Autumn term overview

Click here to see our weekly routines

 

Welcome to the Spring term!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and you are looking forward to the Spring term. 

Here is our Spring term overview.

Click here for vocabulary that will be useful this term.

HOME LEARNING 

From Monday 23rd March, I will upload daily lessons to this page. There should be plenty but if you want more, Twinkl are offering free membership to parents.  :) 

Go to:  www.twinkl.co.uk/offer

Enter the code:  PARENTSTWINKLHELPS

 Maths Announcement!

I will be posting some links to videos to show you how to play some Maths games if you fancy a change or any extra Maths practise. There are also two Maths booklets here. You can download them and print any of the sheets you like the look of or you could copy some of the calculations into your pink books. 

Year 2 addition and subtraction booklet

Year 2 Spring Maths Activity Book

Dice game – SKUNK.  Watch here: MATHS4KIDS

Monday 30th March

Happy Monday Amber Class! We hope you have had a lovely weekend. Did you get outside? Did you help with dinner? Watch a movie? We have been thinking about you all. 

Click here for your home learning- Monday 30th March

Friday 27th March

We have made it to the end of our first week. Well done to you all for a week of getting used to new routines! You are all amazing! I made some soup yesterday. Maybe you could help make some food at home over the weekend.

Click here for today's learning. Friday 27th March

Thursday 26th March

Good morning to you all. I have really enjoyed seeing your work. It is lovely to see that you are remembering some of our words of the week and interesting vocabulary! Yesterday, Steve Backshall did a very informative lesson about a range of animals and we also had great fun learning an online dance routine to a song from Shrek with Oti Mabuse. You can find the videos on their YouTube channels if you want to take a look.

Click here for a lovely idea to try at home. Jar of wishes.

Click here for Thursday's home learning. Thursday 26th March

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Khloe from all of Amber Class! Click here!

 

Wednesday 25th March

Hey Amber Class! Thank you so much for the emails I have received. I love hearing what you are up to. I was in school yesterday. We started some outdoor art. Look out for photos soon. Did you manage any chores? How are you keeping moving? There are some lovely online stories being read by famous authors such as Oliver Jeffers and David Walliams. Why not try one out?

Here is a lovely poem to start the day. Click here to open.

Here are today's learning ideas. Enjoy!  Wednesday 25th March

Tuesday 24th March

Good morning my fantastic bunch! Did you enjoy the Joe Wicks routine? We will all be super fit in a few weeks. Get your mums and dads to join in too! Has anyone put up a rainbow to brighten their day? The super teaching assistants helped me scrub the classroom yesterday. It looks and smells amazing! Can you clean anything at home?

Here are Tuesday's ideas.  - Tuesday 24th March

 

Monday 23rd March

Good morning my wonderful Amber Class. Here is a letter for you to read...

Amber Class Letter

Here are your lesson ideas for today. Use your pink books to record your ideas and for help sheets. We understand that it will be easier to work on some days than others. You are welcome to make work easier/harder depending on what you want to practise. Just remember, if you stop practising, it will be a little harder when you get back to school. Do your best and we are here if you need help. You may also have some amazing ideas of your own. We would love to hear about them. 

Click here for today's home learning - Monday 23rd March

 

Weekly News

Spring Week 3

We worked out the properties of 3D shapes by constructing shapes out of raw spaghetti and marshmallows. We had to count carefully and be resilient!

                

                                           

We finished our work on shape by learning about the American artist, Frank Stella. We looked at his exhibition entitled, 'Irregular Polygons.' You can see his huge, colourful pieces of art here:

Click here:   Frank Stella

We tried drawing shapes freehand, with a ruler and drawing around 2D shapes. We will use our favourite methods to create our own artwork next week.

We have really enjoyed making our own electronic books using the Book Creator APP. We included speech bubbles, thought bubbles and onomatopoeic words. We are looking forward to sharing our adventure stories with our families! 

Amber Class had a fantastic morning working with Karen from Carymoor Environmental Centre. We played games and sang songs to help us learn all about the 3Rs. Reduce, reuse and recycle! The children reused plastic bottles by turning them into greenhouses. They have planted some cress seeds. Please add a very small amount of water and place them in a sunny spot. They should grow in 10 days. Karen commented on the lovely, calm, caring and kind atmosphere within the school. She also praised the wonderful nature of the class, saying she was impressed with their excellent behaviour and inquisitive natures. Well done Amber Class!

