Welcome to Red Class!

Miss Hyett, Mrs Olson and Mr Wright would like to welcome you to Red Class.

Term 6

Roll up ..... roll up

What happens under the big top?

CIRCUS SKILLS WORKSHOP

All of Red Class would like to say a big thank you to the Friends of Westmeads who provided us with a wonderful circus skills workshop.  We all had great fun trying to plate spin, stilt walk and juggle as well as lots of laughter during the magic show at the end.

OUTSIDE PLAY

During our last few days at Westmeads we made use of the good weather and enjoyed some outside bonding activities.

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

Our writing this term is being inspired by the Pixar short film 'Presto' which is about a magician and his rabbit.  The children are already really enjoying using film to enhance their creative writing and are in the process of creating a character description of the rabbit using expanded noun phrases and adverbs.

MATHS

During the first week back we are getting into the swing of things by using our 'Maths of the Day' active maths lessons to remind us of some number operations and rules.  We have also been practising reading numbers as words.

COOKING

We have started our first cooking sessions by making a 'Big Top Smoothie' using bananas and strawberries.  Mostly we thought it tasted delicious.  Mmmm!

BEACH WALKS

This term we are beach walking on a Wednesday afternoon and we have already had amazing fun learning how to juggle like circus entertainers.  We found out that some of the children are better jugglers than either Mr Wraight or Mr Wright (but not better than Miss Hyett, obviously!).

P.E

This term our lessons will focus on our athletics skills (in preparation for School Games Day) and tri-golf.  Golf is something we are trying for the first time so I'm sure it will be as much fun for me, Mrs Olson and Mr Wright as it will for the children!  Move over Rory McIlory!

PSHE

This term our PSHE lessons will focus on transition, decision making and friendships as we prepare for the move to Key Stage 2.  We will be using the time to discuss lots of scenarios and thinking about the best and most appropriate way for us to act.

Term 5

'Islands'

What is it like to live on an island?

SCOOTER DAY WITH TEAM RUBICON

Many thanks to Team Rubicon for coming in to Westmeads for some scooter training.  We had great fun learning some new tricks and skills as well as practising how to stay safe when crossing the roads. 

DUCKLING FUN

What a wonderful afternoon we had when the ducklings came to join us in the class.  First they went for a bit of a waddle in the water then, after a dry down, were warmed up with a cuddle by all of Red Class.

MAY DAY VISIT FROM THE DEAD HORSE MORRIS

We received our annual visit from the local Morris group for May Day and enjoyed the music and dancing.

FARM TO FORK VISIT AT TESCO

We had a great first day to the term when we concluded our previous topic of 'Change' by visiting Tesco for the 'Farm to Fork' activity.  Not only were we locked in the freezer by the naughty Sam, but he then turned the light off when we went into the chiller!  We enjoyed looking around the warehouse and going onto the shop floor to look at the produce.

We would like to say a big thank you to Sam and Pauline for such a wonderful morning and for all of the tasty and healthy food they encouraged us to eat during the 'food tasting' session.

ENGLISH

This term for our topic of 'Islands' we are looking at both creative and instructional writing.

For creative writing, our book is 'The Island' by John Heffernan and the children have already listened to the story, taken part in an 'emotions continuum' and written a sentence or some phrases about how the story made them feel.

We will be looking at some Bear Grylls' texts for our instructional writing and will be discussing how we write command sentences.

We will also be linking our Geography lessons with English this term and our aim is to create fact files/posters about visiting the continents of the world.

MATHS

This term we are looking at = as a balance and thinking of it meaning 'the same as'.  We are also hoping to take part in many more 'Maths of the Day' activities to help us keep physically fit during our maths lessons!  If you would like to take a look at the website for yourself please feel free to do so:  https://www.mathsoftheday.org.uk/

Later in the term we will be taking another look at multiplication, division and fractions.

SCIENCE

Our Science this term is all about plants and growing.  We have started by taking a close look at seeds using magnifying lenses to help us identify their main features.  We then used a Venn Diagram to help us sort the seeds.  Here is some of our wonderful work.

ART

We have already made a start on our line drawing theme for this term.  We are trying to use lines in our drawing to help us create the illusion of 3d art.  We have begun to practise this by drawing around our hand then covering the picture using lines.  Take a look at some of our great initial efforts!

PE

This term our activities are tennis and cricket.  Please ensure your child has their PE kit in school with trainers/plimsolls that fit.  

RE

Our topic this term is Sikhism and we will be taking part in a lot of discussions about who founded the religion, some particular Sikh festivals and the place where Sikhs go to pray.  We will also be taking a look at some important Sikh artefacts.

MUSIC

We have started our music enrichment lessons with Mrs Memmot and these are going really well.  During the first week we were able to sing and play a variety of instruments.

Term 4

'Change'

What would you change and how?

This term we are asking the question 'What would you change and how?'  Not only are we going to be enjoying a number of books involving change but we are hoping to have some tadpoles in our outside area when the weather warms up a bit!  We will then be observing how they change throughout their time with us.

We would like to say thank you again for all of the pictures and craft that have been created for our interactive learning area.  What a colourful corner of the classroom we now have!

