Friday 5th December

English 

This week’s words were; brother, chimney, donkey, key, Monday, monkey, mother, nothing, other, valley, wonder. 

We have listened to the words being read out loud and thought about which individual phonemes we can hear before choosing the grapheme to represent each sound. k-ey. The tricky 'o' grapheme used for the 'u' sound it one to watch out for! e.g. monkey

In our owl work we have started researching owls in preparation for our information write up next week. The comprehension homework will also support this.

Maths 

We have continued to look sharing as a way of dividing and looked at the inverse operation (multiplication.)

Topic - Let’s Explore the World. 

This week we located the country of Somalia on the African continent.  

• Somalia is a country on the east coast of Africa. 

• The equator crosses through Somalia, so the climate is very hot and dry. 

• Like the UK, Somalia has four seasons. 

• The capital city of Somalia is called Mogadishu. 

   

We talked about how Somalia is different from England and what are the similarities and differences between the two countries.

In DT we had a busy afternoon learning how to embellish fabric. We sewed on a button and used our newly acquired running stitch skills to appliqueing some felt onto cotton. THank you to the parents and grandparent volunteers, we could not have done it without you. I think I may well be asking again for next week!.....

Nativity rehearsals have gone very well. We are ready to perform, just need to add the costumes and microphones! PLease go over your child's lines this weekend, especially if they have several and lots of cues. We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday. Year 2 have priority seating in the pews, there will be reserved signs.

Homework: Reading books - thursday

Owl comprehension - thursday

No maths.  

Stars of the week: Harry, Millie and Flynn. Well done!

Friday 28th November

On Monday the children were treated to a pantomime (oh yes they were) telling the story of Beauty and the Beast.  The children all had a fantastic time and it was a great start to Christmas.  

English 

This week’s words were; angry, bumpy, chilly, crazy, empty, funny, furry, hairy, happy, lucky, runny, sunny, ugly. 

We have continued adding the suffixes –er and -est, to these words.  The key spelling rule: the y changes to an i before adding –er or –est. 

The children imagined that they were Plop the owl, looking down at the town at night. They then used adjectives and adverbs to describe (in the first person) what they could see. We were very impressed with their writing, sentences and punctuation were much more precise and the descriptive language very pleasing. Progress indeed! 

Maths 

We have now finished the chapter on multiplication of 2s, 5s and 10s with a few lessons discussing the best way to solve word problems using multiplication facts from the 2, 5 and 10 times tables. The maths homework is the end of chapter review. This has come from their MNP books. If your child is only able to complete page 1 that is fine, do as much as they are able/want to do. 

Please do keep practising counting in steps of 2, 5 and 10. 

Later in the week we started learning about division. We have started by learning the grouping method and next week will look at sharing. A video is attached to show. We started with very practical maths using ourselves and multilink and counters to share into groups of a certain size eg. 15 counters shared into groups of 5 made 3 groups 15 ÷ 5 = 3.  See pics.

Computing:

Mr Miles taught us computing on Thursday. We used a programme which allows us to do data collection and made our own pictogram about the class's pets. See pics.

Topic - Let’s Explore the World. 

This week we have used Google Earth to look at an aerial view of the UK.  We have discussed and described the characteristics of the UK, for example; we are a small island surrounded by seas and oceans, we consist of four countries, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We have compared the population, cities, weather, landscape including any mountains, rivers and the physical and human characteristics in these 4 countries. 

DT

We continued with our bag tag project by learning how to do a running stitch. The children were very patient as threads came loose and stitches went wonkey and by the end all children had done a great job. They will use this skill when they make the finished product. Thank you so much to the parents/grandparents who very kindly came to help. We could not have done it without you! There will be more opportunities to help with this.

Hopefully you have received an email detailing the costume requirements. Rehearsals continue to go well. The children are still struggling with the lyrics to Little Donkey so I have attached them for reference (only up to very 3). Please practise at home.

Homework: Reading books

Maths Review sheet

Comprehension - please do the next one. All to be returned on Thursday - along with the costumes! 

