Year 2

Year Two

Key Stage One

The children in these classes are in the second year of the Key Stage One programme of study which ends in July following their Standard Assessment Tasks (SATs).

You can contact the Year Two teachers by emailing:

year2@jupitercfs.org.uk

Year 2 Blog

Owls and Puffins will be adding regular updates about their learning to this page. Enjoy!

16.10.19

This week, Year Two have been creating their own Coats of Arms.

The children discussed the Queen and her Coats of Arms. Then, as

a class we researched different Coats of Arms. Finally, the children created

their own Coats of Arms in groups. Everyone loved this activity and working

as a team!

09.10.19

This week, the children have thoroughly enjoyed making some Christmas cards using a variety of materials. We hope you enjoyed seeing these at home!

In Literacy, the children have been writing Jim and the Beanstalk. The children have produced some amazing writing, including noun phrases and sentence starters.

04.10.19

This week we have started a new book "Jim and the Beanstalk", a sequel to Jack and the Beanstalk. The children have been thinking about the characters and completing thought and feeling bubbles. In maths we have begun looking at addition and subtraction and how they are linked. We will continue to revise our addition facts next week. Today the children have been learning about germs, can they tell you who proved that germs do not just appear as if by magic? We used glitter to help prove this!  

26.09.19

Year 2 2019/2020

Owls Class - Miss Gillingham & Mrs Baker

Puffins Class - Miss Armstrong & Miss Cox 

We have had a few weeks to settle in and are all now slowly getting back on track with routine. It is a big change from Year 1 especially with the larger class sizes. It is important that we continue to talk about behaviour and what we expect from our children here at Jupiter.

We have had a busy few weeks! In literacy we began with Goldilocks and three bears and hearing a sequel to this story. The children have spent some time writing letters as Goldilocks and have just completed their own version of a sequel with Goldilocks and Baby bear all grown up.

In maths the focus has been on number and place value, ensuring children can make links between number facts that will enable them to be able to problem solve. Next week we will begin to use these number facts such as bonds to ten to help us with addition calculations and reasoning.

The children have really enjoyed our first theme 'Significant People' and learning about the history and life of Amelia Earhart and Neil Armstrong. They have been creating some fantastic portraits and diary entries. This has linked nicely to our science, Year 2 have been learning about significant figures such as Elizabeth Garrett the first female doctor in the UK and Jane Colden the first female botanist.

Have a look at the class pages for some photos of our learning.

19.7.19

Well that it is it for year 2!

What a wonderful year we have had with many exciting topics, adventures and learning opportunities. 

We want to thank you for your generosity at this time of year and wish your children well in year 3.

Have a wonderful summer break :) 

Miss Aylward, Mrs Baker, Miss Mcintosh and Mrs Cross

10.7.19

We have had a busy couple of weeks and quite can't believe that we are nearly at the end of the year!

Last week we had a very successful sports day and we were so proud of how well the children joined in, competed and supported each other! It was lovely to watch the children take part with such focus and maturity - Well done year 2!

This week and next we are taking the time to recap key aspects of literacy and maths with the aim of securing the children's knowledge and independent learning.

In Literacy they are going to be planning and writing their own 'Dragon' stories and in maths we will be focusing on problem solving.

Tomorrow the children will visit their new classes for September and meet their new teacher! The children are very excited, that's for sure!

Please note that there are no clubs next week but Sherpa is available.

We break up for the end of year next Friday the 19th July at 2pm for the whole school (no sherpa)

21.06.19

Another superb week of learning from everyone in year 2!

This week in literacy we have done lots of writing. We have learnt how to use statements so that we can write reports about the characters in The Minpins by Roald Dahl. We have talked about their clothes and what their houses look like. We have also learnt about the progressive present tense and how we can use this to help us write postcards. Finally we have planned a story which is a sequel to The Minpins. We started writing it yesterday and will finish the stories today. The children have written some brilliant paragraphs so far!

In maths we have been learning how to measure in millilitres and have started to learn how to use the column method for addition and subtraction.

