It is wonderful to have all of the Year 2 children back in school. They have returned with great enthusiasm and have all been very sensible as they keep themselves and their families safe by staying in their protective bubbles in school. Well done to everyone!
Individual reading
This week, I have read with all the children and given each child reading materials in their book bag. When your child is ready to read something new, they can put their reading log in the class basket and they will be able to choose something else. We have a quarantine system for returned books, which means that they will be left for a minimum of 72 hours before they can be chosen by another child.
Home learning
We will continue to use the Google Classroom for home learning this year. Your child’s existing log-in will provide access to the Year Two Google Classroom and more details can be found on the Year 2 Home Learning Quick Link. Home learning is posted at 2pm on Friday, to be completed by 8:30am on the following Wednesday.
As ever, if there is anything that you would like to discuss, you are very welcome to speak with me at the end of the school day (socially distanced, of course!).
Information relating to weekly home learning is posted on the Google Classroom at every Friday at 2pm. Most home learning is then due to be returned on the following Wednesday.
Each term, your child receives a home learning grid that includes exciting activities that can be completed at home throughout the term. We look forward to celebrating this home learning with your child when they bring it into school. More information can be found on the Google Classroom.
Ongoing activities for your Year Two child
Spellings
Spellings to be learned before starting Year Two can be found here:
By the end of the year, the children need to confidently know the multiplication and division facts for the 2x, 5x and 10x tables. Free games to reinforce these skills can be found here: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
Google Classroom
The children have joined the Year 2 Home Learning Google Classroom and their login details can be found in their Reading Record.
You can access Google Classroom here: https://classroom.google.com/c/NTQ3MTA1NTg0ODc2
This link will only work if you are logged in to your child’s own school Google account. You will not be able to access the classroom if logged in to Google with a parent’s account or that of another family member. Further information can be found on the Year 2 Quick Link, where you will find a handy Google Classroom guide should you have difficulties logging on.
During this topic we will cover this somewhat sensitive theme. The experience of ‘family’ in society today is varied, with many joys and sorrows. Whatever the experience, family still remains the first place for growth and development, the basic social unit. We will look at questions such as:
What does the word ‘family’ mean to you?
What people do you associate with ‘family’?
What joys and sorrows do you remember of family life?
For Christians the pattern and ideal of family life is found in the Scriptures. God is the loving parent of the human family and Jesus was born and lived in a human family. While offering ideals for family life, it is important to acknowledge and respect the real experience of some children which is not ideal.
The following scripture summarises perfectfully what we want to God to reveal to us:
“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. Above all clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.” (Colossians 3: 12-15)
We will ask ourselves:
In your daily life, how can you be ‘clothed with compassion’ or ‘with love’?
In practical terms, how can these be expressed?
At the end of the topic, we aim for the children to respond to it by asking themselves and each other:
What positive message about the family of the school is put across in the classroom?
How does the school ensure that when it welcomes a child, it welcomes that child’s family?
In what ways can the partnership between home and school be developed?
I’m sure the children will tell you more about the topic as it progresses over the next four weeks. Do ask them what they have been learning- it’s always nice to include you too.
I hope you are all well and looking forward to your child’s first day at school.
I have posted two new videos on the Memo section of Tapestry. A hello from Mrs O’Connor and Mrs Reid and also a video tour of the classroom and outside area. I hope both these videos will help your child prepare for their first day.
You may also wish to watch this hand washing video with your child. We will be learning the song at school.
Rub the palms, one two Rub the knuckles, one, two Rub the insides of the fingers And the back of them too Rub the thumbs one, two And the nails one, two Now it’s time to rinse them Happy clean hands for you
I am conscious that some children may find separating from their parents a little challenging. If your child is at all anxious, please prepare your child as much as possible with lots of positive encouragement. Reassure your child that we will have fun playing together and making friends. When you say good bye to your child, a little tip would be to wave briefly and say “See you soon”.
I am very much looking forward to meeting all my new Reception class children and getting to know their families. I’m also very excited and have been busy at school making sure the classroom is ready.
Many thanks to those parents who activated their child’s Tapestry on-line learning journey and completed the ‘All about Me’ section . I enjoyed reading about all the fun activities the children enjoy at home and also finding out what is important to you and your child. If you haven’t already activated your account, it would be great if you could find the time to do this in the near future. I often send information and messages to parents through Tapestry. Please do not hesitate to email the School Office if you are encountering any difficulties. Emails are checked periodically and queries can be forwarded to me. I am also happy to re-send a Tapestry activation email if you wish.
On behalf of Mrs Sallis, Mrs O’Connor, Mrs Reid, Mrs Heffernan, Mrs Ruffell and myself, I would like to say a big thank you for the kind and generous gifts. We were overwhelmed by your generosity.
This week both Reception groups continued to protect their ‘bubbles’ but also enjoyed celebrating together.
On Tuesday, we watched the Year 6 End of Year Leavers’ Mass together.
Today, we held a joint ‘Sports Day’. The children competed against each other in relay teams. Races included running through hoops, pass the bean bag and a sack race. The children also enjoyed a well deserved lolly and enthusiastically participated several fun dance games.
May I take this opportunity to thank you all for your support throughout the year. It has been an honour and pleasure teaching your children. They have been a credit to you all and adapted so well to the recent changing circumstances.
