Weekly round up!

Weekly update (October 18th!

Hello everyone,
We’ve had a really busy week!
In Maths, we’ve been counting in threes and putting numbers on an empty number line. We’ve completed our place value unit and are now moving onto addition and subtraction. This links in very well with money if you’re able to have a practise at home.

In Literacy, we have been writing our own questions and answers about octopuses. We have been trying to use ‘so’ and ‘because’ to develop our answers.

In the afternoons, we have been learning about our rights and responsibilities in PSHE. We talked about the difference between rights and privileges. We had some interesting conversations about whether pocket money and ‘screen time’ were rights! We focused on ‘the right to be safe’ and recapped ways to stay safe and remembered the people who keep us safe.

Have a lovely Sunday,
Miss Boyce
 
Weekly roundup (October 11th)
Hi everyone,
I hope you’re having a lovely weekend.
This week in Maths we’ve been step counting - which is the first stage in learning how to multiply. We have counted forwards and backwards in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s from zero and from any number (much more difficult!). Most of us can see a pattern and continue chanting the pattern, but are not yet comfortable with the maths concepts behind the counting. For example, every child struggled when asked the following question: If I count in tens from 5, will I say 55? In order to consolidate learning when counting in tens from any number, we have been looking at abacuses. Adding or taking away beads in the ten’s column is a very visual way for children to understand that the ones don’t change when we count in tens. You can help at home by counting with 2p, 5p and 10p coins.

We’ve had a look at Times Tables Rock Stars. Children will know how to multiply because they did Multiplication Mountain last year, however the division symbol will be new to them and we won’t be learning about division until the end of Autumn term – so I don’t expect anywhere near full marks just yet!

In Literacy, we are reading a set of books about animals which have a funny question and a serious factual answer (Could a shark do gymnastics?, Could a penguin ride a bicycle?). This week, we will be writing our own questions and answers. We are still focusing on making sensible attempts at spelling trickier words and using the correct punctuation. We are also working really hard at handwriting. The focus this week is ladder letters - t,l,h,k,b,d.

In the afternoons we are doing PSHE this week. Pupils will be taught about respect for self and others and the importance of responsible behaviours and actions, about rights and responsibilities as members of families, other groups and as citizens.

Well done to those who are practising reading at home every day. Children who are getting regular practise are really flying! Don’t forget to practise spellings – the test results are in the reading folder for you to have a look at. Bearing in mind we practise spellings in class and at home every day and learn about the spelling rules in our daily phonics lessons, I would expect a score of between 7 and 10. If your child is falling below this, we will start to think about phonics interventions in order to support them.
Have a lovely Sunday!
Miss B
 
Weekly update (October 4th)
Hi everyone,
apologies for the short update – I have injured my wrist and have been advised to rest it up.
This week we continued with place value in Maths, specifically looking at inequality symbols (< and >) and balancing number sentences with equals.
For example:
34 > 4
1 + 4 = 3 + ___
3 tens are greater than twenty-four

In Literacy, we have been writing up our ‘slow and steady wins the race’ stories, focusing on making sense, punctuation, handwriting and using descriptive words. Some of children are struggling to read their own writing, which is something we need to fix as soon as possible! I’ve attached handwriting sheet to practise at home.
In RE, we explored Islam and learnt about the 5 pillars and prayer rituals.
Next week we will be starting a new text in Literacy – Could a Penguin Ride a Bicycle. We will learning about safe searching online and passwords.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend
Miss B
 
Weekly update (September 27th)

Hello everyone,
I hope you’re enjoying the lovely sunshine this weekend.

This week has been a bit of a funny one in Beech class as we’ve had lots of assessments. We’ve tried the end of Year 1 assessments to see where the gaps are from last term. We’ve also had a go at the phonics screening test. In Maths there seems to be quite a few children struggling with times tables, so please do have a look at Times Tables Rockstars with your child and have a practise. If you need the log in, I’ll have a look and see if I can find them on Monday! The phonics screening test was generally good, although we still need to practise the harder phase 5 phonemes.

In Science last week, we learnt more about habitats and how animals are well adapted to where they live. This week we will be learning all about Muslims and Islam, beginning by talking about special people and leaders.

