Snapshot of the Week Week beg 24.5.2021

The final week before half term! I can't quite believe where this year is going. A quick final snapshot before the new half term begins.

Maths We were continuing this topic. It's a big old one to do! We had found out about halving...quartering...finding a third and this week we got onto finding three quarters of numbers. Basically you find ONE quarter and then add it up 3 times (or multiply by 3!)

D and T We have mostly finished designing, making and evaluating our chairs, all with various degrees of success! This is part of a structure topic. Once we have some photos we will put them on here.

English We learnt about tion words...there are many of them. We also finished our shark reports.

Reading We finally finished our book called The Antlered Ship

Science We finished learning about life cycles

RE We completed our work on Jonah and the Whale.

I hope you enjoyed reading our blog this week.

Have a good half term and I will see you on the other side!

Snapshot of the week Wk beg 10.5.21

This week in year 2 we have....

Maths continued our fraction topic by finding a half...quarter and third of numbers and shapes. Fractions are actually VERY tricky to a lot of children so if you would like to practise some at home....feel free. The thirds are proving especially tricky but you just have to remember to divide by 3! eg 1/3 of 12 is the same as 12 divided by 3.

Literacy We started writing a report about whales using all the features we have learnt about this week. We have used headings and subheadings. Call me David Atttenborough because I have learnt a lot about sharks from the last 2 weeks! Ask your child about the biggest and smallest shark!

ICT Talking of sharks....in our 'effective searching' topic we have been on the DK Find Out site to find more info on sharks. It's a great website and very child friendly.....have a look! We used the chrome books to find out this info.

Spelling We have been learning the suffixes  ly and ness

D and T We have continued to make our chairs...they are taking shape nicely!

Reading We have started a new book called The Antlered Ship. It's about a fox called Marco who wants to learn answers to life's mysterious questions! One of mine is....why is there always an odd sock left in the washing machine?!!

Another busy old week in Year 2....over and out until next week! 

Snapshot of the week Wk beg 3.5.21

I hope you enjoyed your Bank Holiday! This week we...

Maths learnt more about fractions including finding a third of numbers. You can use your 3 times tables to do this. We learnt a handy rhyme during Lockdown....you might remember it! I have put it at the bottom in case you want to practice it.

ICT We were using the chrome books to do 'effective searching' about dinosaurs. We have learnt the terms...browser and search engine and used Google to find out some amazing facts about dinosaurs.

RE We learnt the story of The Good Samaritan because one of the people took responsibility for an injured person.

Literacy We have been looking at a non-fiction text and using headings and subheadings to find the answers to questions. We labelled all the features on a page about sharks.

D and T We planned and started to make a chair, continuing our structure topic.

Guided Reading We finished reading our book which was called The Polar Bear Son. Ask your child about the Inuit lady in it!

It's been another busy week in the Year 2 classroom!

See you next week.

Snapshot of the week Wk beg 26.4.21

This week has been a busy one! 

Phonics We were looking at the suffixes -ful and -less. Sometimes you have to change the 'root' word before adding the suffix. eg beauty......beautiful Drop the y before you add an i, then add the suffix.

Literacy We are looking at a non fiction book about sharks and finding out the key features of a non fiction text eg glossary...index...headings...sub headings...diagrams and contents.

Maths We learnt about halves and thirds.

RE We have been talking about responsibility and how to be a responsible person.

History We have been learning about Samuel Pepys and how he was a witness to the fire of London. He wrote a diary in secret code and buried his wine and cheese in his garden!

PE In PE the class have been making some lovely gymnastic sequences and using the apparatus.

D and T We used construction kits to make chairs, this is in preparation for making our own chairs.

This is just a fraction of what have done this week but it gives you a bit of an idea of what we do each day! The latest newsletter is under the Newsletter Star and the spellings are under curriculum. Take a look to see what we will be doing this term.

Over and out until next week! 

Snapshot of the week Week beginning 19.4.21

We started the week with some good news! Year 2 won the Smartie Challenge because we bought back the most tubes. Thank you to everyone for doing so well. We will get a small prize at some point! 

Maths in Maths we have been working on word problems using bar and cherry models

Literacy We were using conjunctions to write sentences and used adjectives to describe the forest

Guided reading  We are reading a book called The Polar Bear Son. This is about an Inuit woman....ask your child to explain Inuit!

Science We are looking at life cycles...this week was the life cycle of a chick

ICT We are learning about terms to do with the internet eg browser....search engine....world wide web and web address

D and T We are talking about structures and investigated which structure is the most stable out of a cuboid...a triangular prism and a cylinder. Ask your child what we did to find out!

