Weekly news

Weekly News

Sports Day on Monday was a hugely exciting, busy and tiring day but very much enjoyed by all. Thank you for supporting us by coming to watch your children and cheering them on.

During the mornings this week the children have completed their reading special booklets (SATs). They have all worked really hard. You will be pleased to know that our SATs are now finished.

In Maths this week we have been partitioning numbers into different combinations of tens and ones. For example; 62 = 60 + 2, or 50 + 12, or 40 + 22, or 30 + 32 etc. The children used the tens and ones sticks to help them. We also applied this skill by drawing bar models to show the partition. Some children solved incorrect partition challenges for example 62 = 6 + 2 …”This is incorrect because the 6 digit is worth 6 tens so it should be 60 + 2.

A big well done to the children who took part in the dance showcase. We are really proud of their confident performance and we hope you all enjoyed coming to watch them.

Whilst the children were at the dance showcase, the rest of Year 2 completed some pirate art. We created a sea background using paint and added texture using sponges, forks and brushes. We then made a pirate boat using sugar paper and oil pastels to stick on top. This artwork, along with the treasure maps made a few weeks ago will be on display in the lower school hall.

After half term we will need lots of junk modelling. Please can you save this up and bring into school the first Monday back. Many thanks.

Enjoy the half term!

Year 2 team J

Weekly news

We have had an exciting week in Year 2. We started off the week with a fantastic launch to our new topic ‘Land Ahoy’. We had a wonderful workshop with Miss Helen from Music and Movement all about pirates and did some dance and drama. We did lots of different pirate activities throughout the day including making telescopes, porthole art, making pirate hats and walking the plank!

In English this week we have started looking at our new ‘Power of Reading’ text. We are keeping the title to ourselves for now. The children have done some excellent work on inferring from a picture and writing instructions to find gold.

In Maths we have been learning about position and direction and guiding our friends round different routes using the language forwards, backwards, left, right, clockwise and anticlockwise, ¼ and ½ turn.

In our topic work we have made some amazing detailed maps to show a journey to find gold. In Science we have investigated different materials to see which float and sink and choose the best one to make a boat. We have really enjoyed using our investigative skills. We have also learnt about the story of Jonah and the big fish and made a story map of it in RE.

A few quick reminders….

Please can we remind parents that children need to have their reading records in school at all times so that we can record details about your child’s reading.

Don’t forget it’s Sports Day on Monday. The children are really excited and have been working hard practicing their races.

We are really looking forward to Dance Showcase next week at the open. A reminder for the children taking part, please could we have any costumes in school as soon as possible and also £1 for the bow ties.

Have a lovely weekend,

The Year 2 team.

Weekly news

During this short week, the children have been doing their Maths special booklets (SATs). We have been pleased with their positive attitude and focus. We will doing our reading booklets in a few weeks’ time.

In the afternoons we have been singing ‘Sea Shanties’, learning Spanish and doing some computing activities using the programme Scratch Junior on the iPads.

At the end of the week, the children wrote their own Claude stories based on the plans they made last week. They have written some brilliant adventures with an exciting problem and resolution. All stories ended with Claude saving the day!

We will no longer be sending home weekly spellings. The spellings we have been sending home are the Year 1 and Year 2 common exception words. As we have now worked our way through all of these, you will now see the completed list stuck in your child’s spelling book. Please continue to test your child on these words as these are the crucial words they need to be able to spell by the end of Year 2. We will continue to test your child on these words every few weeks.

Home learning will be coming home Friday 17^th May. We are quite a few books short so please ensure they are returned to school so that we can stick in their new sheets.

If your child is involved in the Dance Showcase you should have received an email this week about costumes. Please can these come in ASAP.

Many thanks,

Year 2 team

Weekly news

We have had a fun and varied week this week in Year 2.

In English we finished our story about Claude in the City, and discovered how he saved the day curing lots of sick people with a cup of tea and a biscuit.  We then created story boards to retell the story in our own ways.  At the end of the week we planned our own version of the story.

In maths we have been looking at creating graphs to represent different kinds of data.  We started off creating pictograms showing how our class got to school, moving on to making bar charts about our favourite sports.  Then reinforcing our knowledge about these.

For science we explored the school looking at different plants and trees, trying to recognise them by their leaves and flowers.  We discovered that we have a huge variety of wildlife just in the school, getting excited about the variety of colours that will be out when summer finally arrives.

