Alas, we have come to the end of our Wild West topic. Robins have engaged so well with the chosen texts, d&t activities, sharing work across the school and learning about the western frontier. To conclude our topic we enjoyed a Cowboy Hoedown day and we used our measuring skills to make a cowboy snack, cheese scone, to enjoy on a cattle drive. We had a lot of fun and I hope your little cowboy enjoyed the cheese scone. I am so proud of the Robins and everything they have achieved this term and look forward to welcoming the back for Summer! I know, I can’t believe we’re here either!
Robins are exploring everyday materials, as part of science week we decided to put our skills to the test and carry out some experiments! We looked at different material properties, absorbency, magnetic/non-magnetic. Robins used a Venn diagram to sort different material groups.
Robins have enjoyed exploring the world of measuring and have worked practically with standard and non-standard units of measurement. Using hands on experience has helped our class feel confident working with me, cm, m and using different objects to measure. We enjoyed measure members of the class and estimating the measurement of Mrs Parker.
Robins got a taster of parenthood this week when we had a visitor in our class. Boy lamb, who had been named by Mrs Parker as Houdini, after the Hungarian escape artist, because of his sensational escape stunts! The children loved having Houdini visit them but voiced that it’s tiring looking after a lamb! Try looking after a human baby, I told them!
Maths Year 2 exploring division, we know that another word for division is sharing! We start with the full amount and share “1 at a time” we can demonstrate this with practical resources, pictorially and using calculations with the division symbol.
Music Robins incorporated instruments into their Football chant which added an interesting element to the chant, they had to be careful with the timing making sure to use their instrument during a certain part of the chant. We also explored pitch developing and understanding of moving our voice to make a sound high or deeper but noticing the difference between a higher and lower volume.
Maths Year 2
Year 2 have been using skills that will support their multiplication understanding. They have been recognising and making equal groups. Robins having been using resources to show off their group making skills. We know that we can use some numbers to make equal groups and share into equal groups.
Moo Music Session
Robins enjoyed using their bodies and other resources to join in with music. It was a pleasure to see the children expressing themselves through music, and love having time to be excitable having a whale of a time!
Colour Mixing
Robins have been exploring the world of colour, recognising Primary colours which mix together to create Secondary colours. We got rather messy with our ‘Secondary Colour High Fives’ but it was brilliant to see all the different colours we could make as a team. We used what we had learned to make a colour wheel which will help us with colour mixing in the future.
Dear Parents and Carers,
Spring is in the air! Welcome back, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year with time spent with loved ones, making memories and taking some time to rest!
Routines
Spelling books have been sent home this week, we are recapping sounds covered in Phonics and practising tricky words, these are words that don’t follow the typical spelling patterns. Spellings will be checked on Monday and new spellings will be sent home (please can I ask that spelling books are in school on Monday to stick in the new spellings and ensure they do not get mislaid). I know finding time to practise is challenging but the more practise children get the more confident they will be with using their sounds in reading and in writing.
Thursday will be KS1 forest school session in the afternoon with Miss Rogers and will continue after half term. Please send children in appropriate clothes: long sleeves and full-length bottoms. We have been known to get rather messy at forest school, therefore, old clothes if possible are best. They will always wear wellies to forest school regardless of weather, please check your child’s wellies still fit, we do have spares however sizing can be difficult to match perfectly.
P.E will now be held on Monday afternoon; however, we may require P.E kits for impromptu P.E lessons throughout the week if that’s where our learning takes us so if P.E kits go home please bring them back for Monday’s lesson or leave them at school if you prefer.
On Friday, two children will be chosen to take home the ‘All about Marvellous Me’ box and the ‘Story Suitcase’ I am sorry it has been more difficult than I expected to be available to hand out the bedtime story box as my timetable has restricted my time with the children on Fridays, I will endeavour to be better at this in the Spring term. ‘The Marvellous Me box’ will be a chance for an individual to talk about things that are important to them and share this with the class. They have the opportunity to show and talk all about their chosen items in the box. It is a great way for a person to exercise speaking skills and a chance for their friends to get to know them better. The ‘Story Suitcase’ is an exciting opportunity given to children who have shown consistent reading at home or shown excellent perseverance and resilience towards their reading or maybe a little incentive to help motivate their reading. They will be given a book chosen for them to enjoy at home with hot chocolate, blanket and torch to encourage reading enjoyment. This suitcase will then be returned to school on Monday. If possible, children can take a picture of their chosen reading spot (maybe a den they have made) and write a book review. Stories can be read by the child or their adult. I have introduced the ‘Book Ticket’ a red ticket sent home daily too ask children to bring in their favourite story to share with their peers. This is a brilliant way to increase the range of book genres children access and encourage a love of reading.
Reading record books will be used by the teaching staff in Robins to give feedback about your child’s reading. Hopefully, this will give you a good insight into how well they are doing and next steps for their reading journey. Therefore, it is really helpful if Reading Record books can come to school every day, of course sometimes they get forgotten but as often as you can please, that would be great. Reading daily with your child has endless benefits and is a great way for them to show you their amazing progress! Children have a few more responsibilities in Robins, this includes, changing their home story after they have read the story 3 times (this encourages reading fluency) and can explain the story to an adult. They have the responsibility to collect their story and reading record book from the ‘RB box (reading record box)’. Teaching staff in Robins aim to read with your child 2/3 times a week. In a large class this can be difficult but we appreciate your support with continuous daily reading.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions, you can catch me at the end of the day or email the office and they will ensure I get the message.
Best Wishes,
Mrs Parker and the Robins team!