Where in the world am I?
This week, it has been the final week of our geography based, Where in the world am I?, topic.
Throughout this learning, the children have become more knowledgeable about where they live within the world.
We live in Moortown.
Moortown is in the city of Leeds.
Leeds is in the country of England.
England is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. The other countries are Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The United Kingdom is in the continent of Europe. The other six continents are Asia, North America, South America, Australasia, Antarctica and Africa.
While learning all these place names, this has given us lots of opportunities to practise using capital letters for proper nouns.
This topic has also allowed us to explore maps in atlases and also online mapping (including Google Maps).
Finally, the children had a go at creating their own maps to show a familiar daily route – their way to school.
Can your child describe their route, maybe referring to some local landmarks along the way, using some positional and directional vocabulary such as near, far, left, right and the compass points of north, east, south and west. Ask your child what the map key is needed for too.
Here are a few examples.
The children will be sharing some of this learning in our class assembly in the new year.
Painting Poinsettias
The Poinsettia plant is particularly well known for its red and green foliage and is widely used in Christmas floral displays.
Today, the children were given the opportunity to sketch
the plant. Using their observational skills, Year 2 produced some very accurate images. Next, with fine brushes and watercolour paints, the class added colour and detail to their artwork.
Below, are a selection of the finished pictures.
Homework
Last week, for their homework, the children were asked to show what they know about something cultural or what they know about a specific festival.
Over the course of this term, some children in school have celebrated a religious festival of some sort. This might have been;
- the Muslim festival of Eid ul Adha
- the Sikh and Hindu festival Diwal
- the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, coming up in December
- the Christian festival (of course, celebrated by many non-Christians) of Christmas
- and the Chinese New Year festival, coming up.
We had some great examples of different cultures and festivals. Well done, Year 2.
Takeover Day
Today, it was Takeover Day so the children took over Year 2!
Some children got to:
- do the warnings chart
- give out cool class tokens
- lead the
spelling test - say 321 and stop
- read a story
- take the lunch orders
- take the register
Maths and Science using Skittles
Today, the children have continued with some scientific enquiry learning. First of all, they were given a bag of Skittles with a question; can we collect any data about these sweets?
We could sort them into colours.
I think that we could count them.
After grouping the sweets, the children completed tally and bar charts to showcase the data collected.
Next, came the BIG QUESTION!
What do you predict will happen when we add water to the Skittles?
I think the Skittles will turn white.
The water will be brown.
The sweets might dissolve.
The colour will melt.
Using simple equipment, we arranged the Skittles around the edge of the plate and then poured warm water into the middle. We observed closely as some amazing changes happened. 
Well done Year 2!
Packed lunches
At Moortown Primary, our packed lunch guidance includes:
- information about the different food groups
- how to put together a healthy, balanced packed lunch
- links to recipes and ideas for healthy packed lunches
This week, our packed lunch guidance will be emailed to parents and carers and sent home to children who have a packed lunch in school.
Packed lunches should be in a secure named container. No sweets are allowed – instead, we encourage lots of fruit or vegetables. Water is available on all tables for children who choose a packed lunch. However, your child can bring their own drink in a non-breakable container – please avoid fizzy drinks.
Change4life provides lots of ideas for healthy packed lunches including suggested swaps.
As an alternative to packed lunches, school meals, including a vegetarian option, are a great choice and are prepared daily in our kitchen. Children are offered a choice of main courses and desserts and they select their main meal choice at the start of the day. Catering Leeds provides food which meets national Food Standards criteria. School meals can be combined with packed lunches.
Free school meals are available to all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. They are also available to some older children according to family income. It’s important to register for entitlement to free school meals, even if your child has a packed lunch or is in a younger class – this is so we can receive additional funding (called the pupil premium) which we can use to help your child. Please check if this is something you might be entitled to.
Living and Learning: Takeover Challenge Day
Takeover Challenge is a fun engagement project which sees schools and organisations across England opening their doors to children and young people to take over adult roles.
It puts children and young people in decision making positions and encourages schools and organisations to hear and act upon their views and ideas. Children and young people gain an insight into the adult world and schools and organisations benefit from a fresh perspective about their work.
School Savings Club
The next School Savings Club paying in date is 09 December 2019 at 3.15-3.45pm.
The account is open to all children and it is free to set up. As there is not minimum deposit requirement, it is a great way for your child/children to begin to manage their own money and understand the importance of saving. We offer paying in sessions every half term where you can bring along any savings to be paid into your child’s account.
As an extra incentive, Year 3 pupils who open an account, or who currently have an account, will be credited with £10.
If you’re unable to attend in person, please hand in any money to be deposited to the office in a sealed envelope addressed to Mrs Tiffany.
Here are the remaining paying in dates for this year (the penultimate Monday of each half term).
- 03 February
- 23 March
- 11 May
- 06 July
To find out more about the accounts or if your child would like to open account, please enquire at the office.
Spelling Shed
Spelling Shed is a great interactive resource to use at home to reinforce learning in class. We have set up a new feature on Spelling Shed whereby your child will have their weekly spellings as a list to practise when they log on. We hope this will give children an alternative way to learn their weekly spelling words.
All children have received their Spelling Shed logins but if you have misplaced this information, please come and ask us. Login details can also be found inside your child’s reading record books.
Here’s a reminder about how Spelling Shed works.
The game is simple and gives four different degrees of support in the form of difficulty modes; easy, medium, hard and extreme. Higher levels allow a higher score to be achieved but children can practise as much as they like on lower levels before trying to gain high scores. The scores achieved give a league position and each class has its own league position within a school league and our world league.
Thank you for your support with this learning at home.
Living and Learning: Out in the community
As part of our My Community themed week, Year 2 enjoyed a trip to Donisthorpe Hall to their weekly residents’ concert to help us learn more about some of the people that make up our community.
It was an absolute delight to see the young and the old dancing together. Our residents had a really lovely afternoon. We would love any of the pupils to come back any time.
What a fantastic afternoon which the older residents at Donisthorpe clearly enjoyed. Their joy at seeing and meeting the year 2 children was lovely and the children fully engaged with them. The residents and children had a lovely time. Thank you for organising such a worthwhile community activity.
