Welcome to Green Class!

Mr Wraight, Mrs Raymer and Miss Meyler would like to welcome you to Green Class.

Term 6

'Roll up...roll up'

CIRCUS PERFORMER

What great fun we had on the first Friday back!  First of all we were greeted in the playground by a circus entertainer on stilts making giant bubbles, then for our first lesson we got to watch a circus show including uni-cycles, plate spinning and all types of tricks.

ENGLISH

This term we are using film as a stimulus for our writing and have been looking at the Pixar Short animation Presto. We have been completed activities around this film based on role play, word level work, sentence writing and exploring the use of paragraphs when we write.

We are looking at the main characters in the story and writing character descriptions for them using expanded noun phrases and adverbs in our sentences. We will also be learning about writing in the first person and looking at different viewpoints of the film from the two characters.

MATHS

This term we are consolidating our understanding of all the maths concepts taught this year. We are enjoying taking part in more physical 'maths of the day' activities in order to do this, such as number bonds relay, ordering numbers on apparatus and odds and evens hoop sorting.

Look out for some photographs our fun maths activities coming soon!

PSHE

As we come to the end of our time at Westmeads School, we will begin to discuss transitions to our new Junior school. This term we will spend time discussing any concerns we have about our new schools as well as sharing the things we are looking forward to. We will spend time with children from red class who are going to the same Junior school as us and will spend various sessions at our new schools. We are very excited about the next chapter in our school life but if you have got any worries or concerns about moving on, please don't hesitate to come and speak to Mr Wraight!

ART

This term we are exploring techniques involved with collaging. We will be looking at selecting different materials to use to create a collage of a circus scene of the children's own designing. If you have any old arts and crafts materials or other suitable collage materials please bring them in for us to use on our collages - thanks for your support with this!

Term 5

'Islands'

This term we are learning about 'Islands' and will be thinking about the question 'what is it like to live on an island?'

Thank you to those of you who have already brought in your 'Islands' homework - we look forward to seeing what the rest of you have done! There is still time to bring it in! Our home challenge board needs filling up!

Today we visited Tesco as our 'fantastic finish' from last term - take a look at the photographs! It was a fantastic day - the children had a great time and learned so much about how supermarkets work. The adults learned a lot too!

English – Reading/Writing

During our Reading Workshops this term we will be looking at comprehension questions linked to a text and will be giving the children tips on how to retrieve information directly from a text as well as how to infer meaning from the author’s choice of words. The children will continue to be encouraged to enjoy books as frequently as possible and we will continue to read 2 or 3 stories in the classroom each day.

In our lesson time we will be looking at ‘The Island’ by John Heffernan as well as some Bear Grylls’ texts. Our focus is both instructional and creative writing. We are looking to combine our Geography lessons with English this term by creating fact files on the continents as well as some posters/information leaflets about islands around the world.

There will remain a focus on handwriting and we will continue to encourage the children to use the joining formations they have learned so far and to show these in their writing all of the time.

Maths

During this term we will be taking another look at those areas we have been finding a bit tricky or would like to develop our understanding in. We are beginning by talking about = meaning ‘is the same as’ and thinking about this symbol appearing in different places in our number sentences. We will then move on to multiplication, division and fractions. We have started using our ‘Maths of the Day’ resource which involves physical activity during our maths lessons to help the children be more engaged and motivated – it seems to be working well! Please feel free to look on the website if you would like any more information: https://www.mathsoftheday.org.uk/

Term 4

'Change'

This term we are thinking about 'change'.

We have spoken about what we know about how we change, how animals change and the changes that have occurred in the local area, from Westmeads School to Whitstable town.

We have got lots of questions we want to find the answers to about change including, how has technology changed over the years?, how has money changed? and how has fashion changed?

ENGLISH

We have recently been celebrating book week and World Book Day and were visited by children's author Denis Bond. In preparation for his visit, we studied his book 'The Granny who wasn't like other grannies'. We looked at how the main character in the story wanted his granny to change at first but then realised he loved her just the way she was. We have enjoyed learning about how everybody's granny is different.

When Denis came to visit, we enjoyed learning how he writes stories and the publishing process and we had great fun working with Denis and red class to create our own story!

