Spring Term Week 11: To the Museum!

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

Important note - reading books
We have not been doing our usual group reading this week because the children have been taking part in reading assessments. With that in mind, the children have some differnent reading books this week, or have two Badger/Squirrel books instead. 

Please could all phonics and Badger/Squirrel books be returned to school next week, so that we can check the reading book sets to make sure nothing is missing - thank you!

In Class 2 this week:

The main event this week was, of course, our trip to the museum. The children had a great day and they were very excellent representatives for Little Houghton School. They took part in a workshop all about The Great Fire of Northampton: firstly, they heard three different stories about how the fire might have started, before hearing about the fire itself. Then they became history detectives. On each table there was a collection of artefacts and the children had to decide which part of the fire the artefacts represented (life before the fire/the start of the fire/the fire spreading/fighting the fire/fleeing the fire/rebuilding Northampton after the fire). Next, the children acted out these six diferent aspects of the story with much dramatic flair. 

After lunch we had a look around the wider museum (including going trainer spotting for shoes made by Elliot's dad) before returning for the second workshop: designing and making firemarks from cardboard. The children learnt that a firemark was a metal plaque, fixed to the outside of a building to indicate that it was insured against fire. These came into play somewhere in the 1800s. There wasn't time to finish this activity so we will hopefully find time to  do so next week at school. 

Aside from that, the children have been adding two 2-digit numbers in maths (Year 2s have been crossing a multiple of 10) and have been participating in a range of phonics and reading assessments ready for the end of term!

No homework this week - I'll be setting some next week for the Easter holidays. 

Spring Term Week 10: Firey art work

Hello Class 2 Parents,

This week in Class 2...

Snacks:
Firstly, thank you for getting on board with our new snack policy. In Class 2, there are plenty of fruit/vegetable snacks in the mornings and the majority of the time there are leftovers in the afternoons. Feel free to put in extra afternoon fruit/vegetable snacks in your children's bags if you would like - we have an afternoon break time. I've said that packed lunch children can eat any leftover fruit/vegetable snacks from their packed lunches in the afternoon. 

If you are concerned that your child won't be eating enough, please do come and talk to me. I'm happy to talk it through and find solutions. 

Art work:
The children have finished their Great Fire of London art work and have done a great job (see photo below). They have been learning about hot colours, collage techniques and silhouettes. 


Maths:
We've been learning to subtract this week. Firstly, subtracting to a multiple of ten (eg 25 - 5, 39 - 9, 17 - 7) and seeing the pattern (the answer ends in 0) and then subtracting from a multiple of 10 using our bonds to 10 eg:

10 - 7 = 3
20 - 7 = 13
30 - 7 = 23
40 - 7 = 33
50 - 7 = 43

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

Please also continue to practise your child's maths facts with them each week (this is more important than the other homework, so please prioritise this).

Phonics:
Year 1 children have learnt the digraphs  ve and le this week - and that words never end with just a 'v'.  You can look out for these digraphs out and about. 

Spellings:
Year 2 have learnt that when a noun ends in consonant-y, to pluralise it they have to drop the y and add an ie. (babies, bunnies, cherries). 

Aside from all of this, the children have been reading, writing, doing rainbow jobs and enjoying the sun!

Have a good weekend,

Mrs Simpson

Spring Term Week 9: Dancing and Rugby and other things.

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

We've had a varied and interesting week in Class 2!

Following our Alice in Wonderland World Book Day, on Monday the whole school took part in a dance workshop with West End in Schools.   Each class spent time preparing their part of the dance and then at the end of the day the whole school came together for a performance. The children were fantastic and all participated really well. 

Then yesterday Sam from The Saints Rugby Club came to lead some rugby sessions across the school. Class 2 took part in a 45 minute session with him in the morning and then joined Class 1 in the afternoon for some games. Again, the children had a fantastic day and everyone participated well. 

In between times, in Class 2...

The children undertook an art project, with the aim of creating some Great Fire of London art work. They first looked at some art work of the fire, becoming history detectives by looking closely to see what the art could tell us. Then they learnt about hot colours and experimented with tissue paper collage in red, orange and yellow. Next was a lesson on silhouttes. The aim is to put all of these lessons together and for the children to create a piece of Great Fire of London art work. 

In writing, the children have started to write a letter in role as a gluestick, in the style of 'The Day the Crayons Quit' by Drew Daywalt. They're having fun being grumpy gluesticks!

In maths, the children have been adding ones, with Year 2s learning how to add 1s crossing a multiple of 10. A good way to do this is to add to the next ten first, and then continue to count on. 

Year 1 homework is here (practising counting in 2s, 5s and 10s) and will be in their folders. Even if your child can quickly identify the 2s, 5s and 10s, its important to discuss with them how they know - what patterns are there?

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

Year 1 and 2 joined forces for phonics/spellings this week! We had a look at the 'th' sound and which words start with 'th' and not v or f! For example:

this
that
them
think
thought
they

You can help! Please help your child to pronunce the 'th' sound correctly in these common words. Correct pronunciation really does help with correct spelling. 

I think that's everything for now - it's been a great week! Below are a very few random photos from the week, including an insight into what the classroom looks like when 27 children are all doing collage at the same time!

See you soon

Mrs Simpson.

Spring Term Week 8: World Book Day and other things.

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

I hope your week has been as sunny and joyful as our week in Class 2!

It has been SO SUNNY this week. The children have loved being outdoors playing games.

A note - maths challenges
Due to World Book Day (see below for information!) we have been unable to do the weekly maths challenge. Keep practising with your child - it will resume again next Thursday!

Our story
The children learnt that there is a monument on Pudding Lane to commemorate The Great Fire of London. They created their own mini monuments (after creating a London street to build it on). To do this, they did a bit of science, learning how to change materials by bending, squashing, stretching and twisting them. The video below shows the finished street (note the houses made of brick and stone, not too close together) and the wide street following the 1667 Rebuilding Act).

The children also started an art project. They learnt that paintings of The Great Fire are used as historical sources - as detectives, they looked at some of the paintings and discussed what they noticed (for example, that people were escaping on boats and that the sky was dark and smoky). 

World Book Day - Alice in Wonderland
Our World Book Day will be continuing tomorrow (Friday) because the children got so into it. Using our drama skills, the children met Alice's sister who was worried because she hadn't seen Alice for hours. The children agreed to go into Wonderland, look for Alice and possibly rescue her from The Queen of Hearts. So far, the children have created maps of wonderland and taken a sip of potion to become small enough to go through a tiny tiny door. 


In Phonics the Year 1 children learnt that the 'or' sound can be written with:

aw (as in claw)
au (as in launch)
al (as in talk)

Have a go at spotting these graphemes with your children as you read books!

In spellings the Year 2 children have been re-visiting plurals, adding -s or -es. They learnt that it's important to write the singular word first, before adding the suffix. 

In maths we started a new unit of work on addition and subtraction within 20 and 100. 

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

Have a lovely, sunny weekend!

From
Mrs Simpson