Miss Hyett and Mrs Raymer would like to welcome you to Red Class.

Term 6

Victorians - I do like to be beside the seaside

What did Victorian children do?

Welcome to our final term together where we are looking at the 'whole school' topic of the Victorians.  Already our interactive learning area is looking resplendent but if you do still have any further pieces of work don't forget to bring them in soon.

SUNDAE SUNDAE

We had a very tasty afternoon as we ventured down to Sundae Sundae for a wonderful ice cream.  What a great leavers' treat!

TRIP TO MARGATE

Wow, what an amazing time we had on our day trip to Margate.  Not only did we visit the museum and find out all about Margate being a holiday place for the rich, but we got to see the court house and police cells!  The Museum and staff of the Tudor House looked after us very well, providing drinks and toys for the children to play with.  It is a wonderful and interesting day out so if you are looking for a day out please check out their website: 

TRIP TO THE WHITSTABLE MUSEUM

Many thanks to the volunteers at Whitstable Museum who gave us a fabulous time there today at their Victorian exhibit.  Not only were we able to have a look at all of the lovely things on display but we had 5 stations where we were able to take part in activities and enjoy finding out all about Victorian life.

SUMMER READING CHALLENGE

Red Class were very grateful to Barry who spoke to us at the library about the Summer Reading Challenge, Mischief Makers.  It sounds great fun and lots of us are looking forward to taking part.  If you would like to find out more about this, please visit the library and speak to a member of staff.

VICTORIAN DAY

We all got dressed up at the start of the term for our special Victorian Day where the children enjoyed Victorian style lessons - Maths in Blue Class, English in Purple Class, Needlework in Green Class and P.E. in Red Class.  Other than when we were obviously being very strict and Victorian, we all had a lot of fun learning what it must have been like to have been at school then.  We all decided that, despite enjoying ourselves, we much preferred it now!

VICTORIAN SPORTS DAY

To carry on with our Victorian theme we celebrated Sports Day on Wednesday 13th June in the sunshine.  All of the children and parents were very game, joining in with a variety of Victorian sports which were not dissimilar to our 'traditional' events still held at sports day.  We did a tug of war (parents), drill, hoop rolling, hopscotch, egg and spoon race and quoit throwing.  We were all very worn out at the end but had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

ENGLISH

In our writing this term we are looking at the book 'Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine'.  The children have already designed their own bathing machine as well as written in detail about the use and design of bathing machines in Victorian times.  

We are moving on to look at how rhyme is used in this book to see if we can create our own poems.

MATHS

In our Maths lessons this term we are taking another look at division and fractions.  We have started to identify some remainders when dividing as well as comparing fractions of amounts by using the 'greater than/less than' symbols.

ART/DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

In our art lessons this term we will be at the beach sketching scenes of the beach today alongside the beach during Victorian times.  We are hoping that the children will be able to create a wonderful comparison piece of work.

In addition we are very lucky to have the services of Ms Hagerman, our ceramics expert, who will be creating a piece of Victorian pottery with each child.

PE

During our PE lessons this term we will be focusing on athletics skills as well as having a go at tri-golf.  Obviously, we are all very excited about this and looking forward to learning chipping and putting skills.

Term 5

Ha-Pea Days!

What is hiding under the bed?

WHITSTABLE COMMUNITY GARDENS (STREAM WALK)

Despite the dreary start to the day we had a wonderful time being shown around the Community Gardens along Stream Walk by Ruben's mum (Blue Class).  We were amazed by the amount of work that had been done by the group in just 6 years - not only were the grounds beautiful and well maintained but there was a lovely tea hut and wood work shed.  The children had great fun pretending to eat the edible hedge, looking at the compost toilet, spotting newts in the pond and finding sloe worms in the compost.  A great morning for all of us - particularly when we saw the peas nestling snugly in their velvety pods!

CEMENT POT MAKING

Red Class have thoroughly enjoyed our cement plant pot making.  Miss Ashton took control of the cement mixing and what a great foreman she was!  All of the children picked their own shape and style of pot to make and after leaving them to dry we were able to set to work painting them.  Masking tape at the ready we created our designs and were very pleased with the finished results.  Great work all round! 

ENGLISH

This term we are concentrating on story writing and we are thoroughly enjoying our text "The Pea and the Princess" by Mini Grey.

