Miss Harris, Mrs Pugh and Mrs Olson

would like to welcome you to

Green Class

Term 6

Term 5

Term 4

Identity

'Who do you think you are?'

This term our topic is Identity… and we will be asking the question, ‘Who do you think you are?’ We will be basing this topic around the book named ‘Croc and Bird’ by Alexis Deacon which is a story about a crocodile and bird who hatch together and become ‘brothers’ with very different identities. We will be revealing the story slowly throughout the term and will work towards retelling it in our own words. We are also looking at ‘animals, including humans’ in Science and will learn about how animals grow. We will also identify different animals and common birds. To help with this, we will be welcoming ‘Animal Aid’ a charity concerned with Animal Welfare who will be talking to us about how to care for animals. We will also be visiting Thornden Woods with the hope of spotting some local wildlife.

Pancake Races

Take a look at us competing in this year’s pancake races below.

Book Week

Year 2 have had a fantastic World book week. We were very lucky to be visited by the author and illustrator Mark Robertson, who did a wonderful assembly about his work. He also spent time with us, teaching us how to draw a dragon, which we really enjoyed. Take a look at some pics below:

PE

This term we will have Gymnastics on a Tuesday morning and Tri Golf on a Monday afternoon for Green Class and Thursday afternoon for Red Class. Take a look at us in action below.

English – Croc & Bird

We have enjoyed reading this term’s text ‘Croc & Bird by Alexis Deacon. We made predictions about what we thought the eggs in the story might contain and acted out their hatching. We then used these experiences to help us to write descriptions of the animals as they cracked out of the eggs. We used adjectives and adverbs to make our descriptions interesting.

Term 3

Journeys

'Are we there yet?'

Term 2

'Polar'

Who lives in place like this?

This term we are thinking about the Polar regions and trying to answer the question 'who lives in a place like this?'.

We are exploring the texts 'The Emperor's Egg' and 'Brave and the Fox' - two contrasting texts that look at both poles, both through non-fiction and story writing.

We look forward to ending this term with an exciting trip to see 'The Snow Dragon' at the Gulbenkian Theatre.

Polar Challenge Day

As part of our introduction to our Polar topic, we set the children a challenge: to create an igloo using sugar cubes.

In order to be successful, they had to work together and show characteristics of effective learning including resilience and determination.

Take a look at us in action below.

The Power of Reading -

Brave & The Fox,  The Emperor's Egg

This term, our English learning has been centred around two key texts. The children have loved learning all about Penguins and have recreated the life cycle of a penguin as well as writing their own free verse poetry. We have described penguins and responded to the text 'The Emperor's Egg' by creating chalk drawings of the landscape.

They have also written 'Brave & The Fox' in their own words using a story mountain to plot their own ideas and interesting phrases. We have learned all about adjectives, adverbs and similes and how an author uses these words to engage the reader.

Beach Visits

This term, we have been getting active on the beach using the environment to help us with our maths learning. We measured different parts of the beach in centimetres and metres and then made comparisons to things back in school.

We have also been practising our spellings using the pebbles on the beach - the children have enjoyed this fun and active way of learning to spell.

A big thank you to those parents who have helped with walking to the beach - we could really do with some more helpers each week though to ensure these visits can take place.

Geography

As part of our learning about Polar regions, we have been thinking about the seven continents of the world. We learned a song about them and have really enjoyed singing this around the school.

To consolidate our understanding, we looked at the World Map and began to identify where the continents are in relation to one another. We worked as a team to sort them and place them in the correct place on a map.

Art

In art we have been experimenting with water colour. We looked at the different shades we could make by just adding water as well as mixing colours together. We used the technique of colour washing to create a picture of the Northern Lights inspired by our book 'Brave and the Fox'. 

We also looked at the artist Henri Matisse and was inspired by his use of collage.  We worked in groups to explore the different ways we could use paper and then used these techniques to embellish our colour wash image of the Northern Lights.

Remembrance Day

The whole of Year 2 were invited to attend the War Memorial outside Whitstable Library on the 11th November.

