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Friday 15th July

It's been great to be back with the class this week, although I can barely believe how quickly this half-term has gone! The class have been brilliant at trying to keep focus, despite the heat outside: well done team!

In Maths this week we have been consolidating using column method for addition, and learning to use it for subtraction, including touching on regrouping: not easy in Year 2! In English, the class have all been writing their own versions of Lila and the Secret of Rain. As usual, imaginations have run rampant.

In Learning Means The World, we have painted the silhouettes of nocturnal animals, as well as having a great music day. In this we explored pitch and timbre, and the children created a couple of original compositions as groups; one to represent light sources, and another to represent fireworks. Many a loud bang and crash ensued!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. Remember to stay safe in the sun!

Friday 1st July 2022

Well done to our class for another great week! In Learning Means The World, they completed their lovely making sun safety leaflets, with sliders, and then we have begun to discuss solar panels. The class wrote questions for a village resident with solar panels, and went on a solar panel hunt around the village. Thank you for all the tips sent in, and to one family, who allowed us a quick look in their garden at their neighbour's panels! Keep an eye out class, I wonder how many more we can spot locally?

We also built a solar tower out of tin cans to investigate the power of the sun. However, the slightly changeable weather means it's yet to quite start working! Please see this link if you'd like to make one at home; you must have an adult helping. Another experiment we did was leaving water in the sun, to see if its' temperature increased. Despite a rather grim Monday, there was a significant increase!

In Maths we've been also been focusing on temperature, by taking the temperature around the school and interpreting the results. We've also learning how to read temperature on a thermometer accurately.

In English we've begun to 'innovate' Lila and the Secret of Rain, into a story about a world of darkness, where the sun has gone missing. The creative juices are already beginning to flow on that one!

Thank you for all the kind comments at parents evening. They were really appreciated, and as I kept replying, this is a lovely class, who should very proud of their efforts this year!

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Friday 24th June 2022

This week we've made some great Sun Safety leaflets in Learning Means The World time, really showcasing what we've learned about staying safe in the sun, which has been very well timed, given the weather! Firstly, we investigated how different pieces of clothes give us cover from the sun, by making different clothing using hi-viz jackets. This was the cause of much giggling!

Our Maths has seen us learning about measuring, comparing and estimating capacity and volume, which gave us a chance to get outside and find out what happens when you pour from a larger capacity container to a smaller one! We've learned about millilitres and litres, and how they are similar to millimetres and metres.

In English we've finished learning Lila and the Secret of Rain. Thank you to all the eager class members who spent time learning it at home as well! We are investigating the grammar used, and key words and sentences, so we have a really good understanding of it, before we start to innovate.

I hope you all have a brilliant, sun-safe weekend!

Friday 17th June 2022

We had a fantastic sports day this week - I was really impressed by the sportsmanship and mutual encouragement the class gave to each other. It was yet another example of what a kind and caring class they can be. It was also fabulous to see so many joyful faces, whether they were squirted with a water pistol or not!

In Learning Means The World this week, we've been doing some amusing 'dark' dramas - where the class had to roleplay in small groups how they would react to hearing a surprising noise in the middle of the night. It's fair to say imaginations were well fired! In Art, we've also looked at using light and dark effects in our drawing, and worked really hard with a range of media to create some lovely pieces.

In English, we've now started out latest Talk For Writing story: Lila and the Secret of Rain. We performed a rain dance as our hook activity. Remarkably, it did appear to draw some threatening skies our way. Thankfully Sports Day was not affected!

In Maths we've been recalling multiplication facts, and exploring the link between multiplication and division facts using arrays. Remember to keep using TTRockstars to ensure you know your 2s, 5s and 10 times tables.

Have a lovely weekend.

Friday 10th June 2022

We've had a great first week with our new topic 'Light Up The World', part of the school's new Learning Means The World curriculum for the foundation subjects. Please see the 'WhISK' sheet to see what we will be learning in this topic.

