Class Blog

Week Beginning 14th June 

We've had another great week in Otters class and I'm so proud of the progress we've all made this year. I am in the process of writing your reports and I know you'll all be just as proud when you read them. 

This week in English we have used our narrative skills to write a diary entry from Max, the main character in our story 'The Hodgeheg' We looked at what the features are and discussed the style of the writing, as well as the skills needed. We decided that it was a very chatty style which included all if the different sentence types and descriptive words. We also learned that it had to be in time order so we needed to use time openers to make sure it made sense. We managed to write, edit and publish our diary entries this week which is phenomenal progress.

In Maths we have been looking at Fractions, finding half, quarters and thirds. Miss Smith was so impressed with everything we had remembered and we worked so hard to solve worded problems too! We learned that to find a half we had to split into 2 equal parts, a quarter into 4 and thirds into 3. This made it much easier when we were solving them in our heads. Look at some of our learning below:

In Science this week we have set up our own investigation! We are investigating whether light or water is more important when growing a plant. We set the experiment up together and made our predictions. We can't wait to see what happens to them next week! 

Week Beginning 7th June 

I am so impressed with how we've come back to school after our week off. We've had a great week of learning and we've all shown a great attitude towards school life. Well done. 

In English this week we have started our new story 'The Hodgeheg' by Dick King Smith. We read the first chapter where a Hedgehog family lived across the road from a park. We spent the week describing the park using a range of adverbs, adjectives and openers. Our writing was amazing and the progress from September is fantastic. Well done! 

In Maths we have revisited Multiplication and Division. We had a recap on what this meant and looked at the range of methods we could use to work problems out. Using our 2, 5 and 10 times tables we were able to solve multiplication and division questions mentally and some of us moved onto reasoning/problem solving which is great to see - especially in Summer 2. 

We all had an opportunity to solve word problems on Thursday and to do this we used the CUBE method. We read the question, circled key words and solved the problem. 

In Science this week we have began our new topic Plants. We have already covered this area in Spring 1 but this term we are going deeper with our learning and carrying out investigations to find out more about plants. This week we introduced the topic, looked at the definitions of vocabulary we might need and set up our very own experiment to find out about what is the most important to plants.

Next week, we will set our investigation up and conclude our findings. 

Week Beginning 17th May 

This week we have completed our letter to the RSPCA and began writing a re-tell of a short film called 'The Lighthouse'. We acted the story  out and took our time re-telling the main parts. Miss Smith was incredibly impressed with our use of conjunctions, adverbs and a range of punctuation. It showcased all of the learning we've done this year - a huge well done to you all! 

In Maths we looked at pictograms which was a new concept for us all. We learned that statistics meant collecting data (information) and that a pictogram showed this data using pictures. We made our own by collecting our own research and then interpreted it showing a great understanding of what we'd found out. Take a look at some of the photographs below:

The most exciting part of this week was our Art themed afternoons! We looked at Vincent Van Gogh and his famous painting Starry Night. We looked at lots of his different work and discussed what the features were before practising our skills. 

Some of us used oil pastels, some used chalk and others used oil paints.

Week Beginning 10th May

We have had another great yet busy week in Otter's class. Some of us celebrated Eid so we spent an afternoon looking at why Muslim's celebrate Eid and some of us shared our own experiences (and excitement) about our own celebrations.

In English this week we have read another chapter of our story The Twits by Roald Dahl. We learned that Mr and Mrs Twit are even worse than we ever imagined after reading about them keeping monkeys in a cage to train for the circus. 

We were so shocked by their behaviour that we did some hot seating and asked them some questions about why they thought that was acceptable and some of our acting skills were fantastic! We also interviewed the monkeys to ask what it was like being kept in a cage all day doing tricks. After this, we decided that we had to stop Mr Twit and his cruel ways so we are going to write a letter to the RSPCA to complain about their behaviour. We looked at the features of a letter and worked on our punctuation skills ready to begin writing next week.

In Maths this week we have moved onto subtraction. This is something we struggled with and so we spent a couple of days using practical methods (number line and 100 square) to help us understand when numbers cross over the tens. e.g. 34 - 6. Some of us used our number bonds to mentally subtract and they moved onto trickier reasoning problems, well done! We finished the week by looking at a range of worded problems, underlining the key elements before solving. 

In the afternoons we had LOTS of fun looking at maps. We followed Pirate Pete's directions using our directional language from last week and then we created our own instructions to help him find his treasure. The favourite part of the week was creating our very own map with a key using symbols. We used language such as North South East and West as well as Left and Right. This showed that we were secure in our directions. A big well done explorers! 

Week Beginning 3rd May

We have had another exciting week this week and we ended with a whole school themed Number Day which we really enjoyed! 

This week we have been busy writing a set of instructions for the perfect prank for the Twits to use. We discussed lots of different ideas before deciding on our plan - to put a bucket full of disgusting ingredients on the door frame ready for the victim. We loved thinking and planning for our prank and our instructions are fantastic. We learned that instructions need time conjunctions, imperative verbs and adverbs to be the best they can be and the adults were very impressed when we managed to do include them all. 

Next week we will edit our instructions before publishing them. 

We ended the week celebrating Number Day for the NSPCC. We raised lots of money by bringing in a £1 donation and wearing clothes with numbers or patterns. We had the BEST day investigating smarties, taking part in a longest carrot and heaviest potato competition and reading a story all about crocodiles which also linked to Maths. We used lots of different measuring and arithmetic skills to complete the challenges which showed how much we have learned this year. 