THE GRUFFALO SCIENCE WORKSHOP

All of us had the chance to see some woodland animals up close in this amazing experience.  Not only were we able to place snails and slugs into microscopes to look at them in detail, but we were able to touch a turtle and hold a mouse - the star of The Gruffalo show.

ZIMBABWE FUNDRAISER

Many thanks to everyone who provided toys and books for our charity 'Bring and Buy' sale.  The children of Red Class had great fun selecting new items to purchase.  Fingers crossed we have raised enough money for another 'pop up classroom' in Zimbabwe.

BOOK WEEK

What a great start to the term with World Book Week and a visit from author Denis Bond.  I think I can safely say that every child was inspired by his workshop and that he was impressed by our work on his book!

PANCAKE DAY RACES

Thankfully the rain held off for our annual pancake races and there was lots of cheering and laughing.  I know that the seagulls definitely appreciated the number of pancakes that were dropped mid-flip!  Well done also to Red Class' very own Mr Wright who retained his title in the 'Gentlemen's Pancake Race'!  Great fun!

ENGLISH

We are looking at a few books this term which centre on our topic of change.  We started the term with 'The Granny who wasn't like other grannies' written by our guest author Denis Bond.  The children were writing a comparison text about Tim's granny and the type of granny he wanted, focusing on conjunctions: but, however, although, even though.

Moving on we then took a look at 'Angus Rides the Goods Train' written by Alan Durant.  We put ourselves in the shoes of Angus, thinking about what he would like to change and why.  Our writing was done in the form of a letter.

Finally, we are studying 'Tadpole's Promise' by Jeanne Willis and we are focusing on story writing including speech marks.

MATHS

In preparation for later in the year we are practising problem solving using word problems, logic and reasoning.  As well as looking at these problems weekly we will be taking another look at fractions and reminding ourselves how to use jottings in our number and calculation work.

Westmeads has now started enjoying active maths by taking part in 'Maths of the Day' which is an initiative to raise attainment in maths through physical learning.  As you can see from the pictures, we have been taking advantage of the good weather. 

SCIENCE

In line with our theme we are are taking a look at Animals including humans which will involve discussion about offspring and basic needs for survival.  We will be looking at how we survive as well as discussing exercise, food groups and hygiene.  If you would like to take a look at any of our science work you can take a look at our 'Working Wall' in the classroom.

PE

This term we are covering multi-skills, in preparation for the Infant Agility competition, and dodgeball.  So far we have practised our jumping skills and realised that we need balance, control and co-ordination! 

BEACH WALKS

This term our beach walks will be used for our drama and role-play lessons.  During our first beach walk the weather wasn't very kind to us but we still had great fun taking on the roles of Angus and the train driver.  We also had to think of adjectives against the clock during our team relay to keep warm!

Term 3

'Journeys'

Are we there yet?

There have been some incredible pieces of work sent in for us to display in our interactive learning area including models, journals, maps and information posters.  Thank you very much for helping to make our classroom look so wonderful.

PARENT READING WORKSHOPS

All of us really enjoyed having the parents of Red Class visit for 3 mornings this week to read us stories.  It was wonderful for the children to hear how the stories are told by different adults as well as listen to the expression used and join in with the parts they knew.  Thank you all for making it an amazing week of reading.

DANCE

Great performances were given by both Red and Green class children when they showed their 'Seasons' dance to their grown ups.  Thank you to Mrs Prince from CCW for teaching us the dance and providing the music and a huge thank you to all of the grown ups who came along to watch the performances.

OUR WALKING JOURNEY

The 'stunning start' to our topic involved the children all taking part in a walking journey around the local area.  Clues were followed to find our way back to school to the prize of chocolate eggs hidden in the volcano.  We all had great fun, despite the rain!

FIRE SAFETY TALK

Thank you to Debbie and Geoff from the Fire Service who came to give us a talk on fire safety.  We will all do our best to remember the useful information that you taught us about matches and smoke alarms as well as the 'stop, drop, roll' technique.

ENGLISH

During our English lessons we have been taking a look at the Titanic disaster and considering who was to blame for the accident.  We looked at 5 different view points and then presented our own theory in the form of a newspaper article, answering the questions: WHAT happened?  WHEN did it happen?  HOW did it happen?  WHO was to blame?  We all worked very hard to include different sentence types in our writing including statement sentences, question sentences and exclamation sentences.

We are now just starting to take a look at our book for the term, which is 'Journey' by Aaron Becker.

We are hoping to write our own words to go with this book which show our interpretation of the story.  We are currently thinking about how the main character feels at the start of the story.

MATHS

During the first week back after Christmas we decided to make some magic potions and used our knowledge of 'capacity' to help us correctly measure them out.  We had lots of fun making our 'invisibility' and 'super strength' mixtures.

For the rest of the term we will be focusing on number and returning to look at multiplication and division.  We have also used our place value knowledge to help us add 2 digit numbers by partitioning into tens and ones and adding these separately.

SCIENCE

Our unit of study this term is Materials and their properties. We are spending some time thinking about different types of materials and their uses before deciding which materials we will use to make our boats, justifying the reasons for our choices.  