In our theme lessons this week the children have been very busy making their own healthy pasta salads. To make this we used a recipe that we wrote in Monday's lesson. The children have really enjoyed testing their cooking skill and following a recipe.

Well done for another great week!

14.6.19

We have had a great week of learning!

In literacy we have continued reading The Minpins by Roald Dahl. The children have worked hard to create descriptions of the characters in the story. We have also used suffixes, apostrophes, and conjunctions to make our writing really interesting.

In maths we have been working on doubling and halving numbers. The children have worked hard on answering questions in quizzes and have used dominos to play a 'Doubling Dominos' game which they have really enjoyed.

We have also learnt about the famous scientist Charles Macintosh who invented a waterproof fabric. I am sure your children will be delighted to tell you more about his life and what he did! We have also looked at the ways that we can all help to save the planet. The children have written their ideas on post-it notes which we have stuck on our display board and we have written our ideas down in our Theme books.

Well done to everyone for such a great week of hard-work!

Also, thank you for all of your donations on Pyjama Rama day, the money will be going to a great cause.

10.6.19

Summer two homework is now available on the home learning page!

6.6.19

WOW! What a fantastic week of learning we have had this week!

This week has been 'outdoor learning' week so we have had a range of activities to be completed which were all arranged by Miss Pesquera. The children have completed the following:

-Fire skills - learning how to start a fire with different equipment and tools.

-Hand tools - Using hammers, nails, wood and cotton to create pin art.

-Fire cooking - We made popcorn on the fire in sieves (and ate it too!)

-Den Building - Using a range of resources to create a den we can get in.

The children have excelled in all the activities and engaged wonderfully in the aspect of learning new skills outdoors! We can't wait for next year already :)

In maths we kept the theme of outdoor learning to focus on statistics. We started by completing a tally chart for the amount of daisies we could find in 6 hoops on the field. The next day we transferred our data onto a large pictogram - we used real daisies! Later in the week we compared leaves using carroll diagrams and then combined PE and maths to measure and time how fast we can complete one sprint!

It was an active and exciting week of maths!

In Literacy we have started a new book - The Minpins by Roald Dahl.

It has been great to get into a new book and use it to support various areas of our literacy learning. We managed to fit in a lot this week including:

commands     conjunctions     noun phrases     descriptions

settings     suffixes     verbs

It is lovely to see your children becoming more confident to use these elements independently in their writing.

We will be starting our new theme next week and the Summer 2 homework will be uploaded too. :) 

22.5.19

This week we have got back in to the swing of things and on timetable. After a busy few weeks of our SATs mission, the children have settled in well to their normal learning pattern and already produced some great work.

In literacy we are looking at a book called 'The Journey'. This book has no words so it allows the children to interpret the pictures in their own way and produce their own style of writing to go alongside them. We have started the week by sequencing the pictures and discussing exciting vocabulary to match them. We then worked as class to write an exciting introduction using descriptive language with a link to our 5 senses. Tomorrow the children will write more of the story but stop at a given point and leave the story on a cliff hanger. Who knows what will happen next!

In maths we have revisited fractions of number and shape. With shapes we have identified fractions and shown them in different ways to show we fully understand the given fraction.

With number we have continued to "divide by the bottom and times by the top" to find our fraction. In some cases we had the fraction... but not the whole! We found out that we had to do the opposite - "divide by the top and times by the bottom".

It is only Wednesday and I think the children have already had their highlight! After making models of houses from 1666 yesterday, tragedy hit today as the Great fire of London made its way to Jupiter! The houses were burnt down and it was great to see how quickly the fire spread - as it would have done in the real thing. (Some houses were saved my protective children who wanted to take theirs home!) 

We are awaiting our SATs certificates but we have a funny feeling they will be here before the end of the week. 

Please note that next week is half term so school is closed. We will welcome your children back on Monday 3rd June at 8.30am.

15.5.19

Well our mission is nearly over....just a couple of days to go!

Your children have continued to work very hard and always had a smile on their faces. We will be assessing all the papers over the next week and I'm sure the 'SATs training agency' will be overwhelmed with all the hard work and certificates will be sent out ASAP!

