Mr Wraight and Mrs McGrath

welcome you to

Red Class

Term 6

'Make this World a better place'

How can we improve Whitstable?

English

This term, each class in the school is focusing on a different environmental issue and as such, will be focusing their writing around a key text related to this issue. These texts are CLPE based teaching sequences and the titles of these books will be revealed to the children in due course. We aim to learn about persuasive writing and write a letter to a big company persuading them to re-think how they operate in order to protect the environment. We will hone our writing skills in preparation for Junior school with a real focus on presentation and handwriting, ready to impress our new teachers at our new schools.

Further Curriculum Enrichment

All the children will have the opportunity this term to complete some clay work with Ms Hageman, one of our talented parents, having a chance to make, glaze and fire their artwork over the course of the term. We are also taking part in a whole school art project to transform our school library space. Thank you to Bronwen’s mum in Green Class for helping to organise this.

The teaching of Spanish with Mrs Reader on a Tuesday afternoon continues along with Mrs Diamond’s music lessons which will also now be on a Tuesday afternoon.  We are very lucky to have specialist teachers who can provide these experiences and thank them for all their hard work. Please do let us know if there is anything you can do to help support and enhance our children’s learning experiences. We have already welcomed some parents to share their expertise and we would love to continue with this. Please speak to your child’s class teacher if you think you may be able to help with a talk/lesson or activity.

  P.E.

The children have 2 sessions of P.E. every week.  This term it is Athletics on a Tuesday morning and Tri-Golf on Friday afternoon.  Please ensure that your child has a full P.E. kit with plimsolls that fit, in school.  We are very lucky to have our sports apprentice, Mr Dickinson supporting the children during these sessions. He is very popular with the children and allows us to provide further support to those children who may require it.

Reminder: please check your child’s plimsolls as well as in the rest of their P.E. kit, as many children are saying that it is becoming too small for them. For health and safety reasons, children wearing earrings will not be able to participate in P.E. lessons.

This term, each class in the school is focusing on a different environmental issue and as such, will be focusing their writing around a key text related to this issue. These texts are CLPE based teaching sequences and the titles of these books will be revealed to the children in due course. We aim to learn about persuasive writing and write a letter to a big company persuading them to re-think how they operate in order to protect the environment. We will hone our writing skills in preparation for Junior school with a real focus on presentation and handwriting, ready to impress our new teachers at our new schools.

Science

In Science this term we will be exploring animals including humans. We will carry out experiments to test our fitness levels and learn about how to lead a healthy lifestyle. We will explore the new outdoor classroom too (once it is completed).

As the weather improves we will begin exploring the pond area and hope to have some of our very own frogs in there soon too. Watch this space! Reception children have already discovered that there are newts!

Check out the photos of use experimenting! We are exploring if age of children impaces how fast they can run...

Term 5

'Let's explore!'

What will you take on your expedition?

This term our topic is called ‘Let’s Explore’ and we are going to be learning all about what it takes to be an explorer and asking the question ‘What will you take on your expedition?’ We will explore the local environment as well as the wider area and will be visiting Quex Park in Birchington to spend some time exploring the Powell-Cotton Museum and handling a collection of artefacts as part of an adventure workshop.

Scooter Workshop

Thank you to Rubicon Scooters for providing a safety workshop for Red class. We learned how to scoot safely and the importance of wearing safety equipment when we ride. We also learned some tricks and skills. It was really good fun and we cannot wait to try out our new skills on our scooters at home!

Let's Explore Home Challenge

Thank you to all those children who have completed their home challenge work on Captain Cook. We are very impressed with your creativity and all your work looks amazing on our classroom display. Do pop in on Family Feedback Fridays to take a look at it!

Explorers Workshop

We had an amazing time learning all about the adventures of the fictitious explorer Phileas Fogg. We used our imagination and role play skills to visit different countries around the World, exploring their cultures through freeze framing, singing and dancing.

All of the children thoroughly enjoyed the workshop which also helped to develop their confidence, listening and teamwork skills.

Take a look at us in action...

