Class 2 Archive - Autumn 1 2020

Christmas Play
If you would like a copy of this year's Christmas play 'Lights, Camel, Action' please can you let us know how many copies you would like by completing the form on this week's newsletter. There is a voluntary contribution of £3 each.

Christmas Party
On Monday 14th December it will be our Class 1 and 2's Christmas party. In the past we have put a food list on classroom doors for each child to bring in 1 thing to share for the party. However, in the current situation we thought it would be best to ask children to bring in £2 each and use this to buy party food, decorations and entertainment.

Please can money be set in before Friday 11th December. On the party day children can come to school in party clothes.

Medals For Heroes
Inbetween rehearsals we have managed to complete our superhero medals. We used a metallic gold paint and rainbow ribbon to give it an extra special look. The children are excited to give it to their chosen hero.

Rehearsals for our Christmas show 'Lights, Camel, Action!' are in full flow this week. Children are working so hard learning songs, dance routines and lines. Thank you to parents for supporting children learning lines at home too.

We do require some costumes to be supplied by children. If your child needs to bring in something we will send you a text message with what will be required.

Travelling Crib
This year we are not able to send round our class travelling crib as we have done in past years. However, we are asking you to set up nativity scenes you have a home and write a special Christmas prayer. Please send pictures of these to the class email.

Class2@stgerardsprimary.org

Santa Dash
Next Friday 4th December children will be taking part in a Santa dash run. Children are required to wear PE kit as we usually do on a Friday and also a festive jumper or t-shirt if they wish. I’m sure it will be lots of fun.

Maths
Each day this week all children have been recapping on number bonds to 10.

We have also been doing lots of addition and subtraction this week in Year 1 and 2.

Year 1 children have been counting on and back using a number track to help them. They have enjoyed taking away by singing 20 green bottles.

Can you sing the song to your parents at home?

Children in Year 2 have been using a 100 square to add and subtract 11,12 and even 21,22. You will find a copy of a 100 square on this page.

Can you explain how you can answer the following questions using the square?

34+11 =
45-12 =

Can you think of some of your own?

Literacy
This week children have been reading stories about toads, bath time and giving someone a fright. Each week all children are given sentences to write down making sure they are using capital letters, fingers spaces and full stops.

Can you write 3 sentences at home saying what you liked about the stories you have read this week including this important punctuation?

Your child will either work with Mrs Drury, Mrs Ellison or Mrs Angel. There will be a spelling list added for each group on this page. Please ask if you are unsure which group your child is in.

There are no new RWI books this week due to play rehearsals but your child will still bring their normal reading book home and previous books are still available.

RE
We have continued to learn about Judaism this week and the story of Moses. Children created puppets of people in the story and performed a show in small groups to the rest of the class. See a picture of some of our puppets.

Getting creative
This week in area times the children have been very busy creating fabulous models and buildings. Children have been thinking about what makes a great team as they build together.

PE
Children have been learning basketball skills with Mrs Sharpe on Tuesday afternoon. We have now learnt how to dribble, bounce pass and shoot the ball. It has been lovely hearing how active children have been out of school too, walking, cycling and skipping.

Welcome all!

We've had another busy week full of lots of learning and rehearsing.

This week it has been anti-bullying week in school. The message this year is United against bullying. In class we discussed what types of things we could do to work together to stop bullying. We created a jigsaw piece each showing what we were going to do. On Tuesday we wore odd socks to celebrate how we are all different. Take a look at our photos.

A reminder for next week that on Friday 27th November children can come to school wearing what they please. In return we ask you to bring a in a bottle and chocolates as a donation to our school raffle.

Maths
This week year 1 children became experts in measuring. We used paper clips and cubes to measure objects in the classroom. We then looked at rulers and tape measures.

Can you measure the length of something at home?
What will you use to measure?

Remember if you measure with objects they must be the same size.

Send pictures to our class email.

Children in Year 2 have spent the week using 100 squares to add and subtract 1 and 10 from a number.

Can you explain how you could answer the following questions to an adult at home?

13+10 = 67 - 30=
46+ 20= 82- 10 =

Literacy
All children are continuing to make progress in Read, write, inc groups. We now have three groups in Class 2. Your child will either work with Mrs Drury, Mrs Ellison or Mrs Angel. There will be a spelling list added for each group on this page. Please ask if you are unsure which group your child is in.

Remember you can download books on this blog.