Throughout the week the children have, once again, completed various activities with a range of focuses. These have included - art, relaxation, sports, teamwork and D&T. A highlight was definitely the opportunity to play football rounders (with a win from owls on the first game and a draw on the second!) I think the teachers were more competitive then the children!

Next week we will go back to our normal timetable for the last week of term.

A reminder that next week is walk to school week so the gates will be closed to everyone unless you have a disabled badge. Please try to park a bit further out and walk the rest of the way and ensure you park responsibly in the local community :) 

9.5.19

Well...to say your children have taken on the challenge well is an understatement! They came in this week ready and raring to go and have all worked to the very best of their ability. Whilst we still have more to go, your children have also been engaging in a range of activities when not completing their secret mission.

They have completed a range of art activities that have built on various skills that we have worked on throughout the year. They have engaged in History and Geography learning, allowing them to learn new facts and use them within work. 

During our very rainy day the children took part in board games, working on co-operation, patience and resilience. 

We have continued with our theme of 'The great Fire of London' and this week we had a music focus. We revisited 'London's burning' but this time added body percussion! The children loved it....even if their hands and legs were a bit sore after!

Please continue to encourage and support our children over the next couple of weeks as they complete their mission and work towards a special treat :) 

1.5.19

It has been lovely having your children back for the Summer term and they have settled back into the school routine well!

Bagels have now been introduced to the soft start each morning and seem to be a hit...The children help themselves to their bagel, butter it and then spend time with friends whilst they eat it. It's a lovely calm start to the morning. For those having milk, they are having it at break time.

For maths this week we are looking at 2D and 3D shapes and identifying their properties. For 2D shapes we had to identify the amount of corners, sides and if they are symmetrical. With 3D shapes we counted the amount of edges, sides and faces and we found this can be quite tricky when twisting the shapes! We will then move on to comparing the properties of the shapes.

In literacy we have read through most of our new book about The Great Fire of London. It is a fantastic book and the children are really engrossed in the contents and new information they are learning. We have used it to recap asking questions and also began to look at accounts from different points of view. The children have delved into a cats diary as it followed his journey through the great fire. They got to act out scenes and use adjectives to describe what the cat would have seen. Later in the week they will use their knowledge of suffixes and add them to root words to create adjectives.

23.4.19

Welcome to the Summer term, we hope you had a restful and enjoyable break!

This half term is short but jam packed full of learning, preparation and SATs.

We want to emphasise that SATs are not something to worry about and your children are used to, and comfortable with, the conditions of sitting the papers. We ask for your support in ensuring your children are well rested with a healthy breakfast and we will do the rest!

Please note that there is no set homework to be handed in this half term. You will find ideas of things you can do on a day-to-day basis on the 'home learning' page which will support your children's learning. 

Thank you 

3.4.19

Well we can hardly believe that we are at the end of Spring term!

This term has been full of exciting things and many different learning opportunities which we will continue with into the Summer term. 

This week in maths the children have worked on partitioning numbers into different combinations. For example:

65

60+5=65

50+15=65

40+25=65

30+35=65

The children were able to see patterns in the numbers increasing and decreasing as we moved the tens over. 

In literacy the children have worked towards re-writing the story 'The magic porridge pot'. We have looked carefully at the sequence and setting of the story and used descriptive language to provide information about certain sections. All this enables the children to become familiar with the story line and be able to re-call key events with ease. The children will complete their version at the end of the week.

In theme we have learnt about Easter and completed various art tasks throughout the week. It is safe to say that the children like Easter...and chocolate!!

Please note that we break up for Easter on Friday 5th April at 2pm. 

Children return to school on Wednesday 24th April at 8.30am.

29.3.19

What a busy week we have had!

Your children have worked extremely hard this week completing various checkpoints. This all took place in another room, which all children adapted to extremely well. 

This was great preparation for a government mission we have been set to complete in May! (More details to come, along with the children making their very own lanyards!)

