Friday 6th November 

Hello Everyone!

What a fantastic week we have had in 1/2A, it has been lovely to see all of your smiley faces and how enthusiastic you have all been to get back into your learning. 

English
In English we have started to look at the story Oliver Twist, the children have loved reading this and have been really engaged in the story and learning how different life was for poor Oliver! We have been learning about contractions (can the children tell you one or more?) and on Thursday we learnt about verbs and what we use them for in our writing, we then had a go at writing some sentences that included a verb! Year 2's were also challenged to use a contraction in their sentence!

Maths
Year 1’s have been learning about subtraction, using the part whole models and today using number lines to work out some subtraction calculations - they have been working really hard, well done!
Year 2’s have been trying to work out some very tricky addition and subtraction calculations using the column method and exchanging! Any support at home to go through these would be much appreciated. 

Science
This week we have started a new topic in Science called 'Everyday Materials', to start off with we have thought about different materials (glass, wood, plastic, stone, metal etc) and then had a look around the classroom to see what objects were made from. The children then completed a sorting activity where they had to decide whether the object was metal, plastic or glass. They really enjoyed this!

Learning Adventure:
We have now moved away from The Great Fire of London and we are focusing on the Victorians. Our new Learning Adventure question for this half term is: What happened in Victorian times?
This week the children wrote some questions of what they would like to find out about the Victorians. The children were very interested in what school was like for them, what they ate and what their houses were like. The next 5 weeks will be based on answering some of those questions and basing the learning around the children's interests. Yesterday we completed a timeline that showed when the Victorian times started and when they ended.

Reminders

• Please can you make sure all book bags/ reading books and records are in school daily and especially on a Friday for book change day. Today we had a high percentage of children not bringing their books in, if they are not brought in we sadly cannot change them.
• When you read with your child please can you write in the reading record, we have had lots of empty reading record this week and we cannot see if your child has read the books we have been given them. They do not necessarily have to read to you, it could be to a sibling, teddy, to themselves or even to a pet as we understand it can be very difficult to fit reading in daily!
• PE is still on a Monday so please can the children come to school in their PE Kit. It is getting really cold outside at the moment (we sometimes to PE outside) so please could the children wear joggers, PE t-shirt and their school jumpers. 
• Mathletics homework is being set, if you need your login please let me know 

Friday 16th October 

Hello Everyone,
What a fantastic week in class 1/2A we have had!

English 
This week we have bee writing diary entries based on The Great Fire of London. The children have been learning and focusing on the main features of a dairy (date, starting with 'Dear diary', first person, past tense and many more), they have also been adding conjunctions and different punctuation in their dairies to make them more exciting to read. They took on the role of being a child during The Great Fire really well and collectively came up with some fantastic vocabulary to use. Well done everyone!

Maths 
This week year 1 have been focusing on the number bonds to 10 and fact families. They have been outside on the playground to write them in chalk, written number bond jigsaw puzzles and even done some fantastic challenges! 
Weekend challenge...
What do you add to 6 to make 10? Tell your parents and then tell me on Monday to earn yourself a dojo!
6 + __ = 10

Year 2 have been learning to add and subtract a multiple of 10 from a 2-digit number. They have been using dienes to work out the answers and then transferring them to their books and writing it out. They have also completed some very tricky challenges! 
Weekend challenge...
What is 37 + 50?
Tell your parents and then tell me on Monday to earn yourself a dojo!

Science 
This week we have been learning about mini beasts, what they are and where their habitat is. We are going to continue this learning next week in the forest school. Please can the children have a pair of wellies or trainers that you do not mind getting muddy on Tuesday 20th October. 

Learning Adventure
This week we have been continuing our learning on The Great Fire of London. The children have looked at the similarities and differences of houses then and now. They also did some fantastic silhouette pictures with oil pastels and black paper, the children love doing Art.

Reminders...

• All books need to be in on a Friday so they can be changed 
• Wellies for Tuesday 
• Any 2L bottles you have at home to be brought in for Tuesday please  

Friday 2nd October 

To All Parents,
What a fantastic week we have had in class 1/2A! We have thoroughly enjoyed learning about The Great Fire of London and we are looking forward to finding more out over the next few weeks!

English
This week we have been focusing on writing a newspaper report on The Great Fire of London! We have had some fantastic writing that everyone should be proud of! Even showing off their learning on how to use question marks and exclamation marks. 

Maths
This week year 1 have been focusing on adding two 1-digit numbers together using counters and number lines, they have been doing amazingly and even starting to be able to do these sums mentally! Year 2 have been working through some very tricky maths challenges that have seen them adding a multiple of 10 onto a 2-digit number, well done everyone! 

Science 
We are still continuing to learn about animals and their habitats, we have learnt how some animals adapt to their environment and sorted animals into their habitats.

