Term 6

Week 6

The penultimate full week has been yet another busy one with some wonderful learning on display again from our brilliant year 2 learners.

We have started reading a new class text which we have  used as a focus for our english and art work .

The children are loving the text and have been learning about Native American culture and storytelling. . The children predicted what they thought the story was about and described the characters and events in the story . They are now innovating the story by creating new characters for the new version of the story they are going to write next week .

In maths , we have been revising fractions and linking it with multiplication and division facts and in art we have explored native American animal symbols and created some of our own – check out our twitter feed to see some examples . Next week we are going to make totem poles using these symbols  ( any empty kitchen rolls would be greatly appreciated )

Have a brilliant weekend . See you all on Monday.

Week 5 

A fabulous week with the year 2 crew this week as we head towards the end of term ! The children absolutely loved writing and publishing fire shape poems using all the wonderful vocabulary they have been learning this term and the results are amazing – they blew Mrs Dadds’ socks off ! The children not only used very sophisticated vocabulary in their poems , they tried hard to present their writing beautifully.

 

In  maths, the children have consolidated their addition and subtraction skills by solving two part questions involving money . The children have been reminded to use TT rock stars at home and have been given their log ins again – please encourage your child to play this game to support their knowledge of times tables which will help them in their maths learning in year 3  .

In PE the children have been continuing to enjoy their cricket coaching and in our other PE session have been practising jumping from two feet to one feet whilst maintaining their balance  – which isn’t easy !! 

 

 

 

 

 

In art the children have created beautiful great Fire of London silhouettes and in PSHE the children have been thinking about the changes that happen to us as we grow from a baby to an adult !

Don’t forget to join us for the school fete tomorrow – I look forward to seeing you there .

 

Week 4

The year 2 crew have had a lovely week which included a very successful singing festival . The year 2 crew  @ West Wick were joined by their Hewish year 2 friends and our school were very happy to welcome  children  from Heron’s Moor and Kewstoke . The children confidently sang songs from around the world and played instruments to accompany the singing . Anne Clough from the North Somerset music service was delighted by the quality of the children’s singing . We all had a brilliant time and the biscuits and squash were very popular too !

The rest of the week was busy too with lots of fantastic learning.  In maths the children were continuing to use money to finding the difference and find change and in english , the children have been writing fantastic newspaper reports using all their knowledge of the Great Fire of London . They have even included some brilliant eye witness reports.

The children had a great cricket session with the cricket coach and they even got to go outside as it wasn’t raining for once !

Week 3

The children have had a very busy week learning about the Great Fire of London . They used the ipads to research and find out facts about the Great Fire of London – Did you know only 6 people were have thought to have died in the fire ?  The children collected facts and added them to their fact files about this significant event .

 

The children learnt about Samuel Pepys and wrote their own diaries . They found out that he wrote his diary in code and wanted to try their own codes. They created quills out of feathers and used tea stained paper to practise writing like Samuel Pepys .  Zach said ‘ It’s really hard to write with a feather !’

We have created a lovely display in the classroom with flames that the children created by painting using different shades and tones of red , yellow and orange.

Week 2 

Another week has flown by in the year 2 classroom . Despite the continued rain and wintry weather , we have been smiling and enjoying our learning.

The children are continuing to enjoy our class text The Great  Fire by Ann Turnbull which has helped them to  become  immersed in the world of the Great Fire of London . They love following the exploits of the main character ( who they met in their Plague learning and our previous class text – The Great Plague)  and are desperate to finish the story.  Listening to this book and our learning theme sessions this week exploring the diaries of Samuel Pepys have given the children the knowledge to write their our diaries about the Great Fire of London . The children have been working hard to improve their use of vocabulary and we have seen words like incandescent, luminous , acrid and searing being used regularly in their writing .  Check out my twitter feed to see examples of this writing.

In maths this week, the children have been consolidating their measuring skills and knowledge with their capacity loop for learning . They have been learning the difference between capacity and volume  and have been practising measuring in ml and l .

Another session of cricket led by Andrew from  the Somerset cricket board was greatly enjoyed by the children and involved them being introduced to a straight arm bowl .

Scooter training was great fun, despite the persistent rain and the children learnt all the skills they need to keep them safe on the pavements and crossing roads.

In Science this week the children have been scientists and were busy  observing a candle flame  closely and recording their observations . They noticed that the wax turned from a solid to a liquid and noticed that the wick turned from white to black with a glowing end ! They were surprised how quickly the melted wax turned back into a solid . This science work was complimented by our art work creating flames in the style of Georgia O Keeffe.