Theme continued this week and the children learnt all about gladiators! We even took part in circuit training to get fit and strong like gladiators!

Next week we will return to  a normal week of learning (PHEW!)

Please note that there are no clubs next week and we all break up at 2pm on Friday.

21.3.19

Maths this week has been all about money! We had to make sure we understood and knew the value of all of our coins before using them in our work. The children could then use the coins to make given amounts on the price tag. As if this wasn't a challenge enough...they had to make the same amount, multiple times, using different coins.

In literacy we had had a SPAG focus (spelling, punctuation and grammar) on our new book - The Owl and the Pussy-cat.

The children have created noun phrases about the text and included them in sentences. They have explored the suffixes -less and -ful and added them to root words to ensure sentences make sense. They have also had a spot check on capital letters - finding them within a text and identifying whether they are used for a noun, a sentence starter or the word 'I'.

Theme has been great this week as the children brought their drama skills to life when acting out a scenario that led to Boudicca rebelling against the Romans. The children seem to be team Boudicca and have been really engaged in learning about her. That said....we did then become Romans and complete a wanted poster for Boudicca, including information about her looks and what she had done that was wrong. 

Next week the children will complete checkpoints for maths and Literacy. 

15.3.19

Another week has whizzed by and we are now half way through this half term! 

The learning hasn't stopped and the children are fully engrossed in different focuses across the curriculum.

In Literacy we are coming to the end of 'Tadpole's promise' and the children have been able to write with relation to information texts. We ensured we used adverbials to sequence the life cycle of a frog and the children also had the chance to transfer their information into a booklet.

Whilst we continue to focus on arithmetic and reasoning in maths, we have also spent time this week recapping addition and subtraction methods. We are using chips and peas with great independence now (even crossing then tens) and also continuing to use the column method.

Next week we move onto money!

Our Roman theme has been just as engaging for the children...We learnt all about the Roman army and they even got to use Now Press Play to act out battle scenes and learn formations!

The children have been very excited to start our new PSHE learning with our year 2 mascot - Jigsaw Jo. Our topic this half term is 'Healthy me'. 

Have a lovely weekend! :) 

7.3.19

What an exciting week we have had with a big world book day focus!

Thank you to the children who brought in a potato dressed as a character...They were all FAB!

Well done to Caitlin who won in year 2 :) 

On Wednesday the children took part in an exciting immersive experience with Tara form 'Tiny Ts'. They got to explore reading and books in a different way, using imagination, props and drama to support them. 

On Thursday we had a special world book day assembly with things such as guessing books from clues, finding out teachers favourite books and finding out the winners of the potato competition.

In Literacy we have continued to look at 'Tadpole's promise' with the end goal of retelling it independently....but with our own characters! The children will get to write the final parts tomorrow.

In maths we have thought about reading and writing numbers to 100 and also reading scales.

We thought carefully about the spellings of numbers and ways in which we can remember them. We had some lovely posters matching spelling and numbers!

When reading scales we discussed how important it is to look at the progression of the scales (1s, 2s, 5s, 10s?). This will then help us when the scale we are reading does not have all the numbers on it. 

The children have engaged really well in theme this week as we learnt about Roman gods and goddesses. They even got to invent, design and describe their own.

Please don't forget that we have class photos on Monday :) 

1.3.19

Well the first week back has flown by! 

We have been busy this week in all subjects, learning new things and recapping prior learning.

In maths we have focused on multiplication and division and used our known facts to create fact families. For example:

3     15     5

3x5=15

5x3=15

15÷5=3

15÷3=5 

In Literacy we have started a new book - 'Tadpole's promise'.

This week we have used the book to learn about life cycles, identify contractions and write them (ensuring the apostrophe is in the correct place) and also using adverbials in our writing. 

Contraction examples:

Had not = Hadn't

I am = I'm

They have = They've

Should not = Should've

Our theme this half term is 'Romans' which is a great, interesting topic filled with exciting history!

This week the children identified key events that happened in that part of ancient history and sequenced them accordingly. We also discussed BC and AD relating to the years before and after Jesus' birth.

