This week in Year 2…
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This week in Year 2…
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This week in Year 2…
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This week in Year 2…
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Good afternoon everyone, welcome back and Happy New Year!
We hope you all had a peaceful Christmas and spent quality time with your loved ones. It may seem like Christmas is now over but this week we celebrate the Feast of Epiphany, where the Wise Men had faith in God by following the guiding star to visit the new-born baby Jesus. We think about their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh and consider what gifts we can give to Jesus ourself. During our time in Mass on Friday we focused upon the offertory and how this a time when we can offer Jesus our own ‘invisible gifts’. Can we be kind, caring, respectful, helpful and patient?
English - This week we have been planning and beginning to write our non-chronological reports on shipwreck coral reefs. We have thought about sentence openers, headings and subheadings and technical language to make our texts informative and interesting.
Maths - We have finished our work on adding two-digit numbers together and have progressed on to exploring subtracting a two-digit number from a two-digit number. We have focused upon using tens and ones and drawings to help us to do this.
Science - We have looked at what makes something alive. We revisited the seven life processes and realised that living things will do all of these. We learned to differentiate between things that are currently alive, were once alive and things that have never been alive using the life processes to guide us.
RE - We have thought about Epiphany and the Wise Men’’s visit. We have talked about the gifts we can offer Jesus in our actions and treatment of others. We also explored the story of Jairus’ Daughter as part of our topic on Jesus’ miracles. We discussed and wrote about the happy and sad parts of this story.
History - We revisited significance. We considered what this means and what the difference is between someone who is significant to us personally and someone who is significant to the wider world. We wrote about significant people and explained what they did which makes them so memorable and important.
PE - In indoor PE we have begun our gymnastics unit. We explored different jumps including tuck jumps, star jumps, twist jumps and pencil jumps. Our outdoor session was focused on throwing and catching.
Computing - We explored keyboards and typing. We learned about the home keys and home row and how this helps us to type much more quickly and eventually without looking. We practised typing our own names and realised we can use the shift key to create capital letters.
Art - We have been looking at ripping paper to create positive and negative stencils for drawing.
Please continue to practise the Year 1 and 2 Common Exception Words - both reading and spelling!
Please practice learning the 2, 3, 5 and 10 times tables as later this half term we will be having times table tests on these.
Other Tasks
Spelling
Mr Whetnall’s group - 10 -ly words.
Mrs Bowdell’s group - 6 -ly words.
Reading
Example SATS reading paper to complete at home.
Maths
Subtracting two-digit number worksheet
Computing
Please visit the typing club website from a device with a keyboard (f you have one) to be able to practice touch typing.
As always, the MOST important way that you can support your child is by reading regularly! Please do this as regularly as possible over the break!
Golden Award -
Writing Award -
Maths Award -
Discipleship Award -
The Wednesday Word is now available online, rather than the paper copies we used to send home pre-covid. Please click this link to access this week’s gospel.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mr Whetnall, Mrs Bowdell and Mrs Gibbons
Posted
Good afternoon everyone,
This Sunday marks the third week of Advent. We light the pink candle this Sunday to represent joy. The joy candle is also known as the Shepherd’s Candle and it reminds of us the angels who appeared to the unexpecting shepherds to deliver them the good news of Jesus’ birth. These shepherds were not anything special in their town and the fact that God chose to tell them about the birth of His son reminds us that we are all important and special to God. This week we think about the joy we feel when Jesus was born and how it changed all of our lives. We, too, will aim to be joyful and joymakers - dedicating this week’s advent promise to how we can bring joy to others.
English - This week we continued our work on non-chronological reports. We have been looking at a non-fiction text all about dangerous creatures that you might find living in shallow water habitats, especially shipwrecks. We learned that non-chronological reports are written in the present tense as though it is happening now. We also learned about the difference between fact and opinion. We sorted examples of each carefully and then wrote our own facts and opinions about these dangerous creatures. Finally, we wrote sections of a non-chronological report about one of the dangerous creatures we have been studying.
Maths - We have been focusing on subtraction of a single digit number. We learned that sometimes when we have to subtract that we need to cross a tens barrier. We learned 2 methods to help us to solve this - partitioning to jump back to the previous ten and then jumping back the rest of the way; and exchanging a ten for ten ones using base ten and drawings.
Science - This week we explored healthy eating. We designed our own healthy and balanced meal plate, including protein, carbohydrates, dairy, fruit and vegetables and also a small treat! We learned why each part of this plate is important for our bodies.
RE - This week we listened to the story of the visit of the shepherds, ready for work on this next week. We also created our own advent candle pictures and used these to write our own advent promises.
Geography - We explored climate zones. We learned that climate zones follow a pattern from the equator outwards both up to the north pole and down to the south pole. We learned that places near the equator are warmer and places near the north and south pole are colder. We then used maps to identify places within these climate zones.
PE - Our PE sessions this week have been used to practise for our Nativity performance.
Nativity - We are now able to perform our nativity with only minimal adult direction!
Computing - We learned about decomposition. This is when we see what a program does and think about what instructions were given to complete these actions. We decomposed a Scratch game and then thought about instructions we might use to create other actions in the game.
Art - We used geometric and organic shapes to create collages.
Please continue to practise the Year 1 and 2 Common Exception Words - both reading and spelling!