We are having the annual multi skills PE festival on Monday morning at West Wick so please ensure your child has a PE kit in school – Thank you . Have a great weekend .

Week 1 

Is this really the last term ? Where has the year gone? The weather this week didn’t really feel like summer either  did it ? Despite the rain , the year 2 crew have had a brilliant week of learning and have achieved so much.

To consolidate their learning about how  to measure mass  , the children all had the opportunity to measure out ingredients using scales ( all of which had different scales on , some were counting in 25g, some in 10 g and some in 5g which caused great confusion but turned out to be a brilliant learning opportunity ) to make biscuits. This was a group activity with the challenge being to work as a team , share , cooperate and take turns. The children loved this activity and cooking is an absolutely fantastic way to support your child’s maths .

Why not get your children weighing out the ingredients next time you bake ?

The children learnt about the famous diarist Samuel Pepys and wrote biographies about him . They collected information and sorted the information into most significant and least significant. Another great oracy opportunity . The children learnt new hand signals to show when they wanted to build on a classmate’s comments or if they had a difference of opinion. They sketched amazing portraits of him ( building on their previous learning based on how to draw portraits) and have made quill pens and old paper , ready to write their own diaries next week.

The children had two fantastic PE lessons, one developing their ball skills and the other was a cricket coaching session led by the Somerset cricket board . Andrew , the coach, was very impressed by the children’s team work and cooperation and by how quickly they improved their cricket skills.

Our Tudor houses have been arriving all week and they look absolutely amazing – thank you all for supporting your children to make them.

Have a great weekend – stay dry !!

Don’t forget scooter training – next Friday ( 14th June )

Term 5

Week 5

Wow what a busy and happy week this has been.  The children thoroughly enjoyed sports day in the sunshine . The children demonstrated their team work and resilience in style . They particularly enjoyed the very exciting flip flop fling ( and only one flip flop landed in the crowd !!)

In maths, the children have been practising giving directions using mathematical vocabulary – we found the best way to do it was to do it physically so a lot of our time was spent learning outside,  giving instructions to each other using the terms forward, turn , anticlockwise, clockwise , quarter term , half turn  and three quarter turn . It was great to make the most of the gorgeous weather this week.

In art , the children have been busy finishing their Tudor house sketches with some amazing results .They have learnt to add shading to their sketches to add detail and definition  .

The children designed book covers for our class text ‘Plague – a cross on the door ‘ by Ann Turnbull . Have a look at my Twitter page to see some examples.

On Friday , we enjoyed ice pops from our very lovely PTFA and had a mini party to celebrate all our amazing resilience and hard work this term and to say goodbye to Mrs Yeoman , who has been volunteering in our class for some time now .

Have a wonderful half term holiday – enjoy the break . It would be lovely if you could complete the home learning challenge to make a Tudor house of of a box so that we can make our class model of the city of London in 1666.

Next term’s spellings focus on homophones ( words that sound the same but are spelt differently ) here is the link to the spellings .

Year 2 Spellings Term 6 word document cursive updated2

Fingers crossed for more sunshine next week .

Week 4

The year 2 crew have been amazing this week and have made all the year 2 teaching staff very proud. In among the daily miles , mad maths minutes , PE sessions ,sports day practises and sketching of Tudor houses the children completed their year 2  assessment tasks. They all worked very hard and persevered and showed off just how much progress they have made this year – well done all of you.

In PSHE , the children worked in groups to develop a script to deal with conflict in relationships – comments like these show their empathy and compassion for others  :

I just need a minute to calm down

Why don’t you want to play my game- I don’t understand ?

Why don’t we play my game for a while and then play your game so are both happy

How about we play a game we are both happy to play

The year 2 have had a fun week and we all left with big smiles on our faces , looking forward to next week ( which we cannot believe is the last week of term !)

Don’t forget sports day and the family picnic on Wednesday 22nd from 12pm – we look forward to seeing you all .

Week 3

It was a very busy 4 day week this week ! The year 2 crew wrote amazing diaries based on the characters in our class text . They were given the challenge to write their best quality writing and they all did – I am a very proud teacher. Check out my twitter feed linked to this page to see some examples.

The children also took part in a conscience alley where they explored two sides of a dilemma and tried to persuade a character to behave in a particular way . It was a new experience for the year 2 crew and they were incredibly persuasive . Just look at the passion on some of their faces.

In PE the year 2 crew have been practising balancing on one leg without wobbling for at least 10 seconds.  To improve our balances , we used our arms to balance , looked striaght ahead and made sure our backs were straight. We even added the extra challenge of balancing equipment .