BC = Before Christ     AD = Anno Domini

14.2.19

Wow....we are already at the end of spring one!

We haven't slowed down on the learning this week. Maths has been full of partitioning and Literacy has focused on 'Hansel and Gretel'.

The children have secured their understanding of place value by partitioning numbers into tens and ones. They then moved on to partition a given number in different ways. 

For example:

68 = 60 + 8 but it can also be partitioned as

68 = 50 + 18 or 30 + 38 or even 10 + 58 (and more!)

The children worked hard to understand this concept and we will revisit it later in the year. 

In Literacy we have used role play and sequencing to learn and understand the story of 'Hansel and Gretel'. The children worked as a class and in groups to complete various tasks before independently writing the story themselves.

There is no homework set for over half term. The spring one homework is now finished and spring two homework will be on the website on the first week back.

We look forward to welcoming your children back on Monday 25th February. Have a great half term break :) 

7.2.19

This week has been busy fitting in checkpoints alongside various other bits of learning. The children have worked exceptionally hard to complete a variety of papers including, reading comprehension, arithmetic, reasoning, SPAG and spelling. They had to independently recall prior learning and use different strategies to answer questions. 

Our theme lessons took us on a journey with a pirate! We had a message in a bottle and this allowed us to create poems based on what we would find in a pirate's pocket. (We even tea stained our paper!)

The children then thought about what they would need should they be shipwrecked....some ideas were interesting!! We even designed our own shelters using materials we may find around.

24.1.19

It's been another busy week for Year 2 this week! In literacy we have been writing our own stories using the same format as 'The Bear Under the Stairs', including 'The Fox in the Box', 'The Shark in the Dark' and 'The Fish in the Dish'.

In maths we have been focused on addition, including doubling numbers to 20, and subtraction using the column method. We have also looked at money and the symbol used for pounds and pence. 

We've continued with our theme of 'Oceans and seas' and this week we found out about the Pacific Ocean and the continents that surround it. We looked at the Great Barrier Reed and the different creatures that live in it. 

17.1.19

Another busy week has flown by with the children learning new things and even making themselves into scuba divers!

In Maths they have learnt about counting in 3s and this lead on to estimating where numbers go on a blank number line. We discussed how an estimation is a good guess and how we can use our knowledge of other numbers to support us.

The children are back in to story writing this week - Writing a retell of 'The bear under the stairs' and even planning their own version! Next week they will put their plan into action and write their stories in full.

Theme has all been under the sea this week as we explored the Atlantic ocean and what we may find under there. The children then put their art skills into practice as they used paint, pictures of themselves, card and straws to create a picture of themselves as scuba divers under the sea.

08.01.19

Good morning all! Hope everyone had a fantastic break, and enjoyed the festive season. We had a wonderful first day back and enjoyed getting back into our learning.

This week we will be starting our new theme topic 'Oceans and seas'. We will be exploring the seas and oceans surrounding the UK, and moving onto identifying the 5 oceans of the world. This will also transfer into an art project, where we will be finding out information about the artist JMW Turner and over the weeks to come, completing an art piece based on his work.

In Maths this week we are focusing on 'Telling the time'. If you could try to use clocks at home as much as possible that would be fantastic! In year 2 we will mainly be focusing on understanding 'quarter to and quarter past the hour' and how this looks on both an analogue and digital clock.

We will also be starting a new book in literacy called 'The bear under the stairs' by Helen Cooper. We will have a mystery arrival in class and will be asking questions about what we would like to find out, learning about homophones and writing letters in character.

20.12.18

We can't quite believe we have come to the end of the Autumn term! The children have worked very hard this term and deserve a well earned break. There will be no homework set over Christmas and we will upload the Spring 1 homework when we return. 

The children enjoyed their Christmas lunch this week (as did the adults!) and it was lovely to see everyone so festive and happy.  They also got to enjoy 'Peter Pan' the panto as a whole school which was lots of fun for everyone :) 

This week the children have taken part in various Christmas activities, building on skills such as team wok, art, history, literacy, maths and RE. They have loved learning with this focus and it was clear to see through the conversations that were had in class.