Try and keep looking on here to see what we have been up to! This half term's spelling are on our curriculum page so take a look!

See you next week!

Snapshot of the Week Week beg 15.3.21

This week we managed to pack a lot in! Please have a look at some photos of our Science Day activities on our class page, under the class events star.

Maths We are adding...subtracting and finding totals or change

Science We learnt the terms carbohydrate and protein for different food groups.

Literacy We compared two versions of Rapunzel and wrote about the differences

Spelling We looked at words ending in -ey eg donkey...monkey.....money....trolley....turkey...journey

Art We started using our sketch books this week using mark making

D and T We have started looking at 'structures' and went exploring outside to see and draw what we could spot!

RE We talked about The Last Supper

All in all a busy old week! 

See you next week! 

Snapshot of the Week Week beg 8.3.21

Welcome back!  It was soooo lovely to have the children back this week. They burst through the classroom door as if they had never been away! We have been keeping a close eye in case anyone is really struggling but so far...so good! This week....

History Started our new topic which is all about The Great Fire of London. Ask your child when it started.

Literacy We continued our Rapunzel work and did a little bit of writing using adjectives.

Maths We have been recapping some of the work done in Lockdown especially money, adding and finding change.

Science We had a great day on Friday doing lots of fun experiments. Talk to your child about it!

We also did our first Teach the Teacher in the classroom. Look at the Teach the Teacher star to see what Joao told us.

It's been a lovely first week back but don't be surprised if your child was tired.....I know I was!

Over and out until next week!

Mrs Otway's Christmas Snapshot of the week (Week beg 14.12.20)

Welcome to our final week of the term and what a week it was!  This is my 33rd year of teaching and I would never have dreamt that I would be doing a Zoom assembly....wearing a visor to teach in....washing my hands a million times a day and greeting parents wearing masks. The children have been brilliant. They attack their learning with a great enthusiasm and we have a lot of fun....the best way to learn methinks!

• Firstly we had our Christmas assembly. I apologise for the techy issues but these things just seem to happen. We did start again so hopefully you were able to enjoy it! I know some of you were unable to see it so we have done a wee taster of some of the songs so you can listen as much as you like!
• We went down to the church to see the Nativity Trail, which was lovely.
• We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Dinner
• We had a visit from Santa's elves who had left us some lovely blue watches and a new box of jokes for me, as apparently I need them.....what a cheek!!!
• On top of all that we finished off our Guided Reading Book...The Squirrels that Squabbled and solved some Christmas maths problems.

   Thank you sooooo much for all your gifts and cards. We have all appreciated them and it was a lovely treat. I am sure, like me, that your Christmas plans have had to change but I am trying to remain optimistic for a better 2021 and that things will...however long....get back to normal.

Have a merry Christmas and a healthy new year! 

Over and out until 2021!

Mrs Otway's snapshot of the week (Week beg 7.12.20)

This week we have been practising our Christmas assembly. This is on Thursday morning at 10.00am. We are going to try and record it, but it might not work! Keep your fingers and everything crossed!

This week we have......

Maths Last week we were trying to know our pairs to 10 really quickly...this week we were doing pairs to 100 by using what we already know. eg If we know 6+4=10 then we know 60+40=100. We were also subtracting where it crosses the tens, eg 14-9 21-7

Spelling We were working on our common exception words....these are in the middle of your white reading record. We were also continuing to change the y to an i and add es if the word ends in a consonant and y eg baby....fairy.....

History As promised we learnt about the Spanish Armada.

Guided Reading We have been reading a book called The Squirrels who Squabbled. Ask your child about it!

Don't forget to keep looking at the spellings.....reading each day....and learning your 2x/5x and 10x tables. You could also practise your pairs to 10 and pairs to 100. A good way to do this is to use a pack of playing cards. Take out the picture cards and place a card down eg 7...your child says the pair to make it up to 10 eg 3. See how many you can do in a minute.

Next week we are off to the church on Thursday pm to see The Nativity Trail. We are also having some party games on Tuesday pm. We are not allowed to bring in food and share it like we usually do but we can still have a bit of end of term fun! It's been a long old term but the class have adapted really well and have worked soooooooo hard. They are a lovely bunch!

Over and out until next week!

Mrs Otway's Snapshot of the week (Week beg 30.11.20)

I can't quite believe it is December already! We have been opening our class Advent calendar as well as looking at an online calendar which tells you how Christmas is celebrated around the world. Each day is a different flag and a tradition in that country. Try and ask your child what they have seen each day, it's quite fascinating to see what countries eat for Christmas dinner!

