and explain why it is important). The children also learnt how to 'stop, drop, and roll' if they ever find their clothes on fire (we did also, of course, go over how to prevent this happening). The children were all very sensible and safe around the fire and enjoyed watching it. 

All being well, we will toast some marshmallows next week for their latest marble jar treat. 

I hope you have a good weekend - enjoy the fireworks if you go!

Mrs Simpson