Taking safe risks in judo
This morning, Year 2 welcomed British Judo instructor Dan to give us a taster session of judo and to find out about the new judo club running locally.
Even in the short taster session, the children took some ‘safe risks’ to master new judo holds.
Here are the details for the new club taking place on a Saturday morning at Moor Allerton Sports and Social Centre.
Lexia
Today, the children have brought home information about Lexia and a reminder of their login and password.
Lexia is a computer based program that builds reading skills and complements your child’s learning in class.
Where possible, we encourage the children to access Lexia at home to support this learning. Your child will make much more progress if they can regularly use this programme at home on either a computer or tablet.
Children should aim to achieve Level 9 by the end of Year 2.
If you have any problems accessing Lexia at home, please let us know.
As always, thank you for your support in continuing learning at home.
Judo taster sessions
This week, every class will be taking part in a judo taster session led by a British Judo coach.
These sessions will take place on Monday and Tuesday so please remember to have PE kit in school and take earrings out on these days.
We look forward to learning some new skills.
Mindfulness Matters
Following a very busy morning packed with learning, Year 2 settled down to enjoy some mindfulness.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is simply… noticing what is happening right now.
Mindfulness is taking notice of how your body feels and what your mind is doing. When we notice what is happening around us, it can help us to calm down when feeling sad, angry or frustrated. Mindfulness helps us deal with tough emotions and can make us happy and feel good.
Today, the children focused on their breathing and what happens to our bodies when we ex and inhale. Following this exercise, the class were calm and focused all afternoon.
We’re ready and responding in Year 2
This week, Year 2 have continued to demonstrate great listening and learning skills as we settle in to new routines and lessons. Being ready and responding to feedback are the two 8Rs for learning we are focusing on this week. Our 8Rs for learning promote good learning behaviour.
We’ve started to follow daily routines including putting reading books in the reading group baskets. Books will be changed on a Monday and a Thursday but it is important for children to have their books at school every day in case they are reading with an adult. Please do briefly record in their reading record books when your child reads at home.
This week, we met our own material monster, named ‘M and M’, as we begin our new science learning all about materials.
‘This is a peg. It is made from wood and metal.’
‘This is a __________. It is made from _______.’
‘This is a __________. It is made from _________.’
What is the bell made from?
What materials have been used to make the door?
This learning supported our english work of rehearsing sentences. We encourage the children to speak/answer questions in full sentences and then to check their sentence makes sense.
Meanwhile in maths, our focus has been numbers to 100.
In this learning, we’ve used our base 10 resources to create numbers and record using digits and words.
A great start to the week, Year 2!
Platinum award
At the end of each year, schools are invited to apply for their School Games Mark. The School Games Mark rewards schools for their commitment to and development of competition, school sport and physical education.
We’re very proud to announce that our application has been verified and we have been awarded Platinum award.
Platinum award is open to schools who have achieved Gold award for the previous four years.
We have achieved this award due to encouraging a large number of children to participate in sporting activity; providing a variety of different sports; partaking in competitions; involving children in leadership activities and having many local links with external clubs and establishments.
Thank you to staff who have accompanied children to these events or run after-school clubs this year. Thank you also to Mrs Russell who provides excellent administration of our clubs and sporting events and competitions. Thank you as well to all parents/carers who have helped with transport and supported at our events this year.
Finally, well done to all pupils who have tried out a new physical activity either at an after-school club or as part of a competition or participation event and to those children who have represented our school so well this year.
Welcome back
It was great to see so many smiling faces today when the children returned to school following the summer break. The class quickly settled into Year 2 and followed all their new routines. All the adults were impressed by the ‘readiness to learn attitudes’ on display.
This afternoon, we thought about our upcoming new topic learning. Using some clues, the children were asked to predict what our new topic may be. Through some drama, the class observed all the clues and shared their ideas.
Below are some of the clues.
I wonder if there is some water?
I think that there are untamed animals.
The vines could be a forest.