Thank you very much for your gifts and cards for Christmas. We appreciate your thoughtfulness and kind words.

We will welcome your children back on Monday 7th January 2019 and hope you have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

14.12.18

It has been another exciting and busy week with the Christmas productions taking centre stage!

We want to say a huge well done to all the children who took part so well and gave us their best performance :) 

Alongside this the children have carried on with their learning - thinking about old and new concepts.

In maths we have begun to look at time, focusing mainly on quarter past and quarter to. The children are slowly understanding this but we will come back to it next term.

During Literacy we have been working towards the children's independent big write which they will complete today. We have remained focus on sentence structure, ensuring that each sentence has the correct punctuation - along with some exciting vocabulary! By looking back over the same story it allows the children to pick out different aspects of the story and learn how to include it within their own writing. We are looking forward to seeing what descriptive pieces they complete today! :) 

7.12.18

Well we have had a very busy time in Year 2 lately! With our normal curriculum taking place and adding in rehearsals for the Christmas play - The children have been working very hard!

They have all learnt their lines and are singing beautifully so we can't wait to welcome you next week to witness it for yourself!

In Maths we have been finding fractions of both shape and numbers, focusing on half, 1 quarter and 3 quarters. When looking for a fraction of shape it is important to remember that all parts must be an equal size. This is still the same for number....each part should have the same amount! 

We have learnt a chant to help us remember how to find a fraction of a number - "DIVIDE BY THE BOTTOM AND TIMES BY THE TOP"

In Literacy we have been looking at our new book - "A Christmas Collar".

We have used this text to help us secure our understanding of a range of punctuation and grammar. The children have had to identify where and when we use capital letters and adapt given texts to ensure they are correct. They have also thought of some fantastic expanded noun phrases to describe objects linked to the story. For example:

The shiny, red bauble.

The sweet, yummy candy cane.

The children are continuing to develop their handwriting skills and understanding of how to join letters accurately. We are focusing a lot on presentation in books so please could we ask that you do the same when your child completes any work at home. :) 

21.11.18

This week is our penultimate week of focusing on 'The Journey Home' in literacy. The children have really taken to the story and it has allowed us to discuss real life issues such as global warming, the use of palm oil and deforestation. We have followed 4 characters (Polar bear, Panda, Orang-utan and Elephant) as they all joined forces to sail on a small boat because there homes are being destroyed or they are being hunted. From this we have thought of engaging vocabulary to describe scenes and also ensured the correct use of punctuation in given pieces of texts. The children will continue to use the text to recreate and write their own version.

Maths has allowed us to look at patterns and positions. We have made and used repeating patterns in class and also used grids and their co-ordinates to find shapes. The children were able to follow instructions including North, South, East and West to find hidden locations on a map. 

The children have loved Theme this week as we explored one of our continents - Asia - and they got to learn and write about the features of mountains. 

Did you know that some of the highest mountains are under water?

We are still looking at the /L/ sound in spelling but this time it is spelt 'il' and 'al' at the end of words. For example - pencil    hospital    fossil    animal

16.11.18

Thank you for attending parents evening. It was great to speak to you about how your children have settled in to year two.

Your children have had a busy week with lots of learning taking place.

In maths we have focused on multiplication and division by 5. We looked at it in various ways in order for the children to grasp the concept independently and ended the week with word problems. We used 3 steps to help us solve them:

1. Identify the operation (multiplication or division)

2. Write the corresponding calculation.

3. Use your preferred method to solve it.

The children really took to this and we had lots of sharing circles and fingers being used accurately to find the answers! :) 

In Literacy we have started a new book - "The Journey home"

This week we have thought about the characters we met and how they may be feeling at different points of the story - What are their hopes and dreams?

The children came up with these thought bubbles after some role play:

"I wish I could get away from these noisy docks"

"I dream and hope of swinging in the high, scary trees with my lovely friends and family"

"I dream of me and my family on blue ice"

"Oh I dream of having my icy home back"

The story also allowed us to explore plurals and the different rules there are to help us.

