Weekly news - Week beginning 19.11.18

                                                         Weekly news

We have been very excited this week because we have finally read the whole of our ‘Power of Reading’ book ‘The Storm Whale’. The main character Noi found a baby whale washed up on the beach and didn’t know what to do with him. The children wrote down all the things that they already knew about whales and then wrote a list of questions of things that they wanted to find out. Later in the week they used the laptops and ipads to research the answers to their questions.

In Maths this week we have been learning to add using a blank number line. The children found this method a little bit trickier than the chips and peas method. However, they are starting to understand that they add the tens first by doing jumps of ten and then add the ones by doing jumps of one.

At the end of the week we completed some addition word problems linked to our topic and the children chose their preferred method to work out the answer. Some children completed two-step problems.

Thank you for coming to our Year 2 Assembly, we hope you enjoyed it – the children certainly did! 

Please remember to send your child to school in their PE Kit on Monday with a water bottle ready for Multiskills at Easton College.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Brooks and Mrs Jennings.

Spanish in Whales

We have had lots of fun over the last couple of weeks learning some Spanish in Year 2. We have learnt some greetings and how to ask and answer the question 'How are you?'

Today we made some paper plate faces and used the new language we have learnt 'Me llamo' which means 'My name is...' to write a speech bubble.

We are sure the children would like to practise with you at home.

Which material is best for Noi's Dad's coat?

In Whales class we have been really enjoying the work we have been doing on the 'Power of Reading' project. We have been using this for lots of areas of learning. We have carried out a science investigation to find the best material for Noi's Dad to use for his coat when he is out on his boat. It needed to be waterproof to keep him dry.

We made predictions and then we tested lots of different materials for example cloth, kitchen roll, tin foil, cotton wool and plastic bags and newspaper. We used a pipette to drip the water onto the material to see whether it was waterproof or absorbent. We recorded our results and drew a diagram.

We found out that the best materials were the plastic bags and the tin foil as these were the most waterproof.

Here are some photos of us doing the experiment

We have really enjoyed working on our investigation skills.

Beach Combers

As part of our Beach Combers topic we have been on a school trip to West Runton. 

We had a brilliant day with North Norfolk Wildlife Trust who ran two amazing activities for us. One of them included a scavenger hunt to collecting lots of natural materials from the beach in buckets. They had to find things that were shiny, rough, smooth, plastic, beautiful, slimy, colourful and soft. Then they made some sculptures on the beach using these items.

The next activity was rock pooling. The children learnt about the creatures they might find and then went on a hunt with a bucket and net. They found crabs, fish, fossils, snails, barnacles, limpets, shrimps and one group even spotted a sea anemone! 

We also spent some time sketching the beach and enjoyed our lunch in the sun.

World Cup Launch

Today, we kicked off our world cup week with a morning recreating famous moments and practising our football skills.  The children had lots of fun and enjoyed the competitive element.
It was a very hot morning so we made sure we had lots of half-time breaks to keep us cool.

Chembakolli houses

We have been learning about India for the past few weeks.  We have been looking at a village called Chembakolli and children have spent this afternoon making their own Chembakolli house using clay and sticks.

Piet Mondrian

We have been learning about the artist Piet Mondrian and have looked at lots of examples of his work. We looked at the techniques he uses in his work and learnt about how he started using lines and shapes then became more abstract. We created our own pieces using his techniques. We really loved learning about his work and having a whole morning to create our own careful masterpieces.