Saturday 28 February 2015

'Little pig little pig let me come in!'

The children had a fantastic day with our visitor Mr Stone on Friday reinacting through drama the wolf's story of the version 'The Three Little Pigs'. We look forward to some amazing writing next week from this stimulus!

Story string!

The class were set a challenge today, some props had been left in the roundhouse (apologies about muddy shoes!) with a key resting on the top! The children had to work in groups to come up with a story as to what could have happened?!
We had lots of creative ideas, Father Christmas was flying over and crash landed in Farmer Hoskin's field, the reindeers were poorly, he was on his holiday, Mr Farrington gave him permission to stay overnight in our roundhouse.... the ideas were flowing! Come in and see the strings!

Wednesday 25 February 2015

Dear Zoo

Today year 2 worked alongside Pre-school to dramatise the book Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell.  Each of the children worked fantastically alongside the younger children, demonstrating their kind and caring natures.  The children were able to explain how they helped each other to make masks, make their own pages from the Dear Zoo book and to act like the animals in the book.  A super day.

Tuesday 24 February 2015

What happened to George?

We welcomed Mr Sanders and Mr Knight to the classroom today from Plymouth University.  They led a day of fun drama and writing activities which described the life of George (from George's Marvelous Medicine) after the end of Roald Dahl's famous story.

The Great Fire!

It is Drama Week this week and the children had great fun on Monday learning about the Great Fire of London using the Great Fire of London Game (http://www.fireoflondon.org.uk/game/) we followed the story of Tom through the first day of the fire.  The children were challenged to act out verses of a poem that we are learning and wrote their own diary entries, imagining what it would have been like to live through the great fire in 1666.  The writing that the children have produced has been amazing!  Come and see our Great Fire display in the classroom, where the wonderful house models produced during the holidays are on display.

Sunday 15 February 2015

Compound words family challenge!

If you and your child find a spare 5 minutes when you feel like a challenge, then we have sent one home just for you!

Compound word - is a word which is made up of two words.

e.g. life   and   time   = lifetime
       sun   and    flower = sunflower


Use the sheet sent home or create your own family list! Send in, let's see which family got the most!?!

Holiday challenge - make a house out of a box?!


On Friday we have sent home today a cardboard cut-out of a house. If your child wishes to they can colour this in, cut it out and stick together ready to being in the start of next term.
As we will be studying the Fire of London, if you child wishes to make their own house out of a cereal box, etc then please do! It would be lovely to be able to make a street scene with the children’s houses, and will also help explaining about the spread of the fire and other facts!  
Thanks! Year 2 team
 
 

Thursday 12 February 2015

Question of the Day - Thursday 12th February

Do Bumble Bees make honey?

Four seasons...

The children listened to the seasons today by Antonio Vivaldi. Listening and trying to guess which was which was tricky! We learnt a few facts about Vivaldi, the children found it incredible to think he lived around 400 years ago and was still able with just paper and pen, to write over 500 concertos! Someone did ask whether he could have recorded it so he could hear it back!

How many red tractors?!

The answer to the question was 75,000! Well done to Darcey, Jensen and Abi for getting the question right!
 

Wednesday 11 February 2015

Question of the Day - Wednesday 11th

The Red Tractor quality assurance scheme covers pig farmers, cattle farmers, sheep farmers, chicken farmers, dairy farmers, fruit farmers, vegetable farmers, salad farmers and harvestable crop farmers.  But how many Red Tractor mark farmers are there in the UK?
Well done to Harris, Darcey, Jensen and Millie who got the answer to yesterday's question.

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Question of the Day - Tuesday 10th

Well done to Jensen and Isaac who answered yesterday's question correctly!
Let's see if a few more people can get this one...
Plant pests can cause starvation.  Which disease caused the Irish Potato Famine?

Monday 9 February 2015

Helpers in Year 2

We have been very fortunate to have Steph and Erin helping in the year 2 classroom this term.  This week we also welcome Miss Mayo and Miss Shepherd who will be joining us from Plymouth University for this week and longer period in the Summer Term.

Question of the Day - Monday 9th

Can you think of any plants that you eat the root of?
See Miss Johnson with the answer and you will be rewarded!

Farm to Fork Week

This week is Farm to Fork Week across the school.  Year 2 have ambitious plans to plan, shop for, cook and eat a 3 course meal later in the week.  We will be sourcing our own local produce from the market on our trip, comparing our local market with one in The Gambia, learning about the farming year and doing a spot of gardening in preparation for the arrival of our new poly-tunnel!  Also look out for the quiz of the day - A question about food and farming will appear each day this week - can you find the answer?

Off to the market

Please remember to wrap your child up for our trip to the Market on Wednesday.  We will be buying ingredients for our cooking later in the week.  A good opportunity for all of the children to practice their money and measures learning from Maths, but we will also be comparing Dorchester Market with a Gambian Market that we have been looking at in Geography and be thinking about where food comes from. 
The children should also bring a bottle of water and a small snack that they can carry as there will be a short time for them to have a play and toilet break at Borough Gardens on our way.

Maths Learning - Week Beginning 2nd February

This week we have been learning about division.  We have shared and grouped objects, as well as used our times tables to work out the answers to division problems.  Some of us have used the division symbol for the first time and are becoming more confident at this.  When your child is learning their two times tables at home you could ask them questions such as: "How many 2s are in 10?"  This will reinforce times table facts and get them to link this to division.

This weeks Literacy Learning - Week Beginning 2nd February 2015

This week in Literacy the children have enjoyed planning and writing their own Magic Key stories.  They have shown really good understanding of how a plan is different from a story and have surprised me at how much detail they have been able to add!  Both handwriting and writing content is really improving in year 2.  Come along and read their stories in their Writing books at Parent's evening on the 10th, 11th and 12th February.

Friday 6 February 2015

Small holding in India

To launch our Farm to Fork Week, this morning Mr Farrington showed the Year 2 class some photos of his visit to a small farm in Karnataka, South India. The children then drew some pictures of the farm and did some writing to show their understanding to share with Mrs Mewett and Miss Johnson next week! See if the children can tell you something about these photos!




Thursday 5 February 2015

Super learning in RE!

I was very impressed with how much Year 2 could tell me about what they have been learning recently about how Muslims pray when I taught the class this afternoon. They were also very focused and attentive when we found out a little more about how important prayer is to Muslims. Well done!!
Mr Farrington


Wednesday 4 February 2015

Great dancing!

I really enjoyed teaching the Year 2 class on Monday for an energetic dance to some lively Indian music. The children were without exception focused, controlled but also put lots of effort and commitment into their dancing! We were all rather red faced, hot and tired at the end of the lesson and in need of more relaxed cool down!
Mr Farrington
(There's a photo of a monkey because I call the dance we did "An Indian Monkey Dance!")


Sunday 1 February 2015

The days of the week!

I was sooooooo impressed with the class on Friday, such super results from our spelling test! Just goes to show those who learnt these well in the autumn term had remembered them and with a little practice, stepped up to the mark! Ask your child if they got seven out of seven? If only 6/7 which did they get wrong?
We re-named this day as 'Wed-nes-day' - did you learn this word this way?!