Category: Phase One

Dear Parents/Carers

Welcome back to all of the children for our final half term in Year 2. It sounds like everyone had a very restful half term and all of the children have continued their hard work from the last half term.

Today, you should be receiving an email about our end of year assessments. We have been preparing the children for these over a long period of time, and are now ramping up our test practise and preparation. The children have responded brilliantly to this and have listened carefully to the advice and guidance we have been giving them in class. Whilst there are no published SATs in Year 2 this year (due to covid), it is great practise for the children and we have encouraged them to see it as a celebration of everything they have learnt this year. If you have any questions after reading the letter from Mr Quinn, please feel free to ask.

In Maths, the children have been learning about time, looking at o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to times and learning how to read these times on an analogue clock. We also have been looking through different arithmetic papers so the children are secure in how to work through them. In English, we have been focusing on punctuation and grammar, and in guided reading we have been refining our comprehension skills with some reading practise papers.

Next week, we will  be delivering our Year 2 class assembly in our Key Stage 1 assembly. We are hoping to film this on the day to be able to send out to all of you. If it is not possible to get a good recording on the day (due to outside noise etc.) then we will film it later in the term in a more suitable filming environment.

The children have worked really hard this week and I am so proud of their resilience and determination to do well. I have full faith that they will all do their very best this half term.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Mr Stocking and Mrs Killy

Dear Parents/Carers

This week, the children have worked very hard and every table has earned all of their letters towards our class surprise; a trip to fish ponds woods. Letters have gone out today going over this and it’s links to next week’s book week. Their are new spellings up on Spelling Shed and we will be having our spelling test on Thursday as Friday is an inset day.

This week we have been consolidating our knowledge of the 5x table and using number lines for addition and subtraction in maths. In English, the children have been rewriting Esio Trot, but changing the characters of Mr Hoppy, Mrs Silver and Alfie. We had pirates, witches, explorers, scientists, adventurers, princesses and a lot more in our own versions of Roald Dahl’s classic. In Guided Reading, we read the books Mixed, Heart and the Bottle and Gorilla, developing our inference skills. In RE, the children learnt the story of Siddhartha and the Swan, a Buddhist tale about kindness and the value of life. In Art, the children learnt about the American artist Alma Thomas, attempting to replicate some of her artwork using varied paint mixing skills. In Science, the children learnt about how animals depend on various aspects of their habitats to survive and thrive, and what happens if any of those important links are taken away. In history, the children learnt about the development of hospitals before and after Florence Nightingale.

Next week is our annual book week. The theme is back to nature, and the children will be having various fun activities surrounding nature and literature throughout the week. The book we are using to drive our learning is The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane. Everyone in the school will be writing an acrostic poem linked to this poetry book.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend,

Mr Stocking, Mrs Killy and Mrs Fenwick

Dear Parents and Carers

We have now been back for a month and the children are settled and working hard. They show they same excellent enthusiasm 4 weeks in as they did the first week back. This week the children have spellings to look at on Spelling Shed. If you are not able to access the spellings at home, please let me know and we can sort a paper copy for you. The children will also be practising their spellings in school.

This week in English the children have been writing shape poems about Mount Everest, inspired by the mountaineer Junko Tabei (the first woman to climb the mountain). We researched what it would be like at different points on the 8849 metre journey up Everest and created descriptive sentences for our poems. In maths the children have continued their learning on position and direction, concluding with a small quiz today. In RE, the children learnt the Buddhist story of the Monkey King and explored what the word sacrifice means. In History, we learnt about the brilliant Mary Seacole and her inspiring determination to help people. In Science, we explored large habitats from around the world, such as deserts, oceans and rain forests.

We also had our first Relationship education lesson, in which the children discussed gender stereotypes and talked about which objects and colours they thought were for girls, boys and everyone. Everyone came to the conclusion at the end of the lesson that all of the objects listed can be used by everyone if they want to use them.

Next week, we are consolidating our knowledge on multiplication and division, starting with arrays. In English, we are retelling the story of Esio Trot. In RE, the children will be reading and learning about more Buddhist stories. In History, the children will be looking at Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole together and the impact they both had on nursing. In Guided Reading, we are spending the week focusing on arrays. In Art, the children will be learning about a new artist and practising painting in a particular style.