Our spelling rule this week has been the /L/ sound spelt 'el' at the end of words:

camel     jewel    towel    travel     label

8.11.18

Autumn two homework is now on the 'home learning' page! :) 

06.11.18

First day back and we had a mystery to solve! Over the half term animals had broken into our Year 2 classrooms and wreaked havoc; toppling tables, knocking over pencils and leaving big muddy footprints everywhere.

We became detectives to try to discover which animals had been in, by using an identification sheet. Unfortunately, we still have one animal we are yet to identify, so this week we will be creating posters, asking questions and writing letters to try to gather enough information to classify the unknown creature!

Children's comments:

Phoebe- I was shocked, I thought Woah what is wrong. I was very confused. I felt relieved when we identified the animals.

Harrison- I think the unknown animal might be furry, smooth and dangerous. We need to find it.

Candice- I felt curious because the pencils were on the floor and real footprints were everywhere!

24.10.18

Please note that the Autumn 1 homework is now finished. Autumn 2 homework will be put on the website after half term. 

We have had a busy last week of our first half term and we can't quite believe Autumn 1 is over!

This week in Maths and Literacy we have gone back to core skills and ensured they were secure for the end of the term.

In maths we focused on place value and understanding the tens and units within a number. This then allows us to complete calculations in various ways and we even had a a go at column addition and subtraction.

In Literacy the children will continue to build on their story writing skills. Today they will be planning their own spooky story and tomorrow they will get to write it. They will have to think carefully about the opening, problem and solution and also try to include interesting vocabulary to engage the reader. Not forgetting our use of capital letters, finger spaces and full stops...of course!

The children have also had the chance to put their creative skills into action! They started by making cards and decorating the front with silhouettes. We discussed that this meant we only needed to draw the outline and cut it out rather then having a lot of detail. 

Then the children got to make their own witches....from their green hand prints! They had instructions to follow and it was lovely to see their individual interpretations come to life :) 

We hope you all have a lovely, restful half term break and we will see you back in school on Monday 5th November.

18.10.18

“In Theme we’ve been Learning about Sebastian Coe. He was born in 1956 and he helped to get the Olympics to London in 2012.” Mia – Owls Class

“We have been changing a story to a different sequence and writing it in paragraphs.” Ava – Owls Class

“In art we’ve been learning about Vincent Van Gough. WE made drawings like him like the ‘Starry night’. We used pastels.” Ishvaa – Owls Class

“In maths we’ve done add and takeaway. Sometimes we use our fingers and sometimes we use a number line” Christian – Puffins Class

“Today in PE we were running to do races, we were aiming things to throw and we did the long jump.” Amelia – Puffins Class

Along side all of this, we have been reviewing and learning some of our common exception words - door, floor, only, most and climb.

9.10.18

Within Literacy this week, we are continuing to focus on ‘Jim and the Beanstalk’ and planning our own Sequels. This week we are ensuring we understand different elements that need to be included such as speech and use of different and interesting adjectives. The children will then use this next week when they write up their sequels.

In maths we have moved on to learning about measurement and understanding that different units of measurement are used to measure a range of objects. Yesterday we started with ensuring that the children are using rulers accurately in order to read and record the correct measurements. It is important to remember that we do not line up the edge of the ruler with the object – we line it up with the 0!

Our theme learning has allowed us to explore and understand more about Queen Elizabeth and her family. We then used this to create individual family trees. The children will also get to create a class documentary with key facts about the Queen!

Our spelling rule this week: the ‘j’ sound spelt with a ‘g’ or ‘j’. For example – jar, magic, gem, jacket.

3.10.18

Today in maths we have been looking at missing number problems. Here is a rhyme we say to help us with finding the missing numbers:

Missing number at the beginning,

do the inverse and you’re winning!

Missing number in the middle,

use subtraction with a fiddle!

Missing number at the end,

that’s easy my friend!

01.10.18

Start of a new week and we are working very hard, in literacy, maths and spelling; No rest for our year 2's! We did have fun in our fit 4 fun session though.