In maths , we worked hard with our mad maths minutes and consolidated addition and subtractions strategies . We are continuing with our focus on time by choosing a time lord every day whose job it is to tell the class the time.

The children are busy creating Plague fact files too to share all their knowledge about the plague and the children are continuing to practise their sketching techniques with a focus on shading to produce pictures of Tudor houses.

Next week , the children will complete their SATs assessments in class – they will probably not even notice they are doing them as they are very used to completing check ups and assessments throughout the year .  These assessments are simply used to inform teacher assessment of a child’s attainment.

Have a fabulous weekend in the sun.

Week 2

What a busy week this was ! The year 2 crew have been enjoying our learning theme and particularly enjoyed learning about the Plague which links with our class book ‘Plague – a cross on the door ‘ by Ann Turnbull.  In our English sessions we have described characters and settings from the book and have retrieved information from the text to draw the apothecary- plague doctor.  The children have learned lots of facts about the plague and are ready to produce a fact file next week.

In maths , the children have consolidated telling the time to the nearest quarter of hour and have moved on to telling the time to the nearest 5 minutes – this has been quite challenging so please encourage your child to tell the time at home as often as possible particularly ‘to’ time  e.g twenty to 8 ,  ten to 12  etc  .

In art , we have been practising our sketching and observing skills by sketching Tudor houses with sketch pencils and charcoal – we have been focusing on creating shadows and tone .

During RE and PSHE , the children are continuing to focus on their relationships with a focus on those who support and help us and how we use the sense of touch to show feelings.

In addition to all this fabulous learning , we have been guided reading , spelling , practising number bonds and times tables and running our daily miles ! Lots of the children are nearly up to 10 miles .

Have a wonderful long weekend – see you all on Tuesday .

  Week 1

What a lovely start to our new term ! The year 2 had a brilliant afternoon being historians . They explored and investigated  artefacts borrowed from the Weston museum with lots of wonderful history based vocabulary being used by all the children. The children sorted the objects on a timeline whilst reasoning about which objects were the oldest . A mystery object caused much confusion which led to some brilliant creative thinking from the children  about what the item was !

The children are going to use these investigative skills to use pictures , written accounts and diaries to find out about the past as they learn about events like the Plague and the Great fire of London.

In maths the children are practising how to tell the time to the nearest quarter of an hour . We are choosing a time Lord every day who is the class official time keeper and has to answer any questions about the time – this is proving to be very popular .

In RE and PSHE , the units are very similar and involve the children exploring  where and how they belong and their relationships- this week they thought about their families and how to create a happy home .

 

Welcome back to term 5 . This term our learning theme will be ‘What was it like when ?’ which will involve the children becoming historians and exploring how to find out about the past from primary and secondary resources .

Here is the learning theme overview for your information

 

Parents Letter term 5 and 6
year 2 learning theme overview term 5 and 6

Our spellings for this term focus on adding suffixes , contractions and apostrophes . Please help your child to practise their spellings at home.

Year 2 Spellings Term 4 word document cursive      

I have added new spellings on to the spelling shed website which match this term’s spellings list . Well done to the children who are playing regularly -there are some very high scores !

Term 4

Week 6 

Where did that term go ? We have achieved so much over the last 6 weeks including :loads of learning around our learning theme  Amazing animals   ; a trip to Noah’s ark ; a wonderful family worship based on compassion  ; developing team work skills to produce our dreams and goals birds and much much more ! All the year 2 crew have made super progress this term and we are very proud of them .

This week has seen even more amazing writing as the children designed a new species of animal and wrote absolutely fantastic fact files . Check out Twitter to see some of them ! In maths the children have been consolidating their addition subtraction strategies to solve problems. We have learnt how to use column addition and subtraction – ask your children to show you how they do it !

Next term our learning theme will be : What was it like when ?  We will be exploring how we find out about the past and we will be become historians !  In maths we will be studying time – to help your child , you could practise telling the time over the Easter holidays  .

Remember you can practise your number bonds and times table facts online by playing  Hit the button  and keep up with the reading .

Have a great Easter break and try not to eat too much chocolate !

 

 

Week 5 

Wow – week 5 was yet another busy week ! Our week started with our family worship which was very well received . All the children read, sang and performed like super stars . The children were really proud of themselves and had huge smiles on their faces after the worship – I was very proud too . Thank you to all parents and carers who came to watch, we hope you enjoyed it.

In english this week , the children have been consolidating their understanding of word types like nouns, verbs ,adjectives and adverbs . We had fun collecting words at the beginning of the week , then used the words in sentences to improve our descriptions – we finished the week with some brilliant descriptions of  habitats- check out my twitter feed to see some examples.