In Encompass this week we have continued looking at the land, specifically the United Kingdom. We learned where the UK was and the countries that form it. These are called England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. We located them on our maps before learning all about their capital cities and physical and human features. 

Week Beginning 26th April 

Wow - what a busy week we've had again! We are working so hard and I'm so proud of everything we complete each and every day.

In English this week we have continued looking at our character description of Mr Twit. We were all disgusted to learn about what he gets up to when he's hungry (why don't you tell your Mums and Dads what he does?) We discussed what could be lurking in his long, bushy beard and some of our ideas were utterly revolting. We had crusty ketchup, mouldy cheese and old spaghetti which looked like worms! 

We ended the week publishing our descriptions which were fantastic. Before we did this though, we had our very first attempt at editing our writing. We discussed what editing meant and then used the teacher's marking (and our own ideas) to make our writing even better! 

In Mathis this week we have looked at estimating numbers on a number line and adding/subtracting multiples of 10. At first we struggled working out where the numbers would go but after a few examples we really got the hang of it. When adding and subtracting multiples of 10 some of us used a number square which helped us work out the answers whilst others just used our mental maths. We discovered that when we add multiples of 10 only the tens column changes so this made it easier as the lesson went on.

The afternoons have been our favourite part of the week! We introduced our brand new topic 'Land Ahoy' which is all about exploring the world. We met Pirate Pete who isn't a very good explorer so he needs our help every afternoon to solve some of us questions. This week he wanted to know what the world was made up of so we explored the answers through lots of different ways. 

We learned that the world is made up of 7 continents and 5 oceans. Take a look at our learning below:

Week Beginning 19th April

Welcome Back! We've had a lovely 2 weeks off and can't wait to start a brand new Summer Term! Even though we've only been back in school for 4 days we've completed SO much learning.

We have introduced our brand new book for this term 'Mr Twits' by Roald Dahl. This is our first chapter book and we're looking forward to using our imaginations and extending our reading skills. So far we've read all about Mr Twit and learned that he is a foul man who doesn't take care of himself. We thought of lots of adjectives and describe him and some of us moved onto comparing using similes.

In Maths we have looked at using the Inverse (opposite) to solve problems. We learned that subtraction is the inverse of addition and we used this to help us find missing numbers. We found it tricky to know what the new number sentence was but we tried very hard and got there in the end. During the lesson we realised that we need to keep practising adding and subtracting in our heads as this is something that we struggled on when finding the inverse. 

During the afternoons this week every class has completed work related to one of the school's values. In Year 2 we focused on 'Equality' and we carried out lots of different activities. We linked our value to the story 'Giraffe's Can't Dance' and discussed how the giraffe in the story was shown equality because people welcomed him at their party even though he struggled to dance. We also learned that we're all very different but this doesn't mean we should be treated any differently. Take a look at our display which we created from all of our wonderful learning this week...

Week Beginning 29th March 

We have had a fantastic end to the Spring Term! We showcased our learning by completing assessments and our teachers can't believe how much progress we have made. We are very proud of ourselves and can't wait for a well deserved break. 

As well as completing assessments, we've still been writing and publishing in our English lesson. We continued comparing the two characters from our class text 'The Tunnel' using appropriate adjectives. Take a look at 2 examples below - we were particularly proud of improvement in presentation in these pieces:

In Maths this week we have been looking at Worded Problems involving Addition and Subtraction. Some of us found this tricky at first but once we'd practised we made great progress. We learned that there were lots of different ways of working out a problem - we could use concrete materials, draw base 10, draw a number line or use mental maths. We started with very simple problems so that we got used to the method and then moved onto more complex addition and subtraction. 

As it was nearly Easter Time, we also learned about the Easter Story which is a Christian celebration. We read the story, acted it out using freeze frames and then sequenced in our books. We liked learning about the religious story and now understand why we have Good Friday and Easter Sunday. 

Our most exciting time of the week was GOLDEN TIME where we made Spring cards and baskets. When we went outside for break they got filled with chocolate eggs! We were so surprised but it was a lovely treat for working so hard this term. 

It has been AMAZING to have us all back together again and we can't wait to start a brand new term! Have a lovely break everybody and enjoy the sunshine :)

Week Beginning 22nd March

This week we have really shown how much progress we've made over the past few weeks! I can't believe how hard we've tried since coming back to school and I'm incredibly proud of you all. 

In English we have published our diary entry from Jack's point of view and some of us wrote up to 3 pages! We used a range of openers, time conjunctions and sentence types which put all of our previous learning together. We then began working on our final published write of the term - a character comparison of the 2 main characters Jack and Rose. We looked at how the characters were different and discussed different ways to describe them both. We carried out a hot-seating activity where we asked a variety of questions to see how different their characters are. In Flow we have looked at subordinating conjunctions (when, if and because) so that we could include those in our writing too. Next week, we will begin to write and publish our comparison. 

In Science this week we looked at what plants need to survive. We linked this to our previous topic and realised that plants are similar to humans as they also need space, water and air. We also learned that plants need light and soil to stay alive too. After learning about what they need we then wrote sentences about why they needed certain elements. 

