Topic: History
We’ve begun our new topic, History: Toys and Games. Over this half term, we will be exploring toys from the past and comparing them with the toys we enjoy today. Today, the children shared their favourite toy or game and talked about what makes it special to them. We also discussed whether their favourite toy or game might have been around when their parents or grandparents were children.
Help at home:
Please take a photo of your child with their favourite toy or game and email it to school so we can share it in class. You could also chat together about whether this toy or game is one you remember playing with when you were younger.
Bog Baby
This week, we have started our new class novel, Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis. You can read the text online here.
We will be using the text as a focus for learning reading skills such as predicting, word definitions and the author’s choice of words and writing skills such as using conjunctions (words that are used to join two sentences together including and, but, because and so).
Help at home: Reread the text with your child here. What do they like about the book? What would they like to ask the characters?
PE – dance
We’re focusing on dance in our first few weeks of Spring term. Dance is just moving to music. We have thought about low, medium and high movements and responded to different music this week. This week Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill really made us move in different ways.
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog (it’s along the play bar) and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.
Welcome back!
Welcome back to the spring term and happy new year.
We hope you’ve all had a happy and healthy Christmas break and we are looking forward to another great term of learning.
Thank you from Mrs Taylor, Mrs Palmer, Mrs Simpson and Mrs Rothery for all the kind gifts and cards we received.
Spring term after-school clubs
UPDATE
The following clubs have availability and can still be booked.
The after-school clubs for next term will be available for booking on Monday 29th December ready to start w/c 12 January.
We hope your child/children can get involved with our extra-curricular activities. We will update you with club availability after the holidays.
Please contact the office if you have any queries about the after-school clubs.
Wriggly Nativity
We hope you enjoyed our production of the Wriggly Nativity. The children have worked so hard to learn lines, practice songs, dances and all the moving on and off stage. They have all done a great job!
Here are some of the cast.
Narrators
May and Joseph
Wise men
Innkeepers
Shepherds
Angels
Stars
Design & Technology: Food
This week, Year 2 have been using their food preparation skills to create their latest product, a banana sandwich.
This forms part of our Design and Technology food learning which involves following a recipe to create a product each term.
First of all, we got ready to cook.
After that, we selected our type of bread.
Here are some of the skills we used to make our product.
Peeling and chopping (bridge hold and claw grip)
Spreading
Arranging toppings and sprinkling
The comments from the children when they got to eat their product were very positive!
I love it!
I’ve never had this before but I really like it.
It’s a healthy snack.
I don’t like banana but I like it in this.
I’ve never tried cinnamon before but I like it and I would have it again.
I didn’t think I’d like the cream cheese but it’s amazing.
We always evaluate our product afterwards to see how it could be changed it next time.
Well done to all the children who worked safely and sensibly with Mrs Maqbool. We will be using this learning to help with some instruction writing too.
Help at home: your child has taken this recipe home. Can they demonstrate some of their food preparation skills by making this again at home. We’ve heard that some children already have!
Basketball Christmas camps
City of Leeds Basketball Club, who run one of our after-school clubs, are holding Christmas camps locally over the holidays.
Christmas nativity rehearsals
We’ve been working brilliantly during our Christmas nativity rehearsals – the children’s enthusiasm, teamwork and growing confidence has been wonderful to see! We’re very proud of how hard they’re trying with both their lines and the songs. Please remember to send in any costumes by Friday 12th December and do keep practising the songs at home to help them feel extra ready for the performance. Thank you for your support!
Living and Learning: friends and family
Our Living and Learning this week has been about the importance of friends and family.
We used the Elmer story to explore our own feelings of happiness/ joyfulness and then feelings of happiness/ joyfulness that our friends and family may feel.
When we are happy, we have certain feelings and behave in certain ways. When might we feel happy?
I feel happy…
when it is my birthday.
when I am playing.
when someone makes me laugh.
when I’m with my friends.
How does it feel to be happy ? How do we behave when we are happy?
We might be smiling.
You might be laughing with someone.
You wouldn’t be laughing at someone.
We’d be having fun.
Help at home: Happy is the feeling that we focused on in this learning. Our feelings first emotions for this half term have been lonely, confused, thrilled, apprehensive, calm and thankful. Ask your child what these feelings mean and how our bodies might feel.