Congratulations: Albie, Nina and Sebby!

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cheshire and Mrs Thompson

Friday 21st November

Nativity rehearsals have started in earnest with lots of singing and two successful run throughs in the church. We are so impressed that the children have all learnt their lines. Please do continue to go over these at home and really work on cues, expression and projection, you don't want to miss their big moment with quiet voices. Costume information will be sent out soon but we have all the costumes in school so it's just under clothes required.

It was lovely to see so many of you at parents evening. We hope you found it useful. 

This week’s words were; close, hike, late, nice, ride, ripe, rude, safe, shine, slime, wise 

We have continued adding the suffixes –er, -est, -ed, -y and –ing to words and noticed that all our words this week have a split digraph and end in the letter e.  The key spelling rule: the letter e at the end of the root word is dropped before adding –er, -est, -ed, -y and –ing. 

We have also been using co-ordinating conjunctions to make our sentences longer, and, but, or and learning more facts about owls. 

Maths 

We have now moved on from the 2 times tables to the 5 and 10 times tables. We have been learning about arrays (arrays are pictures that let us see numbers. Number sentences are shown with dots and arranged into rows and columns.) If you want to see more about arrays we used a good game on ICT games which we've attached. The key is to understand the X symbol as meaning 'groups/lots of' e.g. 5 x 3 means 5 groups of 3. 

Topic 

Let’s Explore the World. 

This week we have used the globes and maps to locate the equator and the north and south poles.  We have looked at the different weather patterns in the northern and southern hemispheres and how hot places are close to the equator and cold places are far away from the equator.  We discussed the term ‘temperate climate’ and that a temperate place is never extremely hot or extremely cold.  We also talked about how the UK has a temperate climate (although we are not totally convinced because it has been so cold this week and we saw actual snow on Wednesday). 

In DT today we looked at the British designer Cath Kidston and then started to think about our bag tags. We cut out a sewing pattern and put a prototype together.

Homework:  Please do the next comprehension in books (you can do more pages if you have the Year 1 book).

Reading books

Maths: We have sent home one maths sheet which supports the multiplication learning we have done this week. We felt some extra help would be beneficial. We will be sending home regular maths homework from next term, this is just a taster! Please name and return next Thursday along with the comprehension and reading.

Congratulations to our stars and kind heart James, Henry and Eliza.

See you at the Christmas fair...Mrs Cheshire will be on the human fruit machine!

Mrs Cheshire and Mrs Thompson

Friday 14th November

English

We have been working on adverbs by playing verb and adverbs charades.  The children came to the front and acted out an action (walking) then they did the action in a certain way (walking quickly).  The class had to guess the verb/adverb.  We talked about adding 'ly' to an adjective to make it into an adverb then used this skill to write a description of an owl flying. We have also introduced the suffixes -er and -est and the key spelling rule: the last consonant letter of the root word is doubled to keep the vowel short (big = bigger, biggest)

This weeks' words were; big, dim, fat, fit, fun, hot, red, run, sad, slim, sun, trim.

Maths

We have started a new topic on multiplication.  The children have learnt that multiplication means 'groups of' and that these groups must be equal.  We have also explored how repeated addition is the same as multiplication and that multiplication can be done in any order 3 x 5 = 15 or 5 x 3 = 15.  So far we have concentrated on the two times table.  If you can count in twos with your child at home that will help them, using their fingers to count helps too.  We also taught them that is something is x 2 it is the same as doubling as some children find it easier to remember a double, 2 x 4 = 8 is the same as double 4 = 8.

Topic

We have looked at maps and in particular maps of Chiddingstone and the surrounding area.  Some children were able to locate their own home on the map which they were very excited to find.  We have looked at the different keys you find on a map and discussed what these keys represent.  Today we were also able to complete a traffic survey outside school to see how busy our local environment is.  We discovered that school is located in a quiet area as we only recorded 3 cars in the 10 minutes of our survey.