Please also continue to practise counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s. We will also be sending home times tables to practise shortly.
Other Tasks
Spelling
Mr Whetnall’s group - practise the various /ir/ sound words.
Mrs Bowdell’s group - practise the /ir/, /ur/ and /er/ sound words.
Reading
Christmas trees comprehension worksheet.
Maths
Subtracting ones (crossing tens) worksheet
As always, the MOST important way that you can support your child is by reading regularly! Please do this as regularly as possible over the break!
Golden Award - George - for being a conscientious and respectful learner.
Writing Award - Archer - for working so hard on his handwriting.
Writing Award - Alicia - for a great non-chronological report about deadly sea creatures.
Maths Award - Cameron - for working hard on his subtraction independently.
Discipleship Award -
The Wednesday Word is now available online, rather than the paper copies we used to send home pre-covid. Please click this link to access this week’s gospel.
Year 1 and Year 2’s Christmas Nativity performance will take place on Wednesday 14th December at both 9.30am and 2.00pm. You should have now received your 4 tickets (2 per show) if your child was in school this week.
On Tuesday 20th December we will be having a Christmas own clothes day in school. Donations can be paid through ParentPay.
After our Nativity performances, the PTA will providing refreshments (non-alcoholic [sorry!] mulled wine and mince pies) in the dining hall for a small fee. The PTA will also be selling raffle tickets at each performance - there will be some fantastic prizes on offer and all funds raised will go towards PTA funds.
Finally, here is a letter about our Advent liturgies which will be taking place every Tuesday at 8.20 in the school hall until Christmas.
At Our Lady's we like to support our parents/carers in Online Safety matters.
Keeping children and young people safe online is one of the biggest challenges facing society today and it is all of our responsibility to ensure that children are educated to make positive, informed choices when they are online.
With Christmas nearly here and perhaps with presents including new technology or related games being received, we thought we’d share some helpful advice in setting up appropriate parental controls. Parental controls can help to protect your child from seeing something that they shouldn’t – although it is important to emphasise that no system is effective all of the time so it is important to engage with your child and talk to them about their online life regularly.
We hope you find this Newsletter informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.
Finally…
Dear families of Our Lady's
You may be aware from recent news reports that there is a rise in Strep A. Whilst Strep A can be very mild in children and adults or even be present without symptoms there are strains of the infection that can be serious so we are all asked to be aware. If you or your child has symptoms sore throat/ swollen tonsils then if this becomes more severe then it is advised to seek advise.
Please find below the guidance shared by the school nurse team.
BLACKPOOL TEACHING HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
Cases of Strep A are on the rise, as a result, we are sending this awareness letter.
Strep A is a bacterial infection of the throat and is common in school aged children and teens.
If not treated with appropriate medication the infection can have serious complications.
Symptoms of Strep A are severe sore throat, fever, headache, swollen tonsils, swollen glands in the neck and stomach ache.
Strep A is highly contagious, if you are showing any signs, please keep them off school and contact your GP. We would like to stop any spread of this as quickly as possible.
Please refer to
UKHSA update on scarlet fever and invasive Group A strep - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Have a lovely weekend,
Mr Whetnall, Mrs Bowdell and Mrs Gibbons
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Good afternoon everyone,
This Sunday marks the second week of Advent. We light the candle this Sunday to represent Preparation & Peace. We believe that both are fitting for this Sunday as we draw closer to the time we celebrate Christ’s birth. The wise men in the bible knew the scripture and took the necessary efforts to prepare and set out on their journey to worship the newborn King. The angels informed Mary and Joseph well ahead of time so they could prepare for what lied ahead of them. Today we must take the time to prepare our hearts our minds not to lose sight of Christ.
We had a visit from Fr Frank to join us for worship on Tuesday. He brought us a lovely candle as an Advent gift and spoke to us about the importance of light. He explained that our lights were ignited by Jesus’ candle at our baptism and that it is our job to smile, be kind and be loving in order to fuel our light to shine brighter.
When we light our second candle we will be thinking about peace and preparation. Our preparation helps us get our minds and souls ready for Jesus’ birth and our peace helps us to be positive beacons of light for others. We will also be thinking about how we can be peaceful people and use this gift of peace to help our friends and family to find their peace.
English - This week we finished our Historical narratives. I have been very impressed by the detail that the children have put into this. We have now begun to learn about non-chronological reports using our key text Into The Deep, along with a selection of other non-chronological reports. We have identified features that are important for this type of non-fiction text, have written questions we would like to find the answers to and have used Into The Deep to try and answer these.
Maths - We have been rounding to the nearest 10 with numbers to 100 (and some of us managed this with numbers to 1000!). We have been using our rounding skills to help us to add one digit numbers where we have to cross a ten barrier. We have been learning that we can partition the number we are adding to make 10 and then add the rest. As well as this, we have been adding using base ten drawing.
Science - This week we explored the importance of exercise to keep humans healthy. We discussed the different types of exercises we can do, how they affect our bodies in different ways and what could happen if we don’t exercise. We created poster to explain the importance of exercise to others.
RE - This week we have been looking at the story of The Annunciation. Early in the week we listened to and retold the story as a diary entry from Mary’s perspective. We then explored the significance of the story and what this tells us about Jesus. We also wrote our first Advent promise.