WORLD OF MATHS WORKSHOPS

David from the World of Maths came to visit us today with lots of different games to play.  He started off by explaining to us that everything we do in our lives involves maths, whether it is buying things in the shops, telling the time, cooking our food or playing sport.  He then showed us 17 games and puzzles that we could have a go at solving with our friends.  We all enjoyed our afternoon of problem solving - especially Miss Hyett who was very pleased to get all of the blocks in the box first time in 'Pack Up'!!

MATHS

We decided to start this term gently by re-visiting the topic of measure - we have practised telling the time to five minutes as well as reading thermometers and capacity.  

In the next few weeks we will be reinforcing our understanding of subtraction (-) and multiplication ('lots of') (X).  

SCIENCE

As our theme this term is growing we thought it would be the perfect time to look at plants and the conditions they need to survive.  We have already started planting our own peas and taking care of them.

We have been out and about looking at plants as well as identifying their main parts.

RE

To ensure the children cover a variety of views and religions we are going to focus on 'Humanism' this term.  We will be using Michael Rosen's book which is intended for children to help us consider different questions.

PE

Our units this term will be cricket and tennis.  We will be looking at the different skills involved in both games and, fingers crossed, will be able to get outside for our lessons now that the sun is shining!

COOKING

We have started our cooking sessions in Year 2 this term.  Our first group made Royal Rock Buns and Miss Hyett had a sample taster, declaring them delicious!

MAY DAY

As it was May Day this week we welcomed 'Dead Horse Morris' into school to show us how they celebrate this special time.  We found out all about the May blossom and listened to/watched some great songs and dances.

DRAMA WORKSHOP

We were fortunate to be involved in a drama workshop all about the jungle.  We were able to take part in a mission to find a key after dealing with a variety of dangerous animals.  

WILDLIFE

All of Year 2 would like to extend a massive THANK YOU to Ian Rendall who came in to help us decide where we need to place our bird houses and feeders.  He helped us to understand that different types of birds like certain areas/zones as well as how high to place the houses or feeders to keep the birds safe from predators.  We are now much more knowledgeable!

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

We are getting ready for our Music Concert on Friday 20th April.  Thanks to Ms Diamond we are all raring to go and can't wait to show off our newly acquired skills. 

Term 4

British Woodland Animals

'Who Lives in the Woods?'

SPORT RELIEF

What an exhausting afternoon full of sporting events!  As you can see from the pictures, all of the children enjoyed taking part in our physical activities.  Let's hope a fair amount of money was raised for Sport Relief in the process!

WORLD BOOK DAY

Away from playing in the snow, we have had a fun time this week celebrating World Book Day.  Many of Red Class have created a potato figure of their favourite book character.  Can you identify any of them?

ENGLISH

This term we will be focusing on writing information texts about British Woodland Animals.  During our recent mindmap lesson we decided that we would like to find out about nocturnal animals including foxes, badgers, owls and hedgehogs as well as those that are out and about in the daytime like squirrels and rabbits.

WORLD BOOK WEEK

World Book Week got off to a fantastic start today with a visit from author Sally Grindley.   Sally spent an hour with both Year 2 classes talking to the children about her book 'Shhh!' and how it had been created.

Later in the week we look forward to seeing more of your potato creations, completing the 'shelfie' competition and listening to the teachers discuss their favourite picture books in the World Book Day assembly.

MATHS

This term we are starting by looking at time.  We are reminding ourselves about o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to times before moving on to telling the time to 5 minutes.

SCIENCE

Our term started off very well with an exciting science investigation entitled 'Trapped'!  The children were faced with the challenge of discovering the quickest way of rescuing a rubber duck trapped in ice.  We have made predictions, collected data and written a recount of the investigation.

PE

Our PE this term will be focusing on Key Step Gymnastics routine and our first attempt at Orienteering and Boccia (a version of French boules).  We are really looking forward to having more fun learning new physical activities.

RE

We will be focusing on the importance of Palm Sunday in the Easter story and asking why Christians celebrate this day.  Later in the term we will be discussing why we celebrate Easter with eggs.

BEACH WALKS

This term our beach walks will focus on an Eco-Clean Up theme.  Following on from a recent 'Teacher of the Week' that taught us all about the dangers of rubbish (particularly plastic) for animals and sea creatures, we will work to clean up parts of the beach.