RE
This week we are learning about Judaism. In class 2 we are focussing on special stories of Judaism. We learnt about Abraham and created pictures of starry nights and added names of members of our family on there. We also read the story of Moses and thought about what a special leader he was. We will continue to learn more about Judaism next week.

Topic
As we near the end of our super hero topic we decided to make our very own medals to honour heroes past and present. We created a design and then used clay to mould our medal shapes. Children carefully used clay tools to carve out pictures and words. We are waiting for the clay to dry so we can eventually paint them.

We can't wait to share the finished pieces with you.

Welcome all!

We would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents for taking part in our meeting day last Friday. Even though it wasn’t a ‘normal’ meeting it was lovely to speak to you and celebrate your wonderful children’s achievements.

You should all be very proud of them.

You may have noticed our class poppies that have been displayed on our windows this week. Thank you to all the children that created one. Children all took part in a 2 minutes silence on Wednesday to remember those in heaven.

It's been a very exciting week for us all in class 1 and 2 as we have started learning songs for our Christmas play. I'm sure many parents might already have heard a few of them.

Children will also be given lines to learn at home for their own part in the play. Unfortunately due to Covid we will not be allowed an audience for the play but it will be recorded to share with families at home.

Maths
This week year 1 children have been using positional language such as over, under, behind and between. We played games using a teddy bear and described the position he was in.

You could play a game like this at home where you hide an object and use words to describe where it is.

Year 2 children have been working on a Maths detective challenge this week with partners. They investigated how many amounts they could make using only nine 1p or 10p coins.

Can you explain what the highest amount you could make and then the lowest amount you could make?

Literacy
All children are continuing to make progress in Read, write, inc groups.

Remember you can download books on this blog.

This week Year 2 children have completed our phonics screening check. Children have worked so hard using phonic knowledge to read real words and alien words. Alien words are made up words that test pure phonic knowledge.

We were so proud of all the children for their great effort.

We have been working on presentation of writing in our books. Children complete daily handwriting lessons each week. You will find handwriting documents attached to show how to form letters.

Some Year 2 children have also begun to use flicks on letters getting ready to join. I have also attached examples of this to help with writing practice at home.

RE
We have been thinking about how God created us this week and how we are all different and special.

We thought about ourselves and how we look. We decided that even though we all look different we are all part of God's family.
Can you write a prayer thanking God for making us all different and special?

Topic
We have been thinking about another superhero this week from the past named Mary Seacole.

Children discovered more about her life watching clips and creating our very own timeline. We then made a little book of her life as a nurse in the Crimean war. We compared her life to that of Florence Nightingale.

Can you tell your parents all about Mary? Why was she a true hero?

Welcome back!

I hope you have had a lovely week with your family. We’ve really enjoyed listening to what you’ve been up to. Well done to all those who have also completed class homework over the week.

We have also been very lucky this week to welcome back Mrs Sharp who will be teaching our PE lessons on a Tuesday. The children were very excited for her lesson.

Maths
This week all children have been focussing on place value.
Year 1 children have made towers of 10 and 1s to make teen numbers.

Can you make a teen number tower at home with Lego?
Can you make a group of objects into teen numbers showing tens and ones?

Year 2 children have been partitioning a number into tens and ones to create addition and subtraction number sentences.

e.g. 40+5=45
45-5=40

Can you make your own number sentences at home?

We have also been learning about ordinal numbers. We performed races on the yard and a team of children were responsible for marking 1st-5th place positions.

Do you have cars at home?

Can you race them and record what place each car finishes?

There will also be an activity on My Maths for children to complete this week.

Literacy
This week Purple group have been reading about Flip frog. He loves to eat bugs but never quite catches them.

Can you design and label a home for Flip Frog?

(FLIP FROG AND BUG is available to download in Week 7)

Pink group are reading So Cool which is about dreaming of a new flat.

(SO COOL is available to download in Week 7)

Can you write a list and draw things you would have in your dream bedroom?

Blue group are reading about preparing for a special birthday party.
Can you tell me about a party you have had or been to? What was it celebrating? What made it special?

(JADE'S PARTY is available to download in Week 7)

RE
On Thursday we were thinking about the symbols of baptism. We discussed how important the baptism candle is.

We have created our own baptism candle showing what we will do to shine like Jesus.

We had lovely morning singing hymns and reflecting through prayers.

If you have any pictures of a baptism please send them to the class email to share in our lesson.