Geography - We explored a key issue of our Planet Earth focus - plastic polllution. We learned what this is, how it is caused, what effect it can have on different living thing and some of the things we can do to stop it from happening. We created posters to persuade others to use plastics more sensibly.
PE - Our PE sessions this week have been used to practise for our Nativity performance.
Nativity - We got into the hall and began our rehearsals. The children are doing great so far!
Computing - We learned about abstraction in programming. This is when we strip away anything that isn’t important and focus only on the important parts to create and debug algorithms. We then used abstraction to make plan perspective maps of our classroom.
Please continue to practise the Year 1 and 2 Common Exception Words - both reading and spelling!
Please also continue to practise counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s.
We have sent home the words your child will be saying in our Nativity. We ask that the children practise these at home until they can recite them without reading their sheet. Please continue to leave them in their school bags so we can take opportunities to practise at school.
We have also sent home song lyrics for our Nativity songs. You can access the tracks to play at home by going to the homework page of the Year 2 site.
Other Tasks
Spelling
Mr Whetnall’s group - practise the various /ow/ sound words.
Mrs Bowdell’s group - practise the /ow/ and /oa/ sound words.
Reading
Beaches comprehension worksheet.
Maths
Adding ones (crossing tens) worksheet
As always, the MOST important way that you can support your child is by reading regularly! Please do this as regularly as possible over the break!
Golden Award - Matilda - for being a great role model and a beacon of calmness at all times in Year 2.
Writing Award - Priya - for her great ideas and vocabulary in her historical narrative.
Maths Award - Frazer - for great partner work to solve tricky problems.
Discipleship Award -
The Wednesday Word is now available online, rather than the paper copies we used to send home pre-covid. Please click this link to access this week’s gospel.
Year 1 and Year 2’s Christmas Nativity performance will take place on Wednesday 14th December at both 9.30am and 2.00pm. Due to space limitations in the hall, each parent will get 2 tickets for each performance. We hope you enjoy the performance.
After our Nativity performances, the PTA will providing refreshments (non-alcoholic [sorry!] mulled wine and mince pies) in the dining hall for a small fee. The PTA will also be selling raffle tickets at each performance - there will be some fantastic prizes on offer and all funds raised will go towards PTA funds.
Finally, here is a letter about our Advent liturgies which will be taking place every Tuesday at 8.20 in the school hall until Christmas.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mr Whetnall, Mrs Bowdell and Mrs Gibbons
Posted
Good afternoon everyone,
This Sunday marks the commencement of this year’s Advent preparations. Advent is an important time in our faith. Not only is it the beginning of our liturgical year but it also a time of preparation, reflection and change as we prepare ourselves mentally and spiritually for the arrival of Jesus - the gift that God gave us to show His amazing love for us. During this time, we will be encouraging the children to think about how they can prepare for the coming of Jesus and allow them to think about how important Advent is and that it is about so much more than just waiting for Christmas.
When we light our first candle we will be thinking about hope. The hope we have for Jesus’ return, the hope we have for the coming year and the hope we have for ourselves and our family’s happiness and health. We will also be thinking about how we can be hopeful people and use this gift of hope to help our friends and family who might not be feeling quite as hopeful.
English - This week we planned and wrote our Great Fire of London historical narratives, based on Vlad and the Great Fire of London by Kate Cunningham. We have been trying to include our key features of conjunctions, expanded noun phrases, adverbs, exciting past tense verbs and thoughts and feelings. We will be finishing these off on Monday and will then edit and improve our work where we can.
Maths - We have been exploring addition and subtraction with ten. We added and subtracted a single ten using base ten and hundred squares and attempted questions worded differently to aid our fluency and variation. We then developed our skills in adding and subtracting tens by drawing tens and ones. We also discussed patterns we noticed and began to develop our mental methods for adding and subtracting these amounts. We then began to explore adding ones to a two-digit number where we cross a ten and use tens frames and number lines to support this.
Science - This week we explored the importance of hygiene for humans to be healthy. We discussed germs and their role in making us poorly and we considered how we could improve our own hygiene. We suggested ways to keep hygienic and how these have a positive effects on our health and appearance. We set up an investigation to explore the importance of washing our hands, using soap, water, hand sanitiser and bread.
RE - On Monday we described our Holy Trinity models, explaining their three symbols and how and why these were chosen to represent the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. On Friday, we learned all about Advent. We learned why we observe it, what we are preparing ourselves for and discussed and wrote about different things that Christians do to prepare themselves for Jesus during Advent.
Geography - We identified and labelled the five oceans of the world on a map. We then learned some information about each ocean and wrote sentences to describe key features of each.
PE - In dance, we practised moving like ocean waves. We explored music at different tempos and related this to calm, choppy or stormy waves. We thought about how we could use our bodies to display this. In our outdoor PE we developed our skills in dribbling and moving with a ball whilst bouncing it.
Art - We explored geometric and organic shapes and began to create our own versions of these using lines.
Nativity - We continued to practise our nativity songs and read our lines out.
Computing - We learned more about algorithms and how we need to be clear with the instructions we use. We followed an algorithm to create a model and then considered how these instructions might need to be improved to make them clearer and easier to follow (debugging).
Please continue to practise the Year 1 and 2 Common Exception Words - both reading and spelling!
Please also continue to practise counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s.
