Maths Learning - Week Beginning 21st March.

This week the children have been working on the vertical method for addition.  Using equipment such as Numicon or base ten equipment the children have been ensuring they know which is the tens digit and which is the ones.  How to add the ones first and what happens when they add up to 10 or more.  Try adding two or more two digit numbers at home and see what your child manages to do.

Literacy Learning - Week beginning 21st March 2016

This week the children have become tour guides, they have been challenged to write a brochure about The Gambia, using their new found knowledge and lots of persuasive language the children have completed the brochures complete with pictures.  We were really impressed with how much the children have remembered about our most recent topic and how they are choosing to write their sentences.

Home learning for Easter - 26.3.16

Over the Easter holidays we have set a piece of learning linked to our RE lessons.  The children have started retelling the Easter story and need to finish this over the holidays.  The stories so far have been given to the children to bring home, but if it has gone missing why not tell the Easter story in your own way!  We look forward to seeing the finished results after the Easter break.  Have a lovely holiday.

A fun and sunny visit to MC farm!

Year 2 on Wednesday for the morning visited Maiden Castle farm with a 'spring focus' upon the class. Hazel welcomed us all and took us about the farm to focus upon the food made for feeding cattle as well as looking for sings of spring. The children got to met the different types of cattle that the farm has. So many questions were rolling out of the children, clearly displaying their inquisitive natures as well as making links to real life learning - fantastic!

We then went to see the lambs - aaahhh! We all enjoyed this time, again the children learnt a little about life cycles in the event of sheep and lambs. They saw the process in which the mums are kept in and then when the lambs are born. They also learned about what happens if lambs are a little weak and also what techniques they use to try to reconnect mums who do not respond initially to their young. Even us adults learnt lots - a big thank you to Hazel and the family for hosting us, also thank you to the parents who came along to chaperone the children.
Mrs Mewett

Maths Learning - Week beginning 14th March

This week the children have been continuing to build their speed and recall of addition and subtraction facts in readiness to use the vertical method of addition and subtraction next week.  One of the games that they have enjoyed playing is Totality.  The idea is to be the first person to get the running total to make 20.
Player A may start by placing the counter on a 6, Player B then moves that counter to another number that is next to it, say 5.  You must keep a running total so 6+5=11, so far you are on 11, you are trying to get to 20 on your turn!  Player A now must move the counter again, lets say to 3, now the total is 14.  Player B continues... lets say to 2.  Now the game is at 16 and because Player A can move to 4, they can win the game on their turn. 
Why not have a go at home, your child will show you how to play.  You could also swap it around by starting at 20 and counting down to 0 to practice subtraction, or choose a more challenging total.
Good Luck.

Literacy Learning - Week Beginning 14th March

This week the children have been writing non-chronological reports about items used in the great fire of London!  They have been thinking about how they can use adjectives to describe objects as well as use their sentence punctuation effectively.  Here is a little quiz for you!  Can you identify these three items used in the great fire of London?  Extra marks for adjectives you could use to describe them!

Spellings for Easter

On Friday we gave out a challenging list of 20 spellings to have a go at over the Easter Holidays.  I have asked the children to learn at least five, but to challenge themselves and go for all 20!  The words follow the spelling patterns that we have covered over the last few terms.  Good Luck!
They will be checked on the first Friday back after Easter.

LOOK	Cover, Write, Check (1)	Cover, Write Check (2)	Cover, Write, Check (3)
three
master
funny
race
soup
dangers
faints
written
banked
Wednesday
tweets
making
know
model
when
word
worried
metal
cupboard
graceful
babies

Sports Relief walk!

The entire school decided to take the Sports Relief challenge today; the school’s ‘Children’s Voice’ decided that they too would like to face a challenge, walking 1.75 miles from school to Maiden Castle and back. Despite it being rather chilly and a Friday afternoon, the children did this in super spirits and attitude. We were also pleased to see the Yr 4 children clearly supporting their buddies from Reception class to complete the walk.

We would like to thank the super turn out of parents today, enabling the children to complete this walk. The children have raised over £150 today and should be extremely proud of their efforts and awareness of supporting such a worthy charity.

Miss Andrew's last week - 16th March 2016

Miss Andrews has been with us for the last 11 weeks completing her final teaching practice successfully!  We congratulate Miss Andrews and will be wishing her a fond farewell on Thursday 24th March.  Good luck with your future career!

Off to the farm - 16th March 2016 for 23rd March 2016

Next Wednesday we will be going to Maiden Castle Farm for the morning to look at new life and what happens in Spring on the farm.  Please send your child for this day in old play clothes bottom half and school uniform top!  Please make sure that they have a suitable pair of walking shoes or boots for the day as well as a waterproof coat, snack and drink.  If you are available to come along to help for the morning please let the year 2 team know.

A lovely morning in the market - 16th March 2016

Year 2 had a successful trip to the market this morning.  The sun shone for us and the children coped really well with the long walk.  After a play at Borough gardens we walked to the market, each group were given a bag of coins and a shopping list, they had to buy the items in 20 minutes.  Every single group managed to do it, well done!  The children have also begun to spot similarities and differences between Dorchester market and Banjul market in The Gambia.  We will be looking at this further on Monday in our Humanities lesson.  Many thanks to the parents who accompanied us today, you really helped the trip run smoothly!  We will be using the ingredients that we purchased to cook a three course meal tomorrow in school.