In Encompass we moved our learning onto bridges. We enjoyed learning about what bridges were, what they were used for and looking at famous bridges. Some of us were very impressed with how long the bridges were and Miss Smith was very impressed with our knowledge of famous bridges too. We looked at the 3 different types of bridges: suspension, beam and arch. We wrote about what bridges are used for and then designed our very own. 

We've had another super week of learning and we can't wait to have lots of fun next week before the Spring Holidays. 

Week Beginning 15th March

This week has been another busy one! We're getting used to the new timetable and all of the new interventions in school. Well done to everyone for your wonderful attitude in school!

In English we have been looking at the 'Untold Story of Jack' from our class text 'The Tunnel'. We mind-mapped ideas about how we thought Jack had turned to stone before carrying out a class vote. We had some great ideas that he might have eaten poisonous berries, had a spell cast on him, he stepped on a magical stone and he was turned to stone by enchanted trees. We decided to write about Jack stepping on something magical and we included adjectives, time openers and conjunctions. 

During the week we decided that his story was far too secret to write about so we decided to write in a secret diary instead. We looked at the features of a diary and wrote the introduction on Friday using a question, exclamation and statement. 

In Maths we have revisited Addition and Subtraction because this was something we still struggled with during our assessments. We looked at adding and subtracting 2 digit numbers and some of us challenged ourselves to worded problems. 

After securing this skill we moved and applied it into money - adding up coins to make a total and making different combinations of amounts using UK coins. At first we struggled with this but with perseverance we achieved so much in just one lesson! Take a look at some examples below:

Comic Relief

This Friday was Comic Relief and we celebrated in school by wearing red, spots or superhero costumes. We learned about why we raise money for Comic Relief and used this year's theme of Superheroes to make and design our own Mask before coming up with our own hero with a specific name and power. 

Week Beginning 8th March

Welcome Back! We are so pleased to see you all together again and we've had such a great first week back! I am SO impressed with how you have come back to school and I can't wait to see everybody's progress this half term!

In English this week we have continued basing our writing on our class text 'The Tunnel'. We have completed a Baseline piece of writing where we described Rose's journey through the tunnel and what she saw on the other side. We learned lots of new vocabulary such as: reluctant, damp, clearing, mysterious which we used in our writing. 

Our main focus was to make sure that our sentences included everything we would expect in Year 2. We created a class check list and decided that we also needed to have adjectives and adverbs if we were describing a setting. Take a look at our check list below:

In Maths we have had re-cap lessons on Place Value and Addition to make sure we're secure with 2 digit numbers. We represented them using counters and Base 10 which I was very impressed with after such a long break. We then applied this knowledge to add two 2 digit numbers together using a method of our choice. We modelled 4 different methods then chose our preferred one. Some of us moved onto reasoning - this is a class target so we'll keep solving those problems to get used to them.

In the afternoons ​​​​​​we have enjoyed celebrating British Science Week! We took part in a STEM project - creating our own Pizzeria. We were very excited and named our business OP which stands for Otter's Pizzeria. We designed a logo and our own British flag design for our own pizza using toppings which are currently in season in Britain such as peppers, onions and tomatoes. We then carried out some market research where we voted on our favourite toppings using a tally chart. We discovered that our class' favourite topping was pineapple and the least favourite was olives.

Well done for such an amazing first week back - I can't wait for next week. Keep up all of your fantastic work! 

Week Beginning 1st March

This week we have had a very exciting week with lots of fun! We celebrated World Book Day and launched British Science Week towards the end of the week and we all enjoyed completing lots of different activities. 

In English this week we have introduced our new story - The Tunnel

We read the story - discussed the characters and settings before acting it out using 'Freeze Frames'. We then used this to sequence the story and discussed the clear beginning, middle and end. We really enjoyed reading the story and learned it was about 2 siblings who didn't get along until something terrible happened when they entered a mysterious tunnel. 

This was our favourite part of the week! We started the day by sharing our favourite stories and came to school ready to read lots of different books in our pyjamas. In the morning we focussed on 'The Magic Paintbrush' by Julia Donaldson and I think this was our favourite activity of the day. We read the story and then predicted what the title would be - some of us got it correct! We then wrote a letter to the main character 'Shen' asking her to paint us something with her magic paintbrush. Some of us asked for friendly lions and tigers or other mythical creatures like unicorns! 

We then looked at a non-fiction book called 'Poisonous Plants' and we were shocked at how dangerous some plants could be! We learned about poisonous berries, trees and plants and listed what we had found out after reading it. We then created our own front cover for a section of a story which was lots of fun.

In the afternoon we linked World Book Day to PSHE and read 'The Worrysaurus' we then discussed what worries were and wrote our own worries and how we can overcome them. 

We also launched British Science Week by introducing our topic 'Plants'. We discussed what Science was and some of our definitions were brilliant! We also talked about why it was important we learned about plants and some of the reasons were very important such as to make medicine, to keep us alive and to make sure they're not poisonous. 

We then learned about a famous plant expert 'Alan Titchmarsh' who we then wrote a fact-file on. We learned that he is a famous gardener who spends his time learning about plants and encourages children to be interested in their gardens too. 

We then carried out a 'Field to Fork' activity because some children were asking where vegetables come from. We learned that the vegetables are grown, harvested, washed/packed then sent to the shops. We were very interested in the process and couldn't believe the hard work that went into it!

Some of us used natural materials to make our very own piece of art - take a look at some examples:

Week Beginning 22nd February

Today we have started a brand new term and welcomed the news that all of our Otter class will be returning to school on the 8th March! We're so excited to see you all and can't wait to have lots of fun together.