We have sent home the words your child will be saying in our Nativity. We ask that the children practise these at home until they can recite them without reading their sheet. Please continue to leave them in their school bags so we can take opportunities to practise at school.
We have also sent home song lyrics for our Nativity songs. You can access the tracks to play at home by going to the homework page of the Year 2 site.
Other Tasks
Spelling
Mr Whetnall’s group - practise the various /ee/ sound words.
Mrs Bowdell’s group - practise the /igh/ and /i_e/ sound words.
English
Adverbs worksheet - Rewrite the sentences, using an appropriate adverb to describe the verb (doing word).
Reading
Advent comprehension worksheet.
Maths
Adding and subtracting 10s worksheet
As always, the MOST important way that you can support your child is by reading regularly! Please do this as regularly as possible over the break!
Golden Award - Willow - for always trying her best, wanting to do better and caring for everyone.
Writing Award - Penny - for working so hard on her hand writing.
Maths Award - James - for using mental methods to add and subtract tens.
Discipleship Award -
The Wednesday Word is now available online, rather than the paper copies we used to send home pre-covid. Please click this link to access this week’s gospel.
Just a reminder of the KS1 Christmas movie night on Friday 2nd December from 4.30pm until 5.30pm. The children can wear Christmas pyjamas or clothing. If your child would like to attend, please pay the requested £2 via parentpay.
Year 1 and Year 2’s Christmas Nativity performance will take place on Wednesday 14th December at both 9.30am and 2.00pm. Due to space limitations in the hall, each parent will get 2 tickets for each performance. We hope you enjoy the performance.
After our Nativity performances (date to be confirmed), the PTA will providing refreshments (non-alcoholic [sorry!] mulled wine and mince pies) in the dining hall for a small fee. The PTA will also be selling raffle tickets at each performance - there will be some fantastic prizes on offer and all funds raised will go towards PTA funds.
Finally, here is a letter about our Advent liturgies which will be taking place every Tuesday at 8.20 in the school hall until Christmas.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mr Whetnall, Mrs Bowdell and Mrs Gibbons
Posted
Good afternoon everyone,
This week’s gospel was quite an unusual one. Jesus explained to his disciples that all things will come to an end eventually. People will die, plants with wither and even buildings will crumble. However, he reassured his disciples that just needed to ‘stand firm and they will win life’. Jesus was reminding them that even though bad things happen and scary things occur that we cannot predict or control, if we follow Him and live by His light then there will be a place for us in heaven to have eternal life with Him. We have thought about this and how it important it is to try and follow Jesus. We will all try our best to be kind, polite, selfless and thoughtful.
English - This week we wrote our Great Fire of London setting descriptions. We thought carefully about our content and experimented with sentence openings, expanded noun phrases and similes. We also used our purple pens to edit and improve our work before writing our final drafts. We then began our work on our Great Fire of London stories based upon ‘Vlad and the Great Fire’ by exploring conjunctions and the use of -ed suffix for the past tense. Next week we will be planning and writing these stories.
Maths - We have been making links between known facts and larger facts this week. We learnt that our number bonds to 10 can help us to solve larger facts when adding tens to 100. E.g, if we know that 4 + 3 = 7 then we know that 40 + 30 = 70. We then used our knowledge of number facts and practical equipment to solve missing number problems with number bonds to 100. Finally, we practised adding and subtracting ones using base ten and drawings to aid us.
Science - This week we learned about the difference between wants and needs. We also learned to separate a human’s basic needs (air, water, food, shelter) from their additional needs (love, kindness, entertainment, exercise, hygiene, friends, family, treats, money, education, time alone, etc). We wrote about the difference between these different needs and considered which extra needs we thought were most important.
RE - On Monday we used clay to build our Holy Trinity models that we designed last week. Then on Friday, we painted these carefully and thought about the meaning and symbolism of each.
Geography - We consolidated our research on continents to create mini lift-the-flap fact cards to use on our display in the corridor.
PE - In dance, we continued to practise our seaside dance routines and performed them to half of the class with our partners. In our outdoor sessions we practised dribbling a ball whilst bouncing it.
Art - We explored paint and developed our painting skills.
Nativity - We began to practise our nativity songs and read our lines out.
Please continue to practise the Year 1 and 2 Common Exception Words - both reading and spelling!
Please also continue to practise counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s.
We have sent home the words your child will be saying in our Nativity. We ask that the children practise these at home until they can recite them without reading their sheet. Please continue to leave them in their school bags so we can take opportunities to practise at school.
We have also sent home song lyrics for our Nativity songs. You can access the tracks to play at home by going to the homework page of the Year 2 site.
Other Tasks
Spelling
Mr Whetnall’s group - practise the -ed suffix words.
Mrs Bowdell’s group - practise the /ay/ and /a_e/ words.
English
Conjunctions worksheet - choose a conjunction to complete the sentences.
Commas for a list worksheet - Use the shopping lists to create sentences using commas to make a list. Don’t forget to use ‘and’ instead of a comma before the last item.
For example: I went to the shop and I bought potatoes, bread, meat, peas and ice cream.
Maths
Adding and subtracting 1s worksheet
or…
Missing number problems worksheet. Remember If the missing number is after the sign (+ or -) , use subtraction and you’ll be fine and If before the symbol the number is gone, use the inverse and you’ve won.
