What a busy week it has been!  Well done to all of the children who were very sensible when getting their sibling photos taken at the Junior School.  

Our Word of the Week this week was 'minute', as in very small, tiny.  The children had the opportunity to use this word when describing mini-beasts and their micro-habitats.  

Phonics

This week we have been revisiting digraphs that make the ‘ay’ sound: ay, ai, a-I and a-e. We have used our phonics to read and write the following words: rain, crayon, paint, birthday, again, tray, snail, made, cake, make and bake. Please continue to practise these words at home. 

English

This week our work has been based on mini-beast poetry.  This week we have followed patterns, identified alliteration and listened to Joseph Coehlo read his own poems as part of the Magical Reading Festival.  The children really enjoyed this and most were keen to read more by this author.  https://www.thepoetryofjosephcoelho.com/  

At the end of the week, we all published our own poems to create a class anthology.  

Reading

It is lovely to be able to share new books with the class that the children bring in as part of their birthday celebration.  Thank you for the donations so far.

We can’t stress enough the importance of re-reading books at home.  As children develop their familiarity with the words and stories, they then develop the confidence to experiment with tone and expression.

Maths

In maths, we have been continuing our learning about place value, especially recognising what each digit in a two digit number represents. For example, 47 has  4 tens and 7 ones. When you see 2-digit numbers in the environment, ask your child what each digit represents. 

We have also been partitioning 2-digit numbers in different ways, using tens and ones.

 For example:

47 = 40 + 7 = 30 + 17 = 20 + 27

This encourages children to recognise and use mathematical symbols, and to understand numbers can be split in different ways. We will build on this understanding when we move on to adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers. 

If you would like to watch a teaching video about tens and ones please look at https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-2/week-1/ (Tens and ones within 50). 

We have been using our understanding of place value to solve problems. You might like to try this problem at home: https://nrich.maths.org/6343/index

Next week we will be revisiting counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. Please practise this at home to ensure your child can do this fluently. 

Art 

This week we designed our mini-beasts.  We thought back to our work with clay last week and labelled our designs with the techniques we plan to use.  We thought about form and pattern and what skills we would need to use to get the results we are looking for.  We can’t wait to build our mini-beasts!

Science

In science this week we went on a mini-beast hunt.  We looked at 2 micro-habitats – the woodland and the field.  We found lots of mini-beasts, especially woodlice and slugs!