Weekly news

We had a lovely, energetic start to our week with our visit to Easton & Ottley College to take part in the Norwich SSP’s Multskills Festival. The students at the college put on lots of exciting activities that allowed children to practise many PE and Sport skills. We took part alongside 4 other schools and had lots of fun. On Tuesday we also enjoyed a Karate workshop which was enjoyed by all.

In English this week the children wrote a story for their pet pebble that they made on Monday afternoon. This was a completely ‘cold’ task which meant there was no teacher input. The only element they had to include was it had to be set on an island. The children had lots of interesting ideas and worked really hard. It was also a very good assessment tool. As a result, we will be working with the children on proof reading their work to check for full stops and capital letters.
Later in the week we continued looking at our book ‘The Storm Whale’. We created a ‘conscience alley’ where the children made an arch and one person was chosen to be ‘Noi’. As Noi walked through the archway the rest of the class were whispering in his ear reasons for and against telling his dad there was a whale in the bath! Everyone then wrote a letter of advice to Noi using a range of conjunctions.

In Maths we have been practising 10 more and 10 less. The children completed a carousel of activities which involved fluency, reasoning and problem solving. They all worked really hard and showed good resilience. Later in the week we completed subtraction word problems and consolidated the ‘chips and peas’ method for taking away.

In RE this week we discussed why different religions have festivals. We linked this to our understanding of Diwali, Christmas, Birthdays and Easter. We then read the story of Elmer and made a range of resources to help the elephants celebrate ‘Elmer’s Day’. The children made cards, flags, designed cakes, banners and wrote songs.

We have also been practising our Christmas Carol for the fayre next week. We look forward to seeing you there. If any parents are able to help out with manning our game ‘Knock Santa down the chimney’ for a 15min slot please let one of the Year 2 team know. Alternatively we will put a sign-up sheet in the cloakroom. It would involve taking money and giving out prizes. Many thanks.

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.