Week 9: a potential disaster for the bog babies.

Hello and happy Friday Class 2 Parents,

The children have received some alarming news. The woodland, which the bog baby pond is part of, is due to be destroyed to make way for a new housing estate. The children were very upset when they learnt of this and quickly made some suggestions. They created some drawings for the building company showing the range of animals that the pond microhabitat housed (learning the word 'microhabitat' along the way) and wrote some letters outlining their concerns. 

Now that the children know the story of The Bog Baby so well, they have started writing their own versions of it. They have learnt to tell (a shortened version of) the story and are using this to base their ideas on. 

In other news:

The children have also started listening to the songs for the Nativity (information about which will be with you early next week). 

We marked Remembrance Day. The children will learn about the meaning of Remembrance day on Friday and will make poppies to take along to Friday's 11am service. 

In Maths

Year 1 children have been writing and solving addition number sentences. Their homework is here and will be in their folders. 

Year 2 children have been learning to add or subtract multiples of ten, noting that the ones column does not change. Their homework is here and will be in their folders

In Phonics the Year 1 children have looked at the graphemes    ir (as in bird)   ie  (as in pie)  ue (as in blue) and   u (as in tuna/music). 

In Spellings the Year 2 children have been learning to spell words that start with either kn or gn. Their spellings are here and will be in their folders. 

I think that's all for now. Have a good weekend, and see you next week!

Mrs Simpson

 

Week 8: Remember, Remember...

Hello Class 2 Parents and welcome back. 

It was good to see the children's smiling faces this week and we have had a really good first week back. 

A note about reading books:
Due to the shortened week, and having a history day on Tuesday, we have not had time to do our usual 2 reads per group. Your children will therefore have a new badger book this week, but will not have a new phonics book until next Friday.

On Tuesday we had a history day. The children learnt all about the Gunpowder Plot. They...

* learnt the story and put events in chronological order.

* packed a bag to go searching for Thomas Percy (only including things that would have been available in 1605, such as a horse and not a car).

* created 'wanted' posters using charcoal.

* learn lots of key facts, including who the key characters were, why they were disgruntled, and why the plot failed. 

* wrote a report to the King, outlining the key events of the plot.

We held a class team quiz each day this week to see what the children could remember, and on Friday the children completed their own quiz to see what they had learnt. 

Phonics and Spellings.

A change for this half term: children are no longer in 'blue' and 'green' groups. Instead, Year 1 children will work as a whole group following the phonics scheme, while Year 2 children will start the spellings programme. 

We have only had two sessions this week, so I will update you further in next week's blog!

Maths.

Both year groups have started a new unit of work on addition and subtraction. They also looked at number bonds to 10. 

To practise this you can sing this song together (the numbers are the main part to join in with) and then play this game.  

Year 2 children, for an extra challenge you could write down all of the fact families for 10 (e.g. 1+9 = 10, 9+1 =10, 10-9 = 1, 10-1=9).

Have a good weekend!

From Mrs Simpson

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

Week 4: The Society for the Protection of Bog Babies

 Greetings Class 2 Parents,

Welcome to another installation of 'life in Class 2'. 

We have done a lot this week, so here is a little snapshot. 

In our story:
The children continued to make their display about bog babies. The display had photos on it and facts about bog babies. 

One day, a visitor came to see them. She had this 'photograph', and was looking for the Society for the Protection of Bog Babies to see if they could identify the creatures in the photo (when children ask if the photo is real,  I tend to say, 'It is part of our story').

The children quickly identifed that the creatures were definitely bog babies. They agreed that they could be the Society for the Protection of Bog Babies, and they wanted to find out more about this pond. 

We did a bit of geography, making maps of the woodland with geographical features, including a key, and marked on the maps where bog babies were likely to be found. We then stepped into the story and went to look for bog babies. Sure enough, when we crept quietly around the woodland, we quickly spotted a pond. Sitting quietly next to it, the children began to spot bog babies. Each time they spotted a bog baby, they showed everyone else where it was using chalk. 