We started by sharing what we already know about the Sun, before moving into a rather deep discussion based around the question 'What Is Darkness?' We then played Blind Man's Bluff to explore darkness in a rather fun way! However, the highlight of the week has been exploring the concept of 'timbre', and creating our own 'dark' pieces of music, using In The Hall of The Mountain King by Edvard Grieg for our inspiration. In PSHE, we also explored 'light and dark feelings', and how we can manage our feelings. The class shared some great strategies they already use to help them manage if they feel angry.

Aside from the excitement of Learning Means The World, we've write a Jubilee recount in English, as well as some fabulously imaginative poems based on The Magic Box by Kit Wright, which gave their teacher some goosebumps! In Maths, we are recapping some key concepts from across the year, including partitioning numbers in different ways, and exploring related facts from number bonds.

Phew, what a week! Please have a lovely weekend.

Friday 20th May 2022

The class should feel very proud of themselves this week. They've been working through their Key Stage 1 National Curriculum Tests (SATs), and have shown fantastic levels of focus, and determination to do their best. We never make a big thing of doing them in the class, and have been practising with old papers throughout the year, so it is a very familiar situation for everybody. In fact, this week they were most excited that this set of papers were in full colour and contained staples! Well done to all for their hard work.

In other time outside of SATs, everybody wrote their own report about mythical beasts and monsters. I've enjoyed reading about chimeras, krakens, yetis and other fearsome beasts! As ever, the class showed fantastic creativity, whilst carefully following the report structure we learned earlier on. 

We've also had time to explore the life cycle of a plant in Science, using direction/ turning to create shape patterns in maths, and to learn a Friendship Song in music. 

Have a great weekend, you deserve it! 

Friday 13th May 2022

We've been spinning around rather a lot in Maths this week. Thankfully, this has been part of our learning, as we have been mastering quarter, three quarter, half and full turns, both clockwise and anti-clockwise. The class have been brilliant at picking these up, as instructions such as  'make a three-quarters anti-clockwise turn', take their teacher a moment to work out as well! We've also been trying to solidify our left and right, and understand that your left/ right is entirely dependent on the way you are facing. So many concepts are much trickier to grasp, when you really break them down.

In English, the class completed some ferociously good writing about the Big Bad Wolf. Their was excellent use of adjectives, similes and some super reports laced with both menace and humour: well done superstars!

In Science, we pondered what is actually inside a seed. After much discussion, we found out about the food store, and 'baby plant'/ embryos. Then on Wednesday we used magnifiers to observe the inside of red kidney beans and sweetpea seeds, which are no longer destined to grow in my garden. The squeals of excitement as children found the embryos inside the seeds were a great example of why Science is such a popular subject in the class!

Have a super weekend. Don't forget to keep going with your Classroom Secrets grammar work, and to keep practising your times tables on TT Rock Stars. 

Friday 6th May 2022

This week we've been exploring telling the time to the nearest quarter hour on an analogue clock. Some of us have been learning how to tell the time to the nearest five minutes: no mean feat in Year 2! Keep practising at home, and remember to use counting in 5s to help you.

In English we've explored magpie words, sentence structure and key grammar in The Rainbow Dragon, and, through reading the excellent Little Red by David Roberts, we are currently innovating the report to be about the Big Bad Wolf. Some of the descriptive language the class is generating is fantastic!

In Science, we've started our plants topic. We discussed what plants need to grow, and started an investigation in this. We have planted cress seeds, and will remove one factor we think is important in germination and growth from each set of seeds. This will build on our runner bean growing in Year 1, although I doubt the cress will grow to quite the same scale! In Art, the class are relishing learning about weaving, through using different natural materials, such as flowers, leaves and twigs.

I hope you all have a great weekend. Keep going with the grammar work on Classroom Secrets Kids, and don't forget you can also boost your times tables fluency on Times Tables Rockstars!

Friday 29th April 2022

This week in History, we recapped our timeline learning, and then begun to delve into life for poorer people in Leeds in the 1830s. The class were shocked to learn how many people were crammed together, and how few facilities people had, which we now take for granted, such as fresh water, and flushing toilets. The class discovered how these terrible living conditions fuelled the spread of Cholera.

In Maths, we've finished learning about fractions, including the challenging effort of counting in fractions, which introduced us to improper fractions for the first time. We've now moved onto a unit about time, where we'll aim to tell the time to the nearest 15 minutes, and even the nearest 5 minutes at a push. If any children have analogue wristwatches, or simply by looking at clocks at home, it's a great opportunity to start discussing time.