English                                                               

We are developing our writing skills this term by responding to and writing about a film. We will be sharing the short animated film ‘Taking Flight’ and looking at the relationships between the characters in the story. We will explore the differing emotions and use these ideas to plan and write the story from the film in our own words. We are continuing to think about our use of accurate punctuation and adding interesting details to our writing using adjectives and adverbs.

We are also exploring another CLPE inspired book, the title of which remains ‘top secret’ at this stage. We hope this has the same impact as ‘Leaf’ did for the children back in the Autumn term. We will use this mystery text to explore non-fiction writing and will link it our work in Science and Art too.

Our topic will explore the lives of some famous explorers including Captain James Cook and there will be opportunities for the children to write in a variety of different ways to showcase their new-found knowledge about exploring.

Maths

This term we are focusing on consolidating our understanding of all the aspects of number we have learned this year, focusing on the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). We are very impressed with how much the children have remembered already!

We have also worked on telling the time to the hour, half hour, quarter to/past, as well as to 5 minute intervals. 

Term 4

'Ready, Steady, Grow!'

How does your garden?

Whitstable Community Gardens

As a fantastic finish to our topic this term, we visited Whitstable Community Gardens. Thank you to Ruben's mum, Fiona for hosting our visit. It was great to spend some time learning about the different plants that grow there and we really enjoyed tasting and smelling some of them, like the purple sprouting broccoli, mint and lemon balm.

Take a look at some of the photos below...

Comic Relief 2019

A big thank you to all in Red class who came in to school with 'Hilarious heads' for Comic relief offering a generous donation too! If you have forgotten to donate please do still bring your money to the school office - it is not too late!

We enjoyed telling jokes this week and in assemble on Friday we tried to impress the 3 teacher judges with our funniest ones. Harry's was judged to be one of the funniest in the whole school and he was delighted to share this with everyone:

Knock knock?  Who's there?  Nanna.  Nanna who?  Nanna your business!  

Well done Harry - it was delivered with such great comic timing and expression!!

Thank you again Red Class for making Comic relief one to remember but do please keep donating to help those less fortunate than us.

Chris Wormell Visits Red Class for Book Week:

Today we were visited by Chris Wormell, renowned children’s author and illustrator who we worked with to create our own animal character.

We worked together to think about what our animal should look like and watched as Chris took our ideas and created a brand new animal.

We then worked as a class to think of a story for our character and designed a story map. We are going to use this story map to write our own versions of the middle of the story too.

Take a look at the pictures below:

Where's Wally? - World Book Day 2019

What a fantastic time we all had dressing up as Wally on World Book Day. We enjoyed searching for the 'Teacher Wallys' around the school and completing lots of 'Where's Wally?' activities. 

Thank you also to the parents who came to share a story with us. It was great to see so many of you!

Science

In Science this term we will be exploring different plants and experimenting with different ways that plants grow. We will begin to learn the names of a variety of British plants and trees and see under which conditions they can flourish. As part of our topic we will also be thinking abut how we can further enhance our outdoor environment by designing and making bird feeders, supporting the current wildlife onsite and encouraging others to settle here too.

Maths

In maths this term we will be learning all about fractions!! We will start this topic by looking at fractions of shape and developing a concrete understanding of fractions as equal parts. We will then move forward by finding a fraction of a number using a bar model.

English

This term we are growing as poets and will be learning to recite, perform and write poetry, following a CLPE teaching sequence. We have talked about what makes a poem a poem and will explore different poem structures.

So far the children have learned and performed one of their favourite poems from 'A Great Big Cuddle' by Michael Rosen and will continue to develop an interest and love of poetry as the term progresses.

Do ask your children about the poems they have been learning and remember to share poems at home too!

Term 3

Tell me a story...

What's in a story?

16.1.19 - Visit from South East Water

Today we had a visit from South East water to learn about water conservation and usage. They taught us how to save water and techniques we can use to reduce our water usage. These included turning the tap off when we clean our teeth, taking a four minute shower instead of a bath and washing vegetables in a bowl of water instead of by running the tap. 

We received a 'goody bag' with lots of useful tips and activities to help conserve water too!