This week we have been showing off everything we've learned over the past few weeks by completing our assessments. We have done INCREDIBLY well and I am so proud of each and every one of you! As well as completing our assessments though, we have still managed to squeeze in lots of fun learning too. Take a look at what we've been up to below:

In English this week we have looked at Poetry. First, we looked at what the features of a poem were and then we used a structure to create our very own. We really enjoyed writing our Dragon verb poem and enjoyed performing them even more! You are all becoming so confident when reading your work, it's great to see :)

In the afternoons we have looked at Local Castles. We absolutely loved using Google Maps to find out where they were in the UK and then labelled them on our own maps. After finding all of the local castles we made our own fact-file on Warwick Castle - somewhere where we would usually go on a class trip. We had a virtual tour and read information before creating our fact-file. 

In Science we went on a hunt outside to start our new topics of 'Plants' We also completed a KWL grid including lots of questions we wanted to know. Some of them were very interesting such as 'Why do we need plants?'   'Do plants move?' and 'Why do plants need the sun?'

We cant wait to start the topic properly next week! 

Week Beginning 8th February

We made it to the last week of term and I am so proud of everybody for their hard work during this half term! We have had such a fun week with painting, Chinese New Year, Golden Time as well as fitting in all of our usual learning! 

In English we have re-visited the 'Instructions' genre, something which we really enjoyed at the beginning of the term. Now that we know what instructions are (and know all about the features) we were able to plan, write and publish our very own instructions in a week! Very impressive Otters! We decided to link our writing to our topic of Zog and wrote about how to catch a dragon! Some of our ideas were brilliant and very creative. We had one Otter who wanted to make the dragon dizzy then hit him with a frying pan!

To celebrate Chinese New Year, we used our skills of following instructions to make our very own Chinese Lantern too!

Take a look at some of our learning below:

In Maths this week we moved onto looking at Shape. First, we looked at the difference between 2D and 3D shapes and sorted them into the correct groups. We then discussed the properties of the main 2D shapes using key vocabulary such as 'sides and vertices'. We then looked at Symmetry within these shapes and discovered that some shapes had 0 lines of symmetry whilst others had lots!

We also linked this learning to Chinese New Year by creating our own symmetrical patterns and making our own dragons using 2D shapes. We had lots of fun!

Take a look at some photographs below:

In the afternoon we got creative! We used our knowledge from our Science topic to create a poster explaining what living things need to survive. In Encompass we created our very own castle using a range of different materials and in SMSC we discussed how to keep our mind healthy - linking to Mental Health day last week. 

Week Beginning 1st February

This week has started in a brand new month! Well done for completing another week of home-learning, I'm so proud of each and every one of you! You are working SO hard and I am impressed with the progress you are making whether you're at home or in school. 

In English this week we have started to write a Setting Description - based on the Flying Doctor Crew's journey to the castle. We looked at what we needed to have in a setting description and then thought about our senses. We thought about things we could see, hear, smell or feel in the setting and began to think of descriptive language to use in our writing. Take a look at some of our work below. We are so impressed with the standard of writing this week:

Week Beginning 25th January

This week we have started our exciting Live lessons on Teams - it has been lovely to be joined by those at home for Spelling lessons and Storytime this week. Next week, we will have even more Live lessons to join in with. 

In English this week we have been focusing on a new genre - a diary entry. We looked at what a diary was and what features we might find. After coming up with our checklist we then planned and wrote our very own, pretending to be Princess Pearl when she got locked in the tower by her Uncle, the King. We used lots of adjectives to describe feelings as well as using a question, exclamation, time conjunctions and first person - something we found tricky at first. 

Week Beginning 18th January

We have all been so busy again this week! We are now receiving learning from everyone at home nearly EVERY day and I am so proud! I've sent home learning certificates to 3 more Otters this week. Next week it could be YOU! Keep going and earning those Dojos every day!

In English this week we have been writing our alternative ending to the story 'Zog and The Flying Doctors' We created our very own character who needed help and decided how their problem would be fixed. We had some wonderful ideas like the rabbit who had ear ache, a zebra who had lost his stripes and a grizzly bear who'd lost his fur. We loved using our imagination and focused on using adjectives to describe our character and setting as well as including different sentence types (?!.) 

In the afternoons we have been very busy again. 

In Encompass we learned about the different jobs in a castle and then used this knowledge to apply for our favourite job! We loved learning about all of the different jobs and what skills were needed to be good at them. 

In Science we learned about what animals (including humans) need to survive and we discussed how this was different with different animals. We then chose 2 animals to write about their specific needs. 

In SMSC we spoke about how to keep safe in the local environment and we made our own safety videos for a hazard of our choice. Some of us chose to complete a video about road safety, stranger danger and water safety. Well done everybody for another fantastic week!

Week Beginning 11th January

What an amazing week of learning we have had again! We have had some great learning from home and everyone who is in school is working hard too! Well done to everybody - you are all wonderful and I am very proud!

In English we have been looking at instructions and discussed what features we would find in this type of writing. We then worked hard looking at imperative verbs, adverbs and time conjunctions so that we were ready to write our very own next week. Friday was an exciting lesson because we became part of Zog's Flying Doctor's and planned our very own medicine! Some of us had some great ideas and had ingredients like smelly socks and worms! I wouldn't like to drink that medicine! 