Term 3

Tell Me A Secret

'How many different ways can we use water?'

WEST AFRICAN DRUMMING WORKSHOP

We would like to say a big thank you to Rich Rhythms who provided a great workshop for the children using djembe drums.  All of us (including the adults) had great fun during the workshop and the performance to parents.

ENGLISH

This term we are focusing on story writing and we will be using 'Lila and the Secret of Rain' for the first 3 weeks of the term, followed by 'The Tear Thief' for the final 2 weeks.  We are sure that both of these books will inspire the children in their creative writing and enable them to include lots of expanded noun phrases in their writing.

To help with the children's imaginative story writing we are ensuring there is lots of drama and role play, giving us a chance to practise our story language.

MATHS

Initially we picked up where we left off with a couple of lessons on addition - just to refresh our minds!  

This first full week back we are going to concentrate on money and we will be thinking about different ways of making the same amount.  For example:

10p = 5p + 5p  OR  10p = 5p + 2p + 2p + 1p

Once we are secure in this, we will move on to use the fewest number of coins we can to make amounts, recognising £ and p as well as solving problems with money, including giving change.

We will continue to use both MyMaths and Maths of the Day (Active Maths) in our learning.

OUTDOOR LEARNING

Starting this term we are going to spend one lesson a week focusing on outdoor learning; this will enable us to cover our topic work, make use of our wonderful outside areas and follow the children's interests.

We started with our discussions about how to make some eco-friendly bird houses/feeders as well as some maths counting forwards and backwards in 2s, 5s and 10s.  It was very cold but a lot of fun!

PE

During our PE lessons this term we will be focusing on Gymnastics and Multi-Skills.  We are hoping that some children are going to be able to represent us in the Key Steps Gymnastics Competition next term to keep up the recent good run of form in the School Games competitions.

RE

Our focus this term will be on 'special places' and we will be considering places that are special to us as well as places that are special for Christians. 

Our visit to St Alphege Church was wonderful!  We spent time looking at the features of the church and gaining some further understanding as to why it is a special place for Christians.

ART

African art is a focus for us this term and the children will be looking at traditional African patterns to create their own masterpiece!

ENRICHMENT

Recorder lessons will continue on Tuesdays with Ms Diamond for all of the Year 2 children and they will also benefit from Spanish lessons with Mrs Thomas on a Friday afternoon.

TERM 2

WORLD WAR II

'What was it like to be a child during WWII?'

VE DAY CELEBRATION

As our 'Fantastic Finish' to the WW2 topic we held a VE Day party.  The support from parents and carers was wonderful and our children looked amazing.  Thank you to everyone for the wonderful morning.

DT - WW2 VEHICLES

We are having great fun making our WW2 vehicles using axles and wheels.  Keep an eye out here for the finished products.

WHITSTABLE MUSEUM VISIT

We would like to say a very big thank you to all of the volunteers at the museum who made our visit such a wonderful experience.  We had an amazing time and learned lots of new information - even seeing a real WWII bomb!

CHILDREN IN NEED

Mad Hair day was a great success in Red Class as we raised lots of money for a great charity.

ENGLISH

We  will be basing our English around our topic of WWII using books, the internet and videos to help us understand what life was like as a child during WWII.  We will continue to focus on consolidating our sentence structure through writing short captions based on thoughts and feelings as well as further developing our letter writing skills.  We will finally build up to writing a comparative text based on what it would have been like living in London during the war as apposed to the countryside. ​

BEACH WALKS

This term our beach walks have the focus of drama and role play.  On Monday mornings we will be acting out being an evacuee who witnesses bombings in a city.  We will then be a child who is leaving their family in the city and moving to live with a 'host' family in the countryside.

If you are available to help with walking to/from the beach please sign up outside the classroom door.

MATHS

In our maths work this term we are taking a look at weight and measure.  We have been having a wonderful time weighing objects around the classroom - not only have we used the correct mathematical vocabulary like 'heaviest' and 'lightest' but we are now weighing objects to the nearest gram (g).  To ensure we have a good understanding of weight we are reading a variety of scales (horizontal, vertical and circular).

We will continue to work on our counting and place value, both of which are very important to ensure we have clear understanding of number.  Towards the end of the term we will remind ourselves about multiplication and division.