In maths, the children have been exploring different addition strategies and have really enjoyed using a column method to solve addition problems . They have enjoyed it so much that there has been lots of examples of children continuing their learning at home . We have even moved on to column subtraction which we will develop further this week.

In PSHE , the year two crew used brilliant team work , co-operation and collaboration to produce birds for our garden of dreams and goals . We need more time to finish these this week and they will all be on display in the front entrance of the school.

Finally , in RE the children retold the Easter Story and explored the significance of crosses – they even tasted Hot cross buns and made beautiful crosses which are currently on display in our classroom.

Week 4 

The year 2 crew @West Wick have been absolute stars this week . It has been assessment week ( or learning check ups as we call them with the children ) and each and every member of the crew have tried so hard and shown brilliant perseverance . It is lovely for the teaching staff to see just how much progress our wonderful learners are making .  Next week is Super Teach week which gives the children a chance to consolidate and revisit any concepts and previous learning they are not yet secure with depending on any gaps identified this week.

The children have been learning about food chains this week and loved playing a game to see how long they could make their food chains . The children have learnt that food chains start with the sun , then a plant and finish with a carnivore . Ask your children to tell you a food chain from a woodland or garden habitat.   We had a brilliant discussion about habitats and whether a shark would eat an owl . The children decided a shark would not eat an owl because they lived in different habitats . Have a discussion with your child about animals  and their habitats – can they explore which living things live in their garden ?  Encourage your children to use the following  scientific vocabulary : habitat , carnivore , herbivore , omnivore , food chain , energy.

We have been very busy this week practising for our class family worship on Monday at 2pm , we have been learning a poem , singing , writing prayers and thinking of ways in which we show compassion   (the children sang brilliantly today and we cannot wait to perform it for you )

The children were given log ins today for the spelling shed – a spelling app for tablets and ipads and PCs – we had a little play in class today and the children can practise their school spellings at home too. Have a play . If you have any problems , please come and see me .

Maths home learning can focus on addition bonds to 10 , 20 or 100 – use hit the button  www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=hit+the+button

The children are very familiar with this game as we play it all the time in class.

Have a great weekend and we’ll see you on Monday for our family worship .

Week 3 

This week has been a busy week with some brilliant learning on display . The children have planned their own quest stories based on The Hodegheg and we cant wait to write them next week . In maths the children have been consolidating their understanding of equivalent fractions and their understanding is amazing . We had a first PE lesson using our new REAL PE scheme and the children loved it – not only were we focusing on improving our travelling and balancing skills , we were following instructions and using kind words to be good sportsman.

The highlight of our week was our trip to Noah’s Ark zoo farm where we were able to put our knowledge about animals and animal groups to the test by identifying mammals , reptiles, amphibians , insects and birds as we travelled around the zoo .

We had a great day , despite the weather and the children behaved impeccably and were brilliant ambassadors for our school. Today the children amazed me with fantastic recounts about their trip.

The week finished with the year 2 crew writing riddles for each other to guess which animal they were describing .

Here’s one of our favourites , can you guess the animal  :

I am a mammal. I have sharp canines. I am a carnivore and I eat meat. I am warm blooded . I eat other animals. I have yellow fur and a brown mane . What am I ?

Have a great weekend .

 

Week 2 

This week we will be celebrating world book day on the 7th March ( I am looking forward to seeing all your costumes) and to develop our love of books and increase the Year 2’s access to quality texts , the children have come up with the idea to start a book lending library in class . If your children have books they have finished and are happy to share with their class mates please could they bring them into school ( named ) and we can start recommending and sharing books with each other .

The texts we are currently exploring are :

Don’t forget to come along to our bedtime read on Tuesday 5th March at 5pm .

Year 2 had a brilliant World Book day and looked amazing in their costumes and we really celebrated books and reading, check out my twitter feed to see us in all our glory !

Week 1

What a fantastic , sunny week back . The temperature has soared and the learning has been brilliant in the year 2 crew . We have started the second part of our learning theme focusing on the question ‘How are we similar to animals?’ and have been exploring and sorting living things and things that we once living – Ask your children what are the life processes that all living things share ?

We started reading our new class text The Hodgeheg by Dick King Smith which the children love . The children have been developing their describing skills by using similes and expanded noun phrases ( adjectives) to describe the Hedgehogs home and have been writing instructions for the hedgehog to cross the road safely.  The children have been really trying hard on improving the presentation of their written work with great results.

In maths , the children have been developing their fraction knowledge- developing a strong idea of halving and quartering . We have had a brilliant fraction party today where they were cutting their cakes into quarters – after eating 1/4 of their cake they were able to tell me what fraction they had left. All maths learning should be done with cake !

