World Book Day
World Book Day is on Thursday 02 March.
This year, we will celebrate by bringing our favourite book to nursery to share with our friends. Please make sure that your child’s name is in their book.
If you can stay a little bit longer at drop off on Thursday morning, we’d love for you to share a book with your child or to join in with some of the World Book Day activities that will be in provision.
It’s always a day that we really enjoy at nursery, so please join in if you can.
Let’s Go!
We’ve sprung into Spring 2 with great excitement for the term ahead! Outside, the sun has been shining and we’ve been noticing the first signs of the new season.
Pancake Day
On Shrove Tuesday, the children made pancakes. They learnt how to follow the steps of a recipe and check a list of ingredients. They followed the kitchen hygiene and safety rules. They had lots of fun mixing the ingredients and of course, tasting their creation!
The Train Ride
This half term is called Let’s Go! We’re starting with a focus on transport. This week, we’ve been reading The Train Ride by June Crebbin.
This story is about things that are seen out of the window, on a train journey. We noticed that the rhythm of the book’s repeated/rhyming lines start fast and repetitive (much like the sound of a train chugging along a track) and then as the train approaches the station, the lines become longer and the pace slows down until the train reaches is destination. Destination is our ‘word of the week’.
We’ve been discussing journeys that we have been on, either on trains or other modes of transport and what destinations we were going to. We’ve been writing about what we might see out of the train window.
Historical links
We looked at pictures of the early steam locomotive- Robert Stephenson’s Rocket. We compared it to the trains we use today.
In the discovery area, we’ve been ordering images of trains from oldest to newest. We’ve also been looking at historical pictures of Scholes Train Station.
Maths: Comparison
We’ve been comparing groups of objects and toys, saying which has more and which has fewer. We’ve been using our mathematical reasoning to explain why size, colour and other factors do not matter when comparing ‘how many’. Here is an example of a conversation from a maths lesson this week:
The teacher had asked a child to share some toys with them, from a basket. In this instance, both the teacher and child had 4 toys each.
Child 1: Oh, you both have the same…it’s equal!
Teacher: Actually, this toy is my favourite. This toy means so much more to me than any of those others because I really like it, so I think I have more.
Child 2: No, it doesn’t matter about any of that! It doesn’t matter how much you love it or if it’s bigger, it just matters about how many.
Child 3: The quantity!
In the classroom, children have been making 6 using Numicon frames.
Phonics
Spring 2 week 1 has been a review of phase 3 sounds: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, oo, ow, oi, ear, in words and sentences. We review tricky words daily.
Tricky words can be just that-tricky! We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try.
Roll and Read
You will need a die for this game. You may wish to print the boards or display them on a screen.
- Roll the die
- Count the spots, match to the correct row
- Choose a word to read on the row
- Cover the word when read correctly
- Repeat
Who will be the first to complete a row?
PE
We are excited to continue having both swimming and Foot-Tech on Wednesdays this half term. If it is your child’s swimming week, they may have both swimming and a Foot-tech session that afternoon. Please ensure that they are wearing PE kit, rather than school uniform. This must include suitable PE footwear.
Here is another reminder of the swimming dates:
Rainbow Class- 22 Feb, 8 Mar, 22 Mar
Sunshine Class- 1 Mar, 15 Mar, 29 Mar
These dates are also stuck to your child’s classroom door or window to view whenever needed.
We will also continue to have PE on Fridays. This half term we are developing ball skills and counter-balancing in pairs.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is Pancakes by Christina Rossetti
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm. Can your child re-tell this week’s poem to you?
Reminders and Messages
Shoe Box: Please send a named, empty shoe box into school from Monday 27 February. This is for a special creative activity in the classroom.
World Book Day 2023: Relax and Read – Thursday 02 March Please join us in the classroom for an extended drop-off time (8.40-9.20) where you can relax and read books with your child. Throughout the day, we’ll have World Book Day themed activities. We’d also like your child to share their favourite book with their friends. Please send your child into school with their favourite book and please ensure the book is named. As stated on the school calendar, this is not a dressing-up year. Thank you.
Half-term sponsored maths challenge: Please remember to return your sponsored maths challenge forms by Friday 03 March 2023.
Science: we are chemists
The children have been focusing on scientific enquiry this week – looking at fair and comparative tests. They got the opportunity to see that when you mix baking powder with vinegar, it causes a chemical reaction. This reaction produces carbon dioxide. The children created this chemical reaction within a plastic bottle with a balloon attached to the top. The carbon dioxide caused the balloon to inflate. The children were able to alter the variables in the experiment and compare results. For example, some children increased the amount of baking powder, whilst others increased the amount of vinegar. We had great fun observing the results. They were able to recognise that this chemical reaction was irreversible. They also applied some previously learnt vocabulary to their explanations, such as solute and solution.
Luckily, we all survived the experiment without any big explosions!
Help at home: Can yo help your child learn the science vocabulary for this half term?
Maths – dividing by 2
Our current Maths focus in Year 2 is multiplication and division. This week in 2C, we have been practising dividing by 2 by using sharing and grouping methods.
‘We know that dividing by two also means halving.’
Today, we worked in small groups to divide even numbers equally into two groups.
Help at home by collecting objects in the house such as fruit, coins or beads and dividing them equally into 2 groups. Make sure that you collect an equal number of objects! Challenge your child by asking them to explain why you have chosen an even number to divide into 2!
Geography topic and thanks to Scholes in Bloom
We really enjoyed our Geography topic last half term. We discovered an issue with pollution (litter) in our school grounds after doing a survey. So, we decided to sort it out! We made posters to remind ourselves to recycle and bin our rubbish and also did a litter pick with pickers borrowed from Scholes in Bloom.