In Maths we've been looking at Number Lines which some of us found a little tricky! It was hard when there wasn't any numbers but we had to use our knowledge of place value to help. Then we moved on to counting in steps of 2s 5s and 10s from any given number. We noticed that when we added 10 to a number the ones column didn't change! We had lots of fun singing the Jack Hartmann songs too!

In the afternoons we have been very busy again. 

In Encompass we learned about the different parts of a castle and then used this knowledge to design our very own! We loved learning about all of the different parts and spoke about how it would help to protect the Kings and Queens. 

In Science we learned about the human growth timeline and loved talking about how these stages are different to eacother!

In RE we talked about a Muslim's special place, a Mosque. We learned that Muslims think of this as a special place because it's where they can pray to God in a quiet, safe place. 

In SMSC we spoke about what the word 'hazard' meant and spotted them in a variety of pictures being able to discuss how to make it safe. We were very good hazard spotters! 

Week Beginning 4th January

Otters - the start of a new term and year hasn't begun in the way we had planned and it's been a very strange week with school closing and most of us returning to learning at home. As always you have continued to impress me with your attitude to learning and the ability to adapt to new ways of accessing learning at home.

I am so proud of each and every one of you and I would like to say a big thank you to parents and families who are faced with another half-term of home learning with such determination and positivity!

Despite school closing - we have shared lots of learning opportunities this week which I delighted to share with you on our class blog!

This week in English we have re-visited one of our favourite Julia Donaldson stories 'Zog' which we have absolutely loved! We have looked at the main character Zog and written superb character descriptions using adjectives and adverbs which has got our brains working again after 2 weeks off! We carried out role play and created story maps before writing our descriptions which blew Miss Smith's socks off! Take a look at some examples below: 

In Maths we had a recap on place value of 2 digit numbers. We looked at making 2 digit numbers using Base Ten and partitioning these into tens and ones. We worked hard to complete the challenges and some of us even moved onto problem solving and reasoning. Keep up the great work with Maths! 

This week in the afternoons we have been very busy. In Encompass and Science we have started our new topics. Towers, Tunnels and Turrets and Animals Including Humans so this week we have completed a KWL grid to see what we already know. We also completed a coat of arms and discussed animals and their off-spring. 

In RE we talked about our special place and what makes this special to us and we had some lovely ideas! 

In SMSC we spoke about what the word 'safe' meant and then thought about who or what makes us feel safe. We had a lovely mature discussion which impressed the adults in the room. 

We've also kept ourselves busy by listening to stories, doing some yoga or playing on Maths games on our tablets...

Week Beginning 14th December

What a brilliant last week of term we've had! We have completed so many winter themed activities and had lots of fun being creative! We started the week writing our own Cinquain poem using nouns, adjectives and verbs which we loved performing too! 

In Maths we have been using 2D shapes to create winter drawings and created our own pattern with winter objects. We enjoyed being practical and creative this week!

Week Beginning 7th December

This week has been such a busy one! We have completed our end of term assessments and showcased how much we have learned since September! Miss Smith, Miss Barker and Miss Procter were so proud of the determination we showed during these! Well done! We also celebrated Christmas Jumper Day this week and donated 1 pound to 'Save the Children' charity. Here are some photographs of us in our best Winter-Themed jumpers:

We then designed our very own Winter Jumpers:

In English we have published our final piece of writing - a Non-Chronological Report. We used lots of the features we've learned so far including conjunctions, adjectives, adverbs and topic language. We tried out best to present our learning beautifully and everyone was very proud the end results. Take a look at some of them below:

To finish our topic of 'The Owl Who Was Afraid of The Dark' we completed 3 activities including writing our own blurbs, creating a new front cover and thinking of a new character for the story:

As well as our assessments, in Maths this week we have moved onto Position & Direction. We learned about the different ways to move (up/down, left/right, forwards/backwards) and used these to direct our friends to different objects before completing some challenges. Our favourite part was showing off what we know by dancing to the Cha Cha Slide! We knew our left and right amazingly well!  We then learned about anti-clockwise and clockwise turns which we found tricky at first! 

In Encompass we concluded our topic of the Great Fire of London by becoming architects. We re-designed the London streets to avoid a fire happening again using our knowledge of the events. 

We worked in groups to draw a plan of the streets and then presented our learning to the class. 

In Science we used all of our knowledge about materials to design different objects. First, we worked in pairs to design a boat and decided which materials would be used for each part. Then, we had to design a house for the 3 Little Pigs. We read the story and decided their house needed to be very strong so we thought about the properties of the different materials to choose the best one!

We ended the week with Art where we drew a scene of Plop and his family from our story all about barn owls. We were so proud of our artwork and some of us sent some photos to our parents on Dojo! Look at some examples below:

Have an amazing weekend and I can't wait to see you all next week! 

Week Beginning 30th November

I am so proud of Otters class this week - especially during these uncertain times, we keep showing determination and trying our very best! You are an inspiration :) We have had another fun-filled week and learned so much! Take a look at our learning below:

In English this week we have started a new genre of writing - a Non-Chronological Report. We have learned that this means a piece of non-fiction text which gives us true facts and information about a topic. We looked at some examples and decided what the key features were before researching and beginning to write our very own about Barn Owls. Our writing is amazing and we've included some brilliant topic vocabulary like 'habitat, nocturnal, diet, appearance' which shows we are extending our knowledge all the time!

