Our class novel
We have now begun our new big topic based around our class novel – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. From what we have read so far, we are all completely hooked by the odd characters and vivid descriptions. We are all eager to see what happens to Charlie and the other wicked children. During the topic we will: conduct science investigations, make collages, make chocolate bars and write all about Charlie’s adventures.
Of course, the book is written by the wonderful children’s author, Roald Dahl. It would be well worth a visit to Wetherby Library to choose more books written by Roald Dahl. You may even discover another children’s author whose work you enjoy.
Super Mathematicians
This week, year 2 are learning all about their times tables.
We have learnt how to work out our 2 times table, 5 times table and 10 times table.
Now, our challenge is to know these off by heart! Without thinking or working out the answer!
A game we enjoy playing to help us do this is Hit the Button. Click on the name of the game to play. It’s free and will help us with our learning!
How can we clean water?
In science, our task was to clean some very dirty water by sieving, filtering and evaporating. The water had a range of materials in it: sand, salt, mud, leaves and twigs.
Once we had sieved and filtered the materials from the water we still needed to remove the salt. We use evaporation to separate the salt and the water.
Living and Learning: I can make things better.
This weeks living and learning statement is ‘I can make things better’. We talked about the different things that this might mean.
Jack suggested that, “We can try and help school be better by tidying up after ourselves”.
Brooklyn said that, “We can make school better by not throwing rubbish on the floor and by making good choices”.
Harley thought that we could make other people feel better by asking if they are okay or asking them to play.
Dexter felt we could make learning better by making good choices.
Leah said, “We can make arguments better by trying to calm them down”.
We discussed how to make things better when we have had an argument or upset somebody. Eliza said, “You can tell them you don’t want to fall out”. Dexter said you could say sorry. We then talked about how you have to show that you are sorry as well as saying that you are sorry. This might be by doing something nice for that person or as Harley suggested – “Not doing it again”.
Stay and Play Reminder- Marvellous Maths
Please join us on Thursday 24th January, 3.15-3.45 pm to take part in maths activities with your child, be given information about the development of important counting principles and to get ideas of how to support maths learning at home.
Please return the slips sent home this week, to confirm your attendance.
Thank you.
Ice Art!
The most important consideration in Early Years, is the Characteristics of Effective Learning. The children are experts at playing and exploring with purpose, as they are so naturally inquisitive.
When the world gave us sub-zero temperatures this week, we used our “senses” to “explore” what was all “around us”; ICE!
We were excited to discover that the water tray had frozen overnight and left us a lovely deep ice canvas! Take a look at our artwork…
Role-play Ready!
Foundation 2 have been putting the finishing touches to the new role-play area today, by working together in their Literacy time to create a travel map of destinations! ‘Destination’ has become a wow word this week, as we have been thinking about the purpose of vehicles and their journies.
We have everywhere on our map, from Wetherby to Egypt and the North Pole to the moon! All decided by the children and written using those important phonics skills. The map looks fab on our new chalk board wall!
The role play area will give the children the opportunity to create their own vehicles for their journey, add signs and numbers, buy tickets and become the driver or passengers. We can’t wait for all of the amazing adventures we will go on!
Living and Learning: I know Love is important.
We had a wonderful start to 2019 by discussing this weeks living and learning statement: “I know Love is important”.
We tried to define ‘love’ and created a mind map of all the words that came into our heads when we simply said ‘love’. We realised all the words we came up with were positive and then thought about how all the words we associate with hate are negative.
During circle time we shared how we show love to ourselves, other people, God and the world.
“I show love to my friends by always being there for them”. Erin
“I show I love to my family by caring for them and helping them”. Harvey
We talked about how important it is to not only show love but to feel love. This makes us feel valued and accepted, no matter what our beliefs.
The nicest comment of the day came from Hannah:
“Love is free. It doesn’t cost anything so it doesn’t matter if you are poor you can still show love”.
What’s the matter?
This week, we tested which materials are soluble and insoluble. We sorted sand, salt, sugar and many more into these two groups.
After that, we investigated if the temperature of water affects the speed of dissolving. We had to test this several times to make sure our results were reliable. Then we calculated the mean time taken for sugar to dissolve in different temperatures.
Our results showed us that the higher the temperature of water, the faster the sugar dissolves. Therefore, the temperature of water does affect the speed of dissolving. I wonder why? Can you find out?
Welcome back Foundation!
We hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year break with your families. It has been great to see Foundation children return to school happy and ready to learn!
We have some new faces in both F1 and F2 and would like to welcome our new children and parents/carers. We are also welcoming our new class teacher Mrs Valentine. Mrs Valentine will be teaching foundation Monday-Wednesday and Mrs Allen-Kelly will be teaching Wednesday to Friday.
This week we have been introducing our new topic- Transport and Journies. Next week, we will start by looking at non-fiction books and fact finding, as well as creating props and signs for our upcoming role play area.
If you have access to any bus or train timetables, car manuals, old travel tickets or anything else relevant to our new topic that you could add to our role-play area, they would be much appreciated.
Home-Link Challenge- F1 and F2
We would love to hear more news from home this week, so we have attached our ‘Time to talk’ and ‘Learning at home’ sheets to the weekly update sent home this evening. Don’t forget to keep sharing learning at home on our parent whiteboard as you enter the classroom. Our sheets are always available to tell us about the wonderful things your child has been doing at home. We would especially like to see anything linked to our topic; does your child role play with transport toys at home? Do you have a photo of you travelling together on public transport?
You can email photos and learning at home to; stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Parent reminder
PE will continue to take place on Thursday afternoons. Please return or bring in PE kits. Please also remember to have book bags and reading books in school each day. Books are usually changed on a Monday and Thursday or Friday. Thank you.