This week in the classroom...

Week beginning 1^st July

This week in English, Year 1 and 2 have started looking at instructions and recipes. We had a go as a class at making a recipe for how to make a jam sandwich. At first, this seemed easy, but it soon got messy when important details were missed out! This helped the class to reflect on how important it is that recipes contain detail and are clearly sequenced. After unpicking some example recipes, the children found conjunctions, imperative verbs (bossy verbs) and adverbials. We have all planned a recipe for Mr Grinling’s lunch which we will write up next week. In reading, we enjoyed reading ‘Sally and the Limpet’ and ‘The Storm Whale’.

In Maths, Year 1 have looked at naming and describing some 3D shapes. They noticed that the faces of 3D shapes are 2D shapes that they have already learnt. Year 1 then went on to discuss what properties make a circle a circle, and a triangle a triangle. Everyone tried using the words vertices and sides. Year 2 have started looking at position and direction in maths. They have reminded themselves of the prepositional vocabulary learnt last year, and have then began to describe quarter turns and half turns.

In Geography, the children compared hot and cold counties based on their appearance. In Science, the class have loved watching their seeds germinate and updating to their plant diaries. They also made flip books to show the 5 stages of the plant life cycle. In PSHE, the children set goals for themselves to strive towards when they move up into the next year group. Most of the class found it exciting thinking about next year and all the new learning opportunities they will have!

Week beginning 24th June

Year 1 and 2 have had a super week of learning.

In English, everyone has had a go at writing their own alternative ending to The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch. The children came up with some very creative ideas on what Mrs Grinling could do to get rid of the pesky seagulls. They made sure to include conjunctions and tall capital letters. In Phonics, Year 1 have learnt the sounds -dge (fudge), su (measure), ge (j – large) and y (i -myth). In Spellings, Year 2 have looked at doubling the last consonant when adding the suffixes -er, -ing and -est.

In Maths, Year 1 and 2 have continued to explore 2D shapes, patterns and tangrams. Year 2 then extended their learning by describing and comparing 3D shapes. They have all also played some Top Marks games on the laptops for extra practice of skip counting and times tables.

In Geography, the children revisited their understanding of where hot and cold countries are found by using atlases. They looked at hot countries such as Kenya, Brazil and Ecuador and cold countries such as Iceland, Greenland and Norway. In Science, we used story telling and drama to explain the importance of sunlight for plants. We have also kept a close eye on the beans we planted in Science last week, however the shoots are still very short. In Music, we continued our theme on animal sounds. In PSHE, the children shared ideas on how we can celebrate each other’s achievements. Their ideas included saying kind words, clapping, giving certificates, showing others in assembly and putting written work achievements up on display. After this lesson, it has been lovely seeing the children celebrate their class mates’ achievements in such a positive way. There has been so much kindness in Year 1 and 2!

Week beginning 17^th June

What a busy week of learning Year 1 and 2 have had! In English, the children have had a go at a shared write, collaborating their ideas in teams to develop their vocabulary. They then wrote a narrative retell of the whole story, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch. I was very impressed to see conjunctions, expanded noun phrases and exclamation marks being used within this. The children also made some clever connections between The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch and The Lighthouse Keeper’s Tea within their reading lessons.

In Maths, both year groups have started a new unit on shape. Year 1s have been exploring how flat 2D shapes can be put together to make pattern blocks. They thought carefully on how to align the straight sides by rotating the

shapes. Year 2s have reminded themselves of this from last year and then have developed their understanding of what a polygon is. Top Marks have a great (free) website the children can use to practice making colourful pattern blocks; just type in either ‘Top Marks Pattern Block’ or ‘Top Marks Shape Patterns’.

In Geography, the children labelled and colour coded a world map to show how the temperate changes as you move away from the equator and towards the two poles. In Music, the children read the story Commotion in the Ocean and experimented with a variety of instruments that could represent each sea creature. In Science, they thought about what a seed needs in order to grow into a plant properly, including water and sunlight. The children could explain that without sunlight, a plant’s leaves will struggle to make food. We also learnt a song about plant parts that was very catchy! On Wednesday, the children loved competing in sports day and working in their mixed-age teams. We saw lots of teamwork and good sportsmanship during this which was so great! Well done Year 1 and 2.

This week in the classroom...

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