In English, we've learned a report called 'The Rainbow Dragon'. We've defined and used key magpie words in sentences, and we've constructed our own writing toolkit for when we begin to innovate the report  next week.

We've enjoyed practising using our knees and arms to jump higher, further and with control, and have enjoyed playing some fishy games related to this.

I hope you all have a great Bank Holiday!

Friday 22nd April 2022

Thank you for the fantastic contributions on Tuesday to show personal history. I've seen some fascinating things come through to me, and I heard there were some fascinating photos and artefacts brought into the classroom. Our history focus will take us to finding out more about Leeds in the 19th century, in particular about the cholera epidemic of the 1830s and 1850s.

This week the class explored chronology through making a timeline of all the previous historical topics we've covered since the start of year 1, before finding out more information about Victorian Britain.

In Maths the class have been learning about finding fractions (a quarter, half or third) of an object, shape or quantity. In English they've written recounts of their Easter Holidays, and written a brief report on a topic that interests them. Next week they'll learn a report about a mythical beast in our new Talk for Writing unit.

Finally, we are very sad to be saying goodbye to Miss Taylor, who is finishing her teaching placement this week. She will be missed by the class!

Have a lovely weekend.

Friday 25th March 2022

The class has worked very hard this week through lots of assessments. They are excellent at focusing and giving it their all - well done everybody! In English, we've also seen some stunning descriptive writing about a crimson-eyed dragon, with fantastic use of adjectives and similes. The enthusiasm the class showed today to begin to create their own versions of our model text was most heart warming!

In Maths, we've continued to explore 2d and 3d shapes. We saw some great repeating patterns, and the class are becoming more adept at describing shapes by their properties. Next week we will be encountering fractions of shapes, objects and quantities.

In Science, we looked again at food chains, and learned some of the technical vocabulary, such as producers, consumers, predator and prey. Can you remember what they all mean?

Have an excellent weekend!

Friday 18th March 2022

This week has been science week. The class have really enjoyed looking at sun spots through a telescope and learning seeing a demonstration of a steam train engine this afternoon. Across the week, they joined a live lesson from the National Farmers Union about animal life cycles, and also heard some inspiring children's books, such as Rosie Revere, Engineer,  and Iggy Peck, Architect, read by people who followed those careers in real life. They've also learned about food chain in their science lesson.

In Maths, we've delved further into 2d and 3d shape, using playdoh and whiteboard pens to practice accurately counting the faces, edges and vertices of 3d shape.

In English, we've begun to innovate our model text, Kassim and the Greedy Dragon. As a class it currently features a brave explorer and a dinosaur. We've also continued to learn some common homophones, and looked at consistently using the past or present tense when writing.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Friday 11th March 2022

This week we've been exploring the properties of 2d shape, using mathematical terminology such as vertices. We've also been introduced to the concept of symmetry. Try looking for symmetrical objects and shapes all around you!

In English, we have been exploring the idea of building suspense. We looked at this practically by bravely removing jewels from a box, where we couldn't see what else was in there! We noticed how it's the 'not knowing' that can really build tension. In the end, there was only kinetic sand guarding the jewels. In our new story however, the main character, Kassim, encounters a rather greedy dragon!

We learned in Science that camels are truly incredible animals. Their adaptations mean they are brilliantly suited to the desert habitats.

I hope you all have a brilliant weekend.

Friday 4th March 2022

Whilst I frequently say it's been a busy week, this week really takes the biscuit! Alongside the normal business of our days, this week we've had both a morning drama workshop with Alive and Kicking, and also an amazing World Book Day on Friday!

On Tuesday, John Mee from Alive and Kicking visited us to great excitement. The class worked collaboratively with John to create their version of a very famous traditional tale. However, only right at the end was the story revealed. It's probably fair to say that this will be the only version of Cinderella containing werewolves! The class were fizzing with creativity, enthusiasm and no little passion! Along the way, they met a rather grumpy chef who bore quite a resemblance to their teacher, as well as Miss Taylor's downtrodden servant. We had a brilliant time, and the class really enjoyed picking their own follow-up writing activities after the workshop.

