Wednesday 27 March 2013

Collaborative learning

The children are working on a collaborative learning project this week - the task is to create a poster about the Great Fire of London - The children were put into groups of four and after that they have worked totally independently, planning, gathering information and working as a team. The teachers have been observing and making notes to feed back to the class and I am so proud and pleased to report that the board was full of "www" - what went well and only 6 "ebi" - even better if........... the children reflect on these unnamed comments and discuss how to continue with the www and how to over come the ebi in order to progress and achieve the best learning and the desired outcomes. When the children saw and heard the www comments they said  it made them feel happy and proud. They were also able to identify which of our learning skills characters they used to help them achieve this.


Examples of comments made by the children during their learning........."would you like some help?" "You're working really well!" "Guys, the baker's family escaped from the fire!" "Should we use some sparkle.......I was thinking...."

The children will be working collaboratively tomorrow to complete this project..............you would be sooooo proud of them if you could see them in action!!!!!!!!

Well done Year 2!!!!!!!!!!

Also a huge well done and thank you to our class council reps who did a superb job representing the school and our class!!!!!

Thank you to Mrs. Stevens in advance who is coming in to read a story to the class at the end of the day - anyone else that would like to do the same, please let me know!!!!!

Another quick request for any books for our class library which we will be constructing in the holidays!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you though to all of you who have already donated some lovely books!!!!!!

Mrs. johnson, Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Creed and Mrs. Long

Monday 25 March 2013

No orchestra this week

Just to let you know that orchestra will NOT run this week. Apologies, but it will return the first week back after Easter for all players.
Thank you!

Mrs Mewett

Friday 22 March 2013

A memorable day!

Unfortunately toady was the end of our Ancient History Week - but what a climax........having been involved in the epic stone drag on Monday (which feels like an age away due to the packed week) the children were lucky enough to experience a once in a lifetime event, watching the final journey of the stone into its home at the roundhouse. It was no mean feat for getting the stone into its resting place because of the mud bath surrounding it. With much cheering and support from the children we succeeded and the spine tingling sound of conch shells and ancient horns marked this historical event. The children celebrated by taking part in their dances inside - it was truly wonderful to be part of history and to get the real sense of community!!!!!! We will be hanging our tree charms in the roundhouse area next week when we have some dry weather - hopefully!


Thank you for all your support this week - especially being so understanding about the mud! (Unavoidable really!) But the children had an amazing time and it is an experience that they will cherish forever in their memories!

Also thank you to Mrs. Stevens who has offered to come in on Thursday at the end of the day to read the children a story - if anyone else would like to, then please ask!!!!! (The children will really love it! It is really important for children to hear stories as not all children experience this........and also to hear different people reading helps to build the love of reading knowing that it is fun, also helping listening skills too!) Thanks too to the Barnes family for their donation of books for our class library!

A reminder to check yesterday's blog for the home learning task!

Have a super, well deserved and clean weekend!!!!!

Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Creed and Mrs. Long

Thursday 21 March 2013

Home learning!

The children really were superb today - we worked hard as a team, despite the weather, to continue filling in the chalk for the mural and carried on digging out the bank with antler and shoulder blade bones around where the standing stone will be placed.
Our mud rock stone henge is made and is to be painted tomorrow, some of our cave paintings are completed as well as our superb praise poems. The children also completed some truly beautiful tree decorations to be presented/offered at our ceremony celebrating the standing stone, tomorrow. Kate and Corwen will be coming in tomorrow to help us practise our dance and music ready for the afternoon.
Tomorrow we will also be thinking about communication - what would we do without modern forms of communication? How did they communicate in the Stone Age?


Home learning: Can you draw, write or make your favourite learning experience from this week - it could be a diary, scrap book, painting (cave painting, chalk mural picture, settlement), sculpture (standing stones, stone age tool, mask), raise poem!!!!!! It is your choice!

Well done again - sorry about the mud!!!!!!

Wednesday 20 March 2013

Stone Age Strength!

We continued working on the Stone Age project at the round house and it was commented on at how hard we had worked and they didn't expect us to get that much work done - so much so that there wasn't much left for the other classes!!!!!! Proving that not only do we have super strength Year 2, but that we worked exceptionally well as a team!!!! We added more to the beautiful cave paintings, continued in the garden and completed digging out the shape for a huge chalk hill mural which can be seen on the slope in front of the round house area - take a look! Can you guess what it is?

We have completed our praise poem drafts and the similes and metaphors created by the children are magical - well done!

More Captain Caveman cooking, reading about "The Human Race" - (Horrible Histories) in group reading, and continuing with our Stone Age art rotation this afternoon - the mud rock standing stone circle is coming along!