       

Spring Week 2

We have been making patterns with 2 shapes. We have also found lines of symmetry. We had to make sure the shape was exactly the same on both sides.
We really enjoyed World Book Day. We read Mini Grey books and made a word bank of good vocabulary. We also used thesauruses to improve boring words. We will now use these to improve our adventure stories.
We showed Mrs Brown what we remembered about the Book Creator App. Then we learnt how to take, edit and insert photos and sounds. We are going to create our own electronic books.

Spring 2 Week 1

We have been exploring the properties of 2D shapes. We learnt to count carefully and learnt that vertices is a mathematical word for corners. We discovered that straight sided shapes have the same number of sides as vertices.
We tested materials to see which made the best super hero capes. We had to look carefully to see which cape was lifted best by the air underneath. The paper flew the best but bubble wrap is more waterproof.
We described settings using adjectives then designed outfits for Traction Man to wear in those places. We had to compromise and choose the most suitable materials for our group mood boards.

Spring 1 Week 5

We have been learning to write adventure stories all about Traction Man's adventures. We even discovered the evil pillows had captured our class farm animals! Mrs Brown was amazed at our use of interesting adjectives, verbs, adverbs and speech.
In Maths, we have learnt to divide by sharing and grouping. We were also excited to start TT Rockstars!
We are really enjoying music lessons and we learnt the difference between crotchets and quavers so we could create our own rhythms.
We heated and cooled bread, water, an egg, chocolate and a potato. We looked at how they changed and investigated whether or not they could change back. We liked watching steam turn back into water!                                                                                                                We had to think carefully and be resilient during ICT this week. We went into the hall and programmed the Probot cars so they could drive into parking spaces.

Spring 1 Week 3

What a busy week! We have continued learning to multiply numbers. We drew and made arrays to help us. We had to make sure they had equal rows. We also started learning the 2 times table.

Click here for lots of multiplication and division games and resources. Snappy Maths

We turned our tally charts into graphs using a computer program. We also improved our programming skills using the Probots.

In English, we read a poem called The Magic Box by Kit Wright. It had beautiful language in. We practised our grammar skills by sorting key words from the poem into adjectives, nouns and verbs. Then we wrote our own versions of the poem. Click on this link to see the author read his poem. The Magic Box

What do you like about it? What would go in your own magic box?

Rather excitingly, Traction Man left us another letter. He wants to protect his camera during underwater missions so we have been asked to investigate which materials are waterproof. We are going to keep it a fair test by dropping the same amount of water on each of our chosen materials.

 

Spring 1 Week 2

On Monday, we went for a walk around the village. We went to the shops, the church, the barns and the Post Office. We used tally marks to record how many things were made out brick, stone, wood, metal, plastic and glass. We are going to turn our results into graphs using the computers and write questions about our data.
We have been learning to use the multiplication symbol. It makes repeated addition much quicker.  We have been writing shape poems about materials.
In RE, we learnt the parable of The Lost Son. We acted it out and then wrote our own versions. 
We also thought about how we learn best. We tried learning a short song and dance by just looking, just listening and then by doing. We found it easier to learn when you do all of them together. We taught our friends to do something new.

Spring 1 Week 1

We have had a busy first week back! We have been practising our sentence structure and making sure we are using accurate punctuation. We have also practised spelling high frequency words accurately.

In Maths, we have started mastering multiplication. We have recognised, made and added equal groups. Miss Williams taught us how to record using tally charts. We also learnt directional words by using the BeeBots.

On Tuesday, we walked into a messy classroom. Noone knew who had put rubbish everywhere so we asked Mrs Cox to check the CCTV. When we looked, we saw an image of a male doll sat on the table. We quickly realised that he had left a note. It said that it was from Traction Man. He had been looking for materials to make new outfits and equipment to take on his  missions. He has asked us to learn about the properties of materials to help him on his next adventure. We read the book, 'Traction Man is Here!' By Mini Grey. We all loved it and found it very funny indeed! We can't wait to see what Traction Man gets up to next! We decided we couldn't leave the mess though so we have made our own Amber Class recycling centre and sorted all the materials into different boxes.

