What have you been up to this half-term?

A big thank you to Jack in Year 2 who started a discussion in the whole-school area of our SWGfL Merlin pages asking: 'What are you doing this holiday?'. Why not share with Jack and others what you have been up to this half-term through adding text, an image, a video or a sketch? We would all love to hear what people have been doing as well as see the pupils practising their SWGfL Merlin skills. Mr. Spracklen

Can you help us? (Plastic Bags)

Mrs. Webb is on the hunt for plastic bags of all colours for some special work we will be completing after half-term. If you have any bags, in particular blue blags, then we would be delighted to have them. Mr. Spracklen

Zumba!!!

We tried our hand at a bit of Zumba dancing this morning! All the children (and the adults) had a fantastic time and we do have a video which we must make sure we put up after half-term!

Fantastic Half-Term

We are coming to the end of the first half term and on Friday your child will bring home their P.E kit. Please make sure your child brings it back on the Monday we come back to school as we will be doing P.E on Tuesday. The Year 2 team hope you have a lovely week off and we will see you all back to school on the 31st October.

Thank-you - Parent Consultation Meetings

Thank you for coming in to see me this week, it was nice to meet you all and I hope you found the meetings helpful and informative. Please see a member of the team if you have any questions about your child's learning and if you feel you would like another appointment please see me and I will be happy to talk to you .

Year 2 - Pebble Jar Party

In Year 2 we have a whole class reward scheme known as the ‘Party Jar’. The children work hard to fill the jar with pebbles. The class earn pebbles when the children have worked particularly well together. I am writing to inform you that Year 2 have filled their party jar! To celebrate, Year 2 have voted to 'movie night' themed party complete with pop-corn on Friday afternoon (21^st October, 2011). The children are not required to bring anything special for the party although some have asked if they could bring in the film of their choice for the class to vote on.

Reminder - Parent Consultation Meetings

Just a quick reminder to say that Parent Consultation Meetings are this week. Tuesday 18th October (5.30pm - 8.00pm) and Wednesday 19th October (3.30pm - 6.00pm). If you haven't signed up yet, please do so on the sheets by the main class door.

Home Learning

As you know, we don’t set any formal homework in Year 2. Instead, we encourage pupils to be leaders of their own learning at home wether on Mathletics, EducationCity.com, PurpleMash or through their own self-directed interests. For this reason you may have noticed that we have a ‘Home Learning’ display in the classroom (near the library door). This board is used for pupils to showcase any work they have completed at home. We hope this is a way to value their hard work and encourage more submissions. Every piece of work given to me is always displayed and in time the board will hopefully be covered in wonderful examples of home learning.

This week in Numeracy - W/C: 17/10/11

This week in Numeracy we will be re-visiting calculations and seeking pupils to record their work in writing, e.g. record their mental calculations as number sentences. We will be exploring this through adding and subtracting three- digit numbers this will include bridging 10 or 100. Example questions will include: 76 + 27 = ?, 54 + 61 = ?, 123 + 94 = ?. Why not explore these examples and similar questions at home this week? We would love to see any home learning completed in school. To see the written method we use in school for yourself visit the DASP Maths page: http://www.dasp.org.uk/maths.htm - this is an excellent resource!

This week in Literacy - W/C: 17/10/11

This week in Literacy pupils will be creating our own non-fiction book on India. Pupils will use this as an opportunity to share with people what we have learnt about India so far. Also this week, I will be working 1:1 with each pupil to look closely at their writing. Each pupil will use writing conferencing to self-assess their work (a selection of work completed since joining Year 2) and set their own writing targets. These targets will then be printed and stuck into the front of the pupil’s writing and POWOW book. Parents you will also receive a copy of these writing targets as part of parents evenings this week. If you cannot attend parents evening, a copy of the targets will also be sent home Friday night.

POW on the BBC!

On Sunday 30th October at 6pm, BBC2 will showcase excellence in education when it broadcasts the 2011 UK Pearson Teaching Awards ceremony – held at the Palace Theatre, Cambridge Circus in London. As you may know, pupils from our school made a film at the end of last term about our school and it has since been made a finalist in the National Teaching Awards, ‘Film my School’ competition. Pupils and staff will be traveling up to London for the awards ceremony and will be joined by host Lenny Henry at the event. Other stars presenting awards include Minnie Driver, Al Murray, David Morrissey and Beverley Knight. More information on the competition and other finalists can be seen at: http://www.teachingawards.com/film_my_school

Year 2 Spellings

We currently have two spelling groups in Year 2, this will change on Friday following our spelling test. I realise that some parents have noticed a big jump in the level of spellings that your child has been taking home over the past weeks. Please can I reassure you that this is a process that we go through as we settle into the routine of weekly spellings to ensure that we set all pupils appropriately challenging spellings. I hope across the following weeks you will feel the spelling being set are at the right level to challenge your child and move their learning forward. If you have any concerns about this, then please speak to me.