As we sat watching the bog babies, we decided that we definitely needed to look after them. The children said that they were rare, and that we needed to make sure no one harmed them or took them away. 

For the rest of the term, the children will be The Society for the Protection of Bog Babies and will work to protect the pond and the bog babies, and to keep the public informed about them. 

In writing:
The children have been writing instructions for how to care for a bog baby. 

In maths:

Year 1 have  continued to look at numbers to 20 and the fact that they are made up of one ten and some ones.  They were introduced to base 10 (10 rods and single cubes). Their homework is here and will be in their folders.

Year 2 have continued to work on representing numbers to 100 and this week have been partitioning numbers to 100. Their homework is simply to play this game. Go to the link and select '10s'.  Children select the correct amount of 10s (snakes) and 1s (snake heads) to make the number If your child is very confident, have a go at 100s too!

In phonics:

Blue group has been continuing to revisit phase 3 digraphs and have been reading words with consonant blends in as well, such as stamp, trick, best, frog. Here is a phase 2 and 3 sound mat, which will help you to spot digraphs with your child in their reading book. 

Green group has been looking at 'igh' alternatives: igh, ie, i_e, y, i. 
Year one parents, see if you can spot these graphemes with your child in their books. Have a look at the spellings if you want to. 

The Year 2 spellings are here and will be in their book bags. 

Finally, Year 1 parents are invited to a reading workshop on Wednesday (4th October) at 3.20pm. Reception parents will be invited too. I will go over phonics, the Year 1 phonics check and some strategies for reading, similarly to last year. I will also be talking about Litttle Wandle and its phonics and reading programme. 

I think that's all for now!

From Mrs Simpson

Week 3: Bog babies and their habitats.

 Hello Class 2 parents,

What a very wet and wild week! The children have enjoyed running around in the blustery weather and finding the first conkers on the ground. 

Thank you to those of you who managed to come to the meeting on Monday. It was good to have a chance to see you all and for you to see the classroom. Hopefully you have all received the class information that went out following Monday. If not, you can find a copy here. 

This week the children have continued their work on bog babies. In writing, they have been describing bog babies ready to make some useful posters for the wall. The Year 2 challenge was to include two adjectives in a list: for example, 'They have small, round bellies.' In science the children looked at the bog babies' habitat - a woodland habitat. We looked at features of a woodland habitat and created a habitat for a bog baby out of a range of materials around the classroom. The children went on to draw and label a habitat for their own bog baby. 

In maths:

Year 1 children have been looking at numbers to 20. They have written them and represented them using ten frames, learning that the numbers from 10 to 19 all have a '10' in them. Their homework is here, and will also be in their folders. 

Year 2 children have been looking at numbers to 100, refreshing their memories of 10s and 1s and writing numbers to 100. Their homework is here and will also be in their folders. 

In phonics:

In your child's homework folder I have included a note about which phonics group they are in. I have based this upon my initial assessments of the children. Each week I will outline the graphemes each group has learnt, and Year 2 will have spellings linked to their graphemes. 

Blue group has been looking at some phase 3 digraphs: oa, ur, or, ow, oi, ear. They have been practising reading and writing words with them in. 

They have been spelling the tricky words: my by no go so to do of

Green group has been looking at 'ee' alternatives. For Year 2, this is a refresher. For the Year 1 children in the group, this is a first brief look at some sounds they will be learning in more depth later on in the year. The graphemes are:   ee  ea  y  e  e_e

They have been spelling the tricky word: people

Year 2 spellings are here and will be in their folders as usual.
(Year 1s in the group are welcome to look at these spellings if they are keen, but I will not be testing them on them). 

In other news, the children are all settling back in to school well. The Year 2 children continue to be helpful and the Year 1 children are getting the hang of being Year 1 children. 

I hope you all have a good week end!

Mrs Simpson