World Book Day was a lot of fun. The class really enjoyed the range of activities, as well as visiting the 'big classrooms'.  Those with older brothers or sisters were fascinated to be taught by their teachers. Please see some of the photos I've uploaded.

Please have a lovely weekend!

Friday 18th February 2022

Wow! Half-term already! Well done to the whole class for an excellent attitude to their learning. 

In Maths this week, we've continued to explore data. Thank you for some teasing questions in your home learning, which we enjoyed solving as a class. 

Speaking of home learning, thank you for the incredible range of habitat dioramas, which have now taken over every available surface in the classroom. I can see what a labour of love they have been, and they've generated some great conversations about habitats in class.

In English, the class wrote some fascinating explanation texts about things that they find to be a nuisance. They made backed up their ideas with lots of reasons, and very much enjoyed having a good gripe! 

We've also had a lot of fun this half-term in Music exploring the genre of rock music. Rocking All Over The World has been a particular class favourite. Whilst our skills on the glockenspiel are improving, the class are already phenomenal air guitarists.

Please have a great, and restful, half-term. I have not set any home learning. Spellings have been stuck into books, but these will not be covered in a spelling check until the first Friday back.

Friday 11th February 2022

We can't believe how quickly this half-term, and indeed the school year is flying by. One more week and we are at the halfway point of the year! Our group of superstars show no sign of losing enthusiasm in their learning this week. In fact, some have redoubled their efforts to do their best.

In Maths, we will continue to rehearse number, place value and calculation work through the year. However, we are now onto a statistics block. We are learning to make, present and interpret data, through tally charts, pictograms and block diagraphs. The class really enjoyed collecting their own data. It's fair to say Pizza Picante is a popular choice for food with many of us. Although in collecting data, a couple of our class did get rather enthusiastic, as their tally charts suggested our class had swelled to well over 50 in total!

In English we've had great fun 'innovating' our Model Text into being 'Why Rain is a Nuisance'. The class had some wonderful, and occasionally hilarious ideas for this, and came up with some ideas  that their clearly unimaginative teacher hadn't even considered! It's been lovely to see the relish that the class show when taking on tasks like this.

In Science we've explored different world habitats. Working in small groups, each group became our residents experts in a different habitat. We hope this helps with creating your dioramas for Home Learning. They can either be sent into class, or you could send a photograph.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Friday 4th February 2022

Let's start with a little flashback to last Friday. We had a fascinating visit to church, and were very kindly taken through the steps of a Christian baptism with Reverend Kathryn, complete with parents and godparents. We learned a lot about the different stage of baptism, and really enjoyed learning through direct experience. Thank you very much to Reverend Kathryn and her team!

This week we've been hard at work completing assessments. I've been very proud at how hard everybody has worked to show their best, and manage not to talk for extended period of time!

We've also managed to squeeze in learning our new model text, Why Seagulls are a Nuisance, and have enjoyed coming up with some very exuberant actions! TTRockstars has also been a major talking point in the class; we've had some children really fly with it this week. I've set it again as out only Maths home learning, so please enjoy the challenge and spend some time trying it out this week.

In science, we've looked at microhabitats, and made tallies and block diagrams of invertebrates in the outdoor area. Next week we'll move onto other habitats.

Finally, to celebrate National Storytelling Week we've read The Great Race by Christopher Corr. It tells the story of the Chinese Zodiac, which tied in very nicely with Chinese New Year on Tuesday. We loved having a go at Chinese dragon dancing, and will try more of this in PE next week. Thank you to the generous parent from our class for the loan of the amazing dragon mask!!

I hope you all have a smashing weekend.

Friday 28th January 2022

It's been yet another busy week in Year Two! In English we completed our own, truly original 'Defeating The Monster' stories, which I've really enjoyed reading. The class were focusing on using a range of conjunctions, and came up with some more fascinating tales! Next week we move onto our new non-fiction text. I wonder if those pesky, scavenging seagulls might make another appearance?