We have also started a new DT project called, cut, stitch and join.  We started by looking at a range of fabric household objects such as tea towels, aprons, oven gloves and bags.  The children talked about the features of the items and if they could be improved.  Next week we will learn about the designer, Cath Kidston and start to think about designing their own bag tags.

We have started learning the songs for the Nativity and the children's lines will come home today.  Homework is to learn their lines (narrators do not need to learn them but need to be very familiar with them).  It is also very helpful for them to know their cues.  The faster the lines are learnt the quicker we can start to rehearse in earnest so please do support your child with this.  They are all very excited.

Reading homework as usual but no comprehension.

Congratulations to Arlo and Olivia our stars of the week and to Naia who received this week's kindness award.

Have a great weekend

Mrs Cheshire and Mrs Thompson

Friday 7th November

We have hit the ground running in Term 2 and it has been lovely to hear about the children's half terms.

English 

We have introduced this term’s text, The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. If anyone knows of a local falconer it would be fantastic if we could arrange for a visit to the class.  We have begun by researching owls and discussing and writing all that we know about these birds of prey. We then used adjectives to describe Plop, using commas to separate the descriptions. 

This week’s words were 'tricky' ones; again, busy, Christmas, cold, eye, fast, father, old, parents, poor, pretty, wild. 

Maths:

We have moved onto subtraction with renaming/regrouping (or borrowing if you are a little older!) Attached are a couple of videos to show how we have taught it. Some children choose to use dienes (chips and peas), this is called an informal written method, and other children prefer column method. This is such a hard concept so if you are able to do any practice at home that would be a great help. We always encourage children to show their working, even if they can mentally solve the equations.

Topic 

We have started the new topic for this term, Let’s Explore the World using globes and atlases to answer questions about the world.  We have also looked at the 4 compass points and discovered where north, east, south, west is but only in the classroom because it was raining outside. Hopefully we can discover these directions outside next week.  We looked at several phrases, naughty elephants squirt water or never eat soggy wheat, or never eat slimy worms to remember the directions. 

Today the big day arrived and we told the children their parts for the Nativity. These are carefully thought through and discussed with all Year 2 staff. We are aware that emotions run high with these sort of things. All children have a key role to play and we will start rehearsing in earnest next week.

Homework: Thank you those who brought in the comprehension books, there were several missing so please do return these by next Thursday. Please do the next one in the books for homework along with reading books.

DT: If you have any bag/luggage tags we could borrow please can your child bring them in next week. We only had one today and it would be great for children to be able to look at some examples before they create their own.

Next Friday Mrs Thompson will be teaching all day instead of Mrs Cheshire.

Congratulations to Charlotte, Wulf and Daniel.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Thompson and Mrs Cheshire

Friday 17th October

I don't know about you but I think this term has flown by! The children continue to be a pleasure to teach and have really settled into the routine of being Year 2s.

You will have seen in the children's bags quite a few things they have brought home so this is about them (sorry it's a lot!!):

- PTA art form - optional but return to school when done before the deadline

- Reading books - children all have 2 or 3 books for the holidays. Please return as usual on Thursday after the holiday with yellow book completed.

- Maths booklet on place value - this is optional but I didn't tell the children that! Place value is the foundation of everything we do in Year 2 to do with number and so we thought it would be helpful for the children to work through this booklet. They don't have to do it all but if they can have a go at a few of the exercises over the hols that will help them hit the ground running in Term 2 that would be great. Stickers will be given for work returned!

- Comprehension books: As comprehension forms a large part of the English assessments in Year 2 it is helpful for children to have additional practice at home. Many of the class have the 'Year 2 10 minute tests' book (I think they are likely to take a little longer than 10 mins initially.) If your child is struggling with the reading of the text please do read it with/for them and read the questions. At this stage it is about learning how to answer the questions. To assist with that we have stuck a 'Pawsome gang' information page at the front which shows how we teach comprehension in school. We want the children to underline/highlight the key words in the questions and then highlight where they have found the answers in the text. If this book is proving to be too difficult please let us know as we have others available. This holiday please do the first 2 comprehensions and no more.

