History Topic – The Great Fire of London
We have started our topic and we are learning all about The Great Fire of London. We are using a book, Vlad and the Great Fire of London, to stimulate our learning. (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog 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.)
We have started by talking about the topic vocabulary, which you can see below. Help your child at home by exploring the information on the BBC bitesize website.
Living and Learning: rules
At the start of the new school year, the children have been reminded about rules and the importance of rules in our daily life.
Before focussing on our school rules, we started by thinking about…
Why do we have rules?
What rules can you think of?
What places have rules?
Who makes the rules?
Rules tells us what to do.
We need rules so we don’t hurt each other.
Rules help us to know what is right and what is wrong.
Rules help us to be happy and healthy.
In our school we have three school rules. Three, two, one, stop is one of the most important instructions the children will hear at school.
We concluded that following our school rules will make our school a happy, healthy and SAFE place to learn.
We also agreed our Living and Learning ground rules.
Finally, we considered our rules about online safety at school. Your child has brought home their Being online – acceptable use agreement for pupils and parents/carers which should be read through, signed and returned to class.
The children have been reading this as this weeks’ fluency text (a weekly text that we read daily).
Any questions, please do ask.
The Great Fire of London Poem
This week, we have all enjoyed learning history through poetry. There are lots of facts about the Great Fire of London in this poem. Enjoy reading the poem together at home. You can discuss the key events, people and information in the poem. Can you spot the rhyming words too?
Great Year 2 learners
The children have settled really well in their first few days in Year 2 with lots of new routines to learn!
We look forward to meeting you over the next few weeks but for now, here is some key information about Year 2.
Adults
Mrs Taylor – Monday and Tuesday
Mrs Lake – Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
Teaching assistant – Mrs Roth
Important days and dates
PE – Tuesday and Thursday
Spelling test – Friday
Homework – to be completed by the following Thursday
Class assembly – Wednesday 19th October at 2:40pm
Water bottles
These should be brought to school daily and they will be brought home every day for refreshing and cleaning.
Milk
Please contact the office if your child would like to have milk in Year 2.
Homework
Whole school homework is set every Friday (along with new spellings). This week your child will bring home a homework book and guide. This should be kept at home and it can be used for practising spellings. Homework and spellings can also be accessed from the website.
Reading
Your child will be bringing home a letter explaining about their reading.
Lexia
In Year 2, the children can access a reading/phonics online learning resource called Lexia. The children brought their login information home this week and it is great to see so many children have been accessing the resource already! Lexia certificates will be awarded every Tuesday if your child completes a level (by the end of Year 2, the children are aiming for achieving Level 9).
Numbots
We continue to use Numbots in Year 2 (using the same login as Year 1) and certificates will be awarded every Tuesday for children who earn the most coins and who complete the different stages.
For reading, Lexia and Numbots, little and often (10/15 minutes a day) is recommended.
Uniform
Please do check the uniform policy to ensure your child is wearing the correct items including for PE days. Earrings must be removed on PE days.
Finally, please do ask if there are any queries and keep checking back on class news to find out more about your child’s learning!
Welcome back!
Welcome to Year 2!
We hope you’ve had a happy and healthy summer break and we can’t wait to see everyone back at school on Tuesday.
Goodbye Year 2!
Mrs Taylor, Mrs Lake, Mrs Burgess and Miss Gilliland would like to wish you all a happy and healthy summer holiday.
Thank you for all the kind and generous gifts we’ve received.
It has been a pleasure to teach the children and see how much they have progressed and matured over the year. We shall miss them!
Summer of sport
It’s just 7 days to go until the Commonwealth Games begin in Birmingham. Watch this introductory video to find out more.
To keep active over the summer holidays, why not try these commonwealth personal best challenges at home. My Commonwealth PB incorporates skills that are used in 7 of the sports which will be taking place at the B2022
Commonwealth Games.
Use the QR codes below to see each challenge.
We’d love to hear how you get on!
Roundhegians
Fruit bars
It was back in the kitchen for Year 2 again yesterday. This time, we made fruit bars (a healthy snack option). After using fresh and frozen fruits in our fruit salad on Monday, this time we used dried fruits.
We used measuring, mixing, snipping and mashing skills.
Hopefully the children enjoyed the finished product as a snack after school!
Learning new food preparation skills
Today, Year 2 have been learning some food preparation skills while making a fruit salad. This learning also included a reminder about the 5-a-day message and that a fruit can be fresh, dried, tinned or frozen.
There are two main techniques we use for cutting – bridge hold and claw grip and the children learnt to use these techniques safely today. We also used peeling, segmenting and mixing skills. Ask your child to demonstrate these techniques at home.
We talked a lot about safety and food preparation especially around using sharp knives, that are kept in a locked drawer, and getting ready to cook (washing hands, cleaning down surfaces, tying hair back).
Then, it was time for the tasting!
I enjoyed eating the melon.
I didn’t like strawberries before but now I like them.
Now I like blueberries.
I liked the juicy melon and strawberries.
I learnt how to make a fruit salad and I want to make one at home.
I liked the melon because it was nice and juicy.
I learnt how to do the bridge and claw skill.
I learnt how to cut safely.
I learnt how to do the bridge skill for cutting the grapes.
I learnt how to use the claw skill for cutting the stalk off the strawberry.
The frozen fruit made the fruit salad moist.
I liked that when the frozen fruit defrosted, it was all juicy.
I enjoyed learning how to do the bridge hold and I liked eating the fruit.
