St Oswald's Catholic Primary SchoolYear 2 Blog Friday 16th June 2023
Date: 16th Jun 2023 @ 2:00pm
A very hot week, but it didn’t stop Year 2 from working hard and doing lots of learning. We enjoyed our second session of Yoga and the children’s focus, stretching and poses were very much improved.
The highlight of the week was the ‘Dance from the Heart’ extravaganza. The children danced so well and remembered a very tricky dance routine. They also enjoyed the Disney theme and songs. In English, we started and completed our novel, The Diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine. We loved reading it so much that we just couldn’t put it down! The children wrote some fantastic newspaper reports about what happened to Thumper the rabbit. In Maths, we worked on placing numbers on an empty number line and the greater than and less than signs. In Science, we did some scientific enquiry and the children went outside and carried out a daisy sampling investigation. In French, we used our French phonics to help us spell numbers from 0 to 5. Everyone had a really good go at their first writing from memory - I was very impressed! Then we learnt some words for summer things and listened out for the new vocabulary in a song. In PSHE, we thought about why sleep and a healthy diet is important for us to grow and stay healthy. Next week in Music, the children are going to be learning how to play the ocarina. In D.T, they have been sewing patterns on their material bookmarks which look very impressive and should be useful for all the books they will read over the summer and in Year 3.
Forest School and Outdoor Learning
In our Forest School session we did some hapa-zome printing which means ‘leaf dye’.Hapa-zome is the Japanese technique of smashing flowers and leaves into fabric. We found that fresh, juicy plants leave the best imprint.
Hapa-zome printing is one of the easiest and quickest natural dyeing techniques. We collected leaves and flowers then we used hammers safely to smash them through calico fabric.
It was like magic when the colours came through!
In our other session we assembled polystyrene birds which became gliders. We investigated putting the weight in different places on the beak to see how this affected the flight.
We also explored and played on a brand new delivery of logs, kindly supplied by a parent. If you have access to any free materials or resources which you think would be useful for our sessions please get in touch via the school office.
Thank you to everyone who has completed the questionnaire. It came home on Thursday 8th June and it's on a green sheet. Please fill it in and send it into school if you haven't already done so. They will help us to evaluate our offering and help us to plan for next year.
Reading
In Year 2, children should read for at least 15/20 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.
Reading books are changed every Wednesday. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.
Reading resources:
Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.
If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.
Username: sto2
Password: 1234
Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf
In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.
Spelling
Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday (23.06.23). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.
You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by Friday 23.06.23.
This week’s spellings:
Contractions. Including two words from the Year 1/2 spelling list.
I’ll hasn’t
I’m can’t
it’s they’re
didn’t who
don’t whole
Maths
Next week for our times tables quiz (Friday 23.06.23) we will be learning the 3x table in a random order.
Count in 3’s forwards and backwards, see how quickly you can go, but it must still be accurate. Play the ‘follow me game’ – one person says ‘3’ the next person says ‘6’ and so on. Chant/sing the x3 table. Ask an adult to quiz you on them in a random order. Try playing ‘Hit The Button’ game from the maths games listed below.
You will have a 3x table and Greater Than/Less Than challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 23.06.23.
Here are some links to other maths games/apps the children can play to help them learn their number facts.
Topmarks.co.uk also have and English section for phonics/spellings games. If you explore the site you will find lots of different games that are relevant to Year 2.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths
(I believe this app is free to download.)
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/multiplication-and-division
Sumdog
Log in at www.sumdog.com
Have a lovely weekend.
Year 2 Team.