For those children with the Year 1 comprehension book, please work through this at your own pace. You can do as much as the child would like (one page minimum per week.) Comprehensions to be returned on Thursdays along with reading books.

- Year 1 and 2 words list mat: these are the words Year 2 children should be able to read and spell by the end of the year. This helpful mat can be stuck on the fridge or wherever and perhaps children can have a go at learning a few of them each week throughout the year.

Gosh that was a lot....

Briefly this week....the children have been continuing with subtraction using column method, number lines and chips and peas. We have played the game 'Daily 10' which is a great maths resource, I attach a link. We will continue with subtraction next term which becomes more challenging when we have to 'rename/re-group' the tens and ones.

In English we have focused on sentences, really making sure that we remember where to put full stops and to always put capital letters at the beginning of sentences. We listened to a fun punctuation song about this (attached).

We have really enjoyed our topic, Magnificient Monarchs which we finished this week with a quiz and a debate discussing the children’s views and opinions about each of the six significant monarchs we have studied.  After much discussions the children voted on the most significant monarch of all time and the results are now in.....Year 2 voted that in their opinion, King Henry VIII was the most significant monarch of all time!

Next term's topic is Let's explore the world: 

In the Let's Explore the World project, the children will learn to use an atlas to find out about the world's continents. They will revisit the four compass points, and use a key to read a map. We will locate the equator, the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and the North and South Poles. They will learn that hot places are closer to the equator and cold areas are further away. The children will know the term temperate and identify areas of the world with a temperate climate. They will learn about the characteristics of the four countries in the United Kingdom and compare England to Somalia in Africa to find similarities and differences. We will undertake fieldwork activities, collecting data about the number of vehicles that pass school and the use of local human features.  

We also do a DT sewing project which we will give more information about next term.

Finally, congratulations to Charlotte and Oscar for being awarded the Head Teacher's awards for Term 1.

Thank you to Mrs Allman and Henry for bringing in their cute chicks for the class to stroke this afternoon, apologies if they all now want pet chickens! (see pics)

Have a lovely half term, see you in Term 2,

Mrs Cheshire and Mrs Thompson

Friday 10th October

Lots of photos this week so please do take a look!

What a busy week we have had. It was lovely to see so many of you at the Harvest festival. I'm sure you agree that the class did a terrific job with their Harvest song - their enthusiasm and high standard bodes very well for the Nativity! I was very proud of them.

Yesterday we had a terrific trip to Hever castle. Weren't we lucky with the weather! We started with a tour of the castle, looking at where Anne Boleyn might have slept and played as a child. We saw Tudor furniture and costumes as well as learning about how the castle was used as a fortress. The children listened well and asked lots of pertinent questions. After that we went to the 'classroom' and had a talk about life in Tudor times. We found out what Henry 8th would and would not have eaten and what life was like for the noblemen, merchants, peasants, servants. Each group was given a role from King and Queen to lowly peasants and you can see from the photos who had the better time! We then had lunch before having a terrific time in the fort and shop. Thank you to parent helpers who came.

In Maths we have continued with addition using column method as well as number lines and base 10. Today we moved onto subtraction. We talked about it being the 'inverse' (opposite) to addition but that they are connected e.g. 9 - 3 = 6, 6 + 3 = 9. This is a vital thing to know and really helps to check answers.  Checking the sign is so important too. I attach a link to a fun game which you might like to play with your child to support the teaching of adding and subtracting.

We have done a lot of writing this week! The children completed their 'big write' based on the Troll Swap story. We spent time planning a beginning, middle and end and then the children created their own work. Things many of the children are still struggling with are where to put full stops and to always remember capital letters. If they ever write at home please do pick them up on this if they forget. 

In PSHE we learnt about team work and cooperation. To do this we played balloon keepy-uppy in our table groups. After a few goes the teams were able to keep the balloons up for longer (see pics). Communication, giving each person a role and encouragement all helped them achieve this.

