Science experts in Year 2
This afternoon, two medical students from the University of Leeds visited us to teach us about the human body.
It’s great having visitors in to class to talk to us but it’s also an important part of our science curriculum to use secondary research. We often do this in school by reading books and doing internet research but talking to experts is also a great way we can learn.
Living and Learning – I stay safe online
This week’s homework was Talk Time and generated brilliant discussion in class. It became obvious that everyone in Y3 had taken on board what has been spoken about and learnt in school and this was talked about in depth at home.
We collected the key points as a class:
Here’s an example of what this may look like in books. (Obviously it doesn’t have to be recorded like this but this was awesome!)
Keep up the good work, everyone.
Living and Learning – D:Side Internet Safety
Last week, we were joined by Dave from D:Side who came in to teach us all about staying safe online. We had a great time learning about how to be safer online and, in general, Y5 were pretty savvy when it came to spotting risks online.
During the course of the session, many things stood out to me that I’d like to share with you as parents:
- 25/30 children in the class claimed to be using social media on a regular basis, using phones, iPads and home PCs (mainly, children are using Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp). The recommended minimum age for these sites is 13.
- Children who use Snapchat admitted that they follow lots of people that they don’t know.
- Similarly, on Snapchat, most children were unaware that Snapchat introduced a new technology called Snapmaps which allows other users to pinpoint your exact location. On the app, you must opt-out of this feature.
- Most children in the class thought that if you upload a picture online and then delete it, it’s deleted from the internet for good and nobody could ever see it again – this is not the case.
- When faced with a fictional scenario where someone has received four follower requests from complete strangers, only two children in the class said they would not accept any of them. That means 28/30 children were happy to become online friends with someone they did not know. The main reason children were happy to accept the requests were because these people were a similar age or had similar interests – if your child can lie about their age to set up their account, so can others.
- Many children are playing games online against people they don’t know and are striking up conversations with these people over headsets.
- There was a particular quote that stood out which many children agreed with: ‘The more followers you have, the cooler you look!’. Please do all you can to change this perception.
All of the above points apply to adults as well as children – please stress this to your child! It’s important that children are aware of this so that they don’t think they only need to be careful because they’re a child.
Living and Learning – staying safe online
On Tuesday, we learnt all about staying safe and being responsible online as part of National Internet Safety Day.
We were joined by a visitor from Splats who helped us create a short play about the evil Meanies and the robots. In the play, the Meanies were making the robots (or the people using the internet) say and do mean things. Eventually, the robots were able to pass on some kindness and defeat the Meanies. This scenario replicated being online and the negative things that could happen when we are using the internet.
In class, we watched a Newsround video about three people and the choices they made online. We discussed the importance of keeping passwords safe, not playing online too much and making sure we know who we are communicating with online.
Ask your child what they learnt during the day.
Here are some questions to consider during your discussion…
- Are they being responsible online?
- How do they know?
- How do you know?
- What should they do if they are ever unsure of something that happens when online?
- When/how often are they online?
- When online, what apps/games are they using? And, how safe are these?
How often is your child reading at home?
Daily reading, ideally with an adult, is vital to become a better reader.
We’ve had a challenge this half term to see who can read the most at home. Children needed to read, and have their reading record book signed, to earn a star on the chart. For some children with longer books, this doesn’t have to be the whole book. You can also add any extra books that you’re reading at home – don’t forget non-fiction books (maybe to do with our Life Forces topic), poetry, comics, websites or newspapers!
Well done to the children who have already reached the target and have received their prize. We’ll continue to have the challenge next half term so keep reading!
Tricky words
At the back of your child’s reading record book are the Year 2 common exception words for your child to practise reading.
One of the end of Year 2 expectations for writing is for children to spell these words, too.
Therefore after half term, we’ll be having some informal spelling checks using these words.
We’ll use the word lists in the order they are in the reading record books, starting with list 1:
- door
- floor
- poor
- because
- kind
- find
- mind
- behind
- child
- children
Digestion
Today, we welcomed three university students who are currently studying medicine.
They gave a very informative talk to the class all about the digestive system. The children asked some great questions about the varying functions of different organs during the digestive process.
It was interesting to find out about each organ and the crucial role it plays breaking down the food, keeping the food we need for our bodies and getting rid of the waste!
Features of living things
Have you ever met MRS GREN? She’s the friendly old acronym that helps us understand the features of living things.
- Movement
- Respiration
- Sensitivity
- Growth
- Reproduction
- Excretion
- Nutrition
Can you guess which feature we’re acting out in the clips below?
“Movement is when a human’s body moves or a plant moves towards the sun.” – Yusayrah
“Respiration is when you breathe and get oxygen from the air.” – Leo
“Sensitivity is when something happens in the environment and it causes you to act upon it.” – Henka
“Growth is when you get bigger from eating. A plant needs water and sun to grow from a seed.” – Rayn
“Reproduction is when something has babies.” – Ethan C
“Excretion is getting rid of waste.” – Hifza
“Nutrition is the food we eat like fruit.” – Priya
Susie the snake
Today, Y3 tackled some tricky problem solving in maths.
“Susie the snake has up to 20 eggs. When she counts them in 4s, she has 3 left over. When she counts them in 5s, she has 4 left over. How many eggs might Susie have?”
Think you could work out all the possibilities? We used counters and cubes to help us.
We recorded number sentences to match the story problem.
“19 because 5 + 5 + 5 + 4 = 19.”
“15 because 3 x 4 + 3 = 15.”
We discovered seven possibilities! Do you think you could find them all?
Ice painting
Lots of ice outside today. Time to get creative!