Welcome to the last blog of this first half term.

I am so proud of how much the children have achieved over the last 8 weeks. After having such a long time off school all children have settled in the class and taken on board any task given to them. We are experts in washing hands and understand the importance of the rules in school to keep us safe.

Thank you to all parents for your support. We hope you have a wonderful break together.

Reminder for next term it will be parents meeting on Friday 6th November. Please don’t forget to book your appointments.

Home learning

Over the half term holiday children will get a reading book to take home and a set of spellings to learn. There will also be new homework set on MyMaths and abacus to complete for the Monday we return. If you would like to send pictures of work or things you’ve been up to in the holidays please send them to class2@stgerardsprimary.org.

Maths

Year 2 children have been looking at numbers up to 100 this week. We have made our own number lines marking on the multiples of 10. After we were challenged to find numbers up to 100 on a number line.

It would be great to practise writing numbers this week up to 100.
Can you order them? Maybe you could make your own number line at home using the sheet on the right...

Year 1 children have been finding 2D shapes in the hall this week. We can say the names of the shapes and say how many sides and corners it has. We have also been sorting the shapes into Venn and Carroll diagrams.

Can you make a picture using shapes? What shapes can you use?

Literacy

This week children in Year 2 have been writing a letter recommending a perfect type of pet for a family in a book we've been reading. We had great reasons for getting a pet dog, fish and even a frog!

Children in Year 1 have been making adverts about Elvis the Elf and writing about snowy adventures as part of their lessons. The children have been working very hard at carefully sounding out using fred talk to spell words.

Over half term children will bring home new spelling and a reading book. In addition to the reading book you can also access your child's RWI book on this page.

You can find all of the phonic sounds also on this page.
After the holidays children in Year 2 will complete a Phonics screening check which would have normally been completed in Year1. However due to lockdown at the time children will be asked to complete it next term. Year 2 children have been taught all sounds and if they could continue to practise sounds over the holiday that would be fantastic. You can find out how to pronounce each sound on the video link on a previous blog.

The speed sounds chart can be found at the beginning of each RWI book.

As we continue our belonging topic we have been thinking about how we welcome new babies into a family. We then thought about how we welcome new babies into the church family through the sacrament of baptism.

We role-played a baptism and thought about the family and friends involved in the special occasion. Children discussed the signs and symbols of the candle, oil, water and the white garment.
Have you got any pictures from your own baptism or a baptism you have attended?

Can you send any pictures to our class email to share with the class?

Topic

Children have loved it in the role play area this week dressing up as Florence Nightingale. The poor patients had to watch out for the rats scurrying around and limited medical equipment.

Welcome to our learning this week.

Please can I remind all parents to send an email to class 2 email- class2@stgerardsprimary.org

This is so we can contact you and help to support remote learning if required.

This week we has been assessment week. We have been showing what we know and what we still need to learn. Children have worked very hard completing tasks independently in a variety of ways.

Maths
Children in Year 1 have been securing number bond facts and mastering number formation.

Can you make writing numbers fun at home? You could paint, trace or even make numbers in sand. Send your pictures to the class email we would love to see what you get up to.

Children have also been reviewing finding 1 more and 1 less than a number.

Can you play a game at home finding 1 more/1 less than a group of toys up to 20?

Children in Year 2 have been reviewing lines of symmetry this week by creating a symmetrical castle.

Can you build a symmetrical castle with Lego? How many lines of symmetry does it have? Can you prove it?

Children were also finding shape patterns and shapes that tessellate.
Can you find shapes that tessellate at home? For example: Patterned bathroom tiles, fabric and wallpaper.

This week you will have a letter explaining how to log on to My Maths.

There is a challenge for you to complete. Please let us know if you are having difficulties understanding how to log on or what to do.

Literacy
RWI groups have continued this week and children have been secure in reading phonics sounds. Reading with fluency and expression has been a focus of the week. Please encourage children to maintain this high level of reading at home.

You can find your child’s reading book on the right...

Year 2 children have been reading a story this week about a fox.
Can you name another book with a fox character?

Are there any similarities or differences?

Can you tell me what happened in your story and your favourite part?

Friday was an independent writing day. We wrote a set of instructions how to make a paper rat. Children remembered to use time words such as – First, Next, Then and Finally.

Sounds of the week
Year 1- nk, ng, sh, th, ch, q
Year 2- are air

RE
On Friday we shared our collective worship with Class 1. We enjoyed singing a special song thanking God for our families. Some children read a prayer and said what they enjoyed doing together at home.
This week in our Come and See session we learned how Jesus welcomes everyone.