In Literacy, we have continued writing about the Hare and the Tortoise in our own words. We are recapping some of the basics of writing - remembering to form our letters correctly (size, shape and position on the line), using capitals and full stops, and using describing words. This week we will write our own story based on the moral ‘Slow and steady wins the race’. I’m looking forward to displaying our stories in class!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
Miss B
 
Weekly update (September 17th)

Hello everyone,
This week we’ve been partitioning numbers into tens and ones and have now moved onto non-standard partitioning. We all know that 24 can be split into 2 tens and 4 ones, but some of us were surprised to find out that 24 can be partitioned in lots of other ways. In class we popped the counters into our hands and gave them a shake before sharing between both hands (without looking) - we then had a guess at how many counters were in each hand. Partitioning is a step on from numberbonds (learnt in Y1), so we are recapping bonds to 10, 20 and 100 just in case it’s been forgotten during lockdown.

For phonics this week we have been looking at long ‘e’ sound spelt ee or ea. We will have a test on Monday. I don’t have spelling books, but will test on a sheet and pop it into the reading folder for you to check.

In Literacy, we have been carrying on with traditional tales – in particular fables. We are learning and retelling the fable of the Hare and Tortoise. In reading we are exploring the Book of Hopes together. We have read about the ‘Hope-a-potatmus’ who tries his hardest to find water. There are a lot of lovely stories in this online book, and it is free for anyone to read.

Around 2/3 of the class have been benchmarked with most moving up. If you have any questions or worries about your child’s level please keep in touch. Year 2 is a special time for reading, as children become more fluent and can enjoy reading longer and more interesting stories! It’s essential that your child reads to you for 15 minutes every day, and that you help them to develop their understanding by asking questions and discussing ideas. Reading to your child is also really important for developing ideas, vocabulary and sharing a love of books.

In the afternoons we have been learning about habitats. We have talked about the life cycle of a salmon and learned about ocean habitats. We will continue with this next week! On Friday afternoon we visited the nature garden and looked for different micro-habitats.

Have a lovely weekend!
Miss B
 
Weekly roundup: (September 11th)

Hello everyone,
What a great week we’ve had in Beech class. Year two is all about developing independence, and we’ve made a really good start this week. All children have had a go at changing their own reading books and completed their early morning work without too much intervention from me or Mrs Stoneman. A few children have forgotten to take reading folders and drinks bottles home at the end of the day, but we will aim to have that sorted next week. Entrance and exit to the school ran very smoothly today – thank you!
In Maths this week, we have recapped some Year 1 objectives – reading and writing numbers to 100, partitioning numbers into tens and ones, and comparing and ordering numbers using the symbols > , < and =. We will continue with more of the same next week, before moving onto money the week after.
In Literacy, most of us have needed a little time and support to get back up to speed! We’ve remembered some of the rules of handwriting this week and had some fun describing the adventures of our tiny friend. We will continue with this next week thinking about capital letters, full stops and sensible sentences which make sense!
In Art, we have learnt about repeating patterns and frottage (rubbings). This afternoon we made some beautiful leaf rubbings and thought about colour and pattern. Next week we will focus on Science in the afternoons (habitats).
We have talked about good hygiene and have developed some good routines. The class worry box is there for us to pop a note in if we have a question or worry.
We have a spelling test on Monday – numbers from eleven to twenty.
Please feel free to contact me with any thoughts or questions,
Have a lovely weekend. Miss B


Hi everyone,

We've had a lovely first day back. The children all have their own tray which slides under each desk. In these we have gathered Maths equipment, work books, whiteboard and pens etc so that each child has what they need without having to hand things in and out all the time! Their early morning work is also in these trays and they will bring in reading folders each day so that we can monitor reading at home.
I've sent the first set of spellings home in the reading folder. There's no need to send these back in each week - just keep them at home and practice for our spelling test on Monday. This week we are learning numbers from eleven to twenty.
This afternoon we have been learning how to print using watercolours and lego pieces. We have created some interesting effects!
For our writing on Thursday and Friday, I've asked children to bring in a 'pocket sized friend' such as a fingerling, lego character or similar. If it's not possible to send one in, I have a collection which I can share with the children. We are looking forward to writing about our little friend's big adventures, using our imagination to explore the world from a different perspective!