Happy Easter!

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

Happy Easter!

The children have earned their two weeks off. It's been a very busy and productive term, full of The Great Fire of London, reading, writing, maths, P.E, art work and all sorts of other things. 

This morning in church the children performed 'We're Going on an Egg Hunt', their version of 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' which we composed together. They were fantastic and received lots of compliments (and many marbles in their class jar). 

Aside from that this week has been all about wrapping up the term, getting things finished and assessed, making cards and Easter baskets and other such Easter things. One of the children's favourite mornings was designing and making parachutes so that the Easter bunny could potentially deliver eggs by dropping them from planes. 

The children finished their Fire Marshals story by creating a large representation of a new Pudding Lane (with all the changes recommended in the Rebuilding Act) and then creating monuments to remember the fire. They learnt to change materials by bending, stretching, twisting and squashing them, which helped when making the sculptures. Hopefully you will see the finished results on the video below (if it has uploaded)

We also said goodbye to Miss Spink. As well as working with the children when they were in Class 1, Miss Spink has been joining us at the end of every afternoon to help with catch-up groups. She will be missed!

Homework.
Two weeks is quite a long time to be away from school, learning-wise. I have given your children an Easter Challenge booklet with six different homework challenges. It needs to be handed in on the Tuesday the children come back. For every challenge completed (and completed well) the children will receive a house point. Please help your children to complete their challenges, using a writing pencil to present their work neatly. 

They should also have two new reading books in their book bags, as well as a book they wrote at school.  I have also updated their home spelling cards in their red folders, highlighting the words they spelt correctly this week. 

I think that's all for now! Thank you all for your ongoing support of your children's education. 

See you in the summer term, when we all hope the sun will be shining a little bit more!

From Mrs Simpson

Spring Week 11: Bread and other things

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

The penultimate week of the spring term has been full of interesting projects.

A note on reading books. 
I am going to be taking all reading books in today and keeping them in order to do an audit of the books we have in school. Your children will be given reading books to take home for the Easter holidays. Thank you for your understanding with this - we are looking to order some more books and so need to know what we have in stock first! You can continue to read with your child using picture books and any other books you have at home - less confident readers can read with you using repeat after me type methods.

As an end-of-term writing project the children have become authors and illustrators. They are in the middle of publishing their own books, which they are very excited about. The books are based on one of 'I Want My Hat Back' by Jon Klassen - it is a very simple book, largely based on the illustrations with some dialogue alongside it. All being well, the children will be bringing their books home next week to share with you. 

The children were also tasked with a D.T. project - to design and bake a loaf of bread to celebrate the re-opening of the Pudding Lane Bakery. They did a bit of market research, evaluating different supermarket breads as well as images of Tudor-style loaves. They designed their own loaf and decided upon which flour to use (interestingly, in Tudor times white bread flour was only for the wealthy, while rye and oat bread was eaten by less wealthy people). Yesterday the children baked their loaves and evaluated them. Hopefully they saved some for you!

In Maths:

The Year 2 children have had a go at some past SATS papers. They worked incredibly hard. The format for SATS questions is a little different to our usual maths lessons, so we will be practising some more of these after Easter. 

The Year 1 children have continued their work on subtraction, by finding addition and subtraction fact families.  

Both year groups have been practising adding 10 to any number, and recognising patterns of adding 10. 

Year 1 homework is here
Year 2 homework is here. 

The spelling children have looked at the spelling pattern 'war' (as in towards, warden) and 'wor' (as in worth, work, worm). Their spellings are here. 

The phonics children have revisited their long and short vowel sounds, and learnt that sometimes a single 'i' makes a long vowel sound (as in find) and a single 'o' makes a long vowel sound (as in post). Their spellings are here. 

Next week will be mainly Easter things, with a few end-of-term assessments thrown in! 

I hope you have a good week end, 

From Mrs Simpson.

 

Spring Week 10: Incredible writing and beautiful cards.

(Photo: In R.E. the children learnt that Jewish men wear a kippah in the Synagogue to remind them that God is always above them watching over them. The children experienced what it felt like to wear a Kippah)

Hello Class 2 Parents,

I can't really believe it's Friday again already!

This week the children have finished their reports for the King on the Oak Tree Lane Fire. They are incredibly proud of their work - not only did they finish their reports, they wrote them up neatly for the King. They were so proud of their work that  I have sent a copy home in their home learning folders for you to see. 

After receiving these reports, the King was worried that London still wasn't a very safe place, fire-wise. He summoned the Fire Marshals to a meeting to discuss how best to rebuild London. The children learnt about the Rebuilding Act of 1667, which set out some regulations to try and prevent a fire such as the Great Fire from ever happening again. Based on this, the children went on to design new Pudding Lanes, with wider streets, buildings made of stone and brick, no overhanging top floors and houses wider apart. 

The children also spent a while designing and creating some mothers' day cards for all of you wonderful mothers out there. I hope you like them! 