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend,

Mr Stocking, Mrs Killy and Mrs Fenwick

Dear Parents/Carers

Apologies that this blog post is a few days late. I was unwell on Friday and unable to post it. Spellings have now been set and the children have come home today with their book bags. If the children read the books they’ve been given over the next few days and are ready for new ones, then they can be brought back in on the normal days of Wednesday or Thursday. If the children would like to continue reading their book, they can keep their book bag at home for this week and bring it in next Wednesday. I forgot to remind Mrs Wheatly on Friday to send the book bags home, sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

Last week in maths, we started learning about position and direction. The children became more secure on their left and rights and gave each other instructions to move around blindfolded.  In English we started the week with some publishing, in which the children wrote up a fiction and non-fiction piece of writing that we have completed previously after editing it (and in their best handwriting!). We finished the week by looking at poetry. The children performed a couple of poems in groups excellently. In Guided Reading, we continued reading Esio Trot, nearing the end of the story. Mr Hoppy had managed to trick Mrs Silver into believing that Alfie had grown bigger himself.

In art, the children drew their famous woman they had been researching on a bigger piece of paper and coloured them in using oil pastels. In science, we learnt about micro-habitats, exploring different areas around the school to see what mini-beasts we could find. In PE, the children practised different football skills before applying them in a game.

This week we are thinking about describing turns and comparing direction and position between two or more objects in Maths. In English, we are planning and writing our shape poems about Junko Tabei. In History we will be learning more about Florence Nightingale and the impact she has had on modern nursing. In RE, we are continuing our study of Buddhism. In Guided Reading, we are finishing the story of Esio Trot and writing book reviews for it.

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend,

Mr Stocking, Mrs Killy and Mrs Fenwick

Dear Parents and Carers,

We have had another week of hard work and enthusiasm from the children. Spelling Shed spellings have been set. There will be two lists on Spelling Shed over the weekend, the children’s list they will be tested on and the common exception words I posted on Monday. The children have also brought home a small booklet focusing on common exception words. This is to practise at home and can be completed over the course of the term. Common exception words are words that aren’t spelt phonetically, the children also know them as tricky words.

This week we finished our learning on length and height, we wrote diary entries from the perspective of Alfie the tortoise. The children have enjoyed reading Esio Trot, we are starting to discover Mr Hoppy’s plan and Alfie doesn’t seem too pleased about it! In RE the children learnt about the story of the Buddha and drew storyboards to display their understanding. In ICT and Art the children researched an inspirational women, copy and pasted a picture to then draw in their sketch books. In our history lesson, we learnt about our first famous woman; Florence Nightingale and her impact on hospitals and modern nursing.

Next week, we are looking at position and direction in maths, we will be publishing our diaries and moving on to narrative writing in English. We will be learning about Mary Seacole and how she overcame adversity to help others. We will be learning about the Sangha in our RE lesson and the children will be adding colour using oil pastels to their famous women portraits.

I hope you all have a lovely long weekend!

Mr Stocking and Mrs Killy

Dear Parents/Carers

Last week the children hit the ground running with their return to school for the summer term. They all showed excellent enthusiasm for their learning and all seemed happy to be back amongst their friends. As the country opens up, we can hopefully return to some normality at St. Matthew’s this term.

For spellings this week, I haven’t set any specific spelling lists, but rather posted the common exception words that all of the children need to try to know by the end of Year 2. From Friday I will be starting our Spelling Shed properly, similar to how it was in the Autumn term, with the children having a spelling test the following Friday.

Last week, we began to look at length and height in maths, recapped on some of our grammar learning in English, thought about life processes in science and started to learn about Buddhism in RE. Our topic this term is ‘Famous Women throughout History’, in which we will learn about various pioneering women who had significant impacts on the lives of people during their times, as well as the lasting impact we still feel today. The children will be learning about Rosa Parks, Florence Nightingale, Emmeline Pankhurst, Queen Elizabeth II, Mary Seacole and Junko Tabei, amongst other famous women. To start our topic, the children have been thinking about significant women in their own lives. In Guided Reaidng, the children have started to read Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot.

This week, we will be continuing to look at length in maths, we will be writing diaries from the perspective of Alfie the Tortoise in English and learning about microhabitats in Science. In history we will be learning about Florence Nightingale and her impact on nursing, and in RE the children will be looking at the story of Buddha in greater detail.

These blogs will be going out on Friday again from this week, I hope you all had a lovely weekend,

Mr Stocking, Mrs Killy and Mrs Fenwick