SCIENCE

This term, in conjunction with our theme of WWII, we are thinking about materials.  We will look at the uses of different materials and discuss why certain materials are used to make specific items.

In addition, we will be making our very own WWII tanks using materials of our choice.

PE

Our PE topics this term are dodgeball and dance.  We will be dodging balls on a Tuesday morning whilst focusing on jumping, catching, throwing, attack and defence strategies.  On a Thursday afternoon we will be putting on our best dancing shoes to learn simple movement patterns.

RE

After taking a look at Islam during Term 1, the children will be learning about and discussing Sikhism this term.  We have made a great start by finding out about Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion.  We will continue to learn about this faith as the term progresses by looking at places of worship, the holy book and the 5 K's, 

ENRICHMENT

As ever, the children will be experiencing extra-curricular enrichment in a variety of different ways.

On Tuesday Red Class will be learning to play the recorder with Mrs Diamond, on Wednesday afternoons they will be singing as a Key Stage and on Friday afternoons Mrs Thomas will be in Red Class teaching both Spanish and animation (based on our topic).

TERM 1

Survival

What do we need to survive?

Welcome to the first term in Red Class where we are looking at the topic of survival.  

'Be a Survivor Day'

On Thursday 14th September we all came into school dressed 'survival style'!  We had great fun throughout the day making items for survival using natural materials, choosing which items are 'essentials' or 'luxuries' for a survival trip and taking part in a survival assault course.  Look at some of the pictures to see how we got on!

SURVIVAL VISIT FROM GARY

We would like to say a big Red Class thank you to Gary our soldier who came to talk to the children about survival.  He explained the triangle of survival to us - warmth, shelter and food/water as well as teaching us about effective camouflage.

National Poetry Day

To celebrate National Poetry Day we had a wonderful visit from children's poet Roger Stevens.  Not only did he entertain us during a wonderful assembly but he also came to Red Class for a workshop where he helped all of the children write individual poems about animals.  Some children read their wonderful poems during our school assembly at the end of the week.

Harvest

Thank you to all of our families for the wonderful harvest contributions.  These are being sent to the local food bank to help support families within our community.  As our theme for this year Red Class found out some facts about Kentish cherries.  We all learned lots of new things!  For example, did you know that King Henry VIII was responsible for the number of cherry orchards in Kent?  He ordered for the fruit to be grown in this area of England.  Aren't we lucky!

ENGLISH

We have started our Year 2 topic of survival by looking at the Pixar short film Piper.  To remind us all of our sentence structure we wrote short captions about Piper's thoughts and feelings.  We then transferred this into a narrative about Piper's first experiences of having to survive without his mum feeding him.  We decided that at the beginning of the film he was nervous but as his confidence grew, with perseverance he became brave and courageous. 

MATHS

To ease ourselves in gently we have been looking at the area of number and place value.  We are using resources like Numicon and Dienes to help us identify the amount of tens and ones in a 2 digit number.

We have been working on missing number calculations during our addition and subtraction, such as 13 + ? = 19.

Now we are reaching the end of the term we are looking at measure and practising our ruler skills.

SCIENCE

Our topic for this term is 'Animals including humans' where we will be looking at the basic needs of animals for survival.  During our first lesson we discussed the different life stages that humans go through and the common features of each stage.  There were a number of entertaining conversations to be heard - particularly those involving growing teeth/hair and why teenagers sleep a lot! 

We have considered why exercise is important to humans, the type of food and diet that humans need as well as how to stay safe and healthy - we know to keep washing our hands to avoid germs!

PE

Swimming and tag rugby are the topics for this term.  Swimming is on Monday mornings at Whitstable pool and the children have been very enthusiastic.  Tag rugby lessons are on a Thursday afternoon and we have been focusing on the skills of catching, throwing and dodging. 

RE

Islam is our theme for this term and we began learning about this religion by finding out the main aspects of life and how it is the same / differs from Christianity.  

ENRICHMENT

Ms Burroughs is returning with her wonderful style of art teaching to inspire the Red Class children this term.  She is linking the children's art to the theme of survival and creating a wonderful jungle scene for display.

In addition, Ms Diamond has been providing recorder lessons for the children every Tuesday afternoon.