In Maths, we've been exploring division both through sharing (one for me, one for you and so on), and grouping. We explored the relationship between these two methods using both cubes and children on the outdoor stage! Home Learning this week is to join in with our year group's Battle of The Bands against the rest of the school: good luck Year 2!

In Science we explored the difference between things that are living, not living and have never lived through looking at some of the living things around the school, and especially in nursery's outdoor area. Whilst some of us were more 'pro-bug' than others, it was great to great outside and see science in action.

Have a lovely weekend!

Friday 21st January 2022

We've had a great week in Year 2. We've been mastering understanding and drawing arrays, as well as spending time both learning and understanding the concepts behind the 2 and 5 times table.

In English, we innovated The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch, and wrote some excellent 'defeating the monster' story. We focused on using a range of conjunction, and trying to use some exciting descriptive language as well.

In Geography, we have been consolidating our knowledge of the seven continents by making balloon globes! We labelled the continents, and stuck them to a blue balloon, carefully trying to correctly position them. We also located the five oceans, and added compass directions. Finally, we used them to quiz each other on the name and position of the different features.

Lastly, we've been very happy to get to know Miss Taylor (a different one!), who is our new Student Teacher. She'll be working with Mr Lynn for the next few months, and is already enjoying some very enthusiastic story times!

Have a great weekend!

Friday 14th January 2022

A big thank you to the request for pictures of you reading your favourite books. We've had a delightful set of photos come in. In you haven't sent yours yet, it's not too late, just email it over to Mr Lynn. It's been fabulous to see the range of different books out superstars are interested in, with a great mix of fiction and non-fiction. We are really enjoying hearing about all your choices in class.

In Maths this week we've continued exploring multiplication. We've been introduced to the multiplicaiton symbol, and learned how it relates to repeated addition. For instance, that  2+2+2+2+2 can also be written as 5x2. Our class have been amazing at this work!

In English we've explored our text as readers and as writers. We showed our understanding by writing in character as a furious Mr Grinling. The class generated some amazing adjectives to describe his emotion, and also the seagulls.  It's fair to say that these Mr Grinlings were none to pleased to have their sandwiches stolen!

We've been comparing Barwick to Malindi, a town in Kenya. We've explored the meaning of similarities and differences, and practised our note taking skills. We've also very much enjoyed using the 'walking chocolate bar' to gather the names of all seven continents and five oceans!

In PE we had fun pretending to be playdoh to create balances and use rolls. We then created paired 'playdoh shapes', where we decided on our own balances to show the rest of the class.

In PSHE, we were set a class goal to pass around Jigsaw Jo's treasure chesy without any jangling of treasure! We then discussed how succeeding with goals makes us feel, and shared examples of goals we've achieved. We focused on that positive feeling we get when we achieve a goal, and stored it safely in a 'treasure box' of feelings we have inside ourselves.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Friday 7th January 2022

It's been a very busy start to the year! On Monday, us teachers were all in trouble with Mrs Sanderson for arriving late to school, and not in appropriate 'teacher clothing'.  Having just made it back from Kenya, I personally found the weather to be a little chillier than I was expecting! We then found out about our new Geography topic. We will be learning more about Kenya, and compare aspects of life for some people there, to our lives in Barwick. We were absolutely fascinated by using atlases, and made a human representation of the difference between a country and a continent. 

That same afternoon, we returned into class to find a terrible sandwich-related crime had occurred. We explored the clues that had been left, and wrote some questions to try to work out what might have happened. We also watched some interviews with one of the main characters involved. There was some brilliant suggestions as to what had happened, some far better than the actual story it comes from I thought! This led us into our new Talk For Writing Story, The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch, which we've started to learn through our text map.

In Maths we are beginning to look at Multiplication and Division, through exploring the concept of equal groups. Key so far has been to be able to tell the difference between the number of groups, and the number in each group. We've practised lots of verbal explanation to help us.

Have a great weekend!

Friday 10th December 2021

What a fun elf day we are having! The class absolutely loved the elf run, and the chocolate tombola has been a huge hit as well. Thank you so much for all your kind donations, and the excellent outfits. It looks like Mr Mischieovous invited his whole family over for the day!

In Maths, we've continued to explore money, through comparing amounts and selecting specific amounts of money. Please keep looking at, and talking about money at home: it really helps!