As always, the MOST important way that you can support your child is by reading regularly! Please do this as regularly as possible over the break!
Golden Award - Annie - for being a kind, polite and thoughtful learner.
Writing Award - Albie - for a wonderful setting description and working hard on his handwriting.
Maths Award - Austin - for his hard work in using drawings to solve addition and subtraction problems.
Discipleship Award -
The Wednesday Word is now available online, rather than the paper copies we used to send home pre-covid. Please click this link to access this week’s gospel.
We would like to invite the children in Reception and KS1 back in to school on Friday 2nd December for a Christmas movie night! The children can wear Christmas pyjamas or clothing and for a cost of £2, they will be able to enjoy some festive treats as they watch the film. We are going to come back to school at 4.30pm until 5.30pm. If your child would like to attend, please pay the requested £2 via parentpay.
After our Nativity performances (date to be confirmed), the PTA will providing refreshments (non-alcoholic [sorry!] mulled wine and mince pies) in the dining hall for a small fee. The PTA will also be selling raffle tickets at each performance - there will be some fantastic prizes on offer and all funds raised will go towards PTA funds.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mr Whetnall, Mrs Bowdell and Mrs Gibbons
Posted
Good afternoon everyone,
This week we have been remembering those who sacrificed so much for us. Those we may not know, may never have met nor have any connection to. Yet they still gave up their freedom and, often, their lives so that we may know peace. We discussed how their example is something we can all remember and that we too can help others, even if we do not gain anything from doing so. We prayed together to show our thanks for these men and women.
English - We have been focusing on summarising our learning on the Great Fire of London through our writing. We are building up to a setting description of the experience of being in the fire itself. We have created semantic maps of words with suffixes (-ly, -ful, -less, -ment, -ness) , collected and shared descriptive vocabulary, written descriptive sentences using some of the features we have learned about and have planned our description ready to write next week.
Maths - We have been applying our knowledge of greater than, less than and equal to to calculate and compare number sentences using these symbols. We learned that sometimes it helps to work out each calculation but that we can also look for patterns, similarities and differences to compare more quickly and efficiently. We then focused upon solving missing number problems and had lots of practise trying this out. We learned that if the missing number is at the beginning, use the inverse and you’re winning. We also learned that if the missing number is in the middle, do a subtraction to solve the riddle. We explored how this works if we move the equals symbol to a different location, which was quite tricky but we made some great steps.
Science - This week we began our focus upon human beings and health. We learned that even though humans are mammals, we have additional steps in our life cycles due to living longer. We sequenced the human life cycle and explained how we change as we progress through each stage.
RE - Earlier this week we built upon last week’s work by discussing the things we wonder about. We developed our English skills through writing and correctly punctuating question sentences and then worked together we our partners to answer these questions. Finally, we evaluated our partner’s response and recorded our own ideas about this. For our second RE lesson, we learned about the mystery of the Holy Trinity and how God is three separate, yet single persons. We explored some symbols of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and designed our own statue using symbols from each. We will use clay to make these next week.
Geography - We built on our Year 1 work and recapped the seven continents by singing a continents song and labelling each on a map. We then split up into groups and each group researched one of these continents; including the rivers, lakes, mountains, deserts, forests, landmarks and animals that we might find here. Next week, we will represent our research into ‘lift-up facts’ to display outside our classroom.
PE - In dance, we began to work with a partner to produce a six-part dance routine centred around activities you can do at the seaside. We combined ideas and began practising our skills. In outdoor PE, we focused upon our kicking skills.
Computing - Due to a technical error, we had some time to explore Scratch and began to think about how algorithm instructions can be used to control the sprite on screen. We created an algorithm together to make our sprite move right across the screen.
PSHE - We were thinking about Remembrance Day and created our own acrostic poems about this.
Please continue to practise the Year 1 and 2 Common Exception Words - both reading and spelling!
Please also continue to practise counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s.
Other Tasks
Spelling
Mr Whetnall’s group - practise the /ee/ sound spelt -y at the end of words with a vowel then consonant. We need to double the consonant before adding -y.
Mrs Bowdell’s group - practise the /l/, /ll/, /ck/ and /zz/ sounds at the end of words.
Reading
Remembrance Day reading comprehension.
English
Rearranging sentences to create more exciting starts using conjunctions. E.g:’ I went to bed because I was tired.’ can be written as ‘Because I was tired, I went to bed.’ Using these sentences in our writing can really improve it.
Maths
Missing number problems worksheet. Remember If the missing number is after the sign (+ or -) , use subtraction and you’ll be fine and If before the symbol the number is gone, use the inverse and you’ve won.
As always, the MOST important way that you can support your child is by reading regularly! Please do this as regularly as possible over the break!
Golden Award - Jacob - for his growing maturity, focus and concentration for learning.
Writing Award - James - for a super Remembrance Day acrostic poem.
Maths Award - Priya - for believing in herself and showing the results of this in her work.