This week in spelling we are looking at the sound /j/ spelt with ‘-dge’ and ‘-ge’ at the end of words

badge, edge, bridge, dodge, fudge, age, huge, change, charge, village

If you would like to practice your spellings then feel free to get your children completing look, cover, write, check activities or writing sentences using the spelling words.

Also this afternoon we have had a fantastic time designing and making our own space rockets, so thankyou all for sending in junk modelling resources. :)

28.09.18

We have been studying 'Significant People' as our theme topic. Over the term we are learning about numerous iconic people of the past and understanding the impact they have made to our world. This week we have been studying about Neil Armstrong and his mission to the Moon.

We had a fantastic time using our new resource 'NOW, PRESS, PLAY' where the children use the headphone equipment for an interactive experience. We imagined we were Neil Armstrong and followed his journey from a young boy; interested in aviation, to becoming the first man on the moon.

We also wrote letters to NASA to persuade them to choose us as their new astronauts.

If you want to please feel free to take the time to investigate another interesting explorer and create a fact file/ power point. We have now covered both Amelia Earhart and Neil Armstrong. Who else has found new worlds or been the first to accomplish a mission?

28.9.18

We have had a very busy week and can't believe that we are now half way through the first term!

Literacy this week has allowed us to move on to a new focus book and explore our writing in a different way. The children have read 'Jim and the Beanstalk' and used a variety of techniques to understand the text and also predict what may happen next. For example - we used freeze frames to capture key events and 'thought-tapping' to vocalise what each character may be thinking at that time.

The children have also recorded their own happy, or not-so happy endings for each event using out coordinating conjunction 'but'.

In maths we have been looking at inverse operations and patterns in numbers. 

Inverse operations

8 + 4 = 12

The inverse would change the addition operation to subtraction, using the numbers we already have, so:

12 - 4 = 8 and 12 - 8 = 4

Pattern in numbers

We used small number calculations to help us with larger numbers.

When looking at the following calculation:

60 + 30 =

We discussed that the numbers are quite large and it wouldn't be suitable to use a number line or pictures to find the answer...So we used the tens!

We can easily solve

6 + 3 = 9 so this tells us that 60 + 30 = 90

The children even went on to tell us that it also means that

600 + 300 = 900 and 6000 + 3000 = 9000

21.9.18

This week we have focused on many new concepts including symmetry, sorting shapes, retelling stories and finding definitions for new words in guided reading.

“We’ve being doing the Goldilocks sequel. It’s about what happens when Goldilocks grows up.” – Emily, Owls.

“We learned about ‘Significant people’ and Amelia Earhart. Amelia Earhart was a pilot and she wanted to be the first woman to go across the Atlantic Ocean.” – Ishvaa, Owls

“We have been learning about shapes. I know we have been sorting shapes into groups. We’ve been putting lines in them and seeing if it is the same on each side. It is called symmetry.” – Ethan, Puffins.

18.9.18

This week we have made a great start to our reading comprehension focus. 

Every week the children will read a different text and answer questions relating directly to it. Yesterday was only retrieval - like a dog fetching a ball - you go back to the text to find the answer and bring it back to record on your paper!

For more information about reading comprehension and how you can help your child with it, please follow this link:

https://www.theschoolrun.com/teachers-tricks-reading-comprehension

14.9.18

What a great first full week back we have had!

This week in maths we have focused on addition and subtraction and thought carefully about how to solve each. When looking at addition we concluded that it can be solved with either number first but it is easier to have the larger number first. With subtraction we learnt that it helps us to find the difference between numbers. Throughout the year we will look at different ways to solve calculations so the children can use the method they find easiest.

In Literacy we have been focusing on 'Goldilocks'. We have looked at 2 different versions and compared their features. The children then had the opportunity to rite the story from a different point of view, thinking carefully about the feelings of a given character. 

Next week we will be starting our new theme - Significant People.

We are very excited to teach your children about a range of inspirational people and use our new immersive learning tool, Now Press Play.