Author: Mrs Taylor

 

Well done to the cast of Wriggly Nativity! It was great to welcome you into school to watch our first in person Christmas production for a few years.

We hope you agree that the children did a fantastic job and we are very proud of them all.

Mrs Taylor, Mrs Lake and Mrs Roth would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and we look forward to seeing all the children in 2023!

This half term, we’ve had two parts to our science learning – seasonal changes and the scientist, John Dunlop.

Here’s the vocabulary we have been using in our learning.

First of all, we thought about what changes across the seasons. We learnt some information from this video.

• weather
• temperature
• clothes we wear
• how much sunlight there is
• animals and other living things

We also read this poem as one of our weekly fluency texts.

We’ve been checking the weekly temperature and weather on a weekly basis. Ask your child about the temperature this week and how we measure it.

We’ve also been learning all about the famous scientist, John Dunlop and for homework this week, you can find out more about him with your child.

We continue to read a variety of texts in class and this is our daily poem for this week, The north wind doth blow.

Ask your child to perform this for you – the signs we have learnt can help with this. We’ve had some great performances in class so far.

This week, Year 2, with the help of some of the characters from the Beano, have been learning about a range of emotions.

Emotions are feelings. They can change all the time.

We all experience a whole range of emotions, from anger to happiness to fear.

Looking at someone’s face and their body language can help us to understand how others might be feeling.

How might Dennis be feeling? What clues tell you this?

We discussed why it is important to recognise and talk about our emotions and how to seek help with our feelings or if we notice a friend might need help.

Next week, we will be thinking about self care techniques that can help us to look after our own mental health. Mindfulness is one example of a self care technique. We do lots of mindfulness techniques in class – ask your child to share them with you. Also, look out for the wellbeing bingo for you to try at home.

Today has been a themed day all about anti-bullying as part of the national Anti-Bullying Week. We’ve also worn our odd socks to celebrate that we are all individual, unique and different.

First of all, we had to decide if these situations were bullying.

We discussed this in groups and after looking at our school definition of bullying, we decided that we didn’t know. This was just one incident and we didn’t know if it had happened several times.

We used drama to consider how children might feel if they were being bullied and how it would affect their mental health.

I feel sad because they are pointing and laughing at me.

I will say to the teacher that they are bullying me.

I feel upset because they are hurting my feelings.

I feel disappointed as they are leaving me out and being mean.

Our child friendly anti-bullying policy talks about an important message if you are being bullied – Start Telling Other People. The children all thought about who and how they could ask for help.

Ask your child about our two STOP acronyms: Several Times On Purpose and Start Telling Other People – one’s a definition of bullying and the other’s a solution.

Finally, we read the story, We are wonders by R J Palacio which shares the message that we are all wonders because of our differences and we should show respect to each other.

‘Look with kindness and you will always find wonder.’

Well done, Year 2, for some great discussions and understanding about this important topic today.