However, I was quite frankly appalled in English. The class changed our model Discussion Text about Cat, Bramble and Heron hiring a monster, to be about whether children should run the school. Remarkably, the class had dozens of arguments to make about why this would be a good idea, of which many involved teachers missing break or even being tied up! Whilst there were less arguments for it being a bad idea, we did in the end manage to see that what we learn at school will be quite important to us!

In Science we've explored finding our pulse, and how our heart rate changes when we do exercise. Knowing we actually have pulses we can feel in our bodies was quite the revelation for several of the class. We learned how exercise helps our muscles, bones, heart and lungs, and why we might get short of breath when we exercise. Given the energy shown on the Elf Run, it looked like a few more heart rates were raised!

I hope you all have an elf-tastic weekend!

Friday 3rd December 2021

A rather cheeky elf has entered our classroom! He brought in an important message of kindness into our class, although has since been named 'Mr Mischievous'! He's already raided the numicon supplies, left a mess, and been caught trying to escape hanging off our 'washing line'. Who knows what he'll get up to next?

Thank you for all the fantastic Christmas decorations sent in. It was fabulous to enjoy our time decorating the school tree, and certainly got us all in the festive mood! Our own class tree, whilst not quite the same size, has also given us a sprinkle of Advent cheer.

Aside from the Christmas 'buzz', we've spent time completing assessments in the core subjects of English and Maths this week. The class has worked very hard to show what they've learned already this year, and I've been very proud of everybody's attitude. We've also been learning invasion games in PE, continued with our daily phonics sessions, and been practising joined-up handwriting.

We also started our 'Jigsaw' PSHE. We met Jigsaw Jo, and Jerrie the Cat, and explored our ideas about what different genders are expected to do. We tried to match descriptions to pictures of different children, and were really challenged as to why we'd assume girls or boys would like or dislike certain things. It was a very thought provoking sessions, and it was brilliant to see that the class strongly believed football is not just for boys.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Friday 26th November

We've moved onto our new Talk For Writing text in English. It's a discussion text, looking at whether Cat, Bramble and Heron should have hired a monster to guard their gold. To generate some ideas as to whether this would be a good idea, we all became monsters and thieves, and explored whether it's a sensible idea or not. We then formed a 'Conscience Corridor': one side gave reasons that it was a good idea, whilst the other side gave the opposite point of view. It was a really good way to explore the arguments in the text, as well as being a lot of fun! 

In Maths, we have moved onto a block about money. We will be exploring counting in coins, making amounts using coins, finding the total of different coins, and giving change. This tends to be a block that some children can find a little more challenging, so any exposure to using coins and notes at home would really help. 

In History we used what we have learned to sequence events in the life of Florence Nightingale. It's the first time I've actually taught about her, so I've learned a lot myself. For instance, I never knew that she was named about the Italian city she was born in. You never stop learning!

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Friday 19th November

We kicked off anti-bullying week with an assembly and 'live' lesson, around the theme of 'One Kind Word'. You can watch the lesson again by following this link. From this, we have continued to discuss kindness through the week. It was already the key work in our Class Charter. It's been great to see how you've shown kindness at home and in school. We also made 'Acts of Kindness' posters both to celebrate the kindness we already show, and to challenge ourselves to show kindness in different ways in the future.

In English, we've been innovating our own finding tales, following the structure given to us by Cat, Bramble and Heron. We've been trying to include Year 2 grammatical features such as adverbs, without losing sight of the core elements of writing we also need to focus on: capital letters, punctuation, handwriting and spelling. Some fantastic tales have been produced!

In Maths, through subtraction we've explored the concept of exchanging in maths, as well as how to find numbers bonds to 100 using tens and ones. 

In Science, we had great fun role-playing the life cycle of a duck, whilst exploring different animal life cycles. We also made posters of the different parts of a human life cycle.

Have a super weekend!

Friday 12th November

It's been yet another busy week in Year 2. In Maths we've been learning a strategy using images to add/ check our mental method, right the way up to confidently adding two 2-digit numbers. Well done everybody for some excellent application in this!

