Enthusiastic learning!

We launched straight into learning about Victorian Street children by listening to extracts from "Street Child" by Berlie Doherty which also introduced Dr. Barnardo - we continued fact finding and note taking about him - the children were amazing at this!!!! We also began watching Oliver Twist - they are all desperate to read more of the Street Child novel and watch more of Oliver Twist!!!!!!!

We have all decided to become Wombles as we launched our recycling science topic!!!!!!

In numeracy we have been learning about directions and turn and also reflective symmetry as well as a systematic approach to investigational work!!!!!!

In three days we have worked tremendously hard and that is all down to the hard working attitude of the children.

Well done!

First week of school orchestra!

Just a reminder that orchestra begins this Thursday 28^th February!

Those instrumentalists I need this week are Violinists and pianists. 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. I’m looking forward to it!

 

hank you, Mrs Mewett.

Clubs this term...

 

Clubs have begun really well this term; the children are attending lots of fun clubs either held in lunchtimes or after school.

 

Dance club is popular as ever, Choir is also very strong this term; Mrs Gallego was stunned by the amazing sound she heard last week!  The beginner Recorder club has also begun now, with some very keen and eager children who are already moving on well with their learning!

 

If your child has recorder lessons or Ukele lessons with Lucy then please ensure your payments per lesson (£1 per week) are handed into the school office asap.

 

If your child would like to join any of the above then please see me or the school office and we’ll put you in touch with the adult running the club, the more the merrier!

Well done!

I am sure you will join me in saying a huge "well done" to all of the children!!!!! Weren't they fantastic and children, you should be VERY proud of yourselves for amazing dancing and a superb weeks work - a huge "thank you" to Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Long, Mrs. Creed, Miss. Scott, Mr. Gibson, Mrs. Dukes and Jess who have all helped us this week - a well deserved holiday for everyone!!!!!!

Thank you too for a super first half term with you all!

Happy holidays............(We will have a recap spelling test the first Friday back and then back to normal - keep reading in the hols and look forward to more Victorians on your return!!!)

Mrs. Johnson

Year 2 dance their socks off!!!!

Another amazing day!!!!! Learning all about Indian farming with Mr. Farrington, followed by the rest of the day dancing!
This time we were learning about African dance taught by Louis from Cameroon. We got to dress up in traditional costume, put on some tribal face paints and learned to tell story through dance. Can you show your families the ABC moves, the ice-cream move and the happy noise?

Can you spot Louis in "Got to Dance"?
We can't wait to show you the dance tomorrow!!!!! See you in the hall from 2pm!

Indian farming

I wonder what Year 2 children can tell you about their learning today about a small farm near Bangalore?

Oi! Brazil

A vibrant, fun filled day learning all about Brazil thanks to Barnaby Bear and Hilary from Action Aid. We learnt all about life in different parts of Brazil from the city to the rainforest! Fascinating! Hilary also brought along Brazilian artefacts for us to handle which was great fun! Later in the day we carried on learning about Brazil and what the festival of Mardi Gras is all about!!!! Truly amazing masks Year 2, well done! How do you say "hello" and "Goodbye" in Portugese?

This afternoon we continued with some art work inspired by our learning about the Gambia and the uses of water there.

Tomorrow we will be taking part in Mr. Farrington's workshop learning about Indian farming.
This will be followed by African dancing for the rest of the day!!!!!! (Some of which we hope to display on Friday afternoon, so again, do please pop along from about 2pm.)

Have a good breakfast Year 2 - a busy, active day to come!!!!

Mrs. Johnson

An active day for Year 2!

We began our day with a DEED workshop entitled "I love my hair!" This helped to continue our learning from yesterday, exploring similarities and differences between us all - great fun!

The rest of our day was spent learning about Indian customs, stories and most of all, dance! We learnt about the importance of using your whole body, including even your eyes, as a form of expression and whole body exercise. Year 2 cleverly used their hands and arms to represent different animals, such as the peacock, the elephant, the fish, the butterfly and the pig! The children worked brilliantly together as part of a team to produce a Bollywood dance which we hope to dance for you on Friday as part of the whole school display - we look forward to seeing you there!

Thank you for more superb home learning - we enjoyed sampling Greek and Norwegian treats today!!!!!

Tomorrow we will be participating in a workshop with Reception learning about Brazil. The Brazilian theme will continue throughout the day with learning about the Mardi Gras festival and carnival - and of course, masks must be made!!!!!!

Keep up the hard work!

Mrs. Johnson

Gambian Art work

In our art lesson today the children learned a new technique called 'Wax resist' which they thought was like magic !. We created some lovely Gambian shadow pictures using black wax crayons of animals, trees, mud huts and people them using inks to create a stunning sunset effect. These will look amazing on Year 2's display in the hall on Friday . Hope to see you there ....