Year 2 have filled the Marble Jar! - 16th March 2016

Congratulations year 2 for being amazing and having good attitudes to your learning.  As a reward for filling the jar we will be having an Easter craft and egg hunt party next Thursday afternoon.  Well done!

Sport relief this Friday!

 

Sport Relief is this Friday the children can come in to school in their sports wear. From 1.30pm the whole school will be walking to Maiden Castle. We would like lots of parental support for this walk. If you are free and able to walk with your child's class please see your child's class teacher.

 

We are asking for a £1 donation for this sponsored walk.

 

Thank you  

Assembly, 11.03.16

Well done to Yearr 2 for their confidence and skills in pulling off their Victorian assembly. A super effort from all, the class enjoyed learning their parts and the performance poem, a real team effort.
Well done too to Miss Andrews in leading her first assembly!

 

help#greenhouse

Any spare help?!

You may have seen that the plastic bottle greenhouse is starting to take shape, but we do not some people to come in and volunteer to help us complete all sides. Then we will have a last collection of bottles to create the roof. Please come in and speak to Mr Gibson R or Mrs Webb (Yr 2) if you have a spare hour to help? We know the children will love using this resource when completed!

Home learning - 11th March 2016

This week we are sending home a quick and fun Maths game for you to try.  You might like to adapt the game to make it harder or you could play it with a set time limit... let us know any new rules you come up with!

Literacy Learning - Week Beginning 7th March

This week we have completed our Diary entries about the Great Fire of London.  The children have concentrated on putting their thoughts and feelings into the diary as well as using their best handwriting, spelling and punctuation.  There are a few pictures to finish before they are displayed in the classroom.
Any ideas who this is a statue of?  A superhero point for the first correct answer!

Maths Learning week beginning 7th March

This week we have been looking at addition and subtraction, we have been practicing our number bonds so that we can quickly and confidently add on and subtract single digit numbers.  We have also been looking at how we can use our knowledge of 10s and 1s to help us add and subtract two digit numbers.  Using a hundred square to help children add on 10 by jumping down a square, subtracting 10 by jumping up a square, add on 1 by jumping one square to the right and subtracting 1 by jumping one square to the left.  Using this method the children can quickly add or subtract 2 digit numbers.  For example 63-27=
Start at 63 on the 100 square, jump up 2 squares to subtract 20, then jump left 7 squares (you will have to go into the line above, but keep moving left).
If your child is able to add and subtract two digit number quickly and efficiently in their heads, you might like to add another level of difficulty by giving them some two step problems to solve:
Jane went to the shop with £1, she spent 43p on a drink and 38p on some sweets.  How much money did she come home with?

Off to market 11th March for the 16th March

Next Wednesday we will be taking year 2 to Dorchester market to buy some ingredients for  cooking we will be doing later in the week.  This links into our Gambia unit of work where we are comparing a Gambian market with our own here in Dorchester.  If you are available to come along and help for the morning next Wednesday 16th, please let the team know.

Spellings 11.3.16 for 18.3.16

This week's spellings are:
Comma and Apostrophe groups:
earthquake, eyeball, basketball, toothbrush, snowflake, rainbow
Exclamation Mark and Question Mark groups:
popcorn, butterfly, toothbrush, fireplace, blackberry, rainbow

The above words are all compound words so can be split into two smaller words to make them easier to read and spell.

Full Stop Group: Revising y making an ee sound at the end of a word.
sunny, happy, brightly, slowly, worry

Literacy Learning - Week Beginning 29th February

This week we have been learning to recite a poem about the Great Fire of London.  We hope to show you this in our Class Assembly next week, so don't forget to come along on Friday 11th March at 9:20 in the school hall.

Maths Learning - Week Beginning 29th February

This week out Maths has been well and truly integrated into our Eco week!  We have built our own weather stations and have been collecting data about the weather over the course of the week.  This has involved lots of measuring and comparing of numbers as well as reading scales.  We have talked about and used our skills of telling the time, reading the temperature and the amount of water collected in our rain gauges.  We used the met office website to check the air pressure each day and we also used our compass directions to judge which way the wind was blowing.  Why not have a go at recording the weather at home and recording results in a simple table?

Next Week's Spellings - 4.3.16

Next week's spellings will be:
Comma and Apostrophe groups:
closed, smiled, typed, braver, larger, later
Exclamation Mark and Question Mark groups:
baked, closed, used, larger, later, wider
Full Stop group:
could, would, should, all, walk

Why not look at how many words you can spot in your reading that end with er or ed?  Talk about the difference in meaning of the word wood and would and when you would use each word.

Class Assembly 2-3-16

This term's class assembly will be on Friday 11th March at 9:20 in the hall.  For this assembly we would like the children to wear their Victorian outfits for one last time.  Please send your child to school in their costumes with their uniform in a bag to change into later.
We look forward to seeing you there!

Thank you for the recycling!

Thank you so much for all your great recycling, we have enough of everything now and have been busy making wonderful things from what you have donated.  Many thanks.