\

In Maths we've moved onto to topic of Money! We had a quick re-cap on what money was and looked at all of the different coins and notes. We then used this to make different combinations of amounts. We learned that there were lots of different ways to make the same amount and we used our 2, 5 and 10 times table to help us. As well as this we were able to add different amounts of money and compare their value. Great work this week Otters!

In Encompass this week we had an exciting time re-creating the Great Fire of London! We were so excited when Miss Smith set fire to the houses and we observed why it spread so quickly. We learned that the fire spread quickly because the houses were made of wood, it was a dry/windy day and the houses were far too close together. Look at the exciting pictures below:

To end a fantastic week we enjoyed some Golden Time! We had fun with role-play of a Hindu tale 'Rama and Sita' and then created some wonderful artwork of Barn Owls.

Have a lovely weekend - keep safe and I can't wait to see you on Monday! 

Week Beginning 23rd November

What a busy week we've had again Otters! You have worked so hard and we have learned so much! 

In English we have completed our thank you letter to the Black Cat and published our final piece of writing. Myself and Miss Barker are unbelievably impressed with the standard of writing. We included adjectives, conjunctions (when, if, because) and a range of punctuation (?.!). I'm so proud of everyone for their amazing writing this week! Take a look at some photographs below of us helping each other and working hard:

In Maths we moved onto Fractions! We learned a fraction is part of a whole when it is split into equal groups or pieces. We started looking at halves before moving onto quarters and thirds. Miss Procter was impressed with their attitude to learning and as a result, we made lots of progress in the lessons. We particularly enjoyed using the practical resources to show fractions. Look at the photographs below:

In the afternoons we have created art relating to our topic 'The Great Fire of London' We created Tudor houses using black strips and created flames to show the effects of the fire. Take a look below:

We also learned about Samuel Pepys who wrote a diary about the events in 1666 when London set on fire. We completed a fact-file about why he was important and some of us wrote a diary entry from his point of view. Here are some examples of our work:

In Science we've learned about the properties of materials and learned new words such as 'transparent, rigid, flexible and waterproof'. We used these new words to describe different materials and made a list of all the different properties. Look at some examples of our work below:

Well done for a fantastic week Otters! Have a lovely weekend and I'll see you on Monday! 

Week Beginning 16th November

This week we have had a lovely week with lots of fun! We enjoyed learning about Anti-Bullying week and we discuss how to unite as a team to stop it from happening at Waterside. Take a look at some photographs from our learning below:

In English this week we have started a new genre of writing - a letter! We are pretending to be Plop and writing a thank-you letter to the Black Cat for helping him overcome his fear of the darkness. Some of us didn't know what a letter was so we spent a couple of days looking at some examples and finding the features of this type of writing. We then began writing our own introduction which Miss Smith was very impressed with. Some of us used some new vocabulary such as 'wisdom' and 'encouragement'. 

In Maths we have continued to learn about Multiplication but moved our learning onto using this to multiplying by 2, 5 and 10. We used the methods we'd already learned about to answer questions such as   4 x 5    3 x 2   and   5 x 10 using groups of, arrays and counting using our fingers. 

Some of us began to solve problems and answer reasoning questions which will continue to be a focus for the next few weeks. 

In Encompass we've been learning about the Great Fire of London. We learned about what happened and then created our very own timeline of events using our sequencing skills. Some of us completed a quiz all about the famous event and impressed our teachers with our knowledge! Take a look at some of our learning below. 

Science was very interesting this week - we introduced our new topic Useful Everyday Materials. We learned about the 5 most common materials wood, plastic, glass, metal and fabric before thinking of objects made out of them. Look at photographs of the learning below:

Week Beginning 9th November

This week has been a brilliant week of learning once again! We have celebrated Remembrance Day every afternoon and created some wonderful scrapbooks to showcase our learning. The respect and maturity Otters showed was exceptional and we had some great discussions. 

We looked at what Remembrance Day was, discussed what life would've been like, looked at friendship in the war and created some fantastic artwork.

Take a look at the photographs below:

This Friday we also supported Children in Need by coming to school in something yellow, spotty or colourful. Thank you for raising lots of money for a well-deserved charity with your donations, we really appreciate it. 

In English this week, we have published our character description of Plop from our story 'The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark' by Jill Tomlinson. First, we looked at what made a good character description and matched the character to the correct text. We enjoyed looking for clues!

In our own writing we used lots of adjectives and looked at how to expand our noun phrases to make them more interesting! Some of us even managed to use a 2A sentence! Well done!

In Maths we have been learning all about Multiplication! We learned that this means 'lots of' or 'equal groups' of. We looked at repeated addition, groups of and even learned about the commutative form (this just means we can swap the numbers and still get the same answer - magic!) We tried SO hard in our lessons and now we can show multiplication in lots of different ways! Take a look at the photographs below:

Well done for a fantastic week Otters! I can't wait to see what next week will bring! Have a fantastic weekend! 

Week Beginning 2nd November 

What a lovely start to Autumn 2 we've had this week! Well done for coming to school with a positive attitude to learning - we've had a great week with lots of fun and learning! 

In English this week we have introduced our new story for this term 'The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark' by Jill Tomlinson. We enjoyed listening to the story and using role play to act out the different parts of the story. We also started using adjectives to describe the main character Plop and some of our sentences were amazing! Such an improvement from last term, well done! 

