Thank you so much for all of the lovely messages we received on World Teacher Day.  They really put a smile on our faces.

The children who have milk are drinking more of it so thank you for talking to them about this, it has made a real difference.

Reminders

All children should bring a water bottle into school.  We encourage them to drink regularly throughout the day and they can refill when required.

Phonics

This week’s phonemes and words have been:

ee, ea, e-e

teeth	dream
queen	teacher
feet	weak
week	treat
these	ee
evening	ea
complete	e-e
swede

 

Please revisit these regularly with your child. 

English

We have spent the week focussing on some areas that we have noticed some gaps in:

Noun and adjectives

Can your child tell you want a noun is?  Can they give an example?  Can they spot nouns in different texts, signs etc.?

Can your child tell you want an adjective is?  Can they give an example?  Can they spot nouns in different texts, signs etc.?

Expanded Noun Phrases 

We have discussed the power of noun phrases and how they paint a much clearer picture in the reader’s mind.  

Common Exception Words

To reach Age Related at the end of Year 2, children need to spell ‘many’ of these words correctly.  Again, please regularly visit them with your child.  You may want to focus on a few a week.  The best way to do this is for your child to write them in sentences. 

Story writing

On Friday we had a writing session to show off our handwriting, spelling and use of the Words of the Week.  As a stimulus we watched a short animation called 'Catch it'.  We were really pleased to see how much progress the children have made in such a short space of time.  

You can watch the animation on https://www.literacyshed.com/catchit.html.

Reading (All)

We thought you might find the following questions useful to refer to when you read with your child.

 Maths

In maths we have been practising to order and compare numbers.  You could give your child some numbers and ask them to put them in order of size.  We have also been practising to count forwards and backwards in 2, 5 and 10.  Perhaps your child could challenge you to count backwards in 2, 5, and 10 from a number of their choice.  

 Art 

Christmas has come early to Crabtree!  Our clay work was on hold this week so that we could produce our Father Christmas paintings that you may like to purchase as Christmas Cards.

The children planned the size and shape of their Father Christmases and then painted them.  We think you’ll agree that they look very jolly!

Computing

 

What shapes does this algorithm make?

Forward 4

Right 90

Forward 4

Right 90

Forward 4

Right 90

Forward 4

Right 90 (we always aim to finish facing the direction we started in)

We moved on to thinking about the algorithms needed to draw a rectilinear shape.

All of the sides of a rectilinear shape meet at right angles. 

 

Skipping challenge

A few weeks ago Eagles took part in a skipping challenge.  This week it was Owls' turn.  Miss Kelly has kindly challenged the teachers to do the challenge too  -  How many skips can you do in 30 seconds?

Lego challenge

While half of the class were skipping, the other half were challenged to create a model of Harpenden.  Can you spot Harpenden Common, Luton Hoo and Crabtree Infants on our model?

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!

 

Friday 25th September 2020

 

Word of the Week

 To develop the children’s vocabulary, we are introducing a ‘Word of the Week’.  We will be encouraging the children to refer to our words of the week when they are writing (and speaking!).  The more they hear new vocabulary, the more they are likely to use it.  If you spot anything that’s vast, please share this with your child.

 English   Wonderful World of Mini-beasts

 We have been exploring poetry this week.  We have listened to and performed a variety of poems on the theme of Mini-beasts.  The children have enjoyed discussing what they like and don’t like about each poem and then justifying these opinions.

 “I like the eeny meeny mini-beast poem because I like the alliteration and rhyme.”

 We picked out synonyms (words that are similar) and antonyms (words that are opposite)

 Gliding/floating                       squiggly/wriggly                     hurrying/scurrying

 

Maths

We have been revising number - counting different representations of numbers to 100 and representing numbers using different resources. This is to secure children's understanding of place value and what each digit represents. For example, which number is bigger - 42 or 42? Why? 

We used bead strings, Numicon, Base 10, coins and words to represent the numbers. 

 

 We have been focusing on 2-digit numbers and securing our understanding of what each digit represents. Please ask your child how many tens and ones there are in any numbers you see. 

We have also been practising counting up and down in 1s, from any number. Please can you keep practising this at home, especially when you 'cross the tens', eg 60 to 59, 50 to 49. This will really help your child's addition and subtraction learning if they are secure counting up and down to 100. 

A good game to play to practise understanding of place value is lions and tigers (see below). 

Take turns to roll the dice and decide if you will put the number in the tens or ones column. The winner is the person who has made the largest number.

We have also been learning to write numbers in words. Some children are finding this very tricky! We will keep practising at school, but please practise writing numbers in words to one hundred, thank you. 

Art

 This week we explored different techniques when working with clay.  The children rolled, squeezed, squashed, pinched, carved, and hollowed the clay using their hands. They then used a variety of tools to make holes, draw lines of different thickness and create texture.  

 

The children thoroughly enjoyed trying out the different techniques and sharing their discoveries with their classmates.

 Finally, the children practised joining two pieces of clay using slip.  They cross-hatched each piece of clay and then used some slip to act as glue to join both pieces. We were also very impressed with the way they worked as a team to help tidy away, we hope they will demonstrate this skill at home too! 

 At home, you could use a modelling material to further explore the techniques we used.  Can you find any new methods of shaping or marking the clay that you can share with the class next week?

 Science

We have been looking at British habitats.  The children were very good at sorting the animals and plants into the different habitats.  We had a good discussion about foxes and crabs.  Perhaps you could explore some habitats in your own gardens – what animals and plants can you discover?

Reminders

Please remember coats and wellies need to be in school at all times.

Children are reminded to change their reading books and each class has been provided with a slot so that the children are not at risk of crossing bubbles. Thank you for your patience with this.

 Please ensure your child has a named water bottle with them each day.

 If your child has milk each day, please speak to them about the importance of drinking it – there’s a lot being poured away after only a couple of sips.

 We are missing not being able to speak to parents at the beginning or end of the day.  Thank you for your understanding whilst we navigate new systems that are there to keep us all safe.  Please do contact the office via email if you have a questions or would like to share something with us.

 Have a lovely weekend!

 The Year 2 Team