We are currently studying the book 'Angus Rides the Goods Train' by Alan Durant, which is a book about a young boy who is on a train which is taking goods to a rich King and his courtiers, but passes various people in need. Angus is not happy with this and sets about changing this by taking the train and driving it back to help all those people in need. We have enjoyed exploring the moral and global issues in the book and have been practising our writing by composing engaging and descriptive letters, in role as Angus, to explain how we feel about what the train driver and King have done. This has allowed us to practise our use of adjectives, adverbs and different sentence types.

We are soon going to explore the book 'Tadpoles Promise' by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross, which looks at the changes in nature, with an unexpected twist!

MATHS

This term we are continuing to consolidate our understanding of fractions, both of a shape and of number and have explored symmetry and right angles.

We are currently subtracting with 2-digit numbers by partitioning and are beginning to look at how to subtract using a number line.

All of us are enjoying seeing the links between different areas of maths and are becomingly increasing less reliant on manipulatives to support our understanding. We are developing and using our mental strategies to solve a wide range of both logic and reasoning problems too!

SCIENCE

Our Science learning this term is on 'animals (including humans)'.

We have reminded ourselves of the different stages of human growth and have learned and described the different characteristics of the different stages. The children have particularly enjoyed discussing the 'stroppiness' of teenagers.

We have been learning about how to stay healthy and have discussed eating a balanced diet - learning and categorising the five main food groups - proteins, fruit and veg, carbohydrates, fatty and sugary foods and dairy and milk products.

We will then begin to look at staying fit and healthy and the importance of personal hygiene, such as washing our hands.

Look out for our Science lessons when you are in school - you can tell when we are being scientists as we are all wearing our new lab coats!

Term 3

'Journeys'

Our topic this term is ‘Journeys’ and we will be going on several journeys over the next few weeks; including a visit to a local Church and the Horsebridge Centre to see our artwork, with the terms work culminating in a Green Class vs Red Class unsinkable boat race.

Thank you to all those children (and parents) for your amazing home challenge work. I am sure you will agree how amazing they all look. Do pop in and see them for yourselves!

We are in the process of creating a new reading area – The Green Class Reading Rocket – watch out for some pictures of it once it has been constructed – better still, come in and blast off with a good book!

ENGLISH

Already this term we have taken a look at the history of the sinking of the Titanic. We have explored the different theories of why it sank and debated our opinions based on the information available. We have really enjoyed learning different facts about the Titanic and have created some fantastic Newspaper Articles, which are proudly on display in the classroom.

We are now working on the wordless story ‘Journey’ by Aaron Becker. This is a story of a girl who has a magic crayon and goes on a journey to a mysterious world and finds friendship in the most unlikely of places. It is a great story that we have enjoyed learning about – we are looking forward to writing the story in our own words over the next few weeks.

MATHS

We have been exploring a range of skills in Maths this term, including adding two two-digit numbers by partitioning and multiplication. We are enjoying making links between our maths knowledge and particularly enjoyed our recent potion making lesson.

SCIENCE

Our Science learning this term builds on our knowledge of Materials and their properties from Year 1. We are going to learn about the different uses of different materials and consider why certain things are made the way they are. Ultimately, we are learning about the best materials for making an unsinkable boat, in order to have the best chance of winning in the Red Class vs Green Class boat race!

PE

We have been dancing in PE this term and are looking forward to performing our Seasons dance to our mums and dads very soon (keep a look out for confirmation of the date!).

In Gymnastics we are putting together a sequence of moves to include a balance, roll, step and jump; both floor work and using the apparatus. We really enjoy Gym and some of us have been selected to represent Westmeads at an upcoming competition.

ART

In Art, we have been decorating waves with handwriting patterns to add to our Year group creation of a beach scene; our contribution to the Coastal Alliance Art project currently on display at the Horsebridge Centre – do pop along and have a look; it is on display alongside the work of many other local schools.

We have also been sketching pictures of the Titanic, considering perspective when sketching the ship both prior to the sinking and during it. We have really enjoyed this work and have all shown improvements in our sketching from the first attempt to the most recent one – look out for these at the upcoming workshare.

Term 2

POLAR - WHO NEEDS A FUR COAT?

MILK BOTTLE IGLOO PROJECT

We are desperately trying to collect enough empty 4 pint milk cartons to build a milk bottle igloo.  If you have any empty cartons please send them into school rather than into your recycling - we have now made a great start and are hoping that the children will then be able to enjoy using the igloo in our outside area very soon!