For our history lesson we looked at how technology has changed in the home from the 1950s up to now.  We looked at how small the televisions were in comparison, and that they used to have to get up to change the between the two or three channels!!  We also looked at technology in the kitchen and discovered they didn’t have microwaves!

Have a lovely weekend,
The Year 2 team.

Sock Puppets

We have been very busy in class this week making sock puppets. In our 'Power of Reading' story Claude and his friend Sir Bobblysock go on many adventures together so we thought we would make our own sock characters.

We thought very carefully about our designs and chose our materials to match these. When we had made our sock puppets we also evaluated our work.

We really enjoyed making these and were delighted to bring them home!

Weekly News - 26.4.19

Welcome back to the Summer term!

We started the week by planning our leaflets for the Sainsbury Centre. The children looked at real-life leaflets to decide what features they should include. The planned space for headings, a map, pictures, prices, opening times, etc. Later in the week, we wrote persuasive paragraphs about what you can do at the Sainsbury Centre, the shop and the café. On Friday, we used our planning to make the leaflets. These have been photocopied and sent to the Sainsbury Centre for them to, hopefully, use.

In maths this week, we learnt about how to read scales. We looked at real-life scales on car speedometers, measuring jugs, rulers, weighing scales, etc. The children looked closely to see what steps the scales were counting in (1s, 2s, 5s, 10s) and had to work out the missing number. Later in the term, we will be applying this skill by reading thermometers.

During the afternoons, we have been designing, making and evaluating sock puppets. The children have had lots of fun and we are very impressed with how much their real puppet looks like their design!

Weekly news - 5.4.19

This week, in English, we have written our newspaper reports about the ‘great sculpture robbery’ that took place in the art gallery of our book ‘Claude in the City’. The children wrote a headline, drew a picture with a caption and included lots of real facts and quotes from local people. We have used the opportunity to discuss the features of non-fiction texts.

In the afternoons, we have been busy completing Easter and spring craft activities. The children really enjoyed making their bouncing chicks and chocolate Easter nests in baskets.

On Thursday, we had a wonderful time on our school trip. The children found out lots of information about the Sainsbury Centre and completed some sketching activities. After Easter, we will be continuing our work on non-fiction by making leaflets/guidebooks for the Sainsbury Centre using the information we collected.

We have had our final practise of our ‘special booklets’ (SATs) ready for May and we are pleased with the progress that the children have made. Over the Easter holidays, please continue to hear you child read little and often, and, if you have time, complete a few maths problems with them (all 4 operations). However, and most importantly, we really hope you all have a relaxing Easter filled with exciting activities.

From,

Year 2 Team

Trip to the Sainsbury's Centre

Today Whales Class went on a very exciting trip to the Sainsbury's Centre Art Gallery. We went there because in our 'Power of Reading' book Claude, the main character, went on a trip to the city and went to a gallery himself.

While we were there we did lots of different activities. We went on an outdoor sculpture trail and saw some amazing sculptures. We looked around the art gallery for different pieces of art such as 'Bucket Man' 'Llama effigy' and 'Walking Hippopotamus' They were all wonderful pieces of art to look at. We did some fantastic sketches. We were also gallery detectives finding out lots of important information about the Sainsbury's Centre so we can make our own leaflet about it after the holidays.

We all had a lovely day and Mrs Brooks said we were brilliantly behaved!

Spelling test

Just a quick note to say we will be we will be having a spelling test next week. We will be picking 10 words from the last 4 weeks of spelling sheets. Please practise with your children ready for Thursday 4th. 

Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Brooks and Mrs Jennings

Maths cafe

We had a fantastic time at our Maths cafe on Tuesday this week. We enjoyed being the teachers and showing our grown ups how we work our calculations involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We then made multiplication flowers choosing a times table we felt we needed to work on. We can use our multiplication flowers to practise at home.

Thank you so much to all our parents for coming and for all your lovely comments too.

Weekly news 29.3.19

This week has been a super busy week!

Firstly, we would like to thank you for your support with our Maths Café and our Assembly. We hope you enjoyed learning about how your child solves maths problems and learnt a little bit about our Power of Reading story from our assembly.

In English this week, we found out that a robber stole a sculpture from an art gallery in our book ‘Claude in City’. We made wanted posters using suffixes, for example harmless, colourful, quickly, shiniest, cleverest and sneakiest. Later in the week we held a press conference with children in role as the Robber, Security Guard, Museum Manager, Mayor and Police Chief. The children wrote questions to ask at the conference. We have begun looking at the features at newspapers ready to write a newspaper report about the incident next week.