Nursery Coffee Morning
After dropping your child off at Nursery on Tuesday 28 February, why not join us for a cup of tea or coffee and an informal chat with Miss Hague and Mrs Beesley. It’s also a great way to get to know other parents and carers. We hope that you can join us, even if it’s just for a quick drink and hello, before you go to work!
Poem of the week performed by 1,2B – Ice Lolly
We’re loving reading and learning a poem (or song) each week. This week, we read Ice Lolly by Pie Corbett. You can watch it here. It helps with our remembering, fluency and prosody skills.
Dinosaur footprints
In the last week of half term, children continued to enjoy learning about dinosaurs.
We drew giant dinosaur footprints to jump/hop between outside and we made dinosaur footprints in paint and playdough.
Children loved using rollers to paint large dinosaurs from the story we’ve been reading, Dinosaur Roar. We talked about the features of the dinosaurs; some had long necks and tails and others had spikes and lumpy skin. When we were painting them, children noticed that some of the colours changed when they mixed together. Look out for our giant dinosaurs in the Sunshine Room, soon!
We hope that you all have a lovely half term break and look forward to seeing you on Monday 20 February.
Great Fairies of the World
Great Fairies of the World
This week, we’ve been reading Great Fairies of the World by Stephanie Moss. This rhyming story features fairy characters that have jobs that help others; architect fairy, doctor fairy and engineer fairy, to name just a few! We’ve been discussing how the author uses the most interesting descriptions/words that they can think of. We’ve been describing images and making words more adventurous. This has helped develop our oracy skills and helped us in our writing too.
In our writing, we’ve created our own fairy characters and written about the jobs that they do.
In provision, we’ve linked our fiction reading to non-fiction information about real-life heroes in the community.
We’ve also used the fairy theme in our classroom challenges.
Living and learning: Internet Safety
This week’s living and learning statement is: I know that people should treat others respectfully when online.
This has coincided with Safer Internet Day (Tuesday 7 February)
When asked what being ‘online’ means and what you can do online, the children said:
It’s something on your phone- Sonny…
Or your iPad- Harry…
Or your tablet- Orlah…
Or your computer- Daniel
You can buy things on the phone- Skyla
You can send money to people- Grace
On iPads you can call someone- Mollie
Alexa!-Bella
We spoke about some important uses for the internet, such as the way we use it for our learning- our eBooks. We discussed how we should limit our time online to keep our body and brain healthy and why we shouldn’t use electronic devices close to bed time.
In Reception, we’ve used the story The Adventures of Smartie the Penguin to talk about internet safety. Smartie receives a tablet for his birthday but encounters some problems such as adverts, websites that are too old for him and people saying unkind things online, during a game. He makes the right decisions and always asks Mummy and Daddy for help. There is a memorable song throughout the story:
before you tap and click… you need to stop and think… and TELL someone!
Ask your child what they can remember about keeping safe online.
Maths: Length and height
We’ve been developing our understanding of how to compare and measure length and height. We’ve been ordering by length and comparing the length of objects; saying which are shorter, longer, the shortest, the longest, the same (equal). We’ve been measuring objects using non-standard forms of measurement. We measured the length of our bodies using different objects.
We built towers to compare height; saying which are taller, shorter and equal. We’ve ordered ourselves by height and have estimated how many bricks tall we are.
Phonics
It’s assessment week in phonics. We’ve been reviewing and revisiting our Spring 1 learning. Your child will have come home with a grapheme mat and a tricky word mat. If any sounds are highlighted on the grapheme mat, these are those that your child is not yet secure on. Please keep practising these at home.
Tricky words can be just that-tricky! In Little Wandle phase 3, we learnt lots of new words. The children will continue to learn new tricky words fairly rapidly over the Spring 2 and Summer terms. We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try!
Musical tricky words
- Write the tricky words on individual pieces of paper, lay them out on the floor
- Play your child’s favourite song for them to dance around to
- When the music stops, your child should pick a word to quickly run to and stand on
- Your child reads the word they have landed on
- Remove that word and repeat until there are no words left!
Focus Artist: Yayoi Kusama
Over the last few weeks we’ve been exploring the art of Yayoi Kusama. We’ve been colour mixing and using the paint to make dot pictures, drawn spots onto pumpkin pictures and decorated a vegetable using playdough spots. We’ve also made our own artwork, inspired by the artist.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is Furry, furry squirrel
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm. Can your child re-tell this week’s poem to you?
Fiddly fingers stay and play
Wow! Another fantastically busy stay and play last Friday. Thank you to parents and carers who were able to attend. The focus was on the development of fine motor skills and we aimed to demonstrate a range of activities that can be easily replicated at home. We hope you all enjoyed our Fiddly Fingers session!
Half-term sponsored maths challenge
Your child has brought home a tens-frame sponsored challenge, for over half-term. All sponsorship money will go towards classroom resources and this year’s chosen charity- Cancer Research UK.
Reminders
SWIMMING DATES- Spring 2
Rainbow Class- 22 Feb, 8 Mar, 22 Mar
Sunshine Class- 1 Mar, 15 Mar, 29 Mar
These dates are also stuck to your child’s classroom door or window to view whenever needed.
When not swimming, this half term’s PE focus will be developing ball skills and counter balancing in pairs.
World Book Day 2023: Stay and Read – Thursday 02 March Time and further details to follow.
Happy half term! Enjoy the break and we’ll see you again on Monday 20 February.
Maths – division
This week in 2C we have been practicing dividing by 2, 5 and 10. We have had lots of practice sharing cubes and other classroom objects into equal groups. We have also been practicing different equations on our whiteboards by grouping.
Help at home by practicing dividing objects into equal groups!