Award assembly 22.10.15

Today we had our first of the year ‘Award assembly’. This is the assembly when we ask teachers and their teams to select children who they think have worked particularly hard during this first part of the year in subject areas; writing, reading, maths, ICT, Creative arts, PE and displaying our Citizenship qualities.  Some awards have a certificate and a trophy to keep for half a term! You may have found one of these when you got home!

For our Reception parents; the awards can stay at home with your child until we send a letter inviting it back in for our next ‘Award assembly’.

Happy half term everyone, we will see you all back on Tuesday 3^rd November!

BIG WRITE - Big Success!

Year 2 were really successful with their BIG WRITE today.  The children sat and wrote independently for nearly an hour!  We made the classroom a relaxing and creative place, giving everyone the opportunity to really focus on their own work.  We had Mozart playing and our mini lighthouses were switched on to inspire us with their flickering lights!  We used our Superheros to help with our Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation.  At the end of the session the children were really proud of what they managed to produce, many saying it was the best piece of writing they had ever done.  We can't wait until our next big write and would like to have the same atmosphere in our class when we do some of our other learning!  As a reward the class earned 5 marbles for the jar - Miss Johnson and Mrs Webb were so impressed!

Maths Learning - Week Beginning 12th October 2015

Year 2 have been Measuring this week.  We have talked about and used standard and non-standard units of measurement.  We have compared and estimated weight of objects; decided what equipment would be best to measure; practiced using our rulers accurately and have been using Mathletics to revise these skills.  At home, what measures can the children spot around the home? 

Literacy Learning - Week Beginning 12th October 2015

This week we have been looking at adjectives.  Everywhere we have been, including the farm we have been looking for interesting adjectives to describe what we have seen.  We have then used these in our writing.  Why not ask take part in the adjective challenge and see if you can come up with 10 adjectives to describe an everyday object?  Bring in any that you find!

THE BIG WRITE 16-10-15

Next week the children in year 2 will be taking part in the Big Write.  We are going to make our classroom a writing zone!  After building up our traditional story writing skills, learning how to use connectives and adjectives in our sentences we are now ready to write!  The children will be writing their own versions of Jack and the Beanstalk.  Please could you spend some time with your child talking about their story plan and who or what they might find at the top of their beanstalk in their story?
  The children will complete the planning process on Monday and will be writing their stories on Tuesday next week.

Mega Mathletics 14-10-15

Well done to the children who have been using Mathletics at home.  Last week Oona and Scarlett both got certificates and Rosa had an amazing high score recently as well!  Don't forget to keep your eyes open for your name on the leaderboards on the Mathletics home page - Maybe you will be in the UK top 100!  Look even Harry Potter is on there!  Certificates are earned when you get 1000 points within a week (From Wednesday to Wednesday)  You gain points by completing tasks and by playing live, to see how far you have got this week have a look at the rocket on the left hand side of your mathletics page once you have logged in, try to get to the top by Wednesday!  So far this term the following children have managed it...

Rosa
Nicole
Noah
Scarlett
Avril
Andrew
Frank
Oona

Well done!

Super Farming 14-10-15

What a wonderful day at the farm.  Thank you so much to Hazel for her time and to Mrs Thornton and Mrs Taylor who came along to help.  We couldn't have wished for better weather and the sun shone on us as Hazel guided us around the farm to find out about the different produce from this year's harvest.  The children were able to use their Literacy skills to describe all of the different grains grown on the farm.  We saw the mill which ground the grain down so that it could be fed to the animals.  Hazel checked we remembered the difference between hay and straw and even taught us about silage!  We even got to smell some!  We saw some tractors at work and learned about how the farmer now has to plough and prepare the land for next year's crops.  Lastly we visited the cows and saw that they were eating some of the produce from this year's harvest.  A super morning's learning year 2 well done for your super behaviour at the farm!

Book Fair - Come and see! 14-10-15

The Prince of Wales Book Fair started today.  Please go along to the hall after school to have a look at the books for sale, there are some exciting reads to be had and maybe even some ideas for Christmas!  The more books sold, the more we raise for POWSA!

Maths Learning - Week Beginning 5th October 2015

This week we have been looking at addition and subtraction methods and weighing lots of ingredients in preparation for our harvest bake off produce!  Number bonds are really important facts that they children need to learn in order to be confident with their number skills.  Through problem solving we have looked at number bonds for 20, for example 17+3, 12+8, 10+10, etc and number bonds for 100 and 200 such as 190+10, 87+13, 140+60, etc.  When learning these number bonds it is also important that the children see the link with subtraction so that they can use this to check and find answers when applying their addition and subtraction skills.  So if your child knows that 3+17=20 can they answer questions such as 20-17= without having to work out the answer?  Can they also answer missing number questions such as ??+7=20?  Try to be flexible when learning these facts at home and put them into context where possible.  For example, there are 8 dogs over in that field, and over their there are 5 more, how many dogs are there altogether?