In Maths, we have been practising our multiplication skills and learning about the inverse relationship between multiplication and division. We used the same 4 numbers to write four numbers sentences, for example 5 x 2 = 10, 2 x 5 = 10, 10 ÷ 5 = 2 and 10 ÷ 2 = 5.

In Science, we learnt about fingerprints and how the police use these to identify criminals. We scribbled with a pencil, pressed our finger on top, then put our finger onto the sticky side of a piece of sellotape, and once this was stuck onto white paper, you could see the fingerprint clearly. We used magnifying glasses to observe and find similarities and differences.

We will be having a spelling test next week. We will be picking 10 words from the last 4 weeks of spelling sheets. Please practise with your children ready for Thursday 4th. 

Weekly News

Weekly news – 22.3.19

This week at school we have had a go at writing our own free verse poem based on the work that we did on Friday around the city and the things that we could see, hear smell and touch.  We have learnt about writing and sending an email through Claude and Sir Bobblysocks adventure in the city.  We went into role as Claude and wrote an email to Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes.  

In maths this week we have been practising our subtraction using ‘chips and peas’ and then went on to read word problems to decide which of the operations we should use, addition, subtraction, division or multiplication.

For our topic sessions this week we went outside and created a sound map by drawing ourselves in the middle, closing our eyes and listening carefully to the sounds around us.  We then drew these onto a map with a key.  In Geography this week we drew a map of the city that Claude explores and thought carefully about the shops that he went to.  We drew these on with a key.  For history this week we have learnt about shops in the past and present.

Have a great weekend – the Year Two team. 

We had a lovely start to the week with the launch of our new topic ‘Street Detectives’ by going on a walk around the village. The children had a map and drew symbols to make a key showing the main features of Mulbarton including the Church, Co-Op, The Common, etc.

In English, we have started our new Power of Reading book (the title of which will be kept a secret for now). We began by looking at the first picture in the book, which was a city scene. We then read the first 9 pages which introduced us to the characters Claude, Sir Bobblysock, and Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes. The children completed a character profile with all the information that they already knew about Claude along with questions regarding things they would like to find out. Later in the week, we wrote predictions of the adventure that Claude and Sir Bobblysock might have.

At the end of the week, we began writing poetry about a city. We will be continuing this next week.

In Art, we made collages to show our predicted adventures. These included; space, beach, under the sea, Paris, and city scenes.

In Spanish, we learnt the names of animals. The children acted as different animals and we guessed what they were using our new Spanish words.

In Maths this week, we have been learning about the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction. We used this understanding to solve missing number problems, for example ? + 20 = 70 we solved by doing 70-20 = 50. This is an area that some children find quite challenging and would benefit from practising missing number problems at home.

Weekly news

Weekly news 8.3.19

This week in school, we have finished our ‘Power of Reading book project by writing our own chapters in our best handwriting.  The storybooks look amazing; please have a look in your child’s classroom.

We have been practising SATS papers this week and the children have responded really well to their ‘Special Work’ and ‘Secret spaces’.  They have all worked hard and have enjoyed the quiet, focussed atmosphere in the classroom. 

We have finished off our ‘Towers, Tunnels and Turrets ’topic with an ‘Innovate Day’.  The children read the story of the three little pigs as inspiration.  Then they were challenged to design and build a safe fortress for the three little pigs based on their knowledge of castles.  Once complete they labelled their design and made a list of the resources they would need.  They then went on to collaboratively build their design using the available resources.  The children worked in groups all day long and have designed some amazing fortresses. 

We had lots of fun on world book day exploring the children’s characters and books.  We all moved into our circle time groups to hear different stories in the afternoon. 

Please let us know if you are able to help on Monday for our walk around the village; we will be setting off from school around 9.30am and back in time for lunch.

Have a great weekend – Year 2 team

World Book Day in Whales

We had a wonderful day in Whales celebrating World Book Day yesterday. Thank you so much to all the parents for helping with some fabulous costumes. We enjoyed taking part in a circle time to share who we had dressed up as and why, designing new book covers for our Power of Reading book, World Book Day wordsearches and also making some amazing origami bookmarks. The children are now experts at these and I'm sure they would love to share them with you at home.
At the end of the day we went in our house circle time groups to listen to a story read by an adult in different places around the school. We had a really lovely day!

Weekly news

We have had a lovely week in Year 2 and have been very busy.

In English this week we have been story mapping our Power of Reading story ‘The Princess and the White Bear King’. We divided the story into chapters and began to plan our own chapters to write. We have used our story maps to write our own chapter with adjectives and adverbial phrases to say when and where things happened. We have edited and improved our work ready to write up in best next week to make our own collaborative versions of the book.