We laid a wreath which we made from messages the children had written. We observed a 2 minute silence and thought about the sacrifices made by others to make our World a safer place.

The children were very well behaved and represented the school fantastically.

Year 2 Visit to Whitstable Junior School

Thank you to WJS for inviting us to your school this term to take part in a range of activities to help us in our junior school choice. The children had lots of fun and took part in a range of activities including mindfulness colouring, speed stacking and friendship bracelets.

Year 2 Visit to Whitstable Endowed School

Thank you to the Endowed for inviting us to your school to watch your year 3/4 Christmas Nativity. The children really enjoyed themselves and had a particularly good time playing on the equipment in the playground afterwards.

Christmas at Westmeads

To celebrate Christmas we all took part in a Christmas Craft Activity session which was organised by the Friends of Westmeads. This year the Friends also offered the children an opportunity to attend a Christmas shop and pick presents for their loved ones. We were then visited by a very special someone who answered lots of interesting questions and bought a gift for each of the children. 

Term 1 

Romans

'Was Rome built in a day?'

This term our topic this term is Romans and we will be finding out if Rome was built in a day. We have been thinking about what we already know and what we want to find out throughout the term. We started the topic off with a ‘Roman Day’ and we will be visiting Canterbury Roman Museum as a 'Fantastic Finish.'. To help us to complete our home learning display, we would love the children to create a piece of homework on this topic. They can be as creative as they like for example, a leaflet, a letter or a model. We look forward to seeing your creations!

Harvest

To help our learning around Harvest, we had a visit this week from Mike, a Brogdale Farm Collection worker. He talked to us all about how apples are grown and harvested.

We then tasted some different apples from the collections of over 700 different varieties, including 'Great Expectations' and 'Kansas Queen'. 

Thank you to Mike for taking the time to come and talk to us! 

World Mental Health Day - 10th October 2019

Today, we came to school wearing yellow and spent the day thinking about how we can keep our mind healthy. We talked about the importance of talking to others about how we are feeling and that is okay to feel sad, anxious or angry sometimes.

We thought about the things we do in school to look after our mental health including gentle touch, mindfulness colouring, yoga and exercise (e.g: wake and shake, daily mile).

Thank you to all the families who raised money by filling their 'sunshine pockets' in aid of the charity YoungMindsUk. We will let you know how much we raised in due course.

Reading

In Year 2 we ask the children to select their own reading book at the start of the day and independently write the title into their Reading Record. 

Within each book band there is a range and variety of text types to encourage children to make choices according to their own preferences in reading. To support them in this, we will be reading with the children both independently and in group guided reading sessions. Guided reading is a relaxed and enjoyable time providing an opportunity to develop particular reading skills and allows the children to discuss what they have read and share their ideas and opinions with an adult and with their peers.

Maths

This term in maths we are focusing on recognising and understanding place value. We started by using the 100 Bead Bar to find 2-digit numbers by counting in 10's and then 1's. In this way the children develop a strong understanding of place value using manipulatives before moving on to problems solving mentally. We will further develop their understanding of place value by applying it to money. We will first look at making amounts using a combination of coins as well as adding amounts, finding change and problem solving. 

P.E

The children have 2 sessions of P.E. every week. This term it is swimming on a Thursday afternoon and Tag Rugby on a Tuesday morning. Please ensure that your child has a full P.E. kit with plimsolls that fit, in school. Please remember to write your child’s name in their plimsolls as well as in the rest of their P.E. kit.

For health and safety reasons, children wearing earrings will not be able to participate in P.E. lessons.

Teacher of the Week

This activity provides each child with the opportunity to teach their classmates about something that interests them. This will take place during a 10 minute slot, on a subject of their choice – a hobby, e.g. gardening; a particular interest, e.g. space, dinosaurs, birds; a club they belong to, e.g. Rainbows/Beavers; or a sport – and their classmates will have the chance to ask them questions at the end of their session. This is intended to be a fun, independent activity which will develop the children’s speaking and listening skills as well as their confidence. It is also a lovely opportunity for the teachers and children to get to know each other better as every child will have the chance to participate over the course of the year.