We are starting our RE topic by sharing books that our special to us. We will be learning about why the Bible is special to Christians.

 

AUTUMN 2019

Our Autumn theme is, 'Brilliant Brunel!' We are considering why he was a famous engineer, what his life was like and how life has changed since the Victorian times.

Autumn 2 Week 7

We really enjoyed watching the John Lewis advert and then writing about, 'Excitable Edgar.' We also showed our teachers how many new spellings that we have learnt this term. They were very impressed! 

We enjoyed sharing our learning with our families on Tuesday. We told them all about Brunel's life and then they visited our Victorian market stalls to learn about the traditions that Victorians started such as; crackers, cards and mince pies. We also explained what the museum artefacts would have been used for.

We had fun emailing Santa. He wrote us personalised letters back. Why not try it yourself? https://www.emailsanta.com/

We hope you are on the good list!

 

Autumn 2 Week 6

We have thoroughly enjoyed performing our Nativity for 2019. 'A Midwife Crisis,' was funny and full of catchy songs. We impressed everyone with our acting skills and our confident speaking voices. We were so proud of Ruby and Opal class too! Thank you to everyone who came to support us.

We also learnt about the different customs at Jewish weddings, practised our ball control skills, wrote narrative diaries as if we were passengers on the first ever journey on the SS Great Britain and finished building our amazing bridges!

Autumn 2 Week 5

We have been learning all about verbs. We have found verbs and then improved them. Some of us used a thesaurus to find amazing synonyms.In Maths we learnt that addition and subtraction are inverse operations.
We learnt that a synagogue is a special building where Jewish people worship.
It is filled with interesting objects that are very well looked after.
We became engineers, just like Brunel. We researched famous bridges, designed our own and have been building them out of wood. Did you now there are 3 types of bridges? Beam, suspension and arch brides. We had to carefully use saws and hot glue guns. We have discovered that adding card triangles really support our models and make them more stable.

Autumn 2 Week 4

We explored subtracting by counting back and by finding the difference. It was interesting to discover how we could subtract by counting forwards and it made some calculations much easier! We also used number facts we know to add 3 one digit numbers.

We continued to read Flat Stanley in whole class reading. We have to follow carefully and find clues in the text to help us understand new words. We have been learning to use -y as an /igh/ sound. We also explored adverbials of time but creating our own short stories about Mr Men and Little Miss characters. 

We have looked at bridges from around the World. We learnt that there are lots of different types of bridges such as, arch, beam and suspension. Then we designed our own bridges, ready for us to build them next week.

 Autumn 2 Week 3

We have been learning to add in different ways to make sure we can solve calculations quickly and accurately. Partitioning the addend helps us be more efficient. For example;

17 + 6 = 

(6 is the same as 3 +3)

17 + 3 = 20

20 + 3 = 23

We looked at the features of diaries so we can write our own. We have been practising using coordinating and subordinating conjunctions to make our sentences longer.

We have been researching the Clifton Suspension Bridge that was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel after he won a competition. If you have been to Bristol, you would have probably seen it over the River Avon. Did you know it took 33 years to build?

We are busy learning  our lines for our nativity, 'A Midwife Crisis.' We also really enjoyed our playground workshop and we are all feeling very inspired. We can't wait to invent more games to play and take our learning outside even more!

Autumn 2 - Week 1

Welcome back to Amber Class! We hope you all had a wonderful half term. 

Our new fluency focus for this half term is 'adding using near doubles.' Using the doubling and halve facts that we practised last half term, can you answer calculations efficiently?

For example: 5 + 6 = ?                                                                    19 + 21 = ?

                    5 + 5 = 10  (double 5 is 10)                                        19 + 1 = 20     21 - 1 = 20

                       + 1 = 11 (6 is 1 more than 5)                                   double 20 = 40

 

Continue to practise doubling numbers here:

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/archeryDoubles/index.html

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

On Thursday, Amber Class visited the Brunel's amazing ship, 'The SS Great Britain,' in Bristol. Photos and fantastic work to follow shortly.

