September in Year 1

The children have had an amazing start to Year 1! They have settled into their new learning environment and daily routines well.

In Phonics, the children have been continuing to learn and consolidate set 1 sounds and are now beginning to learn their set 2 and set 3 sounds. They have been using this knowledge to write about the Read Write Inc texts their group has read during the week.

During Maths, the children have been exploring place value as they learn and consolidating their knowledge of numbers to 10. They have been counting forward and counting back to find one more and one less of a given number.

The children have also been investigating 2d and 3d shapes. They have sorted the shapes based on their properties, hunted for shapes in the environment, created buildings using different 3d shapes and used mathematical language to describe them such as vertices, edges, corners, sides and faces.

During history the children have been exploring timelines extending back to Victorian times.

During science the children have been exploring everyday materials by sorting and examining their properties.

Personal development-

In personal development the children have been learning about relationships and what makes a good friend. They have used role play and circle time to show their understanding of their emotions and how their actions might affect others.

Year 2 May learning update

May Year 2 update

How can it be May already? It’s been another fantastic month in Year 2 and we’ve achieved such a lot. May is always important for year 2 as we have SAT’s to complete. We are so proud of each and every child as they have all used their secrets of success to push themselves, work hard and never give up. As well as the all important SAT’s we’ve managed to squeeze in lots of other learning. In literacy we have started to find out about Australia and the animals that live there. We will continue our exploration of Australia and native Aboriginal culture in art, dance and music too. In maths lessons we’ve have been securing our calculating strategies ensuring we are confident in addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Our science work has taken us on to find out more about plants. We planted our own sunflower seeds and have watched them grow into seedlings. We have taken them home to care for and are looking forward to watching them grow and complete the lifecycle we have learnt about in class. We have done a lot of work in computing lessons programming and de-bugging algorithms (instructions), this has been fantastic fun. Our greatest achievement this month has got to be learning to play the recorder. We have already mastered the notes B and A. We are really looking forward to learning new notes and being able to play more complicated pieces of music.

March in Year 2

Another month has passed and we’ve covered so much new learning in our lessons.

Children in literacy have been closely examining the ‘Great Fire of London’. We are able to learn about this great fire because a famous man ‘Samuel Pepys’ kept a diary. We can still read his diary today and we are able to learn all the facts about the fire and the changes made to London following the horrific events of 1666.

In maths we have been looking at different measures; measuring time, weight and capacity. We have learnt about reading scales and have also applied our knowledge to solve problems.

In science we have been planning experimenting and investigating materials and their properties. We have even been responsible for planning our own investigation questions and carrying out an experiment to find out if we can change the stretch of socks.

In art we have been using pencil and then charcoal exploring mark making, textures and effects. We were amazed to find how artistic we can be without having to use colour.

Look at some of our amazing art work here;

Year 2 learning in February

February has gone and the children have learnt so much again. You can see in the photos that they have been learning about the properties of 3D shapes. Oscar was so keen on this activity that he continued his learning at home making more 3D shapes at his kitchen table! The children also learnt to tell the time, this has been a real challenge but they are mastering this new skill.

In literacy children have used their historical  knowledge and written a independent piece of writing about The Great Fire of London. The children have been learning to use different tenses in their writing in preparation for writing diary entries after the holiday.

In science the children have begun to explore common materials and their properties. They are looking forward to planning and carrying out their own investigations after the half term break.

As part of children’s mental health week, the children shared the ‘Bottle Book’ where they explored their feelings and emotions through colour.

The children have also begun to explore colour mixing and shading in their art lessons.

 

A busy and eventful month for us all in Year 2

Each month we seem to cram in more and more learning.

This is just the highlights from this past month of January;

We came back after Christmas and started researching and learning all about ‘The Great Plague’ This work has been fascinating. As well as learning all the key historical dates and facts we’ve made many comparisons between this period and our ‘current modern day plague – Covid 19’. The cures and remedies tried by our ancestors to ward off germs were interesting and sometimes familiar to us today. Who would have known that techniques such as mask wearing and isolation were started way, way back in 1665.

In maths we have tackled fractions of shapes and of amounts. We have moved on to master multiplication and division. Currently we are studying 2D and 3D shapes and investigating their properties. We’ve even been learning about symmetrical shapes and patterns.

In science we have rounded off our learning about ‘animals including humans’ by doing a couple of investigations answering very interesting questions like ‘Does our shoe size get bigger the older we get?’ and ‘Do we get taller the older we get?’ We’ve learnt how to work together to plan an investigation, how to make predictions and how to write a conclusion explaining everything we found out.

We’ve also found time to work on the apparatus in PE, learn the basic skills of invasion games, work with different art media and make New Year’s resolutions.

A busy November in Year 2

Every month in Year 2 seems to be busier than the last!

In literacy we have been continuing the ‘Super Shropshire’ learning focus, turning our attention to famous local people. Children working with Mrs Shedden for literacy have studied the lives of Abraham Darby and Captain Webb.

In maths we have been learning how to multiply and divide which means we can now calculate all four operations; addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

We have also managed to squeeze in some geographical mapping skills looking at the use of the compass and symbols on maps.

During indoor PE sessions we have been trying something new – dance. Over the past few weeks we’ve learnt to use gestures and work together in unison and in formations to create dances which keep to a steady beat.

We worked hard during anti-bullying week on the theme of ‘one kind word’. We focussed on deciding what was kind/unkind and used the ‘bucket filling’ idea to build other people up by doing kind things for them. We also learnt the important lesson that if you fill someone else’s bucket by being kind you also fill your own bucket. We rounded off anti-bullying week by raising money and supporting ‘Children in Need’ it was great fun to meet Pudsey Bear and Rosey even won a prize for her fabulous mask design.

 

A busy September in Year Two

We have been working so hard all through September in Year 2.

In maths we have been learning all about tens and units. We have more recently been using these tens and units to help us to add using jottings. Everyone in Year 2 has been using the secrets of success ‘improve, concentrate, don’t give up, push yourself, working hard and try new things’ to achieve lots more in their learning.

In literacy we have started investigating ‘Super Shropshire’ we have gathered lots of vocabulary to describe Ironbridge and we used it to write a setting description.

In science we have been exploring living things and their habitats. We learnt all about world habitats and micro habitats. We have also explored the life processes of living things helping us to identify which items are living, dead and those which have never been alive.