In PE , the children loved making the most of the sunshine developing their  Games skills outside and we welcomed a gym coach who taught the children simple rolls and balances. In RE , we have started our unit focusing on our termly value of Compassion by asking what is compassion – we wrote a class poem that will be shared at our family worship on Monday March 25th – we hope you can join us .

The children welcomed Mrs Coulton this week  who is now teaching the class on Wednesdays .

Have a great weekend , I cannot wait for next week now !

 

Term 3

Weeks 4 and 5 

What a busy fortnight the year 2 crew have had ! The children have been continuing their learning theme – How amazing are we ? We started by exploring our senses and conducted  a senses investigation where the children tested their senses in a variety of ways and debated which was the most important sense !

In Maths , the children have learnt all about statistics by reading , drawing and interpreting tally charts , pictograms and block diagrams . They have collected and presented data in a variety of ways – we even played tally bingo and created pictograms online  !!! .

To develop our learning theme , we had a visit from a dental nurse  and explored how exercise affects the body .  We explored healthy and unhealthy foods and cooked our own healthy snacks ( most of the children enjoyed them !)  In PSHE we explored medicine safety and in Art we continued our study of portrait artists, with inspiration from Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein . In RE , we explored the story of Jonah and the whale .

The week ended with a visit from a huge Tarmac lorry – the children enjoyed climbing in the cab and learnt the important  lesson of safety around lorries.

Have a great weekend.

Week 3 

Week three has a very active feel with the focus being on how do we keep our bodies healthy.

The year 2 crew have planned and written information leaflets to help people understand what they can do to keep their amazing bodies healthy . They are going to publish them next week and we will be sending them home so that the children can share everything they have learnt about this week.

In PE , the children have been understanding what happens to their bodies when they exercise and have been designing activities to strengthen different parts of the body. We also learnt a new team game – bench ball -which the children loved .

In maths , the children have been developing their measuring skills including measuring in metres and centimetres and have been exploring the question – Do the tallest people jump the farthest?

( The answer is not always !!)

 

In art the children moved on to exploring the portraits of Picasso and have had a go at creating their own Picasso inspired art .

In RE , the children have been investigating the concept of how should we live our lives . This week , the children heard the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments and thought about the importance of rules.

It was lovely to see so much home learning being brought into school and shared with the crew this week  – keep up the hard work everyone !

Have a great weekend .

 

Week 2

Another fabulous week of learning for the year 2 crew this week. The children are loving being scientists and are relishing the opportunity to deepen their learning about the human body. This week the focus has been on  whats inside the body  and the children had yet another visit from an expert – this time , a children’s nurse Lizzie , who developed their understanding of bones and organs. 

The children have been planning and writing amazing reports about bones – check out our twitter feed to see some examples. I have been blown away by their hard work and enthusiasm to write them .

In maths , the children have mastered linking their multiplication knowledge with division and in PE  , circuit training is proving to be very popular. The children’s pastel colour portraits are brilliant and the children can answer the question – how do you make a picture look real ?

Our classroom has a lovely buzz at the moment and we are all really excited to start the next part of our learning journey – next week is all about : How can we keep our bodies healthy ?

 

Week 1 

Please find the year 2 parent information for terms 3 and 4 below ;

Home Links HAAW                 Year 2 learning theme overview term 3 and 4                    Year 2 learning theme overview term 4

 

What a fantastic first week back ! The children were introduced to their new learning theme ‘ How amazing are we?’ and welcomed two ‘experts ‘ who visited  to teach us about about our bodies and how we can look after them . Sarah, who is  from St John’s Ambulance , came to teach the children first aid skills like how to put someone in the recovery position . The year 2 crew were fantastic and learnt very quickly.  As a result of this activity , the children wrote brilliant instructions to explain how to use the recovery position using imperative verbs ( bossy verbs ) and time connectives to show the order in which the instructions should be followed.

The year 2 received another visit from one of our parents – Helen Howells , who is a radiographer , and she brought her skeleton, Mr Bones, in to teach the children about the bones in their body. She answered the children’s many questions and showed them examples of x-rays . Thank you for launching our new learning theme in such an exciting way!

PSHE and PE linked to our learning theme as the children discussed how they could keep their bodies healthy and completed some simple circuit training in PE to get their heart rates up ! Check out our twitter feed to see photos of the children being very active !

In Art , the children learnt how to draw the perfect portrait and explored the work of famous portrait artists like Picasso and Warhol .We even had time to fit in lots of maths learning too as we recapped our multiplication unit linking multiplication and repeated addition  and used our knowledge to solve multiplication problems.

