Year 2 w/b 28th February
Date: 4th Mar 2022 @ 5:17pm
It has been wonderful to welcome the children back to school this week; I hope that you enjoyed a lovely break. As they arrived, the children were very curious about our new English display. They noticed objects such as a boat, binoculars, cars, farm animals and jungle animals. In our discussion, we asked: What are they? How are they connected? Do they link in any way? What are these links? Who owns them? Where might you see objects/animals like this? Are they all from the same place? How do these objects relate to the boat? Does it remind you of any stories you know? In what ways? We also looked at five illustrations from our new book, asking: What do you notice about this place? Is it a nice place to live? Why? Does it look like our school? What is different? What is the same? What do you notice about the river? Can you see any people? What time of the day might it be? How do you know? Following this discussion, we worked in groups to list any questions we had about these five illustrations, hoping to answer them when we were able to read our new book. On Tuesday, the title and front cover were revealed…A River by Marc Martin. As we studied the front cover, we considered the following questions: What animals may be hidden? How would you roam around this place? How would you feel? How would you react to the things you are able to see? What might you see, hear and feel? After gathering ideas, we were able to write a senses list poem. On Thursday, we were at last able to read our story, making links to our questions and the ideas collected from the objects. We learnt that this is a circular story as the main character ended up in the same place that they started in. Finally, we explored the words and phrases from the book, using them in some sentences to demonstrate our understanding.
Our spelling rule this week has been: adding the suffix ‘ing’ to words containing a short vowel sound (e.g. sit, nod, hug). Where the vowel sound is short, our rule is: double the final consonant then add ‘ing’ (e.g. sitting, nodding, hugging).
This week was our first week of whole class guided reading, beginning with the book: ‘The Wolf’s Story: What Really Happened to Little Red Riding Hood’. This lesson structure is already proving to develop children’s comprehension skills and confidence to answer questions in a structured format. Mrs Warren will be teaching our whole class sessions, while Miss Witham reads with small groups; this way, all children will still be heard reading each week whilst also participating in these rich whole class discussions.
This week has been our last week working on fractions; we will revisit and revise fractions later in the year. On Monday, we worked on finding ¾ of shapes and of amounts. On Tuesday, we learnt about non-unit fractions becoming one whole i.e. 1/3 + 2/3 = 3/3 = 1. We noticed that, if the numerator and denominator are the same, this fraction is equivalent to one whole. On Wednesday, we learnt to write numbers that are made of whole and parts e.g. 7¼. The extra challenge was to write the fraction needed to make another whole e.g. 7¼ + ¾ = 8. On Friday, the children learnt how to count forwards and backwards in halves and quarters with the aid of a number line. To support your child at home with fractions, the main area to focus on from this week is finding fractions of amounts. E.g. ¾ of 20. First, we would split 20 into 4 groups (quarters), perhaps using a ‘one for you’ method. This would help us to realise that ¼ of 20 = 5. We want ¾ so I like to circle 3 of my groups and count how many I have altogether in these 3 groups. I have 15 so ¾ of 20 = 15.
This week’s Forest School session was inspired by our guided reading text: The Wolf’s Story: What Really Happened to Little Red Riding Hood. First, Mr Simmons showed us some evidence that a wolf had visited Forest School. Trees had been bent by his huffing and puffing; there were paw prints throughout Forest School and we even spotted some claw marks! The children thoroughly enjoyed looking for evidence of the wolf. Next, they worked in teams to build a structure that the wolf wouldn’t be able to blow down. It was wonderful to see this collaboration and enthusiasm to meet Mr Simmons’ challenge. When Mr Simmons arrived with the leaf blower, the children were very excited to discover if their construction would remain standing!
In history, we were introduced to our ‘Famous Queens’ unit and discovered that we will be focusing on three queens: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II. It was wonderful to hear the children share their existing knowledge of these monarchs and begin to make comparisons already. This lesson involved: defining the terms ‘monarch’ and ‘palace’; looking at the dates when the three queens ruled and how they fit into a British history timeline. We can’t wait to learn about each queen in more depth.
In RE, we began our ‘Salvation’ unit. This week, we were learning about the Parable of the Lost Coin. We were able to recognise the connection with God’s determination in searching for people to rescue who have lost their way in life. God forgives and welcomes them; He rejoices when they are rescued and turn to Him, just as the woman rejoiced when she found her coin. The children were then able to retell the story.
In art, we were introduced to our artist for this half term: Hannah Dunnett. First, we explored a range of her artwork; the children were amazed by the details and interesting shapes in these pieces and found similarities between Hannah Dunnett’s work and the illustrations in ‘A River’. We then experimented with lines, shapes and patterns to practise drawing trees, clouds, waves and fish in a Hannah Dunnett style. Next, we began to plan our own piece of artwork, inspired by Hannah Dunnett. Within this lesson, our focus when planning was lines and shapes within the piece. We planned two different compositions and then selected our favourite. We drew our favourite plan onto some larger paper, ready for the next stage in our next lesson.
In PE, we enjoyed our first lesson of our new unit: Fundamental Movement Skills. We worked on carefully retaining our balance, focusing our eyes and using our arms to help us balance better. After completing a range of activities, we brought these skills together to move through an obstacle course with beanbags on our heads.
In science, the children were looking at objects that were alive; objects that used to be alive but are no longer alive; and objects that had never been alive. They enjoyed collecting and grouping these objects within the outdoor environment.
This week, we also began to listen to our weekly music playlist. The theme this half term is the string family of the orchestra: Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Harp. The first video was: Introduction to the String Family. Here is the link for you to watch again at home if you would like to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP2_6OLummA.
Finally, we have thoroughly enjoyed a variety of activities to celebrate World Book Day. World Book Day itself began with a whole school assembly. How wonderful it was to look at the variety of costumes to discover the children’s favourite book characters! After revealing our focus text within the morning’s English lesson, the children were eager to dive into some more books. I therefore welcomed them to my restaurant for an exclusive book tasting! The children tried a starter, main course and dessert of books. They were then able to fill in their menu, which involved: identifying the title and author of the book; identifying the genre; giving the book a star rating; writing their opinion of the book after ‘tasting’ it; and collecting any interesting vocabulary from the book. We then enjoyed some time to read for pleasure. Thank you for your book donations which helped boost our basket of great reads for pleasure and additionally thank you to those parents who kindly volunteered to be our mystery readers. In addition, we welcomed Jude from Holmes Chapel library into school today to let us know just how easy it is to join a library and tell us they have over 7000 books for children to loan! Year Two have enthusiastically engaged in all of these celebrations of books and reading.
Have a lovely weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone on Monday.
Miss Witham
