What a very special group of children. I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to get to know them all and teach them this year.

Thank you all for the support you have shown your kind words and actions and just by being grateful. I have felt very encouraged and supported by you all besides your kind and caring children.
I am going to open