Chimps Class Shared Write

Recount: Wells Next-the Sea

On Friday 6th July, we went on a school trip to the beautiful Wells Next-the Sea as part of our pirates topic. When we arrived at school, we all went to the toilet and then checked our bags to make sure we had a water bottle,sun hat and sun cream because the weather was gloriously sunny and scorching hot. The classroom was alive with the noisy excited chatter of us all. How exciting it would be!

The bus journey was good fun. Some of us drew pictures, others brought books to read or looked out of the window at the different things we passed. Luckily, although it was a long journey, time flew and soon we were there. 

Grabbing all of our belongings, and especially our spades, we walked along the smooth sand until we arrived at a quiet, empty spot in front of the beach huts. Miss Donkin said she would love to have the yellow and white stripy hut, but Miss Cox ruined her dream by telling her how expensive they were. Mrs Brough and Miss West used beanbags to mark out a zone which we could play in then we were given time to dig in the sand and to collect shells. Miss Donkin found a beautiful shell. 

Soon, it was lunch time. While eating our lunch a dog ran over to our area but Miss Donkin tried to scare it away until it went back to its owner. Luckily, it didn't eat any of our food. 

Later, we walked to the train station where we caught the miniature train. Each carriage had a name on it. The sun was incredibly hot at this point and we all had a refreshing drink. The journey didn't take very long but we could see far into the distance and the royal blue, crystal-like sea and the miles and miles of golden sand and green hills. 

The next part of the trip was my favourite because we got to have an ice cream and play in the play park.It even had an enormous pirate ship!

Finally, we got the coach home. I felt exhausted and fell asleep for some of the journey.  Unfortunately, the traffic was very busy so we were a little bit late. However, we were all feeling happy.

3D Shapes 4th May 2018

Whaty better way to learn about the properties of 3D shapes than to make our own. Have a look at our photographs below of us using spaghetti as edges and play-doh as vertices. This helped us to see and count the faces, edges and vertices much more clearly. 

Ahoy M'Hearties

Year 2 celebrated their WOW day with a trip to Pirate School. Here we created our own pirate passports, using our unique pirate name, followed by deciding on the name of our ship.

Following this, we practised stealing treasure and walking the plank. Both important skills in the pirate life.

After break, we practised our art sketching skills by learning how to draw a pirate ship, focusing on the different parts and making our drawings look 3D. Then after lunch, we learned a selection of pirate songs and clapping rhymes.

Thank you all for your support for the day. Miss Donkin and Miss Cox were blown away by all the wonderful costumes. 

Hamerton Zoo Park (Friday 23rd March 2018)

On Friday 23rd March, Year 2 went to Hamerton Zoo so they could learn more about animal habitats and how they have adapted to be able to live in them. We saw a variety of animals and enjoyed a talk about a selection of different animals, including an opportunity to hold one of the 2 bearded dragons (Bruce or Sheila), stroked Shelley the red-footed tortoise and met Harry the African Pygmy hedgehog. It was a wonderful day and although a little cold and windy at times, there was no rain in sight and all of the animals were able to be seen.

We began the day with a short coach ride to the park before starting at the bird enclosures. We liked looking at the crowned crane and the flamingos, which reminded us of our "How the..." stories we had written, especially those that had written "How the Flamingo got her Pink Feathers".

We then moved on to see the meerkats and even took a trip into the dark where we saw a selection of sloths. It was difficult to see but once our eyes adjusted we could see them climbing through their trees. They had very long toes and were using them to grip onto the branches while they hung upside down. 

The Bengal tigers were very popular.  The male white tiger was sleeping but the female enjoyed rolling around and seemed to pose for photographs. Alfie was the first to spot the cheetahs for us, which were racing around their enclosure and then went for a lie down on top of their raised platform. 

Miss Donkin loved the lynx which had huge paws and seemed to enjoy watching us. She did worry that one of the goats might have to come back to school with us as it would not stop following Luke around the field and even walked all the way up to the gate with him. 

We hope you enjoy looking through our photos. 

Welcome to Kenya!

As part of our topic, Who Rules the Animal Kingdom, Year 2 took a flight from Antarctica  to Africa so they could continue their geography focus.

Year 2 kindly brought in bags packed as if they were going on holiday and they identified which items they would need and which was a red herring which they wouldn't take with them. They then learned about the African school day and compared it to their own. 

23rd January 2018

Spelling List:

The sound /or/ spelt 'a' before l or ll.

all

ball

call

walk

talk

always

small 

wall

fall

altogether

Fractions- 19th January 2018

Mixing Maths and DT, Year 2 spent part of their Math lesson today making pizzas. We were identifying the different fractions each topping was on the pizza by working in groups of 4 and each receiving a quarter. In doing this, we were able to see more visually how the fractions were represented and we could identify a half and a quarter and discussed how it would look cut into thirds. (3 pieces)

The cooking skills practised were spreading and cutting, making sure we were aware of food safety and hygiene throughout. 