The BFG has huge feet.
I think there are monsters.
The lesson was great fun and full of great predicting and interpreting skills.
Our new topic is based around…
There’s so much more in this book than just the reading. It’s a simple story with a few characters and a whole lot of imagination. It’s an amazing story to read out loud.
Where the Wild Things Are is a well known, classic children’s book. It works because of its simplicity, and its underlying charm, as well as the originality of its illustrations.
Our topic will be driven by design and technology culminating in the making of a sailboat. Also, there will be links to reading, writing and maths within our lessons. Vocabulary, linked to DT and the text, will become more familiar to the children as we move through our topic sessions.
Living and Learning
As we return to school, we begin our Living and Learning theme with a focus on manners: I can greet someone politely.
We’ll then continue by thinking about the ‘8 Rs for learning’. This theme is about promoting good learning behaviour for your child.
Each week, we’ll focus on two different ‘Rs’. We use an animal to symbolise each ‘R’, which might help your child remember all eight – can your child remember which animal matches the correct ‘R’?
You can support your child at home – we’ve listed a few ideas to help you below. Ask us if you’ve any questions or comments.
Download top tips for promoting the 8Rs for good learning behaviour.
I can show I am ready to learn.
Make sure your child is at school for a prompt start of 08:50.
Make sure your child has had plenty of sleep so they are alert and ready to learn at all times.
Encourage your child to ask lots of questions – that shows they want to learn!
I respond to feedback.
Ask your child if they remember their ‘stars’ and ‘steps’ in English and Maths.
I take a safe risk.
Talk about the difference between a safe and unsafe risk. At school, we want your child to take a safe risk by having a go at answering, even if unsure; trying something new and attempting harder learning.
I take responsibility for my own learning.
Provide time and space at home so your child is able to organise themselves: their PE kit, reading book, homework, spellings and tables… Don’t organise everything for them!
Make a link between rights and responsibilities: your child has the right to a great education, but needs to be responsible for their own learning.
I am resourceful.
Encourage your child to be organised so they can play with a range of different toys.
Encourage your child to try new ways to solve a tricky problem.
I am resilient.
Encourage your child to keep going! Set a tricky challenge or puzzle for your child to do.
Encourage your child to think of different ways of doing things.
Don’t let your child win when they play a game – they need to experience losing, too!
Celebrate mistakes as opportunities to learn – be happy that your child found some learning hard and encourage them to ‘bounce back’ and learn from the experience.
I remember.
Make sure they have time to learn spellings, number bonds and times tables – a little practice daily is best.
Play memory games:
Kim’s game: show them objects for 30 seconds… can they remember all the objects?
Can they build up the sequence, ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple and a bike.’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple, a bike and a cucumber.’ etc … Take turns!
I reflect about my learning.
Talk with your child about what they’ve learnt, asking questions about:
how they learnt
why they learnt it
when they’ll use their learning
how they would teach this to someone else
what learning might link with what they’ve learnt today etc
As well as covering the 8Rs for learning, pupils will also learn about their rights and responsibilities.
Finally, we end the half term learning about democracy (one of the British Values). All children have the opportunity to experience democracy in our annual School Council elections. More details to follow.
Our full Living and Learning long term plan is available on the health pages and you can keep up to date with our weekly Living and Learning statements on the parent noticeboard in the playground and also on the school calendar.
Author visit
This morning Hayley, came in to class to tell us about her book Emma Bright and the super food fight.
As well as being a really fun and exciting story, it has lots of positive message about a healthy lifestyle.
Later in the session, we created our own superfood heroes on paper plates.
Superfood collage
We’ve been looking at the paintings of Guiseppe Arcimboldo in art lessons this half-term. This links well with our food topic as Arcimboldo was famous for drawing different fruits and vegetables to create portraits. 
Using these paintings as inspiration, we created our own collages using actual fruit and vegetables. First we designed our portraits and then we made them. 
Finally, the children devoured their creations! 