In Maths:

Year 2 finished their work on money, and then had a go at last year's sats arithmetic paper. This was just so I can see what the children know, and what we need to learn next half term. I'll be setting maths homework based upon any gaps after Easter. I approach sats in a 'let's see what we can do' kind of way - I don't want the children to feel under any pressure at all. 

One thing to work on is fluency of times tables and division facts - with that in mind, here is this week's homework. 

Year 1 have been working on subtraction and on near doubles. A near double is when you add two consecutive numbers, using your knowledge of doubles. So if 3+3 = 6, we know that 3+4 = 7. Their homework is here. 


Phonics and Spellings:

The phonics children have learnt two short vowel rules this week: they have learnt that 'k' after a short vowel is spelt ck, and that 'ch' after a short vowel is spelt 'tch' - as in duck, lick, catch, fetch. Their spellings are here.

The spelling children have been having fun with contracted words - there are so many contracted words, but here are 10 for them to learn. 

With two weeks until the end of the spring term, we are going to be busy finishing things off, assessing spellings, phonics and maths and getting ready for Easter festivities!

Have a good weekend,

From Mrs Simpson

Spring Week 9: Where did Spring go?

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

I don't know about you, but I am confused. A few weeks ago I told you on this blog that we would be starting outdoor P.E. We did one lesson outdoors and have not done a single outdoor P.E. lesson since then! What happened to spring?!

Anyway, the children enjoyed going out in the snow this week and watching the snowflakes through the window. We talked about what spring should look like and what it does not seem to be doing at the moment.

In other learning:

In our Fire Marshal story the children watched a little scene play out: two boys were playing marbles on a quiet street in London, when they noticed a fire break out in a nearby building. They remembered that there were some new Fire Marshals somewhere in London - but they weren't sure how to get a message to them. The children learnt about some different forms of communication in the 1600s, sorting forms of communication into 'then' and 'now'. They choose three different options for the boys to choose from (such as a horseback messenger, or a pigeon). One of the children asked whether there was such thing as post boxes and the Royal Mail - we found out that the Royal Mail did originally operate using horses and carts, in the 1600s.

The children stepped into the story at the point where a messenger arrived on horseback seeking fire marshals to put the fire out. They quickly got to work, using all of the techniques they had learnt during their training, and successfully put the fire out. The team is in the middle of writing some recounts about the fire to give to King Charles. 

We had a very peaceful afternoon on Wednesday drawing owls. The topic of 'wise choices' had come up during a conversation, so we drew some wise owls to help everyone to remember to be wise. We used 'Draw with Rob' to do this, and the children really enjoyed learning how to draw a cartoon owl. The owls are going to go into our story book tree in the classroom. 


In maths:

Both year groups have been doing a lot of counting in 5s this week, among other things. Year 1 homework is here, ordering multiples of 5. Year 2 homework is here - revisiting fact families!

The spelling group learnt this week that the /o/ sound is usuall spelt with the letter a following w, wh or qu. Their spellings are here. 

The phonics group learnt that some tricky words: he she we be me. These words are tricky because the 'ee' sound in them is written with only a single e. They also learnt that the 'igh' at the end of words is often spelt with a 'y'. Their words are here - short but sweet this week!

It's been another busy and good week in Class 2! Have a good weekend and I will see you next week. 

From Mrs Simpson

Spring Week 8: Fire Marshal Training and World Book Day

 Hello Class 2 Parents,

There has been a lot going on in Class 2 this week!

We got back to our Great Fire of London work. The children were summoned to a training session in the town square. They had to equip themselves first, which was a good opportunity to remember all of the work we had done previously on fire fighting in the 1600s. During the training, the fire marshals learnt how to:

* pull down a house using a fire hook

* climb up and down a wooden ladder safely

* use a metal water squirter

* form a bucket chain from the River Thames to the fire

* carry a leather bucket of water carefully


Luckily, everyone passed their training and became certified Fire Marshals. 

On Thursday it was World Book Day. We joined Class 1 for this, opening the two doors between our classrooms. The children circulated around a range of book-related activities and, of course, decorated their t-shirts. We had a really lovely morning. 

In other news:

The phonics group  learnt that the single letter  a sometimes makes a long 'ai' sound (as in acorn and table) and that the 'oa' sound at the end of a word is often spelt ow. Their spellings are here. 

The spelling group have been looking at ey making the 'ee' sound at the end of words. Their spellings are here. Top tip - 'ee' at the end of a word is often spelt with either a y or an -y 

In Maths:

Year 1 have been continuing to add and subtract within 20. They looked at adding by grouping the ones together first, and then they looked at number bonds to 20. Their homework is here and will be in their folders. 

Year 2 have continued their work on money. They have been counting mixed pounds and pence (by adding the pounds together first, and then the pence) and have also been choosing the correct money to pay for something. Their homework is here, with an optional extra challenge. 

Have a good week end!

From Mrs Simpson

Spring Week 7: Crayons and creativity

 

Hello Class 2 Parents,

I hope you are all well!

