Highlights of the week:
We are going to be making a whole class sculpture using recycled materials next week. Please could you bring in any recycling such as boxes or plastics.
● This week we had a very exciting visit from Mrs Clarke and Darwin the tortoise. Mrs Clarke spoke to us about why Darwin the tortoise is called Darwin, she told us about Charles Darwin and his research linking to the theory of evolution. We also learned how Darwin hibernates throughout the winter and found it very funny watching him walk around the classroom! This has linked to our History and Science units, where we have been looking at significant explorers and animals adapting to their habitats. I wonder if we could tell you any facts about tortoises, please challenge us at home!
● In Phonics we have been focusing on ‘ph’ as code for ‘f’ in words such as elephant and photograph. We have also created instructions to inform people on what to do when adding the suffixes; -ing, -est, -er and -ed. For example, we noticed that when you add -ing to a word ending in a ‘soft consonant’ such as ‘g’ you double it. Therefore, the word jog would become jogging.
● In Maths we have started our new unit on ‘Mass, Capacity and Temperature.’ We have looked at using the words ‘heavy, light, heavier than and lighter than’ to help us when comparing the mass of different objects. We have been introduced to the units ‘grams’ and ‘kilograms’ when measuring mass. We know that 1 kilogram is equal to 100 grams, similar to how 1 metre is equal to 100 centimetres. We ended the week by completing the four operations using mass, answering questions like the ones below. It was important for us to read the questions carefully so that we could work out what operation we needed to do. For example, are we needing to add, subtract, multiply or divide?
● In Science we are learning about ‘Living things and their Habitats’. We have defined the terms ‘living’, ‘dead’ and ‘never living’ to help us understand the living process. We have grouped animals and plants to their habitats and looked at why different animals live in certain habitats, using our knowledge of the different animal groups and their features. We have also looked at why living things may want to ‘camouflage’ themselves. I wonder if we could tell you why? Maybe we could even give you an example of an animal that camouflages…a snow leopard!
● In English we spent the week focusing on spelling, grammar and punctuation. We have looked at past tense, present tense, apostrophes and suffixes. We wrote a letter to the Blue Reef Aquarium, ahead of our visit next week, asking them a range of questions. We made sure to include the correct punctuation and even challenge ourselves to use suffixes like -ly. We have also reminded ourselves of the different grammatical terminology we have learned so far in Year 2. Please ask us to tell you about nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs- this will really help us in our SATs papers!
● In History, we have continued to look at ‘Significant Explorers’. We recapped our learning on Neil Armstrong, before we started to focus on Christopher Columbus. We used books and the internet to help us create a mind map of key information about Christopher Columbus. Next week we are going to look at comparing the explorations of Neil Armstrong and Christopher Columbus.
Home learning:
● Please make sure you are reading with your child at least four times a week and commenting on their reading in their reading record book. Please can reading records stay in your child's book bag.
● Please support your child to access Numbots online. It is recommended that children play Numbots for 10 minutes a day for maximum impact.
● Spellings are sent home on Monday’s for the text on Friday. Please can you practice these with your child throughout the week.