If you were able to see our assembly...great. I know there can be technical difficulties but I admitted 40 people!

Spelling....this week we were learning how to change words that end in a consonant +y into a plural by changing y to an i and adding es eg puppy......puppies fly....flies.

English We were writing a poem based on a picture by Rousseau and trying to use really good vocab choices. We used....lurking...skulking.....pondering....vibrant....lush to describe the forest. Many of these words have come from our Guided Reading book. We aim to 'write like a reader'. In other words pinch words from reading and use them in our writing. You can do this at home when your child reads to you.

Maths We have been working on our mental skills. We MUST know our pairs to 10 as well as doubles and 'Think 10' eg 9+4 can change to 10+3 which makes it easier to add. If you know double 6, then this would help you with 6+7....by doing 6+6 then adding 1.

Don't forget to practice counting in 2s...5s.....10s.

History....We finished off our Walter Raleigh work....next week it's The Spanish Armada!

Thank you for all the boxes....we are going to start using them this week. 

Over and out until next week!

Mrs Otway's Snapshot of the week (week beg 23.11.20)

I can't believe that next week will be the 1st December! The term, although long, seems to have flown by. The class are getting a bit tired so please have some early nights! Our Zoom assembly is on Friday at 1.15pm so please tune in to see what we have been up to. So onto this week....

Maths We were learning how to 'Find the Difference' between numbers. Such as 6 and 8....you have to count on if the numbers are quite close. One common misconception was to count the first number eg 6 7 8.... but DON'T do this! Put the 6 in your head and count on. Give your child some to do to see how they get on.....some children were quite stuck on it.

Spelling We looked at y at the end of words that sounds like an I eg reply.....why....my....multiply. The spelling sheet gives you some ideas. Y is a sneaky letter as it can be ee....as in mummy...daddy...baby. It can also be i as in gym/Egypt. 

History. We started looking at Sir Walter Raleigh....quite an interesting man...credited with discovering the potato  and tobacco 

D and T We looked at some wheeled vehicles to see how axles work. We also learnt the word chassis!

RE We compared two festivals....Eid and Christmas.

Music We have started learning some songs for a wee Zoom Christmas Concert! When we are ready I will let you know the time and date......watch this space!

I had an email from a parent this week regarding things that were coming up and how to teach things in Maths. I have put the sheet I have done below so that you can see how things are taught as many things in Maths have changed.

Mrs Otway's Snapshot of the week (Week beg 16.11.20)

This week we have....

Reading Continued our guided reading in our new way looking at The Bear Who Stared. We have learnt some new words......emerged...pondered....skulked....strolled...sett....gawking. Ask your child what they mean!

Spelling We have been learning -al/il at the end of words. The list is on the class page so please have a look. You can also find some more words to use in BOA sentences. These are sentences with and/but/or in them. These are vital in Year 2 for extending sentences.

History. We are learning about Elizabeth 1 because she lived at Hatfield House. Ask your child what we have learnt so far to test out their listening!

ICT We have looked at Internet safety and what to do when something odd pops up. As more and more children use the internet they must know how to use it safely. We have looked at Smartie the Penguin and Super Hero Sid who have explained what to do.

DT We started looking at axles and wheels which we will need when we make our 'item' Thank you for the boxes!

Please keep reading and learning your 2x and 10x tables. Mrs Dowling has also started on the 5x tables.

Over and out until next week!

Mrs Otway's snapshot of the week (Week beginning 9.11.20)

Reading This week we saw a new way to do guided reading. This is where the whole class look at the same text. We are reading a book called The Bear who Stared. During this reading we use the reading VIPERS! Each letter stands for  a different skill.

V=vocabulary

I=Inference (reading between the lines)

P=Prediction

E=explaining

R=retrieval (answering questions from the text)

S=sequencing/summarising.

We have learnt some new words so please ask your child about their meanings.....emerged/scuttled/synonym/strolled/gawking/sett/burrow

All these words have come from our reading!

The little spiral bound booklets that went home recently have really good things to ask your child so please have a look at it. 

We have also done fractions in Maths....Elizabeth 1 in History....internet safety in ICT and el words in spelling.

We have also put the Rousseau pictures under the special event star so have a wee look at them!

Over and out until next week.

Mrs Otway's Snapshot of the Week (Week beg 2.11.20)

Welcome back to Year 2. The weather is definitely colder so please ensure your child is suitably dressed for the great outdoors. They also need a jumper as we are keeping some windows open to ventilate the room. Thank you for all the indoor shoes.

So onto this week....