In Maths this week we have been focussing on money. We have learnt about the values of different coins and worked on making different amounts using the coins. We have also focussed on adding amounts of money and finding totals.

In Science this week we have been out on a ‘I wonder…’ walk and thought about questions that we could investigate later in the year about plants and nature. The teachers will use these questions later in the year to plan some exciting science investigations.

We have continued our work on Judaism this week and learnt about the festival of Shabbat. We learnt about why Jewish people celebrate Shabbat and how they do this. We also had our own Shabbat meal with bread and grape juice (blackcurrant squash).

Next week we will be taking part in an exciting innovate challenge to finish off our ‘Towers, Tunnels and Turrets’ topic. We would appreciate any donations of junk for junk modelling that you may have.

In the week beginning 11^th March we will be launching our new topic ‘Street Detectives’ with a walk around Mulbarton to explore our local community.  We would appreciate any volunteers that are able to assist us with a walk on Monday morning, we will be leaving school at 9.30am and aiming to return before lunch.  Please let your child’s teacher know if you are available to help.

Weekly news

This week in school, we have been exploring the end of our story and began by attempting to predict the end of the story.  We did some role-play about the wedding and re-enacted the final scene with the troll Queen being turned into stone.  We went on to write questions for the troll queen and then interviewed her to ask her about her thoughts and feelings on the fairness of the ending.  We then wrote a letter of complaint on her behalf, complaining about how unfair it was that she did not get a happy ending.

In maths, we have continued our work on fractions and learnt about 1/3 of shapes, numbers and objects.  We have then learnt about identifying the different fractions, comparing them and then looking at the relationship between ½ and 2/4.

In topic this week, we have made paper bridges and explored the properties of the paper and how we could make it stronger.  This was fun and the children were expert bridge builders.  During our history topic this week, we have learnt about the great escape and re-enacted this using bowls and spoons to dig tunnels and try to escape the guards.  We went on to write a recount of the events during the great escape in 1944.  The children were fascinated and amused by the names of the three tunnels ‘Tom, Dick and Harry!’

Please spend some time over half term having a look at Bug Club and Education city.

FYI – our next learning café will be on Tuesday 26^th March.

Have a great half term holiday – The year 2 team.

Weekly news - 8th February 2019

This week at school, we have been doing some more drama around our story and re-enacted the princesses climb up the mountain.  We went on to write a diary about how the princess felt during her climb thinking carefully about our adjectives and CFFS.  The children enjoyed bringing in their ‘precious items’ and talking about them to the class group.  They went on to write a description of their item, edit their work and then write it up in their neatest handwriting using a pen!

In maths this week, we have been re-capping 3D shape knowledge and their properties.  We had lots of fun using marshmallows and cocktail sticks to build a 3D shape.  The children have now begun to learn about fractions and we have started with ½ and ¼.  We have looked at half of numbers, shapes, length and quantities.

During our topic work, we have learnt about tunnelling animals, finding information and recording this in a chart.  We also used charcoal and white paint to draw a winter scene thinking about form, line, shape and space.  The children did a fabulous job and were very creative.

Have a great weekend

Year 2 team.

Weekly news - 1.2.19

We started off the week by writing a setting description about the castle books that we made last week. The children described the inside, who lived there and the defensive features. Later in the week we had a class debate about the Princess’s dilemma. The White Bear had told her not to listen to her Mother’s advice and she promised that she wouldn’t. We made a ‘conscience alley’ which is a drama technique where the children make two lines and someone walks down the middle in role as the princess. As they walked through the alley children on either side gave reasons why she should listen to Mum or why she should listen to the Bear. We concluded that you should always listen to your Mum because ‘Mum’s know best’.

In Maths this week we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. We learnt the names, number of sides, vertices, edges and faces. At the end of the week we looked at finding symmetry in shapes.

In Topic, we revised food chains by looking at what polar bears ear. We focussed on the vocabulary: ‘producer’, ‘consumer’, ‘predator’ and ‘prey’.

We have noticed that some children do not have as many comments in their reading record as we would ideally like. Please could you read with your children at home as much as possible and make a comment in their reading record. Reading at home has such a positive impact on progress and would benefit all children.

We will be having a spelling test next Friday on a selection of the words we have sent home.

The Dance Showcase went amazingly well. We are SO proud of all the children! Not only did they perform with confidence and enjoyment, but we also had many comments from other school about how well-behaved they were throughout the evening.

