Year 2 Blog

Friday 20th March 2020

This week has certainly been one we have never experienced before! Thank you for your continued support.  Although inquisitive about this current world situation, the children continue to impress us with their focus and attitude to learning.

The children have said goodbye to Mrs Roberson, as their class teacher. She will come back and and we will be able to say a proper goodbye in the future. Although this is an uncertain time, we managed to have a special afternoon. We enjoyed sharing memories, dancing and playing party games. 

We look forward to seeing you at the parent consultations when these are rearranged.

Ideas for home learning are at the bottom of this blog. 

This week in maths, we have been revisiting our learning about 2-digit numbers. We started by partitioning (splitting) numbers in different ways. We often partition numbers into tens and ones, but when we add and subtract numbers we need to be able to partition them in different ways. Here are some examples:

The next day we added 2-digit numbers, for example 28 and 15. We used a variety of strategies, including:

•  Partition both numbers into tens and ones. Add the tens, add the ones and then add them both together.

28 = 20 + 8, 15 = 10 + 5.

20 + 10 = 30

8 + 5 = 13

30 + 13 = 43

•  Partition one of the numbers into tens and ones, and add to the other 2-digit number.

15 = 10 + 5

28 + 10 = 38

38 + 5 = 43

•  Think 10 – start with one 2-digit number and add to the nearest 10. Then add other then and other ones.

15 = 2 + 10 + 3

28 + 2 = 30

30 + 10 = 40

40 + 3 = 43

On Friday, we used our addition and subtraction skills to answer ‘word’ questions. The children need to work out what the calculation is before they use their maths skills. 

Spellings

We continue to focus on the Y2 common exception words.

Again, your support in practising these with your child is much appreciated.  They need to be able to spell (almost) all of these words correctly in their writing to achieved ‘Age Related’.

English

Following our ‘fun booklets’ in previous weeks, we have had a Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation focus this week.

We started the week investigating the prefix un-. 

We looked at how adverbs and adjectives can be used to add detail to our writing and the effect this has on the reader.

On Friday we did some drama based on the book ‘What Mr Darwin Saw’.

We will be sending some activities home over the following weeks linked to Charles Darwin.

Science

In science this week we discussed the responsibilities humans have when they look after animals as pets, in safari parks or on farms. 

We used books (thank you to the parents who sent in pet books) and fact files to research about a chosen pet.  The children found what their animal needs and asked questions. 

If you have a pet a home, you could discuss what the pet needs to survive but also what it needs to stay happy and healthy. 

In computing, we have been enjoying looking at famous paintings, and then creating them using MSPaint. This week we have been looking at paintings in Pop Art style. Here are some examples:

‘The Home Learning Zone’
Further ideas for home learning will be emailed to you on Tuesday. We then intend to send further ideas for learning at home every two days.  

Maths Ideas - based on learning this week

• Think of a 2-digit number and ask your child to partition it a 3 different ways.
•  Try rolling a dice at home to make 2-digit numbers and asking your child to use the strategy they prefer to add them together. 
• Missing number calculations
• Word problems

English Ideas

• Spellings - Every, everybody, should, would, could
• Can you child give you some examples of these spellings?  Can they tell you what the term ‘prefix’ means and what the un-prefix means?
• All year common exception words words
• Identify the noun, verb, adverb and adjective in a sentence
• Change the tense of a sentence from past to present
• Punctuate sentence

Computing

• Use MSPaint to create a picture in the style of a famous artist

Websites

Topic

https://www.dkfindout.com/

Find out about explorers. When did they travel? Where did they travel? How did they travel? What was their journey like? We were planning to learn about Robert Falcon Scott and Charles Darwin next week. You might like to do some research about them at home. 

Find out about artists and use their work as inspiration to create own pictures using MS Paint

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/charles-darwin-most-famous-biologist.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIu5Tc75ik6AIVzbHtCh0pmg6WEAAYASAAEgJMRfD_BwE

Maths

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

http://www.ictgames.com/

https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk/

Lots of maths, reading and SPAG activities, including SATS type questions. It is currently free, but you need to sign up.

English

http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/literacy/

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/Phase6Menu.htm

General

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/parents

Lots of activities and games, including arts and crafts

www.twinkl.co.uk/offer and use the code UKTWINKLHELPS  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/levels/z3g4d2p

Computing

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zf2f9j6/articles/z3c6tfr

https://scratch.mit.edu/

Jigsaw - PSHCE

https://families.jigsawpshe.com/stuck-at-home/

Password - home

PE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3LPrhI0v-w

Wishing you a safe and healthy week ahead, we will miss you and hope to see you all soon. 