Literacy Learning - Week Beginning 5th October

This week we have been thinking about sentence construction in the context of traditional tales.  The children started the week by learning about the ingredients for a sentence.  We discussed word types and order as well as composed and wrote silly sentences to help us remember how we should be doing it!  Later in the week we rewrote the story of Jack and the Beanstalk using Captain Connective - who is our superhero who encourages us to write compound sentences by using connectives such as and, but, so, because, then, etc.  Why not ask your children if they can tell you what a connective is, or try and spot them when reading?

Off to the Farm 11-10-15

Year 2 are off to the Farm this Wednesday!  We will be finding out more about what is going on at this busy time of year at Maiden Castle Farm.  Please ensure your child is dressed in school uniform top with play trousers and suitable footwear.  I've heard the weather should be dry, but is turning cooler, so please make sure they have a coat.  Snacks, drinks and lunch arrangements will be as usual.

A bounty of bread!

Here we have more bread products made by Scarlett, Alfie and Jamie, another lovely sample of different tastes and textures. Well done children!
 

We're Off to India 7-10-15

We will be beginning our India topic in year 2 next week.  The children will be learning lots more about the county, its people, culture and traditions and comparing them with our own.  We have got off to an excellent start this week as Mr Farrington has been into class to teach the children about Indian Farming and Food.  The children have been asking lots of questions and trying lots of tasty food.  Why not help the children find out about something relating to India and they can come and tell the class all about it?  Towards the end of our topic we have an India Day where the children are invited to dress up and take part in various fun activities, the day usually culminates with an Indian Restaurant in the classroom to which you are all invited - new date to be announced!

Mmmmm! Amazing Bread! 7-10-15

Thank you to Andrew, Megan, Rosa, Frank, Charlotte, Rohana and Noah who provided us with all kinds of amazing bread to eat today.  From focaccia to fruit bread and from house shape to wheat shape, it was all so tasty.  We have been very well fed - thank you!

India Day Postponed 7-10-15

Year 2 were due to hold our India Day on Wednesday 21st October, we have decided to postpone until we are further along with our topic in the middle of November!  I will let you know the date as soon as we have confirmed with our helpers!
Many thanks.

Beautiful Bread 6-10-15

We were lucky enough to taste bread baked by Amalia, Katherine, Rosa, Erica, Oona and Odette yesterday!  All of the loaves were different and delicious.  We had hints of garlic, chocolate, seeds and even a gluten free one to try.  Today Lewis brought in his Belgian Bun Bear and Emily made Bagels - they were both amazing! 

Certificates for taking part in the Great POW Bread Bake Off are on their way home and we look forward to tasting more later in the week!

Maths Learning - Week Beginning 28th September 2015

This week in Maths we have been looking at how our knowledge of place value can help us to add and subtract.  Using the Place Value Cards shown on the blog a couple of weeks ago the children have been partitioning numbers into hundreds, tens and units and writing them in their expanded form.  For example 254=200+50+4 or 45=40+5.  We have also been looking at inverse operations, for example the opposite of +5 is -5.  These skills will help children to be able to see pattern in number, be able to add and subtract quickly and check their answers.  One of the things we have noticed that the children are less confident at is subtraction, we will be looking at this in more detail next week.  At home practice counting backwards, taking away small numbers using objects as counters or subtracting 10s from a 2 digit number: Eg 56-10=

Literacy Learning - Week Beginning 28th September

We have continued our poetry theme this week.  The children have had the opportunity to write their own poems based upon lighthouses and characters from the lighthouse keeper's lunch.  We have encouraged the class to use WOW words, words that they have chosen to describe people and places that really paint a picture in our minds.  To help with this we have used our superhero Violet Vocabualry, she has made suggestions as to words that the children can use in their poetry writing and the children have come up with some of their own.  Well done for these ones year 2: obnoxious, chattering, pesky, tiny, awesome, pecking, gigantic and enormous.  At home, why not come up with your top 5 wow words and bring them in, we could add them to Violet Vocabulary's word list!

Praise assembly 02.10.15

Lots of work and super attitudes from all the class.

Praised his week in assembly were:

Jamie, Megan and Avril - super poems written linked to The Lighthouse keepers lunch story the class is studying.

In maths this week Erica, Lewis and Frank were praised for their doubling skills!

In music this week amazing 8 and 12 beat rhythms were worked out and written by:
Scarlett, Nicole, Rosa, Poppy, Emily, Charlotte, Erica, Henry, Kitty and Noah!


There will not be a Praise assembly next week as it is our Harvest celebration. We hope to see many of you there!