Discipleship Award -
The Wednesday Word is now available online, rather than the paper copies we used to send home pre-covid. Please click this link to access this week’s gospel.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mr Whetnall, Mrs Bowdell and Mrs Gibbons
Posted
Good afternoon everyone,
Welcome back for our second half term in Year 2. This week’s liturgy in Mass focused upon the story of Zacchaeus, a tax collector, who wasn’t very well liked in his community because he used to steal money from people. Jesus came to visit but Zacchaeus was too small to see so climbed a tree to get a better view. Jesus saw Zacchaeus in the tree and asked to go to his house for food. The other people were furious. Why was a terrible man like Zacchaeus able to spend time with Jesus? Zacchaeus was so overwhelmed at having been chosen by Jesus that he immediately decided to change his ways. He paid back the people he had stolen from four times what he owed them to say sorry and make amends. Jesus’ love of Zacchaeus, no matter what he had done wrong, was enough to make him a better person. This story teaches us that Jesus and God always forgive us, no matter what we have done wrong, so long as we are sorry and try to change our ways. The above quote is very fitting as it shows that God plans for us to love Jesus even before we are born.
English - We have focused upon editing and upleveling our written work. This has been quite tricky for some of us and we have been working to develop our focus and concentration in order to improve our writing. We will continue to develop this important skill throughout Year 2. We have also been ‘publishing’ our work - creating a neat book copy of our familiar setting story, ready for display.
Maths - We have continued to build on our addition and subtraction work with a continued focus upon related facts. We have found it quite tricky to remember that when we subtract we take an amount away from the whole. This means that the whole number always comes just before the subtraction symbol, no matter which way round the equals symbol is. We have also begun to use our related facts and inverse facts knowledge to check whether calculations are correct or incorrect and have used number lines to aid our counting.
RE - We have been doing lots of wondering in RE this week. We have been thinking about difficult questions, which we can call mysteries, that don’t necessarily have an answer. These can be about our world, about our beliefs or about God. Even though we cannot answer these questions, we can still think about them and share our own opinions. We have looked at a selection of mystery questions and shared our ideas about their answers.
Geography - We have begun our work looking at Planet Earth. We recalled the difference between human and physical geographical features and identified some key physical features visible from satellite photographs of Earth. Wealso learned about the Earth’s rotation and how this effects our days and seasons.
PE - We began our new dance unit, At the Seaside. We considered activities we could do on a visit to the seaside and began to create a simple dance sequence acting these out.
Computing - We began to look at algorithms and debugging. We practised logging into computers and opening the scratch program. Next week we will explore the features and controls of a symbol game.
Please continue to practise the Year 1 and 2 Common Exception Words - both reading and spelling!
Please also continue to practise counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s.
Other Tasks
Spelling - Common Exception Words Set 4 - Please practise spelling these for a test on Friday.
I am also sending home a workbook with all of the Year 2 common exception words and activities to practise with these. Please work through this with only one or two pages per week. It will help reinforce our learning in class.
English - Editing activity - Rewrite the incorrect sentences accurately.
Maths - Related facts worksheet.
As always, the MOST important way that you can support your child is by reading regularly! Please do this as regularly as possible over the break!
Golden Award - Finlay - for being a polite, respectful and helpful member of our class.
Writing Award - Macie - for using her purple pen to edit and improve her punctuation.
Maths Award - Eddie - For great reasoning about fact families.
Discipleship Award - Layla - for doing great tidying up.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mr Whetnall, Mrs Bowdell and Mrs Gibbons
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Good afternoon everyone,
Can you believe it is the end of our first half term in Year 2 already? The children have worked so hard throughout this past 7 weeks and it is lovely to see all they have achieved already!
English - We have written our own ‘sister and bully’ stories based upon Sister for Sale. We planned what we wanted to include, collected vocabulary and begin writing these, one section per day. I have been so impressed by the detail that has gone into them!
Maths - We have begun our unit on addition and subtraction with a huge focus on known and related facts. We explored number bonds and reasoned how we can use bonds to 10 to calculate addition and subtraction problems to 20 and beyond using our knowledge of this. We have also been looking at fact families and how once we know one number sentence, we actually know 4! We have explored how we solve problems where the = symbol is before the calculation and learned about the location of numbers: For addition, the two parts always sit on either side of the + symbols; for subtraction, the whole number always comes before the - symbol.
RE - We have been doing lots of writing in RE this week. We wrote diaries as Moses’ sister retelling the events that led to him being found by the Pharoah’s Daughter. We then began to learn about Daniel and the Lions’ Den and retold this story carefully in our RE books.
History - We have learned about how the Great Fire changed London We explored the problems that led to the fire and how King Charles II, Sir Christopher Wren and many others tried to solve these problems when they rebuilt London.
PE - We finished our dance unit by creating a performance where we moved along a pre-planned ‘map’ on different ‘roads’ as different vehicles and showing a variety of emotions. These were great to watch!
I never set homework at the end of a half term as the children need a good break to rest and recouperate. However, please feel free to continue the regular tasks (tricky words and counting) if you would like as this is so helpful.
Other Tasks
I have sent home a spelling sheet for the children to practise for a test on the Friday we return to school. If you were not here, you can access it here.
As always, the MOST important way that you can support your child is by reading regularly! Please do this as regularly as possible over the break!
Golden Award - Archer - for his hard work, kindness and sensibility.
Writing Award - Frazer - for his confidence, perserverance and focus.
Maths Award - Noah - for great reasoning and always welcoming a challenge.