Maths Open Evening

Below are a few photographs to demonstrate the ways in which the 4 operations are taught in Year 2, as demonstrated in the Maths Open Evening. 

On the photographs, you can see the way in which it is presented in the Maths no Problem workbook, as well as a sample journal challenge which would be used to challenge the children further and demonstrate or consolidate their understanding. Alongside this, are examples of concrete resources which would be used by the children to help support their learning. 

If you would like another copy of the handout provided or if you would like me to run through any of the methods if you were not able to attend, just ask :)

Rainbow Bird

At the end of last half term, Year 2 wrote their own versions of the story, 'Rainbow Bird'. The quality was remarkable and I would like to share some of those with you below. 

5th January 2018

WOW DAY: Who Ruled the Animal Kingdom

Here are some of our photographs from our WOW day. We hope you enjoy looking at them. Thank you all for your support with costumes. The children looked marvellous and we had a great time.

3rd January 2018

Welcome Back, Chimps. We hope you have had a wonderful Christmas break.

This term our topic is: Who Ruled the Animal Kingdom? In English, we will be learning about different animals and creating our own information and explanatory texts. We will begin our Maths learning by looking at fractions, which will follow on nicely from our Multiplication and Division in the previous term. Please continue to practise your time tables. The children should know the 0, 1 and 10 times tables and move on to their 2 and 5s.

In Topic this term we will be looking at the different continents, with a particular focus on Antarctica and Asia.  In Science, we will be looking at animal habitats and growth and survival. Our RE topic will be Islam.

We look forward to an exciting Spring term :)

Don't forget it is our WOW Day on Friday 5th January. We look forward to seeing your animal costumes. 

Friday 27th October 2017

As part of our topic, Super Scientists, Year 2 have been looking at inventions. This includes the invention of penicillin.  In order to look at the spread of germs, we set up an investigation, where one child held a piece of bread. The child then thoroughly washed his hands before holding another slice of bread and finally a slice of bread was put into a ziplock bag without being touched at all. 

I couldn't wait to check up on our investigation and sneaked into school to have a peek. I must say I am quite disgusted! I will be returning to school armed with handwash.

Hope you are having a lovely half term, Chimps.

Miss Donkin :)

Friday 20th October 2017

Great Eye Bake-off!

As part of our topic, 'Instructions', Year 2 gained inspiration from the Great British Bake off and designed their own loaves of bread, which we then baked and evaluated. Our chocolate loaf was delicious!

Here are some photographs of us baking and our finished products. We hope you enjoy looking at them. 

We have had a wonderful first full week back.

Fuego had an incredible time at his first weekend home and they even read 3 books together! Thank you Finley for taking such good care of him and he is looking forward to his next weekend.

Well done for all of those who have handed their homework in. We have had some impressive times on our timetables.

Welcome to Chimp Class' page! Here you will find lots of information about our class, and you will also find photos of us learning. Visit often so you are always up to date with what is happening in our class! We look forward to sharing photographs of our WOW day on The great Fire of London this Friday!

I hope you have had a wonderful summer and look forward to a fantastic school year.

Class Information:

Teacher: Miss Donkin

TA: Miss West

PE

Our PE day is MONDAY and FRIDAY. Please ensure your child has NAMED kit in school during term time. As weather can be quite unpredictable, we advise that both shorts and jogging bottoms are kept in PE bags, along with a sweatshirt for cooler days. 

Homework

Homework is set on WEDNESDAYs and returned on TUESDAYs.

Reading

We would like children to read as much as possible- every night would be perfect! We will continue to award raffle tickets for those who read at least 5 times a week. Those children will also be able to choose a small prize from Miss Donkin's special box! We will collect in reading records on a MONDAY to count up how many reads your child has for that week. 

Children are responsible for changing their own books. They can do this every morning before they do their morning challenge. We encourage children to reread books for pleasure, and to develop fluency which comes with reading familiar books. 

We will regularly review reading levels to see if children are ready to move on. It is important that children read widely within their book band so they have a broad diet of books. Please encourage your child to read information texts, poetry and stories.

Reading can be done anywhere- cereal packets at breakfast, signs on the roads, recipes etc. It is easy to get 5 reads in a week if you include all of the little bits that you do daily without even thinking about it!

While we would like children to read their book band books, please also feel free to share favourite or new books at home. These can also count towards daily reading.

Fuego, the dragon, is our new class member. He is Spanish so does not understand English. Every Friday, one child who has read the most that week at home will be selected to take Fuego home for the weekend (to return on Monday). We are encouraging the children to teach him English by sharing their favourite books with him. He will be sent with a book, so if your child wishes to draw a picture of themselves reading to Fuego, or have a photograph with him it is very welcome, as well as any diary entries they might like to share about their time with him or about the book(s) they read together.

Belongings

Please could you ensure that all of your child's clothes and other belongings are named. This will help at the end of warm days or PE sessions when we have jumpers etc left over.

Water Bottles

Water is very important for health and learning! We have cups in class, but a named water bottle in school daily would be great!