In Art we completed our Exploring Colours topic with a lovely piece of work which drew on all the skills learnt this term. The children used the primary colours and palettes to make secondary colours of different hues. (see pics)

Congratulations to Posy, Robbie and Jaxson.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cheshire and Mrs Thompson   

Friday 3rd October

The big excitement (for me anyway!) was that our class carpet finally arrived (after a 3 month delay!) Sadly it is already looking less sparkly than on day one but the children are enjoying their new carpet spaces. 

Maths 

We have continued with adding and the different ways we can solve addition problems. We have been learning column addition with and without renaming/regrouping. I attach a useful video that shows how we have been doing this. Children can also use dienes to work out the number sentences.

English 

We have been discussing the story Troll Swap and how the children are going to write their own version of the story.  Developing characters and settings and talking about how a story needs a beginning, a middle and an end.  Today we started writing our own story, focusing on our characters and where they live.

This week’s words were; chat, clap, drag, drop, hum, pat, plan, slip  

Topic 

In History we looked at the lives of King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I 

The children enjoyed learning about King Henry VIII particularly the fact that he was married 6 times and the stories behind why he had so many wives and what happened to all of them.  We discussed why Henry VIII was a significant monarch and whether his actions had a positive or negative impact on history.  

We then looked at the life of Queen Elizabeth I, Henry’s daughter and why she was such a popular ruler especially as she was a woman.   We look forward to our trip to Hever Castle on Thursday.

As part of Black History Month this afternoon we started to learn about African textile patterns and art. We found out about the geography of the continent, the wildlife and countries within it and then before learning about the geometric patterns and the symbolic meanings of the colours and shapes used. The children then had a go at their own African inspired art. We had a lovely time carefully colouring while listening to traditional music from different African countries. We thought about how these beautiful designs can be found in our everyday lives in this country.

Harvest: We look forward to seeing many of you are our Harvest Festival in the church on Wednesday. Please can the children decorate a harvest envelope (with an optional donation) and bring it in along with a non-perishable food donation on Wednesday. Donations will be shared between Bondeni and the Edenbridge food bank. The class are singing a very lovely Harvest song.

Reading book: Please return along with the sharing books on Thursday with yellow book filled in.

Slight change to the teaching staff next week as Mrs Cheshire will be teaching Monday, Wednesday-Friday and Mrs Carey will be teaching on Tuesday while Mrs Thompson is away. Forest school as usual but there will be no PE next week due to Harvest so can the children please just come in smart winter uniform. We will give them some extra running around time and an Active 60 to make sure they still get some exercise. 

Congratulations to Riley, Olivia and Matthew.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cheshire and Mrs Thompson

Friday 26th September

A highlight of this week was the drama workshop on Wednesday. The children had the chance to become part of the traditional tale, Jack and the Beanstalk (see pics)

This week in maths we recapped how to break a number into 10s and 1s. We explored adding by adding single numbers together for example, 6 + 2 = 8 and looking at the link between 6 and 60, 2 and 20 and 8 and 80.  To understand that 60 is 6 tens, 20 is 2 tens and 80 is 8 tens.  We have looked at the relationship between addition of ones and tens, e.g 5 + 3 = 8, 50 + 30 = 80.

English 

In Troll Swap we have been talking about how the trolls and Tabitha’s parents are feeling after the swap and planning a letter to Tabitha to persuade her to come home. We also finished the book and were pleased to see the characters each having their own happy ending. Next week we will be doing a big write based on all the work we have done with this text.

This week’s words were; baby, carry, copy, cry, dry, fly, reply, sky, try.  

We looked at the plural rules with these words (babies, skies etc), change y to and i and add es. I attach 2 videos which we watched, the rapping one was a particular favourite!

Topic 

In History we looked at the lives of Alfred the Great, 871 – 899 and William the Conqueror, 1066 – 1087.  

The children enjoyed learning about Alfred the Great and discussing why they think he was given the name Alfred the Great and the impact Alfred had on England. We also discussed the life of William the Conqueror and learning about the Bayeux Tapestry we then sequenced his story and made our own Bayeux tapestry. 