Wishing all the children a continued happy and successful school life at St. Adrian’s.
It has been a weird but wonderful year and I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching all your children. Their enthusiasm, engagement and excitement has been incredible every single day we have been in class. They adapted so well to Google Classroom online learning and showed such resilience.
A HUGE thank you to you all for all your kind words and thoughtful gifts. I am blown away. The book is just gorgeous and I shall treasure it. Reading the children’s comments and thinking back to the great times we had in class puts a huge smile on my face. Lot’s of children remember our ‘bonkey’ moment!
If you have the opportunity during the holiday, please encourage your child to read a variety of texts and practise their letter formation while handwriting. I wish you all a happy, safe and relaxing summer holiday.
It was great to meet so many of you at our ‘Meet the teacher’ meeting last week. Don’t worry if you couldn’t make it – I’ll look forward to getting to know you in September.
Last week, Mr Bedford wrote to your parents about returning to school in September. One of the things that he wrote about was the equipment we use in school. Mr Bedford said that for the equipment we use all of the time, like pens and pencils, we should try to keep our own items. He asked that, if possible, we bring our own pencil case to school.
It would be helpful if your pencil case included these items:
a pencil
a pencil sharpener (tub-style to catch sharpenings)
a rubber
a short (15cm) ruler
a glue stick
a set of colour pencils (12 colours should be fine)
a pair of children’s safety scissors
You will need to keep this pencil case in school and you will be able to leave it in your locker at the end of each day.
Don’t worry if you are not able to get a pencil case. We will do our best to ensure that our school equipment is not shared.
Have a lovely summer holiday and I am really looking forward to seeing you all back in school in September.
To help the children remember those trigraphs (3 letters/1 sound) we watched the antics of Geraldine the Giraffe (Mr Thorne Does Phonics). Just Google ‘Geraldine the Giraffe’ followed by the sound you wish to find. Below are the videos we watched in class this week.
Meet the Teacher
The children made an ‘All About Me’ wheel on a paper plate to share with Miss Perry, our Year 1 Class Teacher. Each member of the class had the opportunity to chat with Miss Perry and tell her all about their family, favourite hobby, animal etc.
Miss Perry set the children a challenge for over the summer holidays. She asked them to create a portrait of themselves to bring into school on their first day into Year 1. This can be a painting, drawing or collage creation. The portrait will form the basis of their first topic ‘All About Me’.
The children have also been writing a book about themselves in Reception. The aim being to develop confident, independent sentence writing. They wrote about likes/dislikes and described their features such as hair and eye colour. We are aiming to finish the books next week to take home. They are very proud of their books and looking forward to showing off their writing skills.
Maths
This week the children have been writing numerals 0 – 20 in sequence. They used a number line to self-assess their numerals, looking out for reversals of numbers (eg. 3, 7, 9) and making corrections as necessary.
Religious Education
We have been talking about God’s wonderful world and thinking about we can take care of God’s world. We read the creation story from the Bible and discussed the basic concept of ‘fair trade’ and sharing the world’s resources such as food and water. We shared a plate of biscuits and the children immediately exclaimed “That’s not fair!” when Mrs Palmer had the most biscuits on her plate.
Below is a video you may wish to watch at home – God’s Creation according to Genesis.
This week we have looked at the phase 3 sounds ‘ear’, ‘ure’ and then revisited the other sounds from this half term through playing phonics bingo. Words include:
ear, hear, dear, year, fear, beard
manure, secure, cure, mature
Each day the children applied their phonics learning over the half term to a short writing task. It has been a real pleasure seeing how much they have all improved.
Maths
We have continued to explore 2-D and 3-D shapes with Polydron as well as becoming familiar with calculators, with children learning to check their answers when adding and subtracting two single-digit numbers. This also helps to reinforce the abstract symbols used for adding, subtracting and equals.
We have also been counting with one-to-one correspondence which is when the person counting touches each object and says the numeral name aloud. This is a far more complex skill than rote counting. Giving your child as much practice as you can counting one-to-one will really support them to develop this very important skill.
We also sang ‘Ten Green Bottles’. We began to think about how we would write what happens when we takeaway 1 from a set. We learnt the symbol we use to indicate that we are ‘taking-away’ and the symbol that tells us what that is the same as – or ‘equals’.
Modal making and speaking and listening
Children have been encouraged to plan what they want to make and think carefully about how they can improve each modal that they complete. Children were given the opportunity to explain their creations each day focusing on using past, present and future forms correctly, thinking about how they sequenced what they were saying (Today I … First … Then … Next … Finally) as well as trying to be as clear as possible using sensible language. The children listening were then given the chance to ask questions.
Meet the Teacher
On Tuesday, the children met with their teacher for next year, Miss Perry. They created an ‘all about me plate’ which they used to let Miss Perry know a little bit more about them.
Physical Development
Some boys got creative and used the largest Polydron pieces to create a Hop Scotch track. We also continued to complete a run outside to help keep our fitness levels up. We played a few rounds of musical statues and enjoyed creating our own climbing frame using the tyres in our outdoor area. Despite the rain and strong winds, we still managed to enjoy our snack outside each day in our make-shift gazebo.