Lets hope next week is equally productive ! Have a great weekend.

 

Year 2 Crew@West Wick Term 3 week 1

Welcome back to Year 2 crew!

Our spellings for term 3 are below. Please continue to read with your child at home at least 3 times each week and encourage them to practise spellings as well. Children can do this independently, using colours, writing spellings words as many times as possible in a minute, or by creating word puzzles or crosswords.

Thank you to all year 2 crew families for your support. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday!

Mrs Hardy-Smith, Miss Hunt

Week 1 Adding ed, er and est to a word ending in y with a consonant before it	Week 2 Adding ing to a word ending in y with a consonant before it	Week 3 Adding ing, ed, er, est and y to words ending in e with a consonant before it	Week 4 Adding ing, ed, er, est and y to words of one syllable ending in a single consonant after a vowel	Week 5 The sound /or/spelt ‘a’ before l or ll	Week 6 Common Exception Words
copier copied happiest cried replied tried dried driest funniest	copying crying replying marrying carrying flying trying drying skiing taxiing	hiking hiked hiker nicer nicest shiny being shining scary scaring	patting patted humming hummed dropping dropped sadder saddest runner runny	all ball call walk talk always small wall fall altogether	Fast Class Last Father Grass Pass Plant Path Bath people

Term 2

Week 7

The year 2 crew would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas !

See you all back on Monday January 7th .

Week 6

After the excitement pf the Christmas play , this week was a relatively quiet week but the class were able to focus on their learning and we really cracked on. English was great fun as I taught the children the easiest poems in the world – the list poem and the spine poem ! Ask your children about them .The children loved writing their poems and particularly loved using the thesaurus to find exciting synonyms for words- our favourites were : majestic , enchanted , forest green , blazing and angelic !  We then moved on to including  similes in our poems . The poems are really fantastic and  the children are keen to publish their poems so watch this space !

Maths , we have  moved on to our multiplication unit and  as per usual , the year 2 west wick crew are impressing me with the speed in which they grasp new concepts – we have already secured the knowledge of equal and unequal groups , repeated addition and using arrays and pictures . We love dancing along to the BBC super movers website learning the 2 times tables – why don’t you try it at home ?       https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/supermovers/42675177

To help your child , it would be very helpful if you could help them  learn the key facts for x2 , x5 , x10  at home .

In PSHE , the children developed the idea of how to stand up for themselves and others through role play and they made beautiful friendship tokens to give to their peers throughout the week .

In PE this week , we have had a brilliantly energetic time developing skills in controlling a ball with our hands and feet. The children loved the fantastic warm up games with the PE coach and were becoming very competitive during handball !

During Art sessions , the class were exploring different techniques to add to their seasons calendar next week.

All this plus the weekly usual diet of spelling check ups , mad maths minutes , hit the button and maths fluency – wow !! Well done year 2 – keep up the hard work.

One week to go !!

 

Week 5

Wow a fantastic week ! The Christmas play was polished and performed to two packed audiences yesterday . The children all sang and acted so confidently – every single word could be heard clearly across the very busy hall . The year 2 crew had the majority of the script to learn and all outdid themselves on both performances . The children are so pleased with their performances and all the staff are enormously proud of them.  Well done to everyone involved .

 

Week 4

We have been very busy getting ready for the Christmas play which is next week ! The rehearsals are coming together nicely.

In English , the children have been learning about the features of a newspaper and have had great fun writing short snappy headlines using alliteration . The children have been incorporating the 5 W facts in their  ( what , where , why , when , who) in their reports and have linked their reports to our themed learning focus text – Meerkat Mail. The children have written super newspaper reports about the mysterious disappearance of Sunny the meerkats .

In Maths , this week we have been counting, comparing and selecting correct money. The festive season is an great time to practice these skills when out and about, so please feel free to ask your child what coins and notes you could use when buying your Christmas shopping. (Please note we keep pounds and pence separate at present and refer to amounts as £__________ and _______pence, year 2 do not need to include a decimal place.)

We are all really looking forward to seeing you all at the Christmas fayre tonight !

Week 3

Rehearsals are well under way for our Christmas nativity, songs are being learnt, staging is being set and scripts are being learnt. You  will have received letters regarding costumes this week for this. Please do not go out and spend a fortune, tea towels and gowns are just as good!

