English

Mrs Hayes’s English group: We are finishing our teaching sequence on Wolves. The children are writing their own non-fiction booklet on Wolves. Our spelling learning focus includes reinforcing the Year 1 and Year 2 common exception words as well as single and plural spelling patterns i.e. scarf/scarves; puppy/puppies; bridge/bridges etc.

Maths

Mrs Hayes’s Maths Group: We are finishing off our topic on Fractions and beginning our learning on Money. We will be working with coins to solve word problems up to £1. We thought about all the different ways that we can pay for a £1 Sport Relief badge.

Mr King’s Maths Group have been doing it the other way around! Having finished off our topic on money we are now starting to look at fractions. So far we have looked at recognising equal parts, then finding one half, one quarter and three quarters of shapes. We plan to go on and look at finding thirds of a shape, looking at how two quarters and one half are equivalent, and then learning to find halves, quarters and thirds of amounts (e.g. half of 8 is 4, one quarter of 8 is 2).

Science

We are continuing with our learning on Plants. We carefully drew and labelled a strawberry plant and predicted what will happen as the plant grows through the next month. Next, we will be exploring the marigold plants that were sown by the children six weeks ago. The children each have their own seedling (3-4cm tall at the moment) and they will track it’s growth across the next month on a bar chart. Building on from learning that took place last autumn, the children will also set up an investigation to explore what happens to plants grown without water or plants grown without light.

Computing

We are introducing our We are Programmers unit, currently focusing on directions i.e. Go forward two steps, make a quarter turn to the right, go forward three steps etc.

Design and Technology

We have been setting up our sewing kits, ready to begin learning how to do a running stitch. As we will not be having parent helpers in school for the foreseeable future, children will bring these kits home to complete them there. If you child is not in school to receive a kit, feel free to practise running stitch on material or binca. The aim of the sewing activity is that the children will learn how to thread a needle independently, tie a knot in the end of the wool and then complete a running stitch.

History

We have been exploring a hundred year old family photo to see what we can find out. We have been thinking about the questions ‘What do you know/think/want to find out in relation to this photo.

Religious Education

We have just started our new topic: Opportunities. We are thinking about how Mothering Sunday gives us an opportunity to think about why our mother is so special to us. We have written messages relating to this theme and are practising our Mother’s Day song. During the week, we will be thinking about our journey through Lent and renewing our wish to help others.

On Wednesday, the children celebrated a liturgy with Father Francis. The focus of the liturgy was thanksgiving and the children enjoyed planning prayers, readings and hymns that they would use within the liturgy. It was a joyous occasion and the children prayed thoughtfully and sang with gusto!

How to access our Google Classroom

In the event of school closure, I am hoping to provide activities via the Google classroom. It might be worth checking that your child is able to access this in case we are instructed by the Government to close in the coming weeks. Further details can be found below.

To access Google classroom, children will need to sign in using their school Google account.

Visit google.com and click ‘Sign in’ in the top-right of the webpage.

If you, or someone using the same device, already has a Google account, you will need to add your child’s school account and switch between them before accessing the Classroom.  

How to add Google accounts

1. Open the Chrome web browser.
2. On the top right, select your profile image or initial.
3. On the menu, choose Add account.
4. Follow the instructions to add your child’s Google account.
5. Children’s school Google usernames all end with the domain, @stadrians.herts.sch.uk
6. Your child should know the first part of their username and the password.
   For security, I cannot add that information here. Further details can be found in your child’s reading log.

Once you have, set up your child’s Google account. You may need to switch between accounts for them to access the Google Classroom.

How to switch between Google accounts

1. In the top right, click your profile photo or email address.
2. Click the account you want to use.
3. A new window will open for this account.

Accessing the Google Classroom

Visit classroom.google.com 

The children have made a very happy start to Year 2 and we are all having a wonderful time as we get to know each other and start our new topics.

It was lovely to see so many Year 2 parents on Monday 9th September. Notes from the meeting can be found below:

Date for your diary: KS1 Christmas play on 12th December at 7pm