Maths We were partitioning numbers in different ways. For example 37 can be split into 30 and 7....easy! But our next step was to split it again into 20/17....10/27...0/37. We used dienes to help us. We showed a lot of stickablity on this as many children found it hard. Ask your child about it. If they can explain it, they have cracked it!

English We have started looking at a new book called How to Make Friends with  a Ghost. It is all about friendship and being afraid of something you don't need to be. We talked about fears. My fear is spiders and ......moths! Some children said clowns...the dark and scarecrows. We also looked at writing questions.

Geography We finished the last bit about countries of the UK....Wales.

Art We did some amazing toucan pictures in the style of Rousseau

Spelling le words. I have put the new spellings on here so you might like to have a look at them and practice writing some sentences that use a but/and/or in them.

ICT Once again we were air traffic controllers but had to make our planes make a noise and make a turn!

So as you can see another busy old week in year 2....if your child says they have done nothing all week...don't believe them. Equally if they are tired....they have a good reason to be!

WANTED!

We are starting a Design and Technology project and need lots of small boxes. Cereal boxes  are too big except for those little ones you get in a pack of 8. If you have any please could you send them in and we will quarantine them until we use them.

Thank you!

Over and out until next week!

Mrs Otway's Snapshot of the Week (Week beg 19. 10.20)

It's quite amazing that we have already reached half term. Half of me thinks it's been a long old half term and the other half of me thinks it has gone quickly! The class have adapted brilliantly to the new 'bubble' idea and are now used to washing hands on a regular basis. For those children that didn't return in Year 1, well, you would never know! So this week....

Maths Continued to subtract, using dienes and regrouping. I spoke to several parents via Zoom about this tricky concept. Instructions for how to do it are on here.

Spelling This week we looked at wr words.

English We finished our work on Frog and the Stranger by writing a postcard from America which is where Rat goes to!

ICT We were Air Traffic Controllers making planes move on Purple Mash

Science We did an investigation into waterproof materials.

Art We made some fantastic pictures based on a picture by Rousseau where the tiger looks like it is coming right at you!

Don't forget your indoor shoes when you come back......only 60 days to Christmas as I type this! We are putting our thinking caps on for how to celebrate it in a safe way!

Have a lovely half term.

Mrs Otway's Snapshot of the week (Week beg 12.10.20)

English.....This week we have been doing a lot of writing. We wrote a story based on part of a book that we have been looking at...Frog and the Stranger. We have been doing a lot of work on sentence structure, which really needs to be secure by the end of Year 2, if not before! We have looked at 'alien' sentences to say what is wrong with them eg the dog was walking down the road and.

This is not just lacking a capital letter but it doesn't make sense. We then go back and edit our own work with a purple pen.

Maths This week we have been regrouping tens. eg 23-7. The class have found these VERY difficult apart from about 6 children! You have to substitute the tens diene for 10 ones before you can do these sums. See the attached sheet for how to do it as it would be something you could do at home to help your child. 

Spelling This week it's been all about silent letter words....kn and gn. Look on our page for our spellings. You can write these in sentences and get them to check their work back.

ICT We are learning about algorithms and coding. We used Purple Mash to make fish move!

Music We have begun to learn about the pulse and beat of a song.

We also had a little visit from 2 delightful hedgehogs this week from our hedgehog lady....Hazel who works in the office! She takes them in and makes them better. We had Lemmie and Wellie....prickly little things! Ask your child about all this week's work!

Don't forget the indoor shoes after half term.

Over and out until next week.

Mrs Otway's Snapshot of the Week (week beginning 5.10.20)

Another busy week in Year 2 this week. We are not able to have proper assemblies at the moment but Mr Rose does a wee Zoom assembly on a Monday where he spoke about harvest. Thank you for your donations!

So onto this week....

Maths. We continued looking at ordering numbers and placing them on a blank number line. This is actually quite tricky but it does give a good indicator of children that are mixing up similar numbers eg 21/12 We also looked at comparing numbers and using the <> + signs. The <> signs always face the biggest number...think crocodile's mouth! We do a few fluency slides each day from White Rose Maths to answer questions quite quickly.

English. We are still looking at Frog and the Stranger and have continued to write sentences checking they are demarcated properly.

Science. We did an investigation about shoelaces! Ask your child what we did!

Art. We made some wonderful collages on Friday based on his very famous picture called Tiger in a Tropical Storm. I actually went to see this painting many years ago. It is enormous! We put some pictures on here this week of the class holding up their colour mixing work.

Spelling. We have spent a lot of time this week on the u sounds...ew/u-e/ue/u/ and ough. In fact there are 11 different ways to make this sound.