Yummy cooking !

Year 2  have had a busy day in the kitchen today making some scrummy cakes.  We made Indonesion Banana cakes (using fairtrade bananas of course!)  and Hungarian chocolate biscuits. Why don't you pop along Friday afternoon for a sample,  I know the children are very excited to try them ! .

We are unique!

Firstly a huge thank you to those of you who did some quite wonderful home learning - tasty treats and colourful carnival work - well done!!!!! I can't wait to see more!!!!!! Keep them coming in!!!!

Today the children took it in turns to bake some Indonesian banana muffins and some Hungarian biscuits - yum! Do come along on Friday to the display as you will be able to buy some of our scrumptious food!

We also spent the morning discussing and learning about what the word "unique" means and how we are all individual, important and special - this linked really well with  our learning about Buddhism on Friday and also with our visitor assembly this morning lead by Reverand Vicky.
I set the children the statement "All humans are the same!" they spent a long time discussing and sharing their thoughts and feelings about this as well as some super questions generated by the children........."why are we different?" "why do we have different voices?""Why do twins look the same?" "the world would be boring if we were all the same" ........... they all gave a thumbs up for being different. We explored books about other children the same age living in Britain comparing similarities and differences. After that we spent some peaceful reflective time considering what was great about themselves.........."I am wonderful because I am kind" "I love that I smile a lot" "I am wonderful because I care about animals"........the children then drew their self portrait and then passed it around the room for their class mates to add sentences or words to that said how wonderful they were and what they liked about them..........a really positive and uplifting, self esteem boosting activity. The children learnt how fantastic and unique they all are and that each and everyone of us is important!

Tomorrow we will be Bollywood dancing!!!!!!

Fair Trade Friday

Another full packed, fun packed day!!!!!!
We began our day with a visit from Barbara who taught us all about Buddhism, who Buddha was, what Buddhists believe, the shrine and its symbolism, meditation and lots more.......I think the most lovely message we all took away with us is that every single one of us is special and that we should be respectful and kind to others!

Mid morning we were learning all about fair trade gold mining where we were set the task of running a team of miners, mining in a real mine, and sorting for gold!!!!!! 

This afternoon we embarked on some problem based learning, working as a team as if we were banana plantation farmers trying to earn a living - It was a tough job getting our bananas past quality control to earn money in order to buy more resources before we could even begin to start to save money!!!! This gave rise to some fantastic team work and positivity - "We can do it" "That's brilliant, you're doing really well" "I'll help you......" were some of the comments made by the children as well as very insightful comments made during their team review meeting, even with some hand shaking too!!! Brilliant!!!

Please see yesterdays blog for the home learning task!

On Monday we are baking some tasty international treats ready to sell at the display next Friday!!! Also we will be carrying on our Gambia learning with some art work too!

Have a fabulous weekend!!!!

Mrs. Johnson

You should all be proud of your hard work this week - you have produced some superb Mary Seacole diary entries - some of which brought a tear to my eye!!!! You have also been super numeracy detectives putting your addition work from last week into practice this week solving problems!!!!! (Remember to tell your families about your RUCSAC !!!)

Today you demonstrated some truly fantastic thinking skills and some of you even began debating with regards to the question I posed you - "There's water everywhere, but is it fair? Why/why not? What can we do about it?" We began our learning about the Gambia with a focus on water, comparing how we get our water with how Gambians collect their water - we shared a story, examined a globe, looked at a map and discussed some photographs to support our learning. We put this learning into context by walking around the school searching for water sources and uses then took on a challenge of walking some distance to collect a bucket of water and then carry it back - you expressed your feelings about your appreciation for water and how to conserve it with great maturity - well done!
We will be continuing our learning about water and the Gambia with a focus on its uses, following with some art work.
Tomorrow brings another exciting day where we will be visited by a practising Buddhist who will be teaching us about Buddhism. We will also be learning about aspects of fair trade with a fun workshop, followed by some problem based learning in the afternoon!
Watch the blog for updated news on our fun day tomorrow, and indeed next week!
Home learning tasks to choose from: 1. We will be doing some baking with an international flavour next week - could you try cooking something at home that comes from a different country and either photograph it or write about it (Maybe you could link in some numeracy as well by shopping for the ingredients, working out the cost, weighing and measuring. Maybe you could do some research about the country you food comes from.) or 2. We will be learning about Brazil - can you find out about the tradition of carnival? Is there a special carnival coming up soon?
Have fun!

Well done!                                                                                                             Mrs. Johnson

Football Clubs

As a safety issue can I remind all children they MUST wear shin pads when attending football clubs on Monday (after school) and Wednesday (lunchtime). Thank you.