Year 2 w/b 15th November
Date: 19th Nov 2021 @ 5:30pm
We have had a wonderful week in Year Two, enjoying a variety of activities and working very hard.
In English, we have been writing our letters. The children followed their plans carefully to write a letter to their own superhero, requesting their assistance with a problem – two baddies! I very much enjoyed reading all of these imaginative ideas. Towards the end of the week, the children published their letters and I am very proud to display this wonderful work in our classroom. On Monday, we will share the video of our latest text map!
I was, once again, extremely proud of the children’s effort and aspiration in maths this week. We have been focusing on column subtraction, with the added step of exchanging a ten for ten ones (which you may know as ‘borrowing’). We completed lots of whiteboard work and, by the end of the week, the children were experts at using this method and could independently apply their learning to the Power Maths questions. Next week, we will look at some word problems which will require us to select either column addition or column subtraction – an important skill. We will continue to recap column addition and subtraction throughout the year.
In science this week, we have taken a short break on learning about how to keep our bodies healthy, and had a lesson on plants – particularly on the difference between bulbs and seeds. We have started a plant diary and have now planted 20 tulip bulbs in containers, ready for the spring. We will be closely observing their growth over the next few months and will be learning more about what plants need to survive next term.
On Monday, the children very much enjoyed applying the throwing skills that we focused on last week within a game – dodgeball! We focused on accuracy and agility as we aimed for our targets whilst simultaneously dodging the balls. Mrs Warren even showed us how to do a ‘dodgeball throw’ which many of the children were then able to apply. Next week, we will focus on our kicking skills.
On Tuesday, we were delighted to welcome a visitor to our classroom as Ann Peach arrived to talk to us about being part of the St Oswalds Christian community. Ann talked to us about: why going to church is important to believers; why and how St Oswalds is special; what belonging to church means to her; what Christians mean when they use the word ‘church’. The main message was that the people are the most important part of the church, not the building itself. The children asked some insightful questions and we all loved this visit. In response to this discussion, the children then worked together on laptops to create a ‘wordle’, comprised of words that explain what Christians mean when they use the word ‘church’.
On Wednesday, we began our history learning for this half term where we will be focusing on children in Victorian times. As a hook for this unit, we first explored some Victorian artefacts and predicted what they may have been used for. This helped us to recognise that we do not only learn about history from the internet or books, artefacts are a great source of information! We then moved on to studying artefacts from Victorian schools, matching them up to their present-day equivalent and thinking about what they may have been used for.
Our Forest School session was linked to our art learning for this half term. We revisited colour wheels, which the children were familiar with from their Year One learning. In partners, the children then looked for a natural object to match to each colour on the colour wheel. Mr Simmons and I were so impressed with the range of colours that the children were able to find in nature, from leaves to beetles! As the photos show, this was a very exciting Forest School session. This Forest School session helped us with our art learning on Thursday, where we were introduced to our focus artist, Roy Lichtenstein, and his work with Pop Art; in Pop Art, it is common to use opposite colours on the colour wheel. We then drew self-portraits, following some step-by-step instructions and thinking carefully about where to place our features on our faces. Next week, we will add colour in the style of Roy Lichtenstein.
As it has been Anti-Bullying Week, we have each completed our own kindness calendars, linked to this year’s theme, ‘One Kind Word’. As ever, our wonderful Year Twos have shown such kindness to each other all week, so there has been lots to record on our kindness calendars! I wonder if you will notice any acts of kindness over the weekend? This linked to our HeartSmart lesson, which was entitled ‘Trash or Truth’. Within this lesson, we sorted a range of statements that we may say about ourselves, deciding whether they were true or untrue. This helped us to think about the importance of being kind to ourselves.
It has been most exciting to begin our Nativity preparations this week. I have no doubt that the children will all be absolutely wonderful on stage! Our Nativity preparations were further encouraged as we welcomed back ‘Open the Book’ a group of Christians who come into school, dress up and act out stories from the Bible for us to enjoy. Year 1 and 2 were mesmerised by their performance of the birth of Jesus. They will return for 20 minutes each month.
For the next three weeks, I will not set any English homework. Homework will be to continue learning lines and practising the songs.
I hope that you all enjoy a wonderful weekend.
Miss Witham