Parent’s Day
On Friday 21st October our school is closed to the children for our INSET day. This has been assigned as our parent meetings day. Parents are invited to come into school for their face to face appointment. Appointments will run from 8.30am to 10.00 am, 10.20am to 12.30pm and 1.30pm to 4.30pm. Each appointment will be exactly 10 minutes and will just give us the opportunity to talk about how your child has settled in and any targets they may have. You should have received a message asking you to book an appointment. Please do so as soon as possible to give the best opportunity for appointments that suit you.
Please bear in mind that the 10 minute appointment time will need to be strictly adhered to to ensure backlogs do not build up and I will be using a timer to ensure that I remain on track. Please be assured that this is just to ensure that I keep to the timings to ensure no lateness. Thank you.
WE RETURN TO SCHOOL ON TUESDAY 1ST NOVEMBER.
Have a lovely break,
Mr Whetnall, Mrs Bowdell and Mrs Gibbons
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Good afternoon everyone,
In this week’s school liturgy we learned about the story of the ten lepers who came to Jesus seeking help from a terrible illness. Jesus was able to heal them and in their excitement nine of the lepers rushed off. However, one leper remained and dropped to his knees, thanking Jesus for the amazing gift. This story reminds us of the importance of saying thank you to God and Jesus for all the good things that happen to us. We also need to ensure that we thank our family, our friends and the other people we spend time with.
English - We have continued our work on the story Sister for Sale as part of our stories with a familiar setting unit. We have retold a key scene from another character’s point of view, written a letter to an agony aunt seeking help with our problems in character and have begun to explore how we can incorporate dialogue into our writing using speech marks effectively. Our grammar focus has been upon expanded noun phrases.
Maths - We have finished our work by counting in 3s to solve problems. We have been so impressed by the children’s confidence in this. We have also explored scales on number lines and how we can read different scales, identify numbers and estimate numbers locations. Finally, we recapped our knowledge of number bonds to 20.
Science - We have learned about the four basic needs of animals: air, water, food and shelter. We have considered how different animals meet these needs and why they are so important. We have also considered the additional needs that animals have such as protection, sleep, space and love.
RE - We have been learning about the story of Baby Moses. We identified the parts in the story which are happy and sad and retold the story in our books.
History - We have learned about Samuel Pepys and why he was so significant. We explored his birth date, family, job, interests and education. We used this information to produce posters explaining Samuel Pepys’ life.
PE - We had our welcome assembly for our new reception children so were unable to use the hall this week. In our outdoor PE session we continued to practise passing and blocking balls.
Art - We used collage and paint to explore the story of Wilberforce the Frog.
Regular Tasks
Please continue with the regular tasks sent home previously (counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s; reading and writing Year 1 and 2 common exception words)
Other Tasks
Spelling - Mr Whetnall’s group - soft ‘c’ (sounds like /s/). Watch this video for more information.
Mrs Bowdell’s group - ‘ss’ and ‘ff’ sounds. There is also a handwriting practise sheet for these words.
Maths - Fact family worksheet. Write the four related facts for each family. E.g. 3, 4, 7 is 3+4=7, 4+3=7, 7-3=4, 7-4=3.
English - Expanded noun phrases worksheet - Add an adjective in each space to create expanded noun phrases.
Writing - Common exception word handwriting practise worksheets.
As always, the MOST important way that you can support your child is by reading regularly!
Golden Award - Penny - for being the personification of living ‘life in all its fullness’ - she is kind, caring and very hardworking.
Writing Award - Layla - for working so hard on developing her cursive handwriting.
Maths Award - Willow - for excellent work estimating numbers on a number line.
Class Disciple Award -
On Thursday 20th October we will be having an own clothes day to raise money for the PTA. We ask for a £1 donation. This will be set up through parentpay.
Parent’s Day
On Friday 21st October our school is closed to the children for our INSET day. This has been assigned as our parent meetings day. Parents are invited to come into school for their face to face appointment. Appointments will run from 8.30am to 10.00 am, 10.20am to 12.30pm and 1.30pm to 4.30pm. Each appointment will be exactly 10 minutes and will just give us the opportunity to talk about how your child has settled in and any targets they may have. You should have received a message asking you to book an appointment. Please do so as soon as possible to give the best opportunity for appointments that suit you.
Please bear in mind that the 10 minute appointment time will need to be strictly adhered to to ensure backlogs do not build up and I will be using a timer to ensure that I remain on track. Please be assured that this is just to ensure that I keep to the timings to ensure no lateness. Thank you.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mr Whetnall, Mrs Bowdell and Mrs Gibbons
Posted
Good afternoon everyone,
In this week’s school liturgy we have been learning about faith through the parable of the mustard seed. A mustard seed is incredibly small but Jesus told us that with that tiny amount of faith in God we can do amazing things to improve our lives and the lives of others. We learnt that mustard seeds can eventually grow into large trees and that this teaches us that all good things start from small beginnings.
English - We have been focusing on characters. We have read Sister for Sale by Adrian Bradbury and have been exploring the three main characters in the story. We have learned about expanded noun phrases and how these can be used to improve our descriptive writing. We have also been reading detectives, using clues from the text to make decisions about characters’ personalities, explaining our reasons why we think this. Finally. we have begun to write our own character description of Tom from the story, using our new skills.
Maths - We have been focusing upon counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s and using these skills to solve problems that involve counting equal groups. We have identified patterns in these counts and used this to explain what numbers are not included and have begun to link this to the concept of multiplication.