We were lucky to have Mr Miles in to teach a computing lesson. The children were able to log in and then start to create their own monarch using a paint programme. Mr Miles was very impressed with them all (see pics).

In art we compared the work of Kandinsky and Mondrian before doing our own creations using primary colours in the style of Mondrian (see pics)

In RE we continued to learn about and order the creation story from the Bible and made pin wheels. The children bought these home today, perhaps you can talk to them about what the pictures show and where this story is found in the Bible.

Reading books and sharing books were sent home today, please return on Thursday.

- School photos on Wednesday. The children will still have PE so please come to school as usual in PE kit with uniform (plus school shoes) and we will get them changed and make sure they look neat and tidy. If you want you can pack a hairbrush and if we think your child needs a brush up we will!

Congratulations to Henry A, Millie and Seren.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cheshire and Mrs Thompson

Friday 19th September

The week started with a fire drill.  Well done Year 2 you remained extremely calm, lined up quickly and quietly and walked out sensibly onto the astro.   

Maths 

Maths at the beginning of the week was devoted to maths assessment which the children did amazingly well in. We have continued to practise securing our understanding of place value, 10s and 1s and number patterns. Next week we will move onto adding and subtracting. It is vital that children are secure in their number bonds to 10 and 20 to really aid their future learning so please work on these at home. This includes numbers up to 10/20 e.g. 7+3, 2+8, 9+4.

English 

Continuing our story, Troll Swap, we wrote a letter as Tabitha’s parents describing how their daughter, Tabitha makes her parents feel.  Using the word because to help explain their feelings. 

On Tuesday some children enjoyed acting the characters from the story, Timothy and Tabitha and thinking what they might say to each other when they first meet.  Then Tabitha, starts to live like a troll and has a fabulous time literally 'living her best life' and so we did a diary entry to show what fun she was having using because and expanded noun phrases such as 'I loved jumping in squelchy, muddy puddles because my parents are not here.'

This week’s words were; cry, dry, fly, fry, July, reply, shy, sky, sly, try. 

We have revised all the graphemes for the long 'i' sound: i, ie, i-e, igh, y

We are in the process of teaching the class the 'lead ins' and outs for handwriting so they can begin to join some of their letters. This week we did e, f and s which are the final 3 from the curly caterpillar letters. I attach a good video which shows how we teach this. If children are not ready to join we are focusing on print (no lead in.)

Topic 

We sequenced in chronological order the 6 significant monarchs we are going to be researching.  Starting next week with Alfred the Great, 871 – 899 and William the Conqueror, 1066 – 1087. 

We also looked at the map of the Uk and located a number of royal residences including Balmoral Castle in Scotland, Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland, Caernarfon Castle in Wales and Buckingham Palace in England. In forest school they have looked at royal residences and will move onto the feudal system next week.

Our Friday afternoon art was great fun today with the children continuing their practice of mixing primary colours to create a range of different hues. They spent time mixing the colours and then used these colours to paint whatever they wanted! The results were beautiful, see pics.

In RE we have been learning more about the 7 day creation story in the Bible. The children acted out one day each, see pics.

Thank you for returning reading books. Please do return on THURSDAY with the book filled in. 

Next Wednesday we have a West End in schools workshop on the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

We have started learning our Harvest Song (what great singers they are, bodes well for the Nativity!!) and we look forward to seeing many of you at that on Wednesday 8th October.

Congratulations to our stars of the week and kind heart, Jenson, Naia and Flo!

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cheshire and Mrs Thompson

Friday 12th September

From Mrs Thompson:

This week we have started our history topic, Magnificent Monarchs.  The topic teaches children about the English and British monarchy from Alfred the Great AD 871 - 899 to the present day, King Charles III. We will use; timelines, information about royal palaces, portraits and other historical sources.  It will build up to an understanding of the monarchs and then we will research six of the most significant sovereigns.