In this story Jesus was angry when his disciples told local children he was too busy to bless them. Jesus instantly welcomed the children and made them feel special. We were very excited to role play the story and remember this important message.

You can watch one of our role plays on this page.

Topic
This week we have transformed our modern day hospital into one Florence Nightingale might have worked in. We added our lanterns from last week and also our paper rats.

Would you like to visit this hospital?

Can you describe what it would have been like to be in a hospital like this?

We look forward to learning about more superheroes from the past as we continue our topic into next half term.

PE
Our target skills are progressing greatly. We have moved onto using rackets and balls to hit targets. We worked in teams to see how many cones we could hit and collect.

We also continue our sessions with Rotherham united keeping fit and having fun.

This week in Class 2 children have been learning how they can access online learning at home.

We have a new online learning platform for maths called MyMaths.

Children have been shown what the MyMaths learning will look like and they will bring home details next week of how they can log on at home to complete a homework challenge.

We also reminded children how to log on to abacus to play games related to this week's learning.

Maths
Year 2 children have been exploring lines of symmetry in shapes using mirrors and folds. They have also been sorting them in to groups.

Can you find any symmetrical shapes at home?

Year 1 children have been adding 1 more and 2 more to numbers. Children loved jumping on the number tiles to solve a question and even added on using a number line.

Can you write down 1 more than a number up to 30 by counting on?

Literacy
Children have been working hard in RWI groups to write sentences and use capital letters and full stops.

This week we also had a literacy challenge to write a set of instructions how to make a paper lantern.

Can you write a set of instructions at home? You could write how to brush your teeth or play a game.

Sounds of the week

Year 1- nk, ng, sh, th, ch, q
Year 2- ire

Spelling will be updated each week

RE
We have started our new topic this week called 'Belonging'
Children talked about what the word means and the clubs we all belong to such as swimming, dancing and football. We then talked about belonging to St Gerard's school family, In the lesson we made a St Gerard's shield showing what it means to 'belong' to St Gerard's.

Take a look at our shields in the pictures.

Operation Christmas child
Children were so excited when they arrived at school on Friday morning to pack their shoebox. We watched a video in class that showed the happy faces of children when they received their gifts.

All of the class chose to draw picture or write a prayer to put inside the box to send lots of love and joy with the presents.

It was wonderful to see them so happy choosing presents for other children and knowing it was a very kind and special thing to do.

Take a look at some of our pictures packing the boxes.

Welcome everyone. We can’t wait to share what we have been learning this week with you.

Maths
This week children in year 1 have been challenged in areas to make numbers up to 20 and record numbers.

You can have a go at writing numbers 11-20 using the resource sheet attached.

In Year 2 this week we have been doubling numbers up to 20. Children have been doubling tens and ones to find answers quickly.
We also played a double number board game to see if we could double our way to moon!

Find double challenges this week on the abacus home learning.

Literacy
Children are continuing to work hard in our Read write Inc groups.
We are becoming more confident at reading with fluency and enjoy reading our books to a partner.

Children are remembering to use capital letters and full stops. In year 2 children have also used commas to list things in sentences.
Challenge yourself this week to write a sentence about something you have done at the weekend.

Can you check punctuation?
Send Mrs Drury a picture of your work using the class email.

Sounds of the week
Year 1- nk, ng, sh, th, ch, q
Year 2- i-e, ea

RE
This week we have been thinking about what life would have been like for Jesus when he was a boy. We compared our lives to his and thought about things that are the same and things that are different.

PE
We were very lucky to be joined by Rotherham United this week in our PE lesson. The children enjoyed playing games improving fitness and having fun!

Topic
We have continued to find out more about Florence Nightingale this week. We watched a video that took children back into the time of Florence to visit her hospital.

It wasn't a place any of us wanted to visit at all.

Tell your family what it was like.

We compared how hospitals have now changed because of Florence.
We also followed instructions to make our very own paper lanterns inspired by 'The Lady with the Lamp'

Can you make one at home too?

Sharing learning from home
If you have any questions about your child or you would like to share a piece of work or an achievement from your child please send pictures to the class 2 email: class2@stgerardsprimary.org

Hello everyone. Welcome to our Class blog for this week...

Class 2 are settling into routines and we have started our new Read, Write Inc groups.