We then took part in a Water Challenge where we worked in teams to connect a network of pipes together to ensure that all our 'buildings' received water. Take a look at the pictures of us in action.

ENGLISH

Our topic this term is 'Tell Me a Story'. We will start this topic with a visit from Mr Lambirth who will share a story with us. This story will form the basis of our English work this term. We will look at the process of story telling and transfer this into story writing, from developing the characters to creating the plot. We will consider how an author makes many changes and adaptations to their draft before writing their final story. We will look at different ways to sequence a story and make revisions before writing our own stories. We will also consider where story telling began and how it has evolved throughout History.

We have listened to Mr Lambirth's story 'Little River Turtle'. It was very exciting and we all enjoyed his enthusiasm and were really engaged. We have now begun retelling the story to each other and had a go at re-enacting the story.

We are now spending the next few weeks writing the story's beginning, middle and end adding our own details as we go along.

MATHS

In maths this term we will be focusing on division. We will be looking at division firstly as sharing then by introducing the division symbol. We will continue to deepen our understanding of number in order to answer mathematical questions mentally and use mathematical language to explain our reasoning.  

Do remember to take a look at 'coastal tube' (coastaltube.co.uk) for videos on how you can support your child by reinforcing the methods they are used to in school. Do speak to Mr Wraight if you require the login details for this or ask at the school office.

We are also learning maths actively - combining our physical education with our maths learning. Take a look at us learning how to share whilst being active too!

HISTORY

To help with our understand of storytelling we will be looking at the history of communication, starting with the earliest form of writing. We will find out how people got in touch with each other before telephones and emails, as well as finding out about the people behind some important inventions in communication, including William Caxton, Samuel Morse, Alexander Graham Bell and Tim Berners-Lee.

We have looked at early communication in Egyptian times with hieroglyphics. Do take a look at some of us writing our names in hieroglyphics below and remember to have a look in our books next time you are in.

ART

In art we will be investigating patterns through exploring, creating and manipulating a variety of different kinds of patterns. We will start by thinking about patterns found at home and in the environment, we will then move on to study how shapes can be rotated and reflected to create interesting patterns.  We will link this work with our work in RE where we are exploring who a Muslim is and what they believe in.

PE

This term we are learning all about 'Multiskills' and Gymnastics. 

In Multiskills we will be practising a variety of skills including jumping, throwing and catching. In Gymnastics we will revise how to travel in different ways and will begin to explore the use of apparatus to enhance our skills.

Take a look at us in action learning how to jump in different ways...

Term 2

If you go down to the woods today.....

Who lives here?

A visit from Arturo's daddy - Giovanni Biasutti

Thank you to Mr Biasutti for a fantastic talk about the Polar Regions and the time you spent there. The children were all captivated to learn about the Arctic and Antarctica from someone who has actually spent time there and we all learned some interesting facts about the region. 

He taught us all about the importance of keeping the oceans safe from pollution, particularly plastic and how beautiful both the landscape and the wildlife is. He also shared a video of a whale that he managed to record whilst diving - what an amazing experience it was!

On the beach....

This term whilst on the beach we are thinking about photography and are beginning to learn how to take an interesting photograph of our surroundings.

So far we have learned a little bit about view finders and we are starting to think about perspective, as well as what might be in the foreground and background in our photographs.

We cannot wait to start taking photographs on the beach and once this is done, Mrs Ashton-Lovett and Mrs Watkins are going to work with some of us to create a group colllage of these photographs to be displayed alongside other school's artwork.

Our Trip to 'The Hive' at Herne Infants - 7.11.18

We had a fantastic time exploring the 'Hive' at Herne Infants this week. We spent some time climbing trees and exploring the environment. We collected sticks and logs, made camps and dens and spent some time learning about staying safe around fire and observing the rules of the fire circle.

We gathered around the fire circle to enjoy a toasted marshmallow at the end. Thank you to all at Herne Infants for allowing us to visit their Hive and play in their playground too. We are hoping to organise another trip here in the future.

Armistice Day 2018 - 100 years on....

