Weekly News! 24.4.26
What a fantastic start to the summer term we have had in Year 2! The children have come back after the Easter holidays settled, positive and ready to tackle new challenges. We are so proud of how fabulously they have approached the first week back. It has been a brilliant start to an exciting term ahead!
English
This week, we have started our new class text Emily Brown and the Thing by Cressida Cowell, and the children are already completely hooked on this exciting bedtime story!
We began by making predictions about what might happen in the story, thinking carefully about clues from the text and illustrations. The children also worked hard to clarify the meaning of new vocabulary, helping them to fully understand the story. Using their retrieval skills, they answered questions about what they had read and showed great confidence in finding information in the text.
To deepen their understanding, the children took part in some fantastic role play, exploring the characters and their feelings. This really helped bring the story to life!
We have also had a strong focus on word groups this week, identifying and using adjectives, verbs and adverbs in our work. To finish the week, we discovered that the “Thing” had lost Emily Brown! The children used their knowledge of character description to create brilliant “Wanted” posters. We were so impressed with their creativity and the detail they included!
Reading
Reading at 3: Every Friday at 3, our doors will open for you to come in and enjoy a quiet read with your child. This will be for the full 15 minutes, and we kindly ask that children are not taken home early during this time. Reading folders: Some children are bringing home two books – one of these will be a Read Write Inc (RWI) home book, which we ask them to read three times throughout the week to help build fluency. These books will be changed by an adult. The second book (with the coloured sticker) should be changed independently by your child – ideally first thing in the morning. Some children have moved onto the Accelerated Reader programme and will be able to change their books once they’ve completed the quiz online.
Maths
In maths this week, we have been focusing on place value, with a particular emphasis on using number lines. The children have been absolutely amazing and have picked up the learning so quickly and we have been incredibly impressed with both their confidence and enthusiasm! They have been working hard to find missing numbers on number lines, using their knowledge of number to reason carefully about where each number should go. We have also been practising estimating the position of numbers, and the children have done a fantastic job at making sensible, well-thought-out guesses and explaining their reasoning.
In addition to this, the children have been exploring the intervals on number lines, working out what each “jump” is worth and using this to help them solve problems. They have shown great determination when tackling trickier challenges and have been brilliant at discussing their ideas and methods with their peers. It has been lovely to see their confidence grow throughout the week and they have truly been super mathematicians!
Thematic – Passion for Fashion
We have launched our exciting new topic: Passion for Fashion! This week, the children have been busy being scientists as they began exploring different materials and their properties. They investigated a range of materials to find out whether they could be squashed, bent, twisted or stretched and approached this with great curiosity and enthusiasm. The children carefully tested each material, observed what happened and discussed their findings using fantastic scientific vocabulary. It was wonderful to see them working so thoughtfully, asking questions and beginning to understand why materials behave in different ways. We are very excited to continue developing our scientific skills as we explore this topic further over the coming weeks!
Home Learning
This week, we would love the children to continue their science learning at home by becoming designers and engineers!
Your challenge is to design a climbing frame for our school. Think carefully about the materials you would use (for example: metal, wood, plastic, rope) and label your design. For each material, explain why its properties make it suitable.
You can draw and label your design and even add extra details if you wish.
Be as creative and have fun!
Red words of the week
move, Mr, Mrs, old, only.