Today's Literacy

Today in Literacy we continued our work on connectives using this worksheet (please feel free to print and use at home with your children). We explored how we can extend sentences (those in grey) using a connective in the pyramid. We learnt how 'and' is not always the best connective to use and we tried to use words from the lower end of the pyramid where possible. Please continue to explore this at home and where possible encourage your child to write using the skills they have been learning and applying in class.

Today's Maths Questions

Today Triangle and Hexagon group worked on the carpet with me for Maths. We explored word questions about time breaking the questions down into their key parts. Example questions from today included: Alice played Flamingo Hockey outside. She went out at 2 o’clock for 1 hour. What time did she finish? Tweedle Dum made a cake and put it in the oven at 5 o’clock for 1 hour and 20 minutes. What time was the cake ready? Alice went shopping for cakes for the tea party. She left at 2 o’clock and was out for half an hour. What time did she get back?   ____ o’clock. Why not explore similar questions with your children at home?

Can you help? (Cheese Boxes)

Can you help? Miss. Mertens is on the hunt for circular cheese boxes like the one pictured above. If you have any of these boxes we would be very greatful to recieve them.

What did you think of our assembly?

I am sure you will all join me in congratulating Year 2 on their fantastic assembly on Friday, they all did so well. Why not tell us what you thought of our assembly by leaving a comment on this blog? Simply click the blog title above (on the school website) and click the comment button. Any comments added will be shared with the children during carpet time.

This week in Numeracy - W/C: 10/10/11

This week in Numeracy we will be thinking all about time and exploring the concept through a range of interactive and hands-on activities. By the end of the week we will be looking to children to tell the time by the hour, half-hour and quarter-past/quarter-to. Why not help your child with their learning this week by encouraging them to tell the time at home. Is now the time (excuse the pun) to buy your child their first watch? YES!

This week in Literacy - W/C: 10/10/11

This week in Literacy we will be thinking about what makes a good sentence. We will explore what is meant by a compound sentence and use our 'Olympic V.C.O.P wall' to improve our writing. We will be paying special attention to connectives and how these can be used to create compound and complex sentences. Why not explore connectives with your child at home this week? You could give them simple sentences like: I am eating my dinner. It is tasty. Can they join these two sentences together using a connective?

Wonderful Week

We have been having a wonderful week in Year 2... we have been so busy!!! That is why it has taken me a little longer than normal to update this blog. On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Farrington joined us in Year 2 for a very special lesson. He bought with him lots of exciting foods from India which helped us learn about the Right to Nutritious Food (we will be showing the pictures from this session before our assembly on Friday). Yesterday, we had our Year 2 India Day which everyone made a fantastic effort for - dressing in up in bright and  colourful clothes. We had a super day, playing badminton, writing about our lesson with Mr. Farrington, creating Diwali lamps and having our hands paints with mendi patterns. We look forward to seeing all the costumes again for our assembly on Friday.

This week and our assembly.

Just to remind you that it is India Day on Wednesday so children will need an Indian costume. Children will also need to wear their Indian costume (school clothes in a named bag) for Fridays assembly. Finally, I have also asked the children to bring in a pair of sunglasses. Mr. Spracklen

This week in Numeracy - W/C: 03/10/11

This week in Numeracy we will be thinking all about measures. We will consider which measuring tools to use to find, e.g, how much an object weighs, how tall a child is, how long it takes to run around the edge of the playground, how much water it takes to fill the water tray. We will also be using non-standard units and standard metric units of length, capacity and mass in a range of contexts, e.g. measure a length to the nearest 1/2 cm, read simple scales, e.g. increments of 2, 5 or 10. Why not explore these concepts at home this week and share with your child how you use unit of measure in your house, job, etc?

This week in Literacy - W/C: 03/10/11

This week we will continue our work on the story of Little Red Riding Hood. We will explore the story again and consider writing our own version of the story. We will be thinking of our own characters and setting. Help your child in their learning this week by encouraging them to create their own characters using adjectives and similes to bring their character to life. Maybe the might like to draw their character and bring it in to show Year 2?