As part of Westmeads commemoration of 100 years since the end of the Great War (WW1), year 2 made a wreath of poppies and all went together to lay it at the War Memorial outside Whitstable Library. The children were all very sensible and we paid our respects by observing a 2 minute silence whilst at the memorial.

We also had the pleasure of visiting St Alphege Church who have put together an art installation commemorating the end of WW1. The children spent some quiet time in the church looking at the many hundreds of white doves hanging from the roof representing peace. 

Back in school, each child took part in some Remembrance Day art and creating various different pieces of poppy related art work to display around the school - do look out for this artwork the next time you visit.

English

This term we are exploring a text from the CLPE Power of Reading, the title of which we will reveal to the children in due course. Watch this space!

So far, we have explored the first page of the book and looked in detail at the illustration. We have established that the book is about a polar bear who appears to be lost.

The children are really loving this text so far and cannot wait to read on. We have learned some facts about Polar Bears and are going to use these to make a non-fiction leaflet over the coming week. We will then explore the story further through poetry, story writing and writing in role.

Some facts about Polar Bears

We have learned so much already about Polar Bears. Some of our favourite facts include:

• The word 'Arctic' comes from the greek word meaning 'land of the bear.
• Male Polar Bears are roughly double the size of female bears.
• Seals make up most of a Polar Bear's diet.
• Polar Bears are born both deaf and blind.
• Polar Bears can weigh up to 800kg when fully grown.
• They can move at speeds of up to 25mph on land and 6mph in the sea.

There are loads more facts - ask your children how many more they can remember.

Maths

In maths this term we will start by recapping addition and subtraction, particularly looking at adding and subtracting 10 mentally. We will then begin to look at our new topic of money. Firstly, we will focus on recognising and using the symbols for pounds (£) and pence (p) as well as ordering coins. We will then use our knowledge of place value to find different combinations of coins that equal the same amounts of money as well as solve simple problems involving addition and subtraction including giving change.This is a great opportunity to let children have a go at paying for things themselves at the shop so they become familiar with the different coins and notes we use as well as understanding the concept of change. 

P.E

This term our P.E focus will be Dodgeball, Dance and Speed Stacking on a Tuesday morning and a Thursday afternoon.  

We will be learning how to accurately throw the ball in order to try and make contact with members of the opposing team in Dodgeball. We will also learn about how to effectively dodge the ball as well as talking about tactics and diversion techniques and skills to 'put off' the opposition.

In Speed stacking we will continue to learn how to 'up stack' and 'down stack' the different combinations of cups. We are also looking to train some children to take part in a speed stacking festival - details of which will follow. There are some great videos to help teach speedstacking on youtube - do have a look to help understand what we are learning about.

Please ensure that your child has the correct P.E kit in school. Just a gentle reminder to make sure that you label your child's P.E kit including their plimsolls. Also note that for health and safety reasons, children wearing earrings will not be able to participate in P.E. lessons.

Term 1

Fire, Fire!

What happened during

The Great Fire of London?

Welcome to the first term of year 2!

Our topic this term is Fire, Fire! and we are asking the question 'What happened during the Great Fire of London. We have been thinking about what we already know and what we want to find out throughout the term. We will be starting the topic off with some biscuit baking (watch out Paul Hollywood!) and we hope to visit the local Fire Station. To help us to complete our home learning display, we would love you to create a piece of homework on this topic. You can be as creative as you like for example, a leaflet, a letter or a model of pudding lane. We look forward to seeing your creations!

Design Technology - Great Fire Of London House  9.10.18

This week we have designed our very own 1666 house and thought about the materials we would like to use to make them. We drew a picture of our design and labelled it.

We then used our designs to create a model of the house with a cardboard box base. We worked hard to follow our design and we cannot wait to see our houses on display around the school.

Take a look at us creating our houses below....

A visit from Samuel Pepys.....24.9.18

This week in English we are writing diary entries in the role of Samuel Pepys. To inspire us, we had a visit today from the man himself (or was it? - he looks a lot like someone else we know!! )

He told us all about what it was like to be around during the Great Fire and read some of his diary to us. We asked him questions about the houses that were damaged and we also wanted to find out if he really did bury his cheese to stop it from burning in the fire...well apparently he actually did do this!

