What an amazing first week back!

We have got off on a running start this first week of the term. In Literacy, we have begun a new unit on writing an information text. This week, we first looked at a variety of non-fiction books and discussed some of the common features they all shared. Then, we looked at an piece of information text to see what key elements we could pick out to include in our Writing Toolkit.

In Maths, Year 1s continue to explore Place Values to 50 while Year 2s have begun an exciting unit on Fractions.

In History, this term we are exploring the History of Aviation. This week, we explored the story of the Wright Brothers with Miss Walker and discussed their contribution to flight.

In the meantime, in Science, we explored the difference between things that are living, non-living and those that were once alive to start off our new unit on Living Things and their Habitats. And of course with the weather playing ball, we took the rest of the lesson outside to go on a "Things Hunt." We had some really interesting debates on the carpet about the difference between non-living things and things that were once alive. If paper is something that was once alive because it is made of trees, then is a basket ball the same because because rubber comes from trees?

This term, in Music, Class 2 are exploring Pitch and Melody and on Wednesday, we had a fun session with Mr Hunt, followed by a creative exploration of Jyll Bradley's installation at the Box to kick start our Art unit on Playful Making.

Key Dates and Information

MONDAY: PE
WEDNESDAY: Swimming 

Please find attached below, the KIRFs for this half term.

And before we know it, a whole term has ended... and Class 2 have had so much fun learning and growing together. 

In Literacy, we have almost all completed our own version of the poem Calico Pie by Edward Lear. We also had the chance to perform the first 2 stanzas of the poem in front of the entire school on Friday.

We ended our term with a big Maths Easter Egg Hunt on Friday. While Year 2s had a go at solving some Maths problems that they found inside their eggs, Reception and Year 1s went on a number hunt. We ended the hunt by 'feasting' on the chocolate eggs the easter Bunny had dropped off earlier!

We were also very lucky to be able to perform to our family and friends some of the songs we sing regularly in class during our Singing Assembly on Monday. If Class 2 families would like join in and sing with us, just follow the links below.

On Wednesday, Class 1 and 2 went on a class trip to the Box in Plymouth for a most educational workshop on toys. We had a wonderful guided tour of the exhibits where we saw a life-size replica wooly mammoth, wonderful artefacts from around the world collected by some awesome explorers and a virtual history Plymouth. Did you know that there are more than 600 shipwrecks in the waters off Plymouth Sound? We wrapped all up with an amazing STEM workshop about toys.

In Class 2 we have had another great week of learning and fun.

Now that the weather is getting brighter and clearer, we Class 2 have started a Mile a Day Challenge. This means that for our regular breaks, instead of our indoor recess routines, we try to get outside for a quick jog around the field to clear our heads and get ready for the next round of learning. So far, we have had great fun running around the field and trying our best to resist the temptation of racing each other to the finish line.

In Literacy, we have begun looking at poetry. We read "Calico Pie" by Edward Lear and had a lot of fun sharing our own interpretations of the poem. We have now begun learning the poem as we begin planning new verses of our own.

In Maths, while year 1s have started looking at place values to 50, Year 2s have completed their unit of mass, volume and temperature. Both year groups have also been busy testing their KIRFs and quick fire arithmetic skills.

In DT, we are almost done with our puppet project. This week, we took our Paddington Bear inspired puppet designs and used it to cut out the base of our finger puppets. We then learned to sew the pieces together. I must say we have some budding seamster in our midst!

To consolidate our understanding of how technology is controlled, this week, Years 1 and 2 had a very active ICT session with our Botleys. We used a variety of codes to make Botley do a variety of actions for us. However, we found that some of our Botleys were unwittingly being controlled by other users. This lead to a very heated carpet discussions around why this could be happening. We concluded that some of the signals from different controllers were interfering with each other. So, we all put our heads together to talk about what we could do to help prevent this. We had ideas ranging from individual controllers sending the signals through wires to inventing different signal signatures for each Botley.

Oh the many places we went and the many things we saw on Monday when we all dressed up as our favourite book character for our special belated World Book Day celebration!

It was so very lovely to see all the children dressed up and super excited about sharing their books with their friends. We also had a special treat when all the teachers read one of their favourite books and the children got to choose which book they wanted to listen to.
  

After all the excitement on Monday, we all went straight back to our regular routine of having oodles of fun as we learned and discovered new things together. In Maths, it has all been about weight and mass for both Year 1 and 2. We have been measuring and comparing the mass of different objects in our classroom using both the balance scale and the compression balance scale. In Literacy, we have finished planning our instruction texts and cannot wait to begin writing the draft using all the many different skills we have learned so far.

As we near the end of our unit on Everyday Materials, Class 2 have begun applying our knowledge about materials to discuss why different materials are used to make different objects. We had a very exciting (and hilarious) Science lessons where we discussed some silly objects like a chocolate teapot and a pair of glass trousers. In Geography, we had real fun using a compass and exploring the 4 cardinal points. In RE, we have begun exploring the story of Prophet Muhammad to try and understand why he is important to Muslims. 

And before you know it...

... another half term is done and all we have to do is look back and see just how much we have learned and experienced. 

In Literacy, we have all completed writing out the neat copies of our Cornish legend. And oh boy! Do we have some amazing stories! We can't wait to share them with our Class 2 families when we come back after our half term break. In Maths, while year 2's grappled with understanding the relationship between number bonds to 10 and 20, Year 2s completed their unit on multiplication and division - this week has largely been about consolidating and testing our understanding.

On Thursday, Year 1s from Class 1 joined us for a History lesson to conclude our unit on Changes in Toys. We looked at a variety of artefacts and used our understanding of historical fact and changes to deduce how old they were. Our lessons in Science about Everyday Materials really helped us as we looked at a range of toys and tried to put them in chronological order. As we discovered, metal (rusty) and natural materials were often used to make "olden toys" while toys today are mostly made of plastic.

On the last day of our half term, we also took time to think about people we love and how we celebrate them on Valentines Day. We talked about the people and animals in our lives we loved dearly and shared about what made them special to us.   

We then decided to write the special people (or animals) in our lives a letter to tell them how much we loved them. It was a joy to read every one of these letters today as they celebrated the love and connection each of us felt with the world around us. We had letters to own families thanking them for being there and making their world better, to letters to their pets thanking them for helping them cope with sad moments. I hope some of these notes have found their way to those intended. 

Finally, enjoy your half term break Class 2 family, and we hope to see you all back refreshed and ready for another round of mayhem, learning and fun; and mayhem, learning and fun; and... you get it!