Welcome back!
We hope you have all had a restful and enjoyable break. The children have come back ready for the new term of learning and we start with our class assembly tomorrow at 2:40pm.
We hope to see you there.
Living and Learning
- Drug, alcohol and tobacco education (DATE)
- Keeping safe and managing risk
Here are the weekly Living and Learning statements, for this half term, to support this learning.
- I don’t interrupt (with my mouth or my hand).
- I can make things better.
- I know what a drug is.
- I know how to seek help.
- I make safe choices, including online.
- I can assess my own risks.
Keeping active
As part of our commitment to being a happy and healthy school, we’re always looking at ways to increase our pupils’ physical activity both in and out of school.
The government’s childhood obesity plan has set out the ambition for all children to achieve 60 minutes, or more, of physical activity every day (30 minutes in school and 30 minutes outside of school).
In response to this aim, we’ve compiled a physical activity guide suggesting out-of-school physical activities available to families in our local area.
The information on the guide is correct as of November 2018. Keep an eye out on our news and class news pages where will promote any new activities throughout the year.
We’d love to hear feedback about any activities you or your child try based on this guide.
Living and Learning: manners
We always encourage and model good manners and each half term we have a different manners focus.
As we approach Christmas, and other celebrations, this is a time for giving and receiving presents so we thought about the importance of using these manners.
We also thought about other times to use please and thank you…
- In the dinner hall
- If someone opens the door for you
- If you are given something
- At mealtime
- If someone has helped you
- If you are given a compliment
Living and Learning: Identity
Over this half term, our Living and Learning theme has been Identity.
Firstly, we considered there were lots of things the same about each other but everyone is different too.
Nobody is exactly the same, everyone is unique.
Children were invited to bring in something to share with the class that made them special. We learnt lots about each other including the different religions the children follow (or in some cases don’t follow), speaking different languages, having different interests and achievements and hearing about their family including their origins (Eleanor is half Irish).
In our following lesson, we learnt about our roles and responsibilities at home and at school (also linking back to our 8 Rs for learning) and why it is important to take responsibility (including in the community around us).
We acted out some different roles and responsibilities and considered whether they are easy or difficult, which they do well or not so well and willingly or less willingly.
Our action plan was to think about one way to take responsibility.
‘I can take responsibility by practising my reading, maths and writing at home. ‘
‘I can take responsibility by tidying my bedroom.’
‘I can take responsibility by looking after my brother.’
‘I can take responsibility by taking care of my cat.’
‘I can take responsibility by helping with the cooking at home.’
Wake up Shake up leaders
Thank you to our KS2 WuSu leaders who have led our daily WuSu physical activity this term and taught us lots of new routines.
Thank you to Mrs Charlesworth who has helped to run our WuSu after-school club where they have created all of the routines.
Next term, we will be running a KS1 and KS2 dance /WuSu club which will lead into a dance festival after Easter.
Living and Learning: Creative cultural and spiritual homework
Wow – what fantastic creative homework based on the children’s cultural and spiritual experiences. We spent time looking at all the homework and the children were able to give stars to each other about what they liked. The homework gave a great insight into the identity (our current Living and learning theme) of the children in terms of what they celebrate or what they enjoy culturally.
We even heard about a festival for dogs, Dog Fest, and Jack had a great suggestion for a brand new festival to celebrate friendship.
Science: forces
We’ve been scientists this morning.
We predicted which of these cars rolled furthest. The result was that the car with the four big wheels rolled much further than the others.
After that, we thought about how we could make the car with the four small wheels roll further. We knew that we needed a smooth surface and we learned that this meant there would be less friction.
Jodie had the great idea to put whiteboards on the carpet and it worked as the car rolled further.
Number facts – how to help at home
During this term, our focus in Year 2 has been to reinforce the children’s knowledge of number bonds to 20, in order to support their progress toward age-related expectations in maths. The ability to quickly recall addition facts and corresponding subtraction facts within 20, helps children solve more complicated calculations as they move up the school. For this reason, it is very important that children continue to practise these basic facts.
‘Hit the Button’ game is a great way to encourage children to practise addition and subtraction facts. If you have access to this game at home, spending just ten minutes a few times a week working on these would go towards helping your child internalise these facts and use them when solving more complex problems.
Year 2 book club
We had a great first book club session yesterday. Thank you to all the children who brought in books to share and enjoy with the rest of the class. We had a variety of fiction and non-fiction books and it was interesting to see what the children enjoy reading outside of school. Keep reading!
Look out for the next book club session next year.