In English, we've completed learning Cat, Bramble and Heron, and have been exploring some of the grammatical features in it, such as conjunctions, adverbs and expanded noun phrases. Having a really solid understanding of what these are, and how to use them to make our writing more exciting should benefit our own 'Finding Tales'.

We've learned about the life of Florence Nightingale, or how being a 'book worm' can help to save many lives. It's a great message about the importance of reading!

In Phonics, we've started our longer, storybook sessions. We've really enjoyed having book reading integrated into the phonics sessions. The power of using lollypop sticks as our 'teaching pointers' when reading as partners has also been very popular!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Friday 5th November 2021

Wow! Thank you so much to everybody at home for the brilliant photos, videos, and written work emailed and sent in. We've had fantastic fun looking through everybody's contributions. I don't think I've ever heard as many gasps from a class!

Thank you also for all the fantastic reading that has been going on at home. It was great to see lots of the class in non-uniform today, and many more close on the reading chart. Well done for a fabulous effort everybody!

In English, we have begun to learn our new Talk For Writing story: Cat, Bramble and Heron. We had great fun using drama to explore the three main characters. I'd recommend asking your child for a heron impression at home if you'd like a quiet minute or two! 

In Maths we've been looking at 10 more and 10 less. This requires a really solid understanding of place value. It's great to see excitement as yet another 'maths pattern' revealed itself. 

We've enjoyed some invasion games in PE, despite the chilly weather. We've been learning to dodge aliens, drive bumper cars and dribble footballs. In Science we've begun to look at life-cycles, what makes something 'alive', and we will soon be exploring diet and exercise.

Have a splendid weekend!

Mr Lynn

Friday 15th October 2021

Hola! Our highlight this week was certainly Spanish day! We had a fabulous time learning Flamenco dancing, making Spanish blow football games, and playing a Chilean chasing game called 'Corre Corre La Guaraca'! I  hope you enjoy the photos.

In Maths we've been practising finding our own fact families using two pieces of numicon to find a whole. We've also been comparing number sentences together.

In English, we went into the 'Invention' phase of talk for writing. We created our own story mountains, and wrote our own independent journey stories. The creativity and originality of ideas within the class was once more fantastic to see. However, now we are writing more, we've practised the important, and challenging skill, of rereading several sentences, and adding missing punctuation. This can be a hard one to master, even as adults! Whenever we have checking time, we let out a 'silent cheer' each time we find and correct a mistake: it's fabulous to see such enthusiasm for this vital step in writing!

In Science we explore the hypothesis I mentioned last week, by standing different materials in water. The class was very surprised to discover that although plastic and metal didn't absorb water, the brick absorbed all the water it stood in! From that, we saw that even some harder materials can be absorbent.

Have a super weekend!

Mr Lynn

Friday 8th October

As you can see, the class have really enjoyed exploring the work of Wassily Kandinsky in Art, and created a super class piece of work. All colours were mixed by the children from the three primary colours of red, yellow and blue.

In English we've finished our 'innovated' version of The Papaya The Spoke, and also explored what vowels and consonants are. 

In Maths, we've taken on one of the more challenging concepts in Year 2: that of 'fact families'. For instance, from 5,8 and 13, you can derive:

5+8=13, 8+ 5=13, 13=5+8, 13=8+5

13-8=5, 13-5=8, 5=13-8, 8=13-5

We've explored the concept practically, and are working hard to derive the number sentences. Please try this week's Maths home learning to help to consolidate this tricky concept!

In Science, we walked around the school, and noted the materails it is made out of. We discussed why they were used, and noticed that they are all 'hard' materials. We considered how the paper towels we used for home learning were very absorbent, and contrasted it with those the school is made out of. We explored the 'hypothesis' that all hard materials are not absorbent, and then worked in groups to design an experiment to test this. We'll pick this up on Monday to see if the hypothesis is correct, and hopefully won't get too wet ourselves in the process!

We are all looking forward to Spanish day on Tuesday! 

Have a great weekend

Mr Lynn

Friday 1st October 2021

We continue to beaver away as we continue our journey through Year 2.  Thank you for some excellent Home Learning again. Maxwell now is very secure on his nouns, verbs and adjectives. He particularly enjoyed some banana related grammar, and receiving some very impressive pictures!

