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