SHAPE, SPACE AND DESPERATE MEASURES

What an amazing show from the Quantum Theatre helping us to learn all about shape, time and measurements in a really fun way.  I know the children all enjoyed the show and I must say, Daft Apeth was a personal favourite of mine!

REMEMBRANCE DAY

Well done to all of our Year 2 children who walked to the memorial at Whitstable library to show their respect for Remembrance Day.  The children joined in with other local schools for the service and represented the school very well.

BLACK HISTORY WEEK

We have begun the term by looking at Matthew Henson who was possibly the first man to reach the North Pole.  We have described him as a brave and courageous black explorer who was a skilful dog sled driver.  We also know he was strong and fit as it took him several attempts to reach his destination.  He was very adventurous as he undertook such a dangerous trip in freezing temperatures.  Fortunately he became friendly with the Inuits who taught him such great survival skills.

We will be writing all about Matthew Henson and focusing on using wonderful description, including noun phrases, in our sentence writing.  

ENGLISH

After our week on Matthew Henson we will then move on to learning all about the animals of the Polar regions, writing fact files about our favourites.  We will then write a comparison text on the Arctic V Antarctic.  Later in the term we will be focusing on story writing and looking at our book of the term, 'The Princess and the Polar Bear King' where we will write character descriptions, look at story settings and re-write the story in our own words.

MATHS

We are taking our first look at the link between repeated addition and multiplication this term where we will be continuing with lots of practical maths to help us fully understand the connection between these two operations.  

After this we will begin to look at fractions by revisiting half (1/2) from Year 1 and one quarter (1/4).  We will then link this with time by discussing o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to.  The children will continue to focus on number work but will move on to talk about time as well as directional language.

PE

This term our PE will be speed stacking and gymnastics.  We are also lucky enough to have been offered the services of the drama instructor from The Community College Whitstable to present 4 dance workshops to the children on Thursday afternoons.  Fingers crossed that this will end with a performance to parents showing all of your hard work!  We will keep you posted with any news on this.

SCIENCE

This term, to fit in with our Polar theme, we are looking at 'Living things and their habitats'.  We have already discovered that a habitat is a place where a plant or animal makes its home, as well as finding out that a habitat provides: food, drink, shelter, protection and a place to raise a family.  There was a great discussion about the Polar regions as habitats and we came up with some wonderful adjectives to describe them.

RE

During the Christmas term we will be looking at the Christian Christmas story with a particular focus on the role of the Wise Men.  This will include plotting their journey from the East to Bethlehem, considering the gifts they gave to Jesus and thinking about why these gifts were important.

BEACH WALKS

This term our beach walks will focus on geography and map work.  During our first visit to the beach we had great fun playing team building games and trying to work out routes using positional language.

Term 1

Romans - Was Rome Built in a Day?

Welcome back and what a great start to life in Year 2!

Thank you all so much for your contributions to our Roman themed interactive learning board - it would be great to see some more great pieces of work to add to it too!

This term we are learning about Romans and exploring the question 'was Rome built in a day?'. If you have any information/ideas/experiences you would like to share with us then do please come and speak with us - we would love to hear from you!

We had a great time on Roman Day! Take a look at the pictures.

During the day, dressed as our Roman centurions, Gods and Godesses, we took part in various Roman activities! We marched in the playground following Mr Wraight and Mrs Raymer in a chariot and had a competition with Red Class to see who could march in the best formation. Back in the classroom, we designed and made clocks using Roman Numerals and created our own model Roman soldier using a dolly peg.

We all had great fun and it was really interesting to learn some facts about the Romans, including the fact that they only washed maybe once or twice a month!

In English this term we have been researching information about Romans using non-fiction books.

We then used this information to create our own non-fiction information pages - come into the classroom and have a look at them on display - they look fab!

We have also been reading the book 'Escape from Pompeii' and have been acting out and writing descriptions about the characters in the story. We have also created 'senses grids' to describe what we might see, hear, smell or touch if we were in the city of Pompeii in the story.

We have written diary entries as though we are the main character Tranio and have been working on including adjectives and conjunctions in our writing. We continue to focus on our handwriting and the use of accurate punctuation like full stops and capital letters.

In maths this term we have been consolidating the children's understanding of concepts they learned in year 1.

We have recapped our use of number bonds to 10 and explored how we can use this knowledge to help us solve addition calculations with larger numbers. We have also explored place value using the diennes equipment.

We have recently explored measuring using centimetres (cm) and enjoyed measuring each other to see who is the tallest member of green class.