As I previously mentioned, we are looking to create a reading area in our classroom inspired by the children's ideas and requests. One of their ideas was to have a class library for use during daily group reading sessions.

So here comes a request..........If you have any unwanted books that you think are appropriate for Year 2 readers, then we would really appreciate any donations to add to our class library. We love short novels, fiction and non fiction, comics, picture books, books written by well known authors - Roald Dahl, Francesca Simon, Enid Blyton, Jill Murphy, Jacqueline Wilson...........
Also if you happen to have any off cuts of material that we could use to make into comfy, bright cushions for the reading area, that would be fab too!

Thank you!!!!!!! Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Creed and Mrs. Long

Tuesday 19 March 2013

Go Captain Caveman!!!!!!

........and so the fun and learning continues! We discussed stone age spiritual beliefs, Gods and Goddesses. This helped us to begin to create Praise Poetry to either the earth, moon, sun, stars or water - Keep your eyes peeled for an exciting classroom display next week!!!!!
One of the maths groups put their weighing skills into practise making some captain caveman biscuits based using a paleo recipe!


Next through the portal and into the Stone Age - the children worked incredibly hard digging trenches with antler and bones, Stone Age farming and making Stone Age paint then contributing to a cave painting. Wow!

Stone Age art this afternoon saw us creating our own individual cave paintings, a mud rock Stone Henge and beautiful woven tree decorations!

Amazing learning..........and tired cave children too!!!!!!

Well done YET AGAIN!!!!!!!

Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Creed and Mrs. Long

Monday 18 March 2013

This week in Orchestra...

Those instrumentalists I need this week for Orchestra are Violinists, Ukelele players and Guitarists. If your child was selected by their music teacher they would have received a letter from me inviting them to attend. Children need to come to the school hall for 3.30pm, bring a snack and drink, and then we’ll rehearse. Finish time is 4.15pm; please come around the back of the hall for pick-ups.

What an "Epic" morning already!!!!!

Epic is the word of the day!!!!!! It is only lunch time but already we have learnt a stone age dance  and music depicting a hunting scene as part of a whole school story. We followed this by discussing what standing stones are and then put this into context by contributing to our part in the "epic" stone drag. This involved each class helping to move a 1 tonne standing stone from the top of the Thomas Hardye field down into our roundhouse area using ancient machinary!!!!!!!! (Hence the mud!!!! - Well done to all of you who remembered to bring in wellies and old clothes!!) Keep your eyes peeled for pics in the echo!!!!!


Please keep wellies in school this week and bring in old clothes for more hands on work during the week!!!!

Great fun!!!! Off for a lie down now!!!!!!

Mrs. Johnson

Sunday 17 March 2013

Welly week!!!!!

Reminder - WELLY WEEK!!!!!!


One last MASSIVE well done for some truly superb home learning projects!!!!!!!

As we are off curriculum this week and as we have been learning how to use a dictionary, I felt that rather than a spelling list, I would like you to use one of your reading books to find at least 5 words and then look them up in a dictionary. Write down the definition and then put it into a sentence to show your understanding. Please hand this is by Friday.

Another well done for all your efforts to support Comic Relief on Friday - fabulous outfits and yummy cakes!!!!!

Watch the blog this week - Ancient History Week -  for daily feed back on our exciting learning!!!!!!

Thank you once again to our volunteer readers - we are now lucky enough to have 4 volunteers which is fantastic for the children - some have commented that they have noticed progress in the children's reading already!!!!! Again, anyone that would like to come in to listen to the children or even to read an end of the day story, please let me know!

Thank you

Mrs. Johnson

Thursday 14 March 2013

A love of learning!

The children have been enjoying learning all about sentence structure - we used the metaphor of cooking to help us to understand that you need ingredients for a sentence and you need to follow a recipe (order) for it to make sense!!!! They were also creating their own mnemonics to help them remember tricky words! Great fun!


The children carried out appropriate searches using the internet to research about recycling, then applying their learning by selecting images to copy and paste into word, using word art to add a title then begin typing their research.

During RE we learnt about what Christians remember during Lent of how Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the mountains, where the devil tried to tempt him........the children put this into context by using this knowledge to help them solve real life dilemmas and thinking how to over come them - super drama!!!!!

Well done Year 2 for your AMAZING home learning!!!!! I've been soooooo impressed!!!!!

Keep learning those spellings and reading daily too!!!!!!

A quick reminder about Ancient History Week next week - all children will need named wellies in a named bag in school (please do not wear them in the classroom) - and a warm, waterproof coat, hat and gloves etc.

Thanks

Mrs. Johnson

Monday 11 March 2013

Get Well Soon!