If you would like to listen to the story click on the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZOhIUu6POE

In Maths we've been focusing on measuring length and height using cm and m. We learned how to use a ruler properly and measured different things in the classroom. When we know how to measure, we then compared and ordered different lengths and heights. To do this we used our knowledge of place value and the symbols < > and =. Some of us found this tricky at first but we showed great determination and made lots of progress in the lesson! Don't forget to keep practising your measuring skills at home! 

We really enjoyed Encompass this week! We learned all about what life was like in 1666, over 350 years ago! We learned that life was a lot more difficult and there wasn't any transport like today such as cars, buses or trains. Instead, they used horses and carriages. 

We compared London in the present to London in the past using our prior knowledge of the city. We discovered that the houses were made of wood instead of brick and they weren't as tall as they are today. Take a look at some of our learning below:

In Science we have started a brand new topic 'Everyday Materials'. This week we have completed a KWL grid and a pre-assessment to see what we already know. I was very impressed with Otters' prior knowledge of materials, well done! We discussed what we want to find out during the topic and came up with questions such as 'How is glass made?' 'What is the strongest material?' 'Why is metal so hard?' We can't wait to learn more and hopefully answer some of the questions we had!

Well done for another fantastic week of learning Otters! 

Half Term Homework

Well done to everyone who completed their half term homework and created a house from the time of the Great Fire of London. I am so impressed with the quality of the work and the time spent is appreciated! Please see some photographs of your homework below:

Week Beginning 19th October

I can't believe we've already reached Week 8 and we're on the last week before Half Term! You have all done amazingly well and I'm so proud of you all for showing so much determination during the past 8 weeks! Well done!

Due to it being the last week, we have spent the week completing assessments to show how much we've learned over the term. Miss Smith has been SO impressed with our efforts, we've all tried so hard and have made lots of improvements since the beginning of the year. In English we published our re-tell of Little Red Riding Hood and some of us have written 4 pages! We included so much in our writing including openers, adjectives and adverbs to make our writing interesting. Well done to Viha, Noah, Georgia and Mavy, I have put some photographs of your learning below:

In Maths, we've also been showcasing our learning by completing our end of term assessments. We all managed to improve our scores which is brilliant! We now need to remember to use the methods we've learned in these assessments (number lines etc.)

We started the week learning about subtracting multiples of 10 and 1s from a 2 digit number- look at the methods we used below: 

In Encompass, we had a letter from Paddington Bear! He wanted to visit London so we had to use our knowledge of the city to tell him where it was, where to visit and how to travel around. The past few weeks of learning came in handy because we were able to tell him lots of facts about London, showing we've learned lots! 

Science was another success this week as we completed the baseline assessment again and every single person gained marks - showing we have understand what was taught this term. Our teachers were so proud and we all had lots of smiles looking at how we'd improved! 

Well done for such an amazing start to Year 2 Otter Class - I hope you have a fantastic break! There is some holiday homework on the link below to keep you busy over the break! See you in November! 

Week Beginning 12th October

Well done Otters for another great week of learning - we had lots of fun and laughter as always.

In English we continued writing our re-tell of Little Red Riding Hood - we looked at dialogue in the story which we now know is a conversation and acted this out to show how each character was feeling. We wrote the middle and end to our re-tell using a range of skills we've learned over the half term including adjectives, adverbs and a range of openers. Most of us are using these naturally in our writing now which is great! Keep up the great work in English Otters! 

In Maths we have moved onto addition in a number of different ways. Some of us have been using counters and hundred squares whilst others moved onto using a number-line. We added multiples of 10 to a 2 digit number before moving onto adding 1 digit numbers. We worked hard to make progress in this lesson and Miss Smith is very proud of the determination shown - well done! 

Encompass this week has been really interesting as we have learned all about a new city called Banjul which is the capital city of Gambia in Africa. We completed a reading task to learn all about the city and then compared it to what we know about London. We learned that London has a bigger population and isn't on the coast, whereas Banjul is on the coast of its country and is very hot most of the time. Take a look at our venn diagram which we used to help us organise the facts.

Science was so fun this week! We were taught by Miss Procter who is a new student teacher in our class. We learned all about carnivores, omnivores and herbivores and linked this to making our very own food chain. We now know that all food chains must start with a producer (a plant), then a consumer (prey) and a predator. 

Well done for a fantastic week of learning - we can't wait for next week!

Hello Yellow!

On Friday 9th October, we celebrated Mental Health Day by wearing yellow and thinking about how to keep our minds healthy. We created our very own superheroes which will help us become more resilient. Take a look at some examples below:

Week Beginning 2nd October 

We have had another amazing week of learning! We are trying so hard to have a positive attitude and try out very best in all lessons - keep it up!

In English, we have published our setting descriptions which were fantastic - we included adjectives, adverbs and described using all of our senses. We then moved onto our new genre, a re-tell of Little Red Riding Hood. We carried out lots of drama which we absolutely loved. After completing our roleplay, we came up with some actions to remember the events and created a story map to help us. Towards the end of the week we have written the beginning of the story using openers and the conjunctions 'and' and 'because' Well done on working so hard in English this week! 

Maths this week has been very challenging but we showed great determination. We moved onto adding and subtracting 1 digit and 2 digit numbers from a 2 digit number using our knowledge of place value and counters. Some of us managed to move onto problem solving which was very impressive - well done! 