Science - We have learned about the life cycle of a mammal with a focus upon a sheep. We learned that sheep are born live, drink milk to grow and become independent fairly quickly. We then wrote a life cycle explanation.
RE - We have been learning about Abraham and Sarah and have planned and written diaries from the point of view of Abraham on his important journey.
History - We have focused on the factors which caused the Great Fire of London to spread so quickly and have learned why it took so long to slow down. We have discussed what we would change if we were to design a house/street which wouldn’t burn so quickly, thinking about materials and their properties.
PE - In our indoor PE we created ‘road maps’ as plans for performing our dance routines and practised these in the hall.. In outdoor PE, we continued to develop our passing and moving skills and our skills in blocking passes.
Art - In art we used chalks and pastels to create fiery London skylines.
Regular Tasks
Please continue with the regular tasks sent home previously (counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s; reading and writing Year 1 and 2 common exception words)
Other Tasks
Spelling - Practise the ay, a-e, igh and i-e sounds as many of us still find these tricky in our spelling.
Maths - Number bonds worksheet.
English - Noun phrases worksheet - A noun phrase is made up of a noun (naming word) and a determiner (such as: a, the, our, her, my, some, that, etc) to make a phrase. E.g. a cat, some coins, my brother.
Writing - Write the correct split digraph words from the pictures.
As always, the MOST important way that you can support your child is by reading regularly!
Golden Award - Amara - for always working hard and for a huge improvement in her work.
Writing Award - Cameron - for his super work in Read Write Inc.
Maths Award - Erin - for welcoming a challenge in his work.
Class Disciple Award -
Over the next two weeks we are collecting tinned foods for our harvest focus. There will be a letter sent home shortly (as soon as our printer is working again!). Please bring into school whatever you can. Thank you for your support.
PTA Event
On Thursday 20th October we will be having an own clothes day to raise money for the PTA. We ask for a £1 donation. This will be set up through parentpay.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mr Whetnall, Mrs Bowdell and Mrs Gibbons
Posted
Good afternoon everyone,
In this week’s school liturgy we have been learning about the story of the poor man, Lazarus, who was treated terribly by a rich man whilst on Earth. Once the men died, this changed drastically with Lazarus getting treated well in heaven and the rich man being treated very differently.
We can learn from this story the importance of kindness and charity. In class we discussed how just because someone has lots of things, it does not necessarily mean that they are happy or a good person. We linked this to our RE lessons about being God’s chosen people and how we need to share the gifts God has given us with others.
English - We have begun our Read Write Inc units. Most of the class have been looking at stories with a familiar setting and have been reading the story of Cottonwool Colin by Jeanne Willis and Sister for Sale by Adrian Bradbury. We have been learning new vocabulary, such as sheltered, protected, vast, enormous, terrified and alarmed and have been using these words in sentences. We have also begun to learn about the conjunction ‘when’ and how it can be used in the middle of a sentence but also at the beginning.
Maths - We have developed our skills in comparing numbers using > greater than, < less than and = equal to. We have explored both numbers and number sentences to apply this skill. We have also been ordering numbers in different ways from largest to smallest and visa-versa. We have also begun to do work on counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s. Please continue to practise this at home!
Science - We have learned about the life cycle of a butterfly. We thought about the different stages and how much these creatures change as they grow. We then began to compare a butterfly’s life cycle with that of a bird.
RE - We have been learning about Abraham and Sarah and the faith they showed in God. We discussed and wrote about their trust and the promises that God made them and how Abraham must have felt when he decided to take such a difficult journey.
History - We have been looking at excerpts from Samuel Pepys diary and using this information to help us make sense of the events of the Great Fire of London. We learned how and where the fire started and what happened on each day. We continued to discuss how useful Pepys’ diary is as a primary source of information about the fire.
Computing - We have been on a technology safari this week. We have looked around school to identify different types of computers and thought about the parts they have which let us know they are computers. We have also practised turning laptops on, logging in selected programs, then shutting down.
PE - In our indoor PE we continued to travel as different vehicles and at different speeds. We put movements and speeds together to make short sequences and practised these to perform to music. In outdoor PE, we developed our passing and moving skills and began to develop our skills in blocking passes.
Art - In art we created Tudor-style houses after our work on the Great Fire of London.
Regular Tasks
Please continue with the regular tasks sent home last week.
Other Tasks
Spelling - Practise the second set of year 2 common exception words for a test next Friday. Underline the tricky part in each word to help you remember how it is spelled. Practise these regularly, rather than just once!
Maths - Counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s worksheet.
English - Conjunctions worksheet - Choose the best conjunction (and, or, but, so) to complete the sentences.
Reading - Great Fire of London comprehension worksheet.
As always, the MOST important way that you can support your child is by reading regularly!
Golden Award - Jessie - for her kindness, positivity and hard work. She is a wonderful role model!
Writing Award - Elsie - for always trying to develop and uplevel her written work.
Maths Award - Matilda - for working so hard on comparing numbers.
Class Disciple Award - Archer - for sharing a book with his friend.
For those of you who missed it or want to be able to reference the information, here is a copy of the presentation from today’s Meet the Teacher. Thank you for the wonderful turn out!
Have a lovely weekend,
Mr Whetnall, Mrs Bowdell and Mrs Gibbons
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