We would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Jaswal who came in to speak to us and teach us about the Hindu festival Diwali on Friday, it was fascinating and the children asked some great questions. We found out that Diwali is the festival of light and is celebrated with candles and fireworks. We also shared with her what we knew about Rama and Sita; it was lovely to hear the children describing and talking so confidently about what they already knew. The children have had a go at designing rangoli patterns and henna hands to celebrate the festival too, they are on display in the classroom if you would like to see them.

In maths this week we have been looking at money we started the week by looking at and identifying the various coins, we then progressed to making different amounts and working out the total of coins. We found that there are not coins for every amount so we have to add up other coins to make the amounts. Lots of the children were very confident with this and had a great knowledge which we built upon.

Our English work this week was all about newspapers. We found out that newspaper reports have photographs, headlines, captions and eye witness reports. We spent some time looking at real newspaper reports before starting to write our own. We were all really good at remembering to describe the events by using the 5 W questions- When? Where? Why? What? and Who? We definitely have some budding journalists in our midst!

We would like to take this chance to remind you that next Friday is the Christmas fayre. The children have bought home white bags to decorate as well as raffle tickets to sell. We ask that these are both returned on Wednesday which is also dress down day in return for a tombola prize. We are aware that it is a very busy time of year for everyone but if you can spare any time to help our amazing PTA with this they would be extremely appreciative.

 

Weeks 1 and 2

Sorry we missed updating the page last week – the dreaded illness hit the teaching team .What a brilliant  couple of weeks the year 2 crew have had!  All the children came back from our two week break full of energy and eager  to learn.

In English we have been innovating stories linked to travelling and quests and this week the children moved on to writing their own stories based on travelling . In their stories ,they incorporated what they had learnt about different countries and thought about different ways to start their sentences.  All pupils are working hard on their cursive handwriting  to improve the presentation of their writing and our weekly spelling check ups demonstrate how much the children are practising at home and school with the majority  of the class scoring high scores or improving every week! Keep up the hard work everyone.

In maths , we have been consolidating addition and subtraction of two digit numbers using a variety of strategies . The children have really impressed me . I love the fact that the children are challenging themselves in their maths learning . Everyone’s  favourite part of the week  is our Mad maths minutes on Fridays ! They love it . All children are improving rapidly and they are so proud of themselves.

Last week , we also had a special visit from Rob French to share his experience of being in the military and the importance of Remembrance day.  In Parliament , all children discussed Remembrance day and shared the poppies they had made and talked about relatives who had fought in the wars.Thank you to those children who also wore their uniform on Friday – you all looked great.

This week was Children in Need and the class was full of spots ! Check out my Twitter feed to see photos of the class dressed up ! This week was also Anti- Bullying week and the children discussed what it would feel like on the inside  to be bullied and decided that everyone should show Kindness always – very true words!

 

Term 1

Week 7

Wow what a wonderful first term the year 2 crew have had . We have really enjoyed our learning  this week including finding out about hot deserts and comparing hot and cold deserts . We have been developing our addition and subtraction strategies and innovating a familiar story in English .

In RE , the children have been comparing the Hindu creation story with the Christian story and the children noticed lots of similarities .  We had great fun in PE recreating the New Zealand Haka – this dancing around the continents theme has really captured the children’s imagination and is helping them to learn the continents.

The children are working hard to learn their weekly spellings and believe it or not, they love the Friday spelling check up and I am seeing very positive results. Also on a Friday , the children have become mad maths champions by beating their scores. Please continue to help your child practise number bonds to 10 and 100 . Your children can show you how to play Hit the button to practise at home.

Finally congratulations to our learning champion – Zachary and to Ruby who was chosen as our Little hero for this term .

Have a great half term break .

Week 6

This week the children loved immersing themselves in their learning by becoming bridge designers and engineers like Brunel. They worked in teams and had to overcome problems like wobbly arches and collapsing roads.  This activity helped the children to understand some of the complexities faced by designers and there was lots of discussion about  how to make improvements and solving problems – great team work Year 2 crew. Check out the photos on twitter.

In English , the year 2 crew have been learning about the features of a non- chronological report by reading reports and analysing the different elements . They then went on to write reports about Antarctica in a group and then independently .

In maths , the year 2 crew have been adding and subtracting and consolidating their knowledge of number bonds to 10 and 100. The children love Mad maths minutes on a Friday and this week every single member of the crew beat their previous score !!!!

The year 2 crew have been learning the names of the 7 continents by singing songs and by dancing dances form different continents – this week it was Asia with some Bollywood dancing .

Lastly, in RE the year 2 crew have started thinking about the question – why is our world special ? We listened to the Christian creation story and shared our thoughts .

The year 2 crew are looking forward to sharing all their fabulous  learning with you at the Learning review meetings next week .