Learning Adventure 
This terms focus in learning adventure is history. On Wednesday we discussed what a timeline is and ordered the events of The Great Fire of London (I have put a picture on class dojo). The children have really got stuck into this half terms work! At the start of every topic we always ask the children what they would like to know, on Thursday we set about answering a question that the children wanted to find out. They wanted to know who was the baker who started the fire. We used the IPads to research Thomas Farriner and find out some key facts about him. They found out he didn't die in their fire, he had a wife called Hanna and many more amazing facts. They used all of this information to make a fact file about him, these were fantastic and I will share some next week.

Reading books
Please could I remind everyone that reading books need to be in school on a Friday so that they can be changed for the following week (if you have finished them). Unfortunately we can only give out new books if we receive them back on a Friday, we do understand sometimes it can be hard to remember. During these times we are trying to avoid touching the reading record as much as possible. When we hear your child read we will ask them to get out their own record and we will put a sticker in the book, this will symbolise that we have heard them read. We will also endeavour to stick a label in the book to show with you what they have read. I'm sure some of you have noticed that we don't read the book bag book at school. We use the corresponding school book that links to the book they are reading at home, this is so that the children are accessing a variety of texts and are not reading the same book at school and at home. They will still need their book bag in daily please. 
If you have any questions please just come and ask. 

Have a fantastic weekend,
Miss Adams 

Friday 15th September

Good afternoon everyone,

We have had a fantastic week!

Just a quick note regarding reading books that come home: The new reading books that come home are Read write Inc book bag books- these books embed the children’s phonic/reading knowledge that they are learning in their specific groups in class each day. These books may be shorter however, they are specifically designed to ensure the children can secure that level of reading before moving on. You will also notice that the children have a story book from our reading corner that they have been able to choose themselves. On Monday we will also be sending home two books (from the OLD scheme) please be aware that these books are just for added reading at home for enjoyment, reading exposure and extra text. They are linked to the phonics colour but will not necessarily be the same colour. These books do not support the phonic/reading groups in class each day. We appreciate all your support in ensuring we are progressing your children with their reading,with these books. All books will be changed on a Friday so please can you make sure books are in on that day, I hope you can understand that we cannot change any books if we do not have the other one back. 

This week’s learning: English: This week we have been looking at newspaper articles in preparation for writing/creating our own newspaper article next week all about The Great Fire of London. Children have looked at and discovered features of a newspaper such as big bold headings, headings in capital letters, different writing styles, conjunctions, and subordinating conjunctions.

Maths: We have been concentrating on addition this week. Year one has been practising activities around number bonds to 10 and year 2 have been consolidating number bonds to 100 and adding a multiple of 10 to a two-digit number. We have also been looking at ‘greater than and less than’. The children are mastering their 6 in 6 questions daily and this is fab progress- well done!

Science: This week we have learnt what a habitat is and what animals need to survive in their habitats. In the books we chose a habitat labelled it and drew the animals we think may live in that habitat.

Learning Adventure (music and history this week): We have continued to look at The Great Fire of London this week. The children have learnt lots of facts but have also written and drawn questions of things that they would like to learn regarding this topic over the next few weeks. We have had some great suggestions which we will discover the answers to over the next few weeks.  We also learnt the song ‘London’s Burning’ - we learnt the song and also sang it as part of a round, we split the class in half and sang at different times, it was amazing! We also used musical instruments to accompany our singing of the song- it was fantastic! We have had a brilliant week!

A quick reminder, please can you check your child's name is in there school jumpers/ cardigans, we are struggling to identify who's is who's when we have a large pile in our group boxes. I also have 2 jumpers (one from next and one school logo) and a cardigan in the classroom with no name. If you think any of these belong to you please ask. 


Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Adams 

Friday 11th September 

Good Afternoon,
Firstly, I want to say a MASSIVE well done to all class 1/2A children, you have come back into school and settled so well! I am SO proud of you all! I cannot wait to continue our learning next week.

I'm sure you all know this week we have been learning about the Pilgrim Fathers and the Mayflower across all of our subjects. 

In English we have been learning all about recounts in preparation to writing out own recount of being a pilgrim father next week. They have written some fantastic questions they would ask a pilgrim father and even took turns in role playing the part of one. 

In Maths they have been learning their numbers 0-20 (year 1) and 0-100 (year 2). They have also been thinking about different ways to sort and groups items with some very tricky challenges to complete!

Our learning adventure has incorporated Music, History and D&T where they have made pilgrim fathers from paper, learnt the pilgrim song and used instruments to follow the beat and rhythm. They particularly enjoyed making lots of noise!! 

I hope you have a fantastic weekend,

Miss Adams :)

Note for Monday...

Dear Parents,
Monday is our PE day in Class 1/2A, due to Covid we will not be able to support your children getting changed and where possible we are trying to limit the number of bags being brought in to school. Where possible please could children come dressed in their PE kits on Monday, they will not need their uniform to change back into as they can stay in their kits all day. I know some of you would like your children dressed in uniform for the first day which I completely understand. If you would like send your children in uniform for the first Monday this will be okay. However, PE kits will need to be brought into change into. PE kits will need to be warn every following Monday please. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Kind Regards,
Miss Adams