We cannot wait to write our diary entries later this week and are looking forward to writing them on old parchment (well actually it is just tea stained paper - which we had great fun making this afternoon!)

Take a look at what we have been doing today...

Tag Rugby with Roger Dengate - 20.9.18

Today, we had a visit from Whitstable Rugby Club coach Roger Dengate who spent time with us coaching us and teaching us the rules of Tag Rugby. We learned how to pass the ball, the referee's word is final and how to use the tags. It was great fun and we cannot wait to practise our new found skills in future PE lessons.

Take a look at us in action below...

Fire Safety Talk - 18.09.18

As part of our Fire! Fire! topic, we were visited today by a member of the Fire Service who carried out an assembly all about fire safety. We found out about the special protective clothing that the fire service wear as well as the important equipment that they use to help fight a fire or rescue people and animals. We talked about the dangers of fire and what we should do in an emergency. We spoke about using our emergency number 999 as well as using the ‘Stop, Drop and Roll’ method should the unlikely event of catching on fire occur. Max was also luck enough to get to dress up as a firefighter - check it out in the pictures below...

Computing

This term we are familiarising ourselves with the tablets and beginning to learn how to code to create games and how to 'debug' code. We have enjoyed reminding ourselves how to log in and shut down the tablets correctly and cannot wait to learn more about how to code to create our very own game. Take a look at us working together to try and work out the code required for the 'angry birds' game.

Teacher of the Week

In year 2, each child has the opportunity to be the 'teacher'. This activity provides each child with the opportunity to teach their classmates about something that interests them.  They will be allowed to talk to their classmates, 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.  Teacher of the Week will commence soon and every child will have the chance to participate over the course of the year.

Reading                                                                   

In Year 2 we ask the children to select their reading book and independently write the title into their Reading Record; the children have made a great effort so far and we will continue to support them in their choice and ensure that their reading skills continue to develop as the year progresses.  Within each 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.

Please sign the Reading Record if you have read with your child indicating where they got to and whether the book has been finished.  Feel free to add any comments about your child’s reading you feel appropriate, as these are always helpful.  If your child is not enjoying their reading book, do not feel they have to finish it!  As well as developing confident readers, we want to promote a love of reading so we are happy for the children to choose a different book if they want to.

As well as having a reading scheme book the children will also bring home a library book once a week.  We will let you know our library days as soon as they have been decided.

Maths

In maths this term we will be recapping what we learnt in Year 1 focusing on place value. We will be looking at 'tens and ones' using a range of manipulatives (resources) including Numicon, counters and dienes. The children will practise these skills whilst developing their reasoning and problem solving.

English

Over the first term we will be reminding ourselves of basic sentence structures as well as focusing on our handwriting and presentation of work. So far all the children can remember that a sentence must start with a capital letter and end with a full stop. They are also using adjectives to add description to their writing.

Based on our topic of the Great Fire of London we will be creating our own fact files as well as writing diary entries from the viewpoint of Samuel Pepys.

We have recapped all of the spelling rules we learned in Year 1 and are looking forward to becoming spelling detectives again as we find out some more! We will also be launching our new weekly spelling challenge (Big Spell Beat the Bell)…so watch this space!

P.E

This term we will be continuing with our Swimming lessons which will be on a Friday morning. We thank you for your support in walking to and from Whitstable swimming pool. Our other P.E topic this term is Tag Rugby where will be developing our catching, throwing and team work skills. We are also being supported by Mr Dickinson our sports apprentice in our PE lessons this year - we cannot wait to learn some new skills from him as well as Mr Wraight 

Curriculum Enrichment

We are extremely lucky to continue to have specialists to work with the children in more creative ways: this term, Mrs Brentnall is teaching art to Red Class.  The children will benefit from this expertise on Friday afternoons when they will be actively engaged in these innovative lessons based on colour mixing warm and cold colours.

Music Lessons

We will have recorder lessons with Mrs Diamond on Tuesdays during terms 1, 2, 3 and 4.