This week Thames Class enjoyed sharing their experiences at PGL Liddington with the rest of the school and their parents, particularly their favourite memory. They produced some fantastic models and PowerPoint's as part of their assembly. 

Take a look at the video of our Great Fire of London themed dance.

Thames Class had a fantastic time on their residential. Here are a few showing you what they got up to during their time away. 

Dear parents and carers,

What a lovely week we've had in year 2! In English we have been working on writing from the baby injured swift's point of view, based on what we've learned from our reading of Perfect. I have been amazed with the children's empathy and their fantastic use of word choice to explain how the swift might have felt. Next week we will be thinking about how the book has affected our thoughts and feelings about the issues explored within it.

In maths we have continued with our work on time, continuing to work on reading the time to the nearest 5 minutes, and also starting some work on duration. Some of the children are finding this quite tricky, so please do continue to practise this at home! Next week we'll be moving on to some work on measurement, including weighing in kg and g.

We are really enjoying our #30dayswild adventure this week. We have watched clouds, done yoga outside, and drawn our own wild landscapes. We'll be continuing with this next week- hopefully with better weather!

I was lucky enough to attend a concert at half term by a group of musicians who have put together a suite of songs based around The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris, called Spell Songs. I have been in contact with the organisers as I fell in love with a song called The Lost Words Blessing, and I would like to teach and perform it with the class. They have been kind enough to send me the chords (which are pretty tricky on a ukulele!) and the children have already done a great job of starting to learn the tune and the words. I have asked that, for homework, the children spend some time listening to the song and continuing with learning the words/tune. You can listen to the song on YouTube here. 

Big congratulations to Fergus, who went to Southampton today to see his engineering project design on display. There were hundreds of entries, so it was wonderful to hear that Fergus' design was chosen as one in the exhibition. Well done Fergus!

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. What was your favourite #30dayswild activity this week?
2. How can you be a better runner?
3. What time is it?

In English this week we have continued our work on Perfect, and the children have done some wonderful reading, looking carefully at the pictures and making inferences about how the characters feel. The children have now started some writing in role as the boy int he story, thinking carefully about how he might feel at this point in the story.

In maths we have continued with learning to tell the time. This is something that you can definitely help with at home. So far we have covered o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to, as well as minutes past in 5 minute increments. Children tend to find it hard that there are a number of ways to describe the same time (e.g. 3:40, 40 minutes past 3, 20 to 4 etc), so discussing this with your child at home and giving them the oportunity to read an analogue clock (if you have one!) would be fantastic.

Cole Class are really enjoying #30dayswild, where we are doing something wild every day in June. So far this week we have listened to the birds, read a nature poem, made our nature table and also picked up litter on the back field. This is all to encourage the children to have an appreciation and understanding of nature and the wonderful lants and animals in our local habitats. I have lots of other activities planned, including setting up a moth trap overnight. You are very welcome to do your own #30dayswild activities over the weekend, if you like! Here's the result of our 5 minute back field litterpick:

On Thursday we had our visit from the Fire Service, to talk about fire, water and road safety. Hopefully your children should have come home eager to test your smoke alarms! I was volunteered to wear the firefighter gear, which was rather warm and heavy, much to the children's amusement.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. How often should we test our smoke alarm?
2. What time is it?
3. What would you like to do for #30dayswild?

Our English work over the past few weeks has been based on the lovely book Perfect, written by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Cathy Fisher. So far we have explored the opening pages of the story, where a boy is looking forward to welcoming the swifts back to nest in the eaves of his house, as well as waiting for his new baby sister to arrive. He is excited about having a little sister to race, chase and scream with, just like the swifts who circle over the house. However, when the little sister finally arrives home from the hospital, it becomes clear that the little sister won't be able to race and chase. The children are now writing in role as the little boy, exploring his feelings about the little sister and his sadness and disappointment.

I have put up a display of our work so far on Perfect, made up of two short pieces of writing. On the swifts are alliterative poems, and in the speech bubbles the children have written about how the swifts feel when they return to their roosts in the UK. There are also some other books written by Nicola Davies and about birds and eggs.​

Dear parents and carers,

This week in our English lessons the children have really enjoyed exploring a wonderful book called Perfect, written by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Cathy Fisher. This is a spectacular picture book that explores some heartwarming themes around change and growth, linking the arrival of a new baby sister to the return of the migrating swifts. So far we have predicted what the book might be about, learnt about swifts and also written beautiful poetry about the swifts, using alliteration. We have also been watching the swifts at the Museum of Natural History, via a webcam which is set up to see their nest. We were amazed at how long the wing feathers of the swift are, as well as how short their beaks are. You can watch the swifts on their webcam here.

In maths this week we have been practising problem solving skills, which has also meant lots of being a bold badger, must do mole and bounce back bunny! The children have used their calculation skills and knowledge of fractions to solve some tricky problems, explaining their reasoning and justifying their answers.

Next week we are continuing with our secret agent training. We have been working in small groups for this, always with me, so that the children feel comfortable and calm. I've been very impressed with their wonderful work on this so far.

We have enjoyed lots of other lessons this week, including PE (where we did our inter-house table tennis competition), science (where we have started to look at habitats and living things) and Jigsaw PSHE (where we were talking about secret and worries, and how we should share them). 

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. If you have a worry secret, who can you tell?
2. What have you learned about swifts?
3. What living things might you find in your own back garden?

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