We were all sad that so many of you are so poorly, we all missed you and hope you feel better soon - We were busy today practising our tricky words and spelling patterns followed by reading and editing our Victorian Orphan stories - Mrs. Moger popped in and was very moved by what she read, Mr. Farrington also commented on the hard work and effort you have all been putting into your cursive handwriting - well done!!!!!!! We explored odd and even numbers in numeracy followed by some of us learning how to carry out investigations in a systematic way whilst others worked on learning about perimeter. During music we learnt a Japanese song focusing on pitch and ostinato - you sounded amazing, especially as there were only 20 of you!!!!!!!! This afternoon we used the internet to begin research about The Great Fire of London.


A huge "WELL DONE" to all of you for your fantastic class assembly - you presented your learning in  a mature, clear and fun way whilst working well as part of a team - Myself, Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Creed and Mrs. Long were very proud of you!!!!!!

On Friday the children and I discussed - If they had a wish list for their perfect reading area what would be on it - some super, creative and cosy ideas which I will investigate further - watch this space children!!!!!

Finally, next week we have an exciting Ancient History week planned - The children will need to have a pair of wellies in school (Please could they be named and in a bag - please also can I ask that the children do not wear them in the class room due to the lovely new carpet!!!!)

Thank you (and thank you mums, dads, nannies and grandads for all your support and smiling faces at the assembly last Friday!)

Mrs. Johnson

Orchestra this week.

Just a reminder that we are now in the third week of orchestra (Thursday 14th March)

Those instrumentalists I need this week are Brass players, Drummers and recorder players. If your child was selected by their music teacher they would have received a letter from me inviting them to attend. Children need to come to the school hall for 3.30pm, bring a snack and drink, and then we’ll rehearse. Finish time is 4.15pm; please come around the back of the hall for pick-ups. The recorder and ukelele players were super last week, I've been really impressed so far!

Thank you, Mrs Mewett

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Mathletics

Just to let you know - I think I have mastered mathletics and I hope I have managed to correctly set you new tasks relating to our measure topic - there are only a few of you who need to work on a backlog of previously set tasks! Certificates to come for those of you who have completed previously set tasks! (Please let me know if this has or hasn't worked for you!)


Thanks

Mrs. Johnson

Monday 4 March 2013

Big Blog!!!!!!!



Home learning that I sent out on Friday is to be in by Friday the 15th March and the task is to research about the lives of Victorian Street children/orphans - inspired by our recent learning in class - you can choose how you would like to present your work - be as creative as you like.......draw or paint and add facts, make a model and add facts, write a story, write a poem, make a book, poster or powerpoint......have fun!!!!!! - If you do not have access to a computer why not try the library or the County Museum (If you still have no luck, ask one of the Year 2 team and I am sure we can lend you a book or two.) Some amazing ones have already come in - well done!

Spellings were given out on Friday - let's see everyone trying really hard - I challenge the whole class to get full marks!!!!!!!!

A Huge "thank you" to all of you who have kindly offered to come in and listen to readers - you are always welcome to come in and help with whatever you feel comfortable - just pop in and ask!!!!! We are really focusing on reading at the moment and, not only regular reading by the children at school and home, but promoting a real love of reading so if you would ever like to come in and read to the class.....maybe your favourite story at the end of the day, or indeed have any other great ideas please let me know! Perhaps photographing all the different reading that goes on around your home - where you like to read - in a couple of weeks time I will be asking the children to bring in and share their favourite book/author with the class!

Please come along on Friday to our class assembly at 9:20 - a reminder if all children could come into school on the day in their Victorian costumes and bring their uniform to change into afterwards - thank you!

Our learning about Dr. Barnardo, Jim Jarvis, Oliver Twist and various other jobs that Victorian orphans did, is inspiring us to write our own Victorian street child stories - we began by listening to the first 2 chapters of "Street Child" and being characterisation detectives - this helped us to create our own main character and think about their name, age, personality, family etc..........
In numeracy this week we are focusing on measuring length using standard units of measure and also reading scales to the nearest labelled division................

Busy, busy, busy as usual...............thank you all and keep it up Year 2.

Sunday 3 March 2013

Second week of orchestra

Just a reminder that we are now in the second week of orchestra (Thursday 7th March)
Those instrumentalists I need this week are Ukelele players and recorder players. If your child was selected by their music teacher they would have received a letter from me inviting them to attend. Children need to come to the school hall for 3.30pm, bring a snack and drink, and then we’ll rehearse. Finish time is 4.15pm; please come around the back of the hall for pick-ups. The violinists and pianists set an excellent standard for the first week, so the challenge is set!

Thank you, Mrs Mewett.