In Maths, we’ve shown ourselves to be great at ordering numbers all the way up to 100. We know to check the tens digit first, and then the ones digit, and work hard not to be caught out, however hard Mr Lynn tries to make it!

In English, paragraph by paragraph, we’ve been writing our own versions of The Papaya That Spoke. Footballers, mansions and sausages appear to feature in several of the children’s version! We’ve tried to use expanded noun phrases to make our writing more interesting, and to carefully which words to use to make the greatest impact. There's some lovely work being produced by these superstars.

Great excitement came from having some benches and tables out in PE as we practised our straight, tuck and star jumps. The children worked safely, and enjoyed showing their athleticism, balance and control. We’ve also really enjoyed answering VIPERS questions about this short film. The class made some brilliant links between the clues in the story and the feelings of the mother.

In Science we’ve been exploring how different materials are used. There’s a fun experiment you can try in the Home Learning.

Have a brilliant weekend,

Mr Lynn

Friday 24th September 2021

Our superstars have worked really hard this week. We’ve been doing lots of assessments to see where we are as we journey further into Year 2. I’ve been really impressed with the effort and positive attitude showed by this fantastic class! They’ve been introduced to so many different types of lessons, such as Spelling Stars, VIPERS, and Make Me a Reader, but have kept adapting to new ways of working beautifully.

In other maths lessons, we have been exploring comparing objects and numbers up to 100. It was nice to see the greater than/ less than alligators again! In English, we’ve been exploring The Papaya That Spoke as a whole. We’ve written expanded noun phrases about the papaya, as well as exploring how exclamation marks are used.

We’ve launched into our Science topic by exploring how different materials are used. Learning that our Jewels in the Jar bowl is actually plastic, despite looking just like glass caused some deep thinking! We’ve also really enjoyed exploring balances, rolls and jumps in gymnastics. The class certainly contains some budding gymnasts!

Finally: thank you for an amazing set of home learning. Some of the excellent Rosa Parks work is going up on our working wall today. It was also great to see maths learning being consolidated, and some super spelling work as well. Thank you.

Have a super weekend.

Mr Lynn

Friday 17th September 2021

Our highlight this week was certainly Roald Dahl day. It was great to see some lovely costumes, and to share one of my favourites; The Enormous Crocodile. The children designed and labelled some ingenious crocodile traps, and had great fun making them for real. We even tried to see if they could trap the crocodiles who had come in!

The rest of English time this week was spent learning The Papaya That Spoke. We now have some real experts! As part of Home Learning this week, you can wow your grown-ups by performing it, using the text map.

In Maths we've been consolidating our understanding of place value. We've learned what 'partitioning' means, and worked on becoming really secure with the value of each digit. 

We launched our new topic by exploring if Rosa Parks is a hero, despite not wearing a cape. The children gave some really thoughtful responses to her actions, and were shocked when they discovered about segregation in 1950s America. As one of our superstars said:  'She wasn't wrong, the rules were'.

We also completed our phonics assessments, ready to start in our Read Write Inc. groups next week.

Have a fantastic weekend everybody!

Mr Lynn

Friday 10th September 2021

Well, it's been wonderful to see all the familiar faces back again! As a class, they've adapted beautifully to the new classroom and some new ways of working. We've put down a really solid foundation this week, all ready to blast off into even more new learning next week.

In English we wrote fantastical tales about the summer holidays that we didn't have.  Many pirates, unicorns, pokemon, fairies and Jedis appeared! We also launched our first Year 2 Talk For Writing Unit: The Papaya That Spoke. We tasted some papaya, which led to a wide variety of reactions! In Maths we've been consolidating our understanding of numbers to 100, and showing our understanding of each digit in a two digit number.

In Art we 'read' the picture: Tiger in a Tropical Storm/ Surprised! by Henri Rousseau. We then enjoyed becoming tigers and making our own tropical storm with maracas.

To end the week, we wrote our class charter. We agreed to 'try to fly' this year. This means to try our hardest in all we do. I'm sure we'll be flying to some amazing learning as the year goes on.

Please have a lovely weekend.

Mr Lynn