We are all secure in what addition and subtraction is and understand that addition ends with the biggest number while in subtraction, we begin with the bigger number. This helped us to understand how they link and we managed to find fact families using this knowledge. Take a look at some examples below:

In Encompass this week we have looked at ways of travelling around London. We learned all about the 3 main types of transport and then compared these to Stoke-on-Trent. We learned about the double decker bus, black cabs and the London Underground. We learned that the quickest way to travel was by the Underground because the train avoided all of the busy roads. Some of us then discussed how this is different to where we live. 

Science was very interesting this week - we learned all about 'adaptations' and discussed why certain animals lived in their habitat. We looked at an animal from each of the main habitats and looked at how their bodies are suited to this. We then challenged ourselves by thinking about how different living things depend on each other to stay alive. 

Week Beginning 28th September 

This week we have really impressed Miss Smith and Miss Barker with our attitude to learning. We are beginning to show determination and become more independent each day. Well done to all of you Otters! 

In English we have continued writing our Setting Description, using all of our skills from previous weeks. We have used adverbs, adjectives and openers to make our writing interesting and exciting, which has really improved our descriptions. We need to remember to include basic punctuation like capital letters and full stops as this will make sure we are secure in the Year 1 skills before moving onto Year 2. 

In Maths we have used our knowledge of place value to add and subtract 2-digit numbers up to 20 using concrete materials. We then moved our learning onto mental addition and subtraction, looking at what happens when a number is added or subtracted. Towards the end of the week we learned all about the 'Inverse' and looked at number families from a given number sentence. 

In Encompass we've learned all about the Royal Family. We enjoyed learning about the British Monarchy - looking at the heir to the throne. We learned all about the different members and discussed why the Royal Family is important to England. This links to our British Values. 

In Science we've moved our learning onto World Habitats and looked at the 4 main ones in the world (Desert, Arctic, Rainforest and the Ocean). We learned about their conditions and thought about which animals would be best suited to live there. 

Well done for another brilliant week of learning - I can't wait to see the work you produce next week! 

Week Beginning 21st September 

Well done for another amazing week of learning Otters! We have made so much progress and we're improving our pace every day! 

In English this week we have moved onto another genre of writing using our description skills from last week. We are aiming to write a Setting Description of the woodland. The main setting from our story 'Little Red Riding Hood'. We watched a video of the setting thinking about our senses - what we could see, hear, feel or smell. After mind-mapping our ideas, we then thought of adjectives to describe them and learned all about verbs and adverbs to make our writing more interesting. 

In Maths, we've been focusing on ordering 2-digit numbers looking at their value. We ordered our height and dienes before ordering numbers. We then moved our learning onto number-lines and made our very own huge number-line in the classroom to help us visualise the steps. We applied this so well to number-lines in our books and Miss Smith was very proud! 

This week in Science we've moved our learning onto local habitats - discussing what a habitat is and thinking about the 4 main ones in Britain (Urban, Coastal, Pond and Woodland) We looked at what the environments were like and then predicted which animals might live there.

In Encompass, we've been continuing learning about London and why is it so special. We completed our first carousel of activities, using the Buckingham Palace roleplay and learning all about the famous landmarks. We learned about Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Tower of London and the London Eye. We created our own fact-file and learned lots about the city.  

This week's value was Respect - we created our own 'Respect Garden' thinking about how respect is grown. We will continue displaying this value - remembering to show respect at home and at school. Well done on another fantastic week Otters!

Week Beginning 14th September

Well this week has been even busier than last week! We have worked so hard as always and tried our very best. We're very proud of our learning this week!

In English, we continued to describe the Big, Bad Wolf and some of the descriptions were amazing! We included adjectives to describe even though we weren't sure what they were last week! Amazing progress, well done! We published our first piece of writing which Miss Smith is very proud of - we used lots of new language such as 'beady' 'mysterious' 'cunning' and 'tangled' which made our writing even better!

In Maths we've continued to look at our Place Value and started to compare number using our crocodile arms (< > and =). We loved comparing using dienes and even compared each-other's height using the Greater Than and Less Than symbols. 

In Encompass we've learned about why London is a special city. We learned its the Capital City of the UK and is home to some very important people like the Royal Family and the Government. 

Science was very interesting this week - we learned about things that are living or non-living and some of us even discussed things that used to be alive such as wooden pencils or a bunch of flowers! 

It has been a wonderful week and we can't wait for next week's learning! Well done Otters for all of your hard work! 

Week Beginning 7th September 

What a busy first week back we've had! Well done to everyone in Otter's class for your determination and resilience on your first week back to school! I am so proud! :)

We began the week with our story for this term 'Little Red Riding Hood' which links to our 'Traditional Tales' topic. We had lots of fun reading the story and acting out different parts - we loved pretending to be the big, bad wolf. Some of you were very scary! 

In Maths we have been recapping our knowledge on place value looking at how to show numbers using dienes and counting all the way to 100! Forwards AND backwards! Well done to you all!

In the afternoons, we've made a start on our Science and Encompass topics - Living Things and Their Habitats and London. We talked about what we already know and what we'd like to know this term. Some of the questions were brilliant such as 'What is the most famous London landmark?' and 'Why do some animals eat meat?' We can't wait to start out learning!

It has been lovely getting to know you all and I can't wait to see what exciting things this year brings! Keep up the hard work Otters!