The Year 2 Team

Friday 13th March

We  built on previous knowledge of patterns and repeating patterns from Year 1, and our understanding of turns to create and describe patterns that involve direction and turns. We used the language ‘left’, ‘right’, ‘clockwise’, ‘anti-clockwise’, ‘quarter’, ‘half’ and ‘three quarters’ to create and describe patterns. Here are some examples of the questions we answered. 

Spellings

We continue to focus on the Y2 common exception words.

Again, your support in practising these with your child is much appreciated.  They need to be able to spell (almost) all of these words correctly in their writing to achieve ‘Age Related’.

child, children, Mr, Mrs, behind, because

English

We began the week looking at the poem ‘Into the Blue’ by Hilda Offen.  You can listen to Hilda reading the poem here:

https://vimeo.com/129662873

The children came up with some wonderful phrases for the whole class and their own poems.

We were particularly impressed with their use of similes and alliteration.  Here are some examples:

The shimmering, shiny sea shimmers like diamonds.
The soft, soothing sea warm like a bubble bath.
The calm, cold sea opaque like frosted glass.

Maybe your child would like to play these simile matching games:

https://www.englishclub.com/esl-games/vocabulary/matching-similes.htm

D&T
Over the last few weeks in D&T we have been building up to making our own vegetable tortillas. We began by researching where the vegetables we were going to use came from.  Then we tasted the vegetables and decided on which three we would like in our own vegetable filled tortilla. We then made a plan and on Thursday using our plans we peeled, chopped, grated and mash our chosen fillings.

On Friday after the vegetables had been cooked we chose then assembled our own vegetable tortillas.  Next we ate them!

After that we evaluated them using our design criteria.

Thank you to the parents who came in on Thursday and helped supervised the children as they were chopping the vegetables your help was very much appreciated.

Science

In science this week we looked at how a variety of animals their basic needs.

Can your child tell you how different animals meet their basic needs (food, water, air)?

Next week the children will be look at what humans need to think about when we look after pets.  If you have a pet at home and your child can bring in a book about caring for their pet that would be a great help.  Please ensure books are labelled so that we can ensure they come back home again.

Our Assembly

Well, what a wonderful assembly!  We were so proud of the children and how they showed their love of learning and reading through their performance.

They delivered their lines with such confidence and enthusiasm.  Thank you for helping them with learning the words, it really does help them to deliver.

We still have the songs playing in our heads!

Pick up a book, take a look at the cover and the blurb…

Book Look

Another full house at the book look!  The children were pleased to be able to show you their learning and it was lovely to hear parents’ comments about the progress you can see your children making.  There were also many comments about the neatness of handwriting.

Y2 Assessment Meeting

Mrs Dovey will be sharing the slides from the presentation with you in due course.

Parent Consultations

We look forward to meeting with you next week (Owls – Wednesday, Eagles - Thursday) at the parent consultations.

Have a great weekend,

The Year 2 Team

Friday 6th March 2020

Fun Booklets

This week, the children have had an introduction to the Year 2 ‘fun booklets’.  They have impressed us with their listening skills and how well they have followed the instructions.

We will be sharing the results of these at the upcoming parent consultations.

Spellings

In spellings this week, we have been focusing on some of the Year 2 common exception words (please see the home/school book for the full list).

We looked at door, floor, poor, old, cold, gold, hold, told.

We encourage you to regularly review your child’s retention of these words.  Thank you for your support.

Fairtrade Café

On Monday, we put our measuring skills to good use when we made Fairtrade muffins for our café.  We were very impressed with the children’s teamwork as they read the recipe, measured and combined the ingredients.

It was lovely to see so many of you joining us in promoting this important initiative.

If you took a copy of the recipe home, we home you enjoy make more muffins.  If you try different Fairtrade ingredients do let us know.

Maybe you would like to explore more about Fairtrade.  The following website has a wealth of information:

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/

We celebrated by having a ‘Book Swap’.  Thank you for making this possible, the children loved choosing a ‘new book to them’ and were proud that the event helped develop our awareness of

how to reuse books in a real and purposeful way.

We also enjoyed sharing and recommending books to each other.  The conversations about           stories, books and authors overheard where delightful. 

Today we have enjoyed a science morning. Thank you to Mr Hall, a parent, for arranging so many wonderful activities and for spending the morning with us. The children all had lots of fun, learnt a lot, and are experts at checking x-rays for broken bones!

Next Wednesday is our class assembly. If your child has chosen to speak, please practise their words with them at home. We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday for the assembly, and afterwards you are very welcome to visit the classrooms and look at the children's learning. 

 We hope you have a good weekend, 

 The Year Two Teachers