Week 5 

I cannot believe I am typing week 5 ! Where did September go ? The year 2 crew have all been fantastic learners this week . In English we have sequenced , retold and written the story of The Snail and the Whale whilst focusing on quality presentation . The children want to publish their stories and share them on our class pages so watch this space . We used spelling scribbles to consolidate our spelling of our weekly words – the children loved them.

In maths the children have been using  commutative law and inverse to find related facts ( ask your children what the commutative law is !)  We have called this week’s maths LAZY maths because if we know one fact 15 + 5 = 20 we know other related facts like  5 + 15 = 20 , 20 – 15 = 5 .

The year 2 crew had  a great visit from Liz from Lower Stock farm who taught the children about birds eye view , maps and keys and we had fun using a compass to navigate .  We used the rhyme ‘Naughty elephants squirt water’ to remind us of the cardinal compass points .

Have you checked out my Twitter feed to see a video of the children in their dance lesson concentrating hard to show how their bodies would move through the sea ?

Week 4

What a busy week for the year 2 crew ! We have been learning how to write persuasive letters and even wrote to Mrs Dadds to persuade her to travel to the 4 countries of the UK – I wonder whether she has been persuaded ?

In Maths we have been practising our maths fluency with our mad maths minutes – finding number bonds to 10 against the clock and finishing our place value unit – we can now order and compare numbers to 100.

The children have looked at the work of Georgia OKeefe and have been trying to create Autumnal artwork inspired by her Tree and leaves pictures . Watch this space to see the finished articles. To deepen our knowledge of the seasons and seasonal weather patterns , we are compiling weather charts and measuring the temperature each day ( it was chilly this morning) and even presenting our own weather forecasts . IMG_0475 IMG_0477

In RE , we have been finding out about Hinduism and we have been learning about Hindu worship .

Sadly , we said goodbye to one of our crew today – good luck Afia , we all wish we were coming with you to Mauritius !

Week 3 

We have had another very enjoyable and busy week in year 2 . In English , we have been developing our use of descriptive vocabulary to describe characters and settings from our class story and in maths, we have continued to develop our understanding of partitioning two digit numbers into tens and ones in order to solve problems . The children have been using their oracy skills in maths by focusing on reasoning and explaining  – comments like ‘ 42 is greater than 34 because it has more tens so must be a larger number , ‘ can be heard from all pupils .

The children have a secure knowledge of the 4 countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and can identify human and physical features. They thoroughly enjoyed developing their sketching skills this week whilst copying images from the UK . ( Check out the photos on my twitter feed above )

Well done to Emmanuel for being chosen to be this week’s learning champion for his consistently mature attitude towards his learning  .

The year 2  crew have been recognised on our recognition board this week for being responsible and  for following instructions .

Please can I ask you all to check your child’s school jumper as we have a few missing ones already – please  name your child’s jumpers- it really helps.

Have a great weekend .

Week 2

The year 2 crew have had a very busy week of learning . In maths , the children have been practising partitioning two digit numbers in different ways using a range of manipulatives  .

 

In English , our learning has been based on the story the Whale and the snail and the children have been expressing their opinion of the story, asking questions of the characters and writing postcards and letters from the snail  . The wonderful writing produced by the children is thoughtful and imaginative  . Here is a small selection for you to enjoy.

The children have been learning the 4 countries of the UK and learning the names of the capital cities and in PE they were penguins !!

The spelling list has come home with your children – please help them to practise some or all of the spelling words . Year 2 spellings – cursive print term 1    

Have a great weekend .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 1

WELCOME TO YEAR 2

We have all had a fantastic first week getting to know each other and the class routines. We have been learning how to learn like champions and always try our absolute best , persevere and keep trying  .

We started our week with a team building activity creating towers out of spaghetti and marshmallows – it was very sticky and the spaghetti kept breaking but the winning tower was Ada’s -a massive 35 cm !!!

The year 2 crew have unpicked the new 3 school rules : RESPECT YOURSELF , RESPECT OTHERS and RESPECT THE ENVIRONMENT  and have decided that in year 2 you will see children being kind and listening politely when others speak and you will hear kind words , compliments and phrases like ‘ I can’t do it yet !’.

Today , we launched out learning theme with a very exciting aeroplane flight landing in two contrasting destinations : Beijing and the Congo . Children learnt how to count and write  in Mandarin ; how to use chopsticks and made decorative fans and flags . We also found out the Great wall of China is over 2000 miles long .

Find out about Year 2 @ West Wick by reading our parent information learning theme plan Where in the world am i(info for parents)

 

Mrs Hardy-Smith is looking forward to seeing her class again in September!