Autumn Week 8

We have had a busy final week of this half term. We learnt to be resilient when completing Maths investigations. We needed to use trial and improvement to find different answers. In one of the problems, we had to collect Brunel's tools from inside a tower. 

We wrote stories based on, 'The Black Hat,' by Maia Walczak. Mrs Brown was so impressed with the adventurous vocabulary that we included.

We learnt that Jewish people hang the Mezuzah on their front doors to remind them that God is present. 

We shared our learning about William Morris with our parents and friends. We worked together during our inspire session to create polyprints and make our own group wallpaper. We had to make sure we printed in the same place each time when we added more colours. 

 

Autumn Week 7

We used the number bonds to 10 that we know to help us find number bonds to 100. We spotted patterns and found missing parts.

We wrote setting descriptions about a forest. We listened to sounds, smelt plants and felt leaves, stones, twigs and nuts. This helped us think of interesting vocabulary to use. 

We learnt how to use watercolour paints. We looked closely at leaves and experimented making different colours and effects. We then drew and painted our own leaves.

We have continued to listen to rock music and practise singing a song in a group. 

Autumn Week 6 

We have been busy revising number facts to 20 through our Maths work this week. We found that addition is commutative so the parts can be added in any order. We also wrote matching subtraction facts by taking parts away from the whole. We also learnt that addition and subtraction are the inverse of each other.

We have finally completed our factsheets about Brunel. We edited them and wrote them up neatly. We thought about how we wanted to present them so that they were eye- catching and clear. We also included photographs and captions.

Check out this link to watch a video about Brunel's life! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zovFQQ2SwBc 

We checked our potatoes and found that the potato rubbed in the muddy puddle and changed the most. It had grown some furry mould! It is important that we know where most germs are found so we know when we need to wash our hands and prevent us from being ill.

We learnt about the Victorian artist, William Morris. We looked carefully at his prints and spotted that he used images from nature. E.g. leaves, birds and flowers. We also noticed that he used a variety of colours and repeated his patterns. We look forward to creating our own wallpaper inspired by Morris.

The Strawberry Thief

Autumn Week 5

 We learnt to compare numbers by saying phrases like, '42 is greater than 27,' and '12 is less than 21.' We realised it was quicker to compare them using greater, less than and equal symbols.

We practised spelling words using a 'soft c.' We also learnt that commas help us read long lists. You use a comma between each item and then 'and' before the last thing in the list.

We are developing some excellent IT skills such as, logging on, saving files, retrieving work from our own folders and editing fonts.

Autumn Week 3 

Last week, we really enjoyed the skipping workshops and we have continued to develop our skills further. Lots of us have been skipping at playtimes too! 

We have already learnt the, 'kn,' 'gn' and 'wr,' graphemes and have been playing lots of games to learn our spellings. We are also really enjoying reading, 'The Twits,'by Roald Dahl. The Twits are so naughty!

In Maths, we have been partitioning numbers and have learnt that this can be done in a variety of different ways. e.g. 46 is 40 +6 but also could be 30 + 16 or 26 +20! Part, part, whole models have really helped us with this idea. 

We became scientists and explored how germs can spread easily by touching each other. We also learnt they are tricky to get off so you must wash your hands thoroughly. Luckily, we were using glitter rather than actual germs! 

Autumn Week 1 and 2

We have been busy settling into new routines, writing our class contract and finding where everything is in our classroom. We now know how to be, 'ready, respectful and safe,' in Amber class. 

We read the story, 'Supermarket Zoo,' and learnt to retell it. We drew a story map and added key vocabulary to our wall. We learnt about adjectives and then showed what we have learnt by writing descriptions of monsters and short stories about the main character's trip to the monster market.

We have been busy practising counting to 100. Exploring all the equipment in the classroom was really fun and we were able to represent 2 digit numbers in a variety of different ways. 

We had a WOW day to launch our new topic, 'Brilliant Brunel.' The classroom was filled with genuine Victorian artefacts. We became museum workers and had to create labels for them. We had some really interesting ideas. We noticed that none of the items had plugs so we decided they may not have had electricity in their homes like we do. We made a human timeline to put the Victorians in history. 

 

 

 

 Check out our photos from our school trips!

 

 2018/19