Week beginning 13th March

This week in English we are looking at acrostic poems.

We looked an example about the castle. All of the letters down the side of the poem spelt out the word castle and all of the sentences were about the castle. We are thinking of ideas for our own acrostic poems to spell out NORWICH CASTLE. As a challenge we are trying to use the 4 different sentences types too.

In Maths we have been looking at symmetry and spotting lines of symmetry in different 2D shapes. We have also begun to look at symmetrical patterns and solve word problems involving symmetry. For our daily maths sessions we are solving words problems to use and apply a range of skills.

On Friday we will be using clay to make sculptures of famous monarchs.

We have been really enjoying our football sessions on Wednesday. It's great to get outside and learn new skills.

Please would you each bring in a small sturdy box e.g. a shoe box. We will be using these for DT before the Easter holidays.

Week ending 10th March

This week is art week!

Every child is being involved in the creation of 2 displays to show some of their learning about life in a castle and by the end of the week we will have a new display in each classroom to show for their efforts.

Alongside this we have been extending our Norman theme with a range of adult-led activities.

On Monday we looked in depth at the story of the Battle of Hastings as shown on the Bayeux Tapestry and used our measuring skills to see how far across the playground it would stretch.

Throughout the week in small groups the children will be having a go at creating a strip of embroidery to go with the artwork and completing some non-fiction writing about our local Norman building, Norwich Castle.

In maths we have been practising our reasoning and arithmetic skills and we have been looking in detail at the relationship between multiplication and division calculations (e.g if 6x2=12 

then 12÷2=6).

In PE we continue to have some specialist sports coaches in to lead football skills workshops in a Wednesday afternoon.  Unless it is raining these sessions take place outside so please feel free to provide outdoor trainers and tracksuit bottoms if your child needs them.

Week commencing 27th February

This week in English the children have been creating their own story using a single image as the prompt.

They have been answering a series of questions about the picture and using their knowledge of spelling and grammar to write interesting and detailed answers.  These will then form the basis of their story.

The picture has been taken from the Bayeux Tapestry and after the children have created their own stories we will be introducing them to the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest.

In phonics we are using proper nouns (names of places or people) and making sure that these are always capitalised in writing. The children are also practising this skill in their stories this week.

In maths we are revisiting shape and exploring the names and properties of 2D and 3D shapes.
The children have been using the vocabulary of 2D shape (sides and corners) and 3D shape (edges, faces, vertices) to describe the properties.

For topic, we are visiting Norwich Castle Museum to learn more about life in a castle during different periods of history.

week commencing 20th February 2017

This week is International Week and we have been learning about the Arctic.
The children have used Atlases to find and name the 7 continents and 5 oceans as well as finding the 8 different countries that make up the Arctic region.

The children were very excited to receive a letter from Santa Claus from his home in Finland and they used their map work to find the city he lives in (Rovaniemi).

In maths have been comparing the temperatures between Norwich and Rovaniemi and finding the difference between the two.  This has also raised some interesting discussion about minus temperatures.  We have also been solving maths problems related to Santa and the Arctic.

In English we have been learning about arctic animals in both our comprehension and writing and the children are producing a factsheet about an animal of choice.

In PE we have been harnessing some inner peace with Arctic yoga.

Just a reminder that all permission slips and money for the visit to the Castle Museum next week are due by this Friday  many thanks for your support with this.

Week ending 10th February 2017

This week in English we have been continuing with our letter writing skills.  The children are writing to Queen Elizabeth I to let her know what they have discovered and to ask her any further questions they have.  The focus points are to use each of the 4 main sentence types (command, question, statement and exclamation) as and to concentrate on forming all letters correctly.

Phonics this week is concentrating on spelling common exception words (also known as tricky words) correctly.  You may have noticed the list in homework books last week - this is a set list under the current curriculum that all year two children must be able to read and spell accurately every time by the end of there time in year two.  Most of our children can read these words well and any extra practise they can do with their spelling at home will always help them.

In maths we have been solving worded problems for addition, subtraction, division and multiplication.  The children have been able to choose their own way of solving the problem as long as they can show how they got to the answer.  It has been lovely to see how surprised they are when they realise that they CAN do it!

We would like to ask that if you go away in the UK during the holidays to please send in any photographs or a postcard so that we can update our UK maps in class - many thanks.

Week ending 3rd February 2017

Apologies for the delay in updating our blog.  As you can all imagine this has been a busy term with a new topic to introduce, lots of activities involving the Trust, planning the recent maths and celebrating international festivals.

Our topic this term is Off With Their Heads and the children will be learning about a wide range of things as outlined in the topic web sent out two weeks ago.  So far we have revisited the main countries of the UK and learnt about royal residence in each of these and have looked in more detail at the features of castles and what the purpose of each part was.
To continue with this theme in English the children's favourite pirate, Sir Francis Drake has sent them a letter suggesting they learn all his 'marvellous monarch' Queen Elizabeth I ad the children have been replying to him with their questions about her.

Our main focus points in English this term remains spelling and handwriting and we are encouraging the children to be more adventurous in the way they structure their work to include each of the main sentence families: commands (e.g. Write back soon), questions (e.g. How did Queen Elizabeth become queen?), exclamations (What a brilliant piece of writing you did!) and statements (e.g. The children are learning about castle.).

In maths we have been looking at fractions and how to halve, quarter and third both objects and groups of objects.  The children have been shown how to work out the answer to a fraction question by using division. We then used our knowledge of quarters in geometry to navigate Red Riding Hood through the forest using positional directional language.  The children then created their own mazes and wrote commands for users to follow them.  This week they have used all existing  knowledge of halves and quarters and related it to time.  We then used our five times tables to tell the time to the nearest five minutes.

We are always happy to talk to you about what's happening in school, so please do come and speak to us in person if you have any questions.

Week ending 16.12.16

Wow the last week! This term has flown by and for the most part it's been thoroughly enjoyable for both the children and the teaching staff. Having said that, tanks are running a little on empty now and we're all looking forward to the Christmas break.
As this is the last week of term we have arranged a few fun activities for the children such as making Christmas cards and Christmas games in PE. We have also been doing some 'proper' work in English looking at the story Mog's Christmas Calamity which inspired Sainbury's 2015 Christmas advert. The children have loved the story and found the advert hilarious! They will be writing a re-tell of the story later in the week.
Maths has had a Christmassy theme this week, as we re-cap some of the areas we have been looking at. 
Our popular Topic looking at the lives of pirates has now drawn to a close and it seems to of gone down very well with the children. 
Both myself and Ms Tovell would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas, with hope that you all have an amazing Christmas holiday. I would like to thank you once again for all of your well wishes and good luck messages, I will miss the school, the staff and the children hugely and wish everyone associated with the school my best wishes.