We will also visit Hever Castle on Thursday 9^th October. 

In Literacy we have introduced Pathways to Write and Pathways to Spell. In Pathways to Write this term the book we are using is called Troll Swap by Leigh Hodgkinson.  The children enjoyed having to predict what the book is about from the front cover and some items - deely boppers and a letter from the main character.  Lots of lovely discussions followed and the children wrote some great predictions about the character of Timothy. We then discussed how we might describe the main character using adjectives. 

In Pathways to Spell we have revisited a selection of words from the Year 1 Common Exception Word list that are linked to the class text, Troll Swap; love, the, has, they, you, to, be, of, were, house, where, are, said.  

This week's words were; because, both, class, climb, could, grass, most, pass, plant, should, water, would.  If you wanted to practise these at home please do but we do not test them in school. We will put the new words on the class page every week for you to see so if you would like to reinforce them at home when reading with your child, that would be very helpful. 

In Numeracy we have been working on place value and number bonds and number patterns.

Mrs Cheshire:

Continuing on from Mrs Thompson with the fabulous book Troll Swap we have designed our own trolls using noun phrases e.g. The big, smelly troll has green, slimy skin. We revised what a noun (PPT = Person, Place or thing, a naming word) and adjective (describes a noun) is while always remembering capital letters and full stops. We were then introduced to a new character, Tabitha Lumpit who is not a regular little girl but has some rather bad habits! The children are really engaging well with this new literacy programme. 

In maths today we were looking at number patterns which they are finding quite difficult. Please practise counting in steps of 2, 5 and 10 as they need to know these fluently. Counting on and back on a 100 square also helps this. Playing snakes and ladders and other number games are great ways to encourage 'fun maths!'

We have sent home reading books. Your child should have read the book in the plastic wallet at least once to an adult this week (not necessarily the whole book.) Please fill in the yellow reading record; write the title of the book any comments and sign so we know it has been read. We will check all the books to ensure children have been heard as this forms such an important part of their reading in Year 2. Many thanks for your support with this. PLEASE RETURN BOOKS ON THURSDAY!

A few children are re-reading some of the phased books to build confidence and fluency. 

Congratulations to Blake, Jesse and Oscar.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cheshire and Mrs Thompson

Welcome to Year 2!

Mrs Thompson and I have had a great first week with the class and have been really impressed with the way they have settled so quickly into the new year. They are a great bunch and we are looking forward to getting to know them and you all as the year progresses.

This week has mostly been about getting to know each other and the routines and expectations for Year 2. We have started our maths, mainly looking at place value. In year 2 we work with numbers up to 100 so a strong knowledge of tens and ones and how they relate is key. We have used dienes (which we call chips and peas) to show what tens and ones look like (see pics). We also started our 100 day maths and got to number 4. When we get to day 100 in school (usually mid feb) we will have a big party!

In English we have written a letter to the teacher about ourselves and talked about our holidays. It was encouraging to see beautiful handwriting, some great punctuation and thoughtful use of phonics to spell. Our English is changing this year, please read the newsletter today to find out more about Pathways to Write. This will replace the Year 2 Little Wandle programme of spelling as we move to a whole school approach. 

We started our new Art topic today, Exploring Colour. We looked at the colour wheel and made our own ones by carefully mixing 2 primary colours to make a secondary colour. The results are beautiful (see pics.) A great way to end the week.

I have heard all the children read and hopefully we will start sending reading books home next week. We will mostly be continuing from where they ended Year 1.

On Fridays the children can choose a 'sharing' book from the classroom library. This is not to be read by them to you but rather shared with a parent/carer as a fun reading experience. Please return books by next Friday (or before). (see pics)

Dates for diary:

Harvest festival: Wednesday 8th October (9.15)

Hever Castle trip, Thursday 9th October. We will be in touch nearer the time for parent volunteers.

Congratulations to our first Stars of the Week, Freddie and Daisy and our Kind Heart Award winner, Freya! (see pics)

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cheshire and Mrs Thompson