Weekly news

This week, in year 2, we have been continuing our time work by solving time problems, for example: ‘Tom left the castle at half past 2. It took him an hour and a half to walk home. What time did he get home?” We also played a pairs game to help us remember how many minutes are in an hour, hours in a day, days in a week, etc. At the end of the week we looked at number patterns, worked out the rule, and applied it to continue the sequence.

In English we made a map to show the princess’ journey from the palace to the castle. Children worked in pairs to create maps showing the Norwegian features, such a ‘thickly needled pine forest’, ‘frozen lakes’ and ‘bride-white snow’. They then used these maps to help them write a set directions using adjectives, similes and alliteration.

In topic we have looked at how animals are adapted to cold climates and had a go at designing our own animal with winter features. We also looked at towers from around the world and located these on a world map.

For those of you that have children in sharks (18 of them) that are doing the dance show case, we look forward to seeing you at the show on Wednesday. Remember your child will need collecting from the Open venue at 8:50pm. Please ensure they have their costume for the show ready to take with them, a packed tea (if you have not ordered, and paid for, a burger), plus snacks and a drink to keep them going!

Weekly News - 18.1.19

We have had a busy week in Year 2 and taken part in lots of exciting activities, which we have really enjoyed.

In Maths, this week we have been practising counting in 2’s, 3’s, 5’s and 10’s forwards and backwards. We have also been learning to tell the time on an analogue clock by reading the times on the clock. We have practised o’clock, half past, quarter past, quarter to and some of us have been learning to tell the time to the nearest five minutes. We have also practised drawing the hands on the clock to show the correct time.

In English we have been really enjoying our work on the ‘Power of Reading’ project. We started the week by making a crown for the Princess that was brighter than the sun. The children then wrote some fantastic letters to the King to persuade him that their crown was the best. Children wrote questions to ask the Princess about her journey with the bear and went on to write a diary entry about her day.

In Topic we have been learning about hot and cold countries. We learnt about the location of the Equator and how this affects the climate.  We have carried out a scientific experiment to investigate the properties of ice and changing state. The children really enjoyed this activity and using their investigative skills. We have learnt about Judaism in RE and thought about different important aspects of the religion. In Spanish we have learnt six new colours and played some games using these. We will continue to practise these in class.

We are looking at adding to our reading areas and if any of the children have any magazines and comics that they have finished reading at home we would be very grateful to receive any donations for the classroom.

Have a lovely weekend,

The Year 2 team.

Aladdin performance

We have had a lovely afternoon watching a theatre company perform Aladdin in school. The children really enjoyed the show because of the colourful costumes, the songs and the funny jokes that were in the play. The children were beautifully behaved and were complimented by the cast on how well they sat and also joined in. We all really enjoyed it!

Weekly news

It has been an excellent start back to school so far.  The children have written recounts of their Christmas holidays and enjoyed sharing their news.  We had a fabulous trip to the castle where the children were treated to stories, pennant making, rat catching and the opportunity to sort artefacts.  We learnt lots about what life would have been like in Norwich Castle during a joust from how they prepare the castle, what the knights need to wear, how to cheer them on (Hazaa!), the feasts they would have had and how they would have used the toilet!  We also had an opportunity to explore some of the exhibitions where the children were fascinated and all impeccably behaved. 

This week we have written a recount of our trip and thought carefully about using commas, conjunctions and time language within this.  We have also begun to explore our new story for the power of reading in very small pieces – ask your child about this.

In maths this week we have been exploring division and how to draw this out to help ourselves.  We have answered word problems based on division and learnt to use a number line to work out the answers.  We’ve even learnt about remainders within division and how it is important to make sure that the groups are equal when dividing and showing the remainder.

During our topic lessons we have learnt about castles some more by testing materials in science that would successfully knock down a wall.  In history we have learnt about castles thought the ages and ordered pictures of them.  For D&T we made our own castle from a box and thought carefully about the features of a castle e.g. the drawbridge, portcullis, murder hole and gatehouse.

We have had a visit from a Paralympic swimmer this week and had the opportunity to hear how he was able to represent our country.  We completed a workshop with him of exercises he does before getting into the pool and discussed mind-set and how this can affect our ability.

We were very lucky this Friday afternoon to be able to watch a performance of Aladdin from a visiting theatre company.  It was lots of fun and we really enjoyed this treat.

Miss Cobb will be sending home further information about the dance showcase performance once she has received the details of the event from the SSP.