An exciting challenge!

Today in Whales and Sharks we have been completing a very exciting challenge set for us by The Three Little Pigs.

We needed to build a strong, safe fortress to keep the pigs safe from the Big Bad Wolf. We worked collaboratively across both classes and thought about all the different ways to make a fortress strong and safe. 

We had great fun and produced some wonderful work which is on the table outside the Year 2 base if you want to come and have a look!

Weekly News

On Monday when the children arrived in the classroom there were lots of mysterious objects on the carpet. We completed a ‘free writing’ activity which involved choosing an object and writing in any style or genre such as; a story, a letter, a description or a poem. We made the focus handwriting and encouraged many children to start applying joins.

Later in the week we looked at the story of the Billy Goats Gruff and had a class debate / hot seating where we discussed reasons for and against crossing the bridge, for example ‘If you keep crossing the bridge you will give me a headache from all your trip-trapping.’

In Maths this week we have started to look at subtraction on a blank number line. The children find this more difficult than adding due to counting backwards in tens from any number so if you get a chance to practise this at home that would be great. We also solved subtraction word problems using our preferred method (mental, blank number line or 100sq).

In Science this week we have performed a simple experiment using newspaper. The children were challenged to create a bridge between two desks that would hold the weight of a goat figure. They worked in small groups and were only allowed to use 4 sheets of newspaper. The test showed some interesting ideas and the children thought carefully about how to make the newspaper stronger by folding, layering, rolling and twisting.

Whales class visited Mulbarton Church on Wednesday afternoon. Many thanks to Reverend Adrian for showing the children round and performing a pretend wedding. Shark class are looking forward to going next Wednesday. 

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Brooks and Mrs Wyer.

Weekly News

This week we have been very busy writing our tunnel adventure stories. The children showed fantastic imagination and tried hard to include lots of detail to interest the reader. Everyone tried to use capital letters, full stops, finger spaces interesting sentences starters and adjectives. Some children even added similes and speech marks.

In Maths we have started learning how to use a blank number line to add. The children used their understanding of place value to add the tens and ones separately. We had three levels of challenge;

Bronze: Add a 2 digit number and a 1 digit number.
Silver: Add a 2 digit number and a tens number.
Gold: Add two 2-digit numbers (tens and ones)

Below is a picture to show the strategy:

In Religious Education we have started to look at Christianity by looking at the features of a Christian church. The children drew and labelled a church and some children went on to write facts about Christianity including the symbols, holy book and festivals associated with the faith.

PARENT HELP PLEE

On Wednesday the 15^th of November, in the afternoon, Whales class will be walking to Mulbarton Church where Rev. Adrian will be showing the children around. We would really appreciate a few parent helpers to come with us. Shark class will be doing the same trip during the afternoon of Wednesday the 22^nd. Please let the class teachers know if you are available to help on either week.

Both classes are also attending a Multiskills festival at Easton College on Thursday the 23^rd (morning). We would like to have 2 adult helpers to help with this too, if possible. Again, please let us know if you are free to help.

In your child's Home Learning book today you will find a Home Learning reading task as part of our whole school focus this half term on 'Reading for Pleasure'. Please could we have the completed task in school on Monday 20th November. This will count as one piece of Home Learning but if children would like to do it as an extra instead they can do.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Brooks and Mrs Wyer.

Forest School

We have enjoyed our first forest school session today and what fun we had!

We did den building, tree climbing, digging and rope swinging.

Weekly News

This week we have been focussing all of our work around towers and tunnels.

We started the week by building different size towers and estimating their height in centimetres before measuring accurately using a ruler. Some children also looked at millimetres to make their measurements even more precise (for example 2.5cm). The gold challenge involved answering mathematical questions about their measurements such as; ‘How much taller is tower 3 than tower 1?’, ‘How tall would your towers be if you put them altogether?’ and ‘Can you convert one of your measurements from cm into mm?’.
Later in the week we looked at subtraction on a 100sq by moving up to subtract tens and backwards to subtract ones.

In English we have looked at the story ‘The Tunnel’ by Anthony Browne. In the story one of the main characters has a dilemma about whether she should follow her brother into a strange, dark tunnel. The children wrote reasons for and against using conjunctions (because, unless, until, if, so that). AT the end of the lesson we acted out a ‘conscience alley’.
On Friday everyone started planning their own tunnel adventure story by making a story map.

In Geography we have been learning about famous towers around the world such as the Eiffel Tower, the Burj Khalifa etc. We looked at the continents each tower was in and labelled on a world map. Some children made their labels more specific by finding the country within the continent.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Brooks and Mrs Wyer

We have had an exciting few weeks in Whales class.

Thank you so much to all the parents and other family members who came along to our first Reading Cafe and helped us make some fantastic bookmarks. We hope you all enjoyed it. Please find some pictures below.

We have also been busy using natural materials to create some artwork in the style of Andy Goldsworthy. We used the natural materials we gathered from outside to make a tower and then took a photo from above so that it looked like a piece of Andy Goldsworthy art. As you can see from the photos below we all really enjoyed being creative and using natural items to make our artwork.

Have a lovely half term everyone! We will look forward to hearing about your holidays when we come back to school.

Weekly news

We started this week finishing off our non-fiction books about castles.  The children used their notes they had made in a previous lesson to help them write castle facts.  We looked at the features of non-fiction books and the children included a contents page, title, facts and some even had a go at a glossary.  In English we have also been acting out the story of Rapunzel during drama lessons as well as learning how to use speech marks to write a conversation for the characters.

In art we have continued our towers, tunnels and turrets theme by building towers using natural materials in the style of Andy Goldsworthy.  We collected lots of exciting materials from the outdoors and some children were able to explain their choices.

We have been busy this week adding 2 2-digit numbers on a number square.  The children had to think carefully about how many tens and ones were in their number in order to know which direction to move on the hundred square.

Children have been practising the dance show case again this week, they are having lots of fun.

Welcome to our new blog!

We are really looking forward to sharing all the exciting things we have been learning about in Whales class with you and hope you will enjoy looking at what we have been up to!

This week's weekly news - Week ending 13.10.17

This week has been our first full week of our new topic. The children are loving it and are very engaged with the cross-curricular learning.

We started our week looking at properties of 2-D shapes.  The children remembered the names of most 2-D shapes and many learnt to identify a pentagon, hexagon and octagon.  They also investigated lines of symmetry.  Later in the week we looked at 3-D shapes and their properties including; faces, edges and vertices – some children found this a challenge so please practise shape recognition at home.  Everyone built a castle using 3-D shapes explaining the reasons why a certain shape is suitable for a particular part of the castle.

In English this week we have been looking at non-fiction books and their features.  The children researched facts about castles and recorded their findings before producing their own non-fiction book about castles later in the week.  They used a contents page, text boxes, questions, labelled diagrams and some even attempted a glossary.

In History we have been looking at castles through the ages.  The children made their own timelines to show castles from oldest to the newest.

The dance showcase practises are going well. This week the children started the routine to their song which is called ‘Best Day of My Life’ by the American Authors.

Please note that the children have brought home their usernames and passwords for Bug Club.  You will find these in their reading records.  We have allocated children their colour bands so please make use of this wonderful resource.