First, a Seesaw note!
It has come to my attention that several logins are leading you to one particular child's account. I don't know why this is, as with much technology, it's a mystery! However, please do let me know if you are having this problem and I will re-issue your login which will hopefully work!

This week Class 2 have been very busy. We are always busy, but this week has seemed particularly so!

Our afternoons have consisted mainly of art work this week. The children learnt that one of the ways we know about The Great Fire of London is by looking at art work done at or near the time. They identified common themes in the art work: dark skies, flames, and silhouettes of houses. The children then created their own piece of art work: first, creating a collage background of hot colours, then creating silhouettes of Tudor houses using strips of black paper. The children were incredibly involved in their art work and put a lot of effort into it. See below!

Wednesday's P.E. was outdoors, as we are starting a new unit of work to revisit some games skills. Please make sure your child has suitably warm P.E. kit available for outdoor P.E - feel free to pop in one morning/after school to check or take their P.E. kit if you need to! I've found a few pieces of unnamed P.E. kit around recently, I am keeping them in the classroom because I know they belong to our class, and will try to reunite them with owners!

You may have heard that the children's felt tip pens went wandering. We had read the book 'The Day the Crayons Quit', and the next day our felt tip pens quit! They left the children a note explaining that they were just a bit tired of being left on the floor, not having their lids being put on and being thrown in the bin when finished with! The children quickly wrote some letters to apologise, and luckily the pens will be back in time for Friday afternoon free time. Having read the letter the pens wrote, the children imagined what a letter form our glue sticks might look like. They have started writing a letter about 'The Day the Gluesticks Quit.'

Maths:

Year 1 have started a new unit of work on addition within 20. This week they worked on adding by counting on (using objects and a number line), and adding by adding the 1s first (so for 14 + 5, they started by adding 4 and 5). Their homework is here and will also be in their folders. 

Year 2 have started a new unit of work on money. They have been recognising coins and notes and finding the total of a collection of coins.  I have been showing them how to add up coins by representing them with 10s and 1s - for example, if you have 50p, 20p, 10p, 2p and 2p, you would draw 5 tens, 2 tens, one 10, 2 ones and 2 ones in order to find the total. Their homework is here and will be in their folders.

Phonics and Spellings:

The phonics group revisited the graphemes or, au and aw (which all make the same sound) and learnt a new one - al. We spent the week revisiting these four graphemes. Their spellings are here and will be in their folders. 

The spellings group have learnt that the 'u' sound can be written with an 'o'. There isn't a particular rule for this - the children just need to try to learn some of the words! Their spellings are here and will be in their folders. 

Have a good weekend!

From Mrs Simpson

Half way through the (academic) year!

 

Just like that, we are half way through the academic year!

We have had such a good half term. It was great to sit down with you all this week to catch up - thank you for your time. 

A few things:

Seesaw.
Hopefully now you all have access to Seesaw from home if you want to use it - you should have received a sheet during our parent meetings (if you didn't, let me know!). This is completely optional. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing your child's home account and I'll see what I can do!

Home learning folders
Starting this week, we are moving from home learning books to home learning folders. This is to save glue, and the time takes to glue things in! Your child will have a new cardboard folder where I shall put their weekly spelling sheet and any maths homework. I will also put in it their common exception word spelling list, on card to ensure it is durable! 

Becoming fire marshals. 
The children have taken on the role of fire marshals in our story. They spent some time comparing modern fire fighting equipment to that used in 1666. Did you know they only had leather buckets, fire hooks, ladders and hand-pulled carts? The children drew pictures of themselves with the equipment they'd need. Next, we did some work on materials - the children were given the question: 'if you had to make a fire hook to pull houses down, what material would you make it from?' This led to an interesting few  lessons about materials and their properties. After half term the children will attend their Fire Marshal training to find out how to fight fires in 1666!

Phonics and Spellings.
This week has been all about assessing the children's phonics and spellings. Their updated spelling cards will be sent home. This means there will be no spellings set over half term, but if you have some spare time please do help your children to practise their common exception words. As usual, I have highlighted the ones they can spell, so please work on the ones not yet highlighted!

At our parent meetings I mentioned the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check. As mentioned, the children will not know they are being tested at all. If you want more information about the check, and to look at some past phonics checks, please see this website: https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/article/phonics-screening-check#past-papers.

Maths.

Year 1 children have continued to look at numbers 20 to 50, then ended the week by making a giant 100-grid together in the hall. It took a lot of team work! 

Year 2 children have been looking at the five times table this week - multiplying and dividing by five. We had a good discussion about exactly what the division symbol means and came up with 'shared equally between' or 'shared into groups of'. 

Over half term.
Please do plenty of reading with your child, and if you'd like other things to do, have a look at the maths facts booklets I gave out during parent meetings for some ideas on learning maths facts. You can also, of course, help your child to practise some common exception word spellings!

I look forward to seeing you all after half term,

From Mrs Simpson