RE We learnt all about The Qua'ran this week. Some of the children in the class spoke about their parents using it so it was nice to learn about this special book. We even looked at one which handily has the English translation!

And of course we rounded the week off with Teach the Teacher.....have a look under the star!

Over and out until next week!

Mrs Otway's Snapshot of the week (Week beginning 28. 9.20)

What a wet week it has been, certainly giving Noah a run for his money! So onto this week....

Maths. Mrs Dowling is continuing to work on counting in 2s and 10s. This is something you can really practice at home so give it a go. I have put the instructions for 'The Lid Game' on here so if you want to have a go, you will know how. We have also been looking at ordering numbers on a number line. Some children are still getting a bit stuck on similar looking numbers eg 21/12....60/16 so if you can test out your child by asking them please do!

English. This week we started looking at a new book called Frog and the Stranger by a Dutch author callled Max Velthuijs (pronounced Velt-house) Ask your child about the story and what it teaches us. We have been looking at sentence structure and really trying to hammer home capital letters and full stops. Again, this is something you can do at home and check their punctuation. To be age related in writing, these MUST be secure.

Science. We learnt how Velcro came to be invented. Ask your child who it was and how the invention came to be! (George de Mestral by the way)

RE. This week we looked at Islamic signs and symbols.

Art. We drew like Rousseau on Friday. I really will try and show you their work by next week!

Spelling. We are still looking at soft c words as well as some Year 2 common exception words. If you want to 'test' out your child try these.....door/floor/poor/steak/great/break/would/should/could.

Please do keep reading with your child as often as possible and record it in the white reading records. 

Don't forget to return you parent evening slips this week.

Finally....the weather is turning! At the moment we don't have indoor shoes but we need them after half term. Please could they be the black plimsolls but PLEASE could you decorate them with their initials or a small picture so they will find it easier to find. 

Over and out until next week!

Mrs Otway's Weekly Snapshot of the Week (Week beginning 21.9.20)

Brrrrrr! The weather on Friday was really cold so please ensure your child is suitably dressed for the big outdoors!

So onto this week....

Maths....This week we have continued to work on 3 digit numbers and make them using different apparatus in the class. Some of the class found it hard to 'make' 11/12/13/15 because they don't sound like regular numbers. eg twenty two sounds like a twenty and a two but thirteen does not sound like a thir and a teen! Ask your child how to make these numbers. We have also talked about one more and one fewer than a number. The term 'fewer than ' is quite tricky for some children.

Literacy...we have just done our last bits of work on Journey by writing a wee story about going through the door she drew.

RE....we are looking at the symbols of Christianity

Art....we had a lovely time colour mixing on Friday to create leaves like Henri Rousseau would have done! We will try and get them on our page this week.

Spelling.....we have been looking at words with a soft c in them eg circle...cylinder...celery etc. See if you can find any other words with a c that sounds like an s!

That's just a small idea of what we have been learning. A new idea for year 2 is below called Teach the Teacher....have a wee look!

Mrs Otway's weekly snapshot of the week (Week beginning 14..9.20)

It's been another busy week in year 2! 

Reading.....when the children came back in September they all had to 'Adopt a Book'. They were given a book that they had to get to know really well, it also matched their peg label. This was designed to get them into books from day 1. We have taken pictures of them, with their books, so have a look under class events. There is also information about books on here under reading so have a wee look at recommended books for year 2.....many of them are their peg labels.

Maths....we have been learning about 3 digit numbers and how to 'make' them using our dienes and place value cards....ask your child about these. Children often get numbers confused that look the same eg 116/161. We are also still counting in 2s and 10s.

Writing...we are still looking at Journey by Aaron Becker and we wrote a little bit about the child in the story going through the red door.....again....ask your child!

Science..In science we are looking at the purpose and suitability of materials...two big words...but we are year 2 after all!

Just a wee idea of just some of the things we have done this week.....Over and out until next time!

Mrs Otway's Weekly Snap shot Week 1 (7.9.20)

This week we have....

Maths...looked at place value and used a range of equipment to 'make' numbers. We also counted in 2s and 10s and used money to do this.

English....we have started looking at a book called Journey. There are no words but wonderful pics. Ask your child about it.

In spelling we are learning how to spell words with dge in them such as bridge and fridge. The spellings we are doing are now on our class page under curriculum so you could have a wee look and practice some at home. dge is a trigraph...one sound...3 letters, so tricky stuff!

Geography...we have started learning the countries of the UK and their capital cities, plus the surrounding seas and oceans.

Art....we have stated learning about an artist called Henri Rousseau.

It's been a busy old week!