Find out what we've been learning this week.

Maths

This week children have been continuing to find number bonds including bonds to 20 and 100 for Year 2.

Year 1 children have been using objects and equipment to find double a number up to 5.

Playing games at home will also help develop great maths fact knowledge.

Maybe you could roll a dice and find the number you need to add to it to make 10 or 20.

Could you double the number you roll?

In construction children have made lego towers and challenged a partner to double the amount of bricks. Can you play this at home?

New games will be added to Abacus accounts each Friday to help support learning at home.

Literacy

As mentioned earlier we have started our new Read,Write, Inc lessons this week.

We work in groups to complete reading and writing tasks.

Year 2 children will work on reviewing sounds previously taught to check they are secure in all sounds.

Year 1 children are currently reviewing set 1 sounds and learning set 2 sounds.

To find out Set 1,2,and 3 sounds and how to say them, click the video on the right... The link to the video is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkXcabDUg7Q

We will update sounds taught each week.

You could try to find things at home beginning with each sound. Spellings will be sent home each Friday.

Sounds of the week

Year 1- nk, ng, sh
Year 2- ow,oa,o-e

Science

We have been sorting different materials into groups. We found lots of different ways we could sort them by using our senses to describe them.

Can you go on a material hunt at home? What materials can you find?

Topic: Superheroes

This week we have been finding out about a Superhero who lived a long time ago.... Florence Nightingale.

Children have begun to learn key facts about her life in a fact hunt around the classroom.

We used sketching pencils to create some wonderful portraits of the lady with the lamp.

Could you find out more about the life of Florence at home?

Big congratulations this week go to Ewan and Mary our new school councillors. I know they will make great decisions for Class 2.

Things to do at home:

Reading books

This week all children should have brought home a reading book to share with you. Please can children return these on Wednesday and they will bring home a new one on Friday.

Spellings

Children will bring home a set of spellings to learn on Friday. They will have a spelling test the following Thursday. We have been working in year groups for Phonics sessions and the spellings will be based on sounds taught each week.

Maths
This week children have been finding number bonds to 5,6,7,8,9 and 10. It would be great to work with children on these at home to help them to become more confident with these number facts.

Example: Number bonds to 10 -

2 + 8
5 + 5
7 + 3

There will also be abacus games added each week to support learning. You can find login details on the website home page.
Learning this week

Literacy
We have continued our work celebrating our beautiful world. We explored the school garden and used our senses to write our very own poem describing what we could, see, hear, smell, taste and feel. It was lots of fun exploring in the garden with our clipboards recording the things that we found.

To accompany our poems we also produced some wonderful artwork showing the things we love about our world.

RE
Our current topic is called 'Family'. So far we have discussed what we like to do with our loved ones and how they take care of us.
This week we learned how we are also part of God's family and he is always there for us. We read the following Psalm and Year 2 children wrote their own versions. This might be something to share at home together.

Blessed be God
God hears me when I pray for strength.
God is strong for me.
God takes care of me.
How good God is to me!
God helps me and I feel strong again.
Thank you, thank you God.

PE

We are having lots of fun perfecting our aim in our Target games topic. This week in teams we were playing games throwing bean bags and quoits to reach a target.

Science

Children investigated materials to build a house for the three little pigs. We made predictions about which material would be the most suitable. We then carried out a test to determine which would be the most suitable.

Class 2 Superheroes

Welcome back!

It has been so lovely to see all of the children back in school with huge smiley faces. We've had a busy time in Class 2 this week learning new routines and exploring the classroom.

Our new topic is called 'Superheroes!'

We were surprised to find that in the holidays, Spiderman had visited our classroom and left us a few webs in the reading area. It has been a great place to choose new books to read and recommend to our friends.

There has been lots of excitement in the superhero head quarters. We have been creating watch gadgets for our favourite heroes. Designs were carefully planned and approved before construction could begin.

We have explored Maths through many games including playing dominoes and ordering number tiles. Children in Year 2 have been ordering numbers up to 100 and finding them on a number line.

Our writing has been based on the book 'Here We Are' by Oliver Jeffers which celebrates our beautiful world. It has been lovely sharing the story and we enjoyed making lists of places we would take someone visiting our planet for the first time.

Finally a highlight of the classroom this week has been our new role play area. St Gerard's Hospital. This area celebrates our 'real' superheroes, the NHS. We have loved playing the part of doctors, nurses and patients.