Guided Reading
Due to STEM week, guided reading this week will not be happening as usual. On Friday, all children were asked to have read to their target page by Tuesday. Please don’t worry if your child doesn’t quite manage to read to their target page – I appreciate that it may be difficult to manage on top of homework and general life (although most groups will have had their target page set on Monday and Tuesday last week giving them almost a week to read).
When changes to guided reading are made it is always to improve learning. Although your child may generally read on a set day (eg Tuesday) this will change from time to time. Please don’t allow your child to be anxious about not having read to their target page – this does not make reading enjoyable. Instead, encourage them to read to their target page soon after they are given it.
Thank you.
SEAL
This week, we did an activity that focused on some dilemmas. The children had to work as a team to decide whether they thought each situation was serious and which not as serious (although still a problem).
The children ordered each scenario from 1-9 and placed them into a Diamond 9. Number 1 being the most concerning and 9 being less of a concern. We had a discussion and each team presented their ideas.
Gymnastics
Last week, we learnt how to make different shapes using our bodies. We practised these on the floor. This week, we transferred these to off the ground. Some shapes were a lot harder to make off-ground! The shapes we learnt are: Pike, Straight, Arch, Dish, Straddle, Star and Tuck. Can your child say which shapes they can see above?
Year 2 famous artists for a day
This afternoon saw the opening of the Year 2 Art Gallery. Thank you to all family who came to visit. We hope you enjoyed seeing all the amazing work Year 2 have produced during our Katie and… topic.
You could have a read of the books that helped us create all of this fantastic art.
You could put on your headphones and listen to the pieces of music (Adagio for Strings and O Fortuna) and then show the different emotions in your art.
You could take a vote on your favourite piece of art.
You could spend the time viewing the many pieces of artwork.
We hope you enjoyed our hands on live poppy field art for Remembrance Day.
Did you attempt some spirograph art? It’s not as easy as it looks!
Thank you for the donations to our school charities, Leeds Mind and Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
We have been very impressed with the engagement and enthusiasm from the children throughout this topic. We will miss Katie and her adventures.
Class Assembly
Our class assembly is tomorrow at 2:40pm!
York’s Chocolate Story
We had a great time yesterday at York’s Chocolate Story. We learnt about the history of chocolate and how York has played a huge part in its history. We were introduced to the founding families of confectionery companies such as the Rowntree family, the Fry family and the Terry family. We learnt about jobs at the factories and what factory life was like. Did you know that the Rowntree factory in York has its own fire department? York still plays a big part in chocolate production in the UK – did you know that 6,000,000 KitKats are made each day in York?
Here are some pictures to show you some of our exciting day.
Chocolate Tasting
– When we held our noses, we couldn’t taste it!
– Not everyone enjoyed the very dark chocolate!
We made chocolate lollies!
We watched the chocolatier make chocolates.
Jobs in the factory
– The women are putting the foil on chocolate eggs.
– The man in checking the quality of the cocoa beans.
Getting ready to make lickable wallpaper – ask your child why they had to wear blue.
Happy with their creations.
We walked past York Minster and one group took a stroll down The Shambles.
Anti-bullying tips
Thank you, Emma (Year 2) for recommending CBBC for lots of Anti-Bullying Week advice.
Spelling practice
Here’s a great example of spelling practice from last week. We’re always trying to think of fun and creative ways of practising spelling so that it doesn’t become boring.
Great homework as always
What are fractions? was our Creative homework question last week and there was a whole host of wonderful ways that it was answered. Lots I can’t show you as they were done on Scratch or as presentations but here’s a taste of what some of the children did.
As always with Creative homework, we looked at everyone’s then sat and looked at one in particular, commenting on their work and discussing what they’d done. The children said that they liked how we look at Creative homework as it was nice to hear what their friends thought of what they’d done.
In the mood
We brought our swing dance topic to an end this week with groups performing their routines to each other. Lots of the children have enjoyed this unit; some enjoyed it a lot more than they thought they would.
Not only were their dances great, but their feedback to each other was brilliant too. They could say what they liked about a routine: precision of movements, use of space, different levels. They were also able to give constructive criticism to suggest how a routine could be improved: moving at the same time as each other, clearer, bigger movements.