We had a lot of fun discussing what would happen if some of our everyday objects were made using different types of materials.

P.E.

Our P.E. lessons for this term are gymnastics and dance.  In gym we are learning how to travel over and under apparatus using movements such as a step, balance, jump and roll.  All of us enjoyed showing control and moving with purpose, particularly when we were jumping from the high vault.

In dance we are starting off by reminding ourselves of the dance Mrs Prince taught us last term - it is based on the 4 seasons.  Our aim is to show this dance to parents mid-way through the term.  After this we will practise some 'yoga dance' using our IMoves resource.

MUSIC

A massive thank you to Miss Boxer who arranged for 'Rock Steady', a rock band, to come to our school assembly and not only teach us about different instruments but also play for us and encourage us to join in.  Mrs Lambirth had a great time realising her childhood dream of playing the drums (and very good she was too!).

We are also looking forward to seeing you all at our Year 2 Music Concert arranged by Mrs Aviss on Thursday 9th February.

R.E.

Our focus this term is 'special places' and we are not only looking at our own special places but are thinking about why the church is a special place for Christians.  The topic will then see us visit St Alphege church to look at the features of a church and learn about the artefacts.

Art and Design

We have already designed our pieces of artwork for the Horsebridge display and they are now on show in the gallery.  We have been there as a class to take a look but it would be great if all of our families could visit too.

Our Design and Technology unit this term is linked with Science and involves us each creating a boat using suitable materials.  The boats will then be used in the 'fantastic finish' to the term when we compete against Green Class in our amazing boat race.

Term 2

POLAR - WHO NEEDS A FUR COAT?

Hopefully you are all looking forward to this term's theme where we will be looking at the Polar areas of the world, where they are, who lives there, how they survive and who the first people were to discover these areas.

We have been astounded at how much wonderful and creative work you have done over the half term.  It is making our interactive learning area look just like it could come to life!

CHILDREN IN NEED

No one needed to get dressed for school today as we all arrived in our pyjamas!  Despite that, we didn't get to snooze on the job!  

PSHE

During these lessons we have spent a lot of time discussing the qualities of a good friend.  In order to help us decide which were the most important qualities we created our own posters.  

We then looked at how a good friend would NOT behave and designed an alternative poster.

These are now on display in our classroom but here are a few: 

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?

ROMAN MUSEUM TRIP

We had an exciting trip to the Roman Museum in Canterbury during the last week of term to ensure a fantastic finish to our first topic.  Not only did we have lots of fun walking around the museum and playing the Roman board games but we took part in an 'Everyday Life' workshop which taught us all about everyday items used by the Romans. 

MAXIMUS SCARIOUS - THE RED CLASS SCARECROW

During the half term week we will have a scarecrow on display in the grounds of Whitstable Castle which will be entered into the Scarecrow Trail competition.   The children had a lot of fun making him so if you'd like to see the finished product you'll need to get yourself up to the Castle (and make sure you vote for our Roman Gladiator)!

PUDDING PAN DAY

To celebrate the Coastal Alliance Pudding Pan day Red Class decided to make our very own Pudding Pans!  We were very creative, using clay to make coil pots.

ROMAN DAY

We had lots of fun during our 'stunning start' to the topic on Roman Day.  Not only did we have chariot races around the playground and march as a Roman army, but we made our very own Roman soldiers and Roman numeral clocks.  Thank you to everyone for making such a special effort with the costumes.

ENGLISH

This term we have been making our own Roman fact files which contain information about food and drink, entertainment, schools, Gods/Goddesses and baths and toilets.  We found it very enjoyable to read the information in a variety of non-fiction books, then translate it into our own words.  Lots of us found the information about toilet habits very amusing - particularly the fact that Romans didn't use toilet paper but used a sponge on a stick instead!

We will then move on the look at the book 'Escape From Pompeii' which is an exciting story about Roman life as described by Tranio, the main character.  We will be using our senses to write diary entries and comparisons between life before and after Mount Vesuvius erupted.

MATHS

We are spending this term by reminding ourselves about the rules of addition and subtraction, using inverse and looking at place value.  We will also be applying these strategies to money where we will be finding totals using the fewest number of coins and giving change.  We will then finish the term with shape and measure (where we will investigate how best to measure ourselves!).

HISTORY

As our topic is 'The Romans' we thought we would look at a famous figure from this era and chose to look at Queen Boudica.  So far we have had lots of fun learning the story of her life as well as finding out about her battles.  We enjoyed drawing around a member of our group before labelling the picture with adjectives describing what Boudica looked like as well as how she felt when her husband died and she had to fight the Roman army.

RE

This term in our RE lessons we are finding out about the religion of Islam.  So far we have looked at the symbol of Islam, discussed the Qur'an and found out about Muslims praying at a mosque.  Luckily we have some experts in the classroom who were able to show us the rituals of prayer.

ART

We have not only enjoyed creative activities during Roman day, but during our weekly curriculum time have created our own Roman shield design as well as made some wonderful mosaic pictures.

PE

Our PE this term consists of swimming and tag rugby.  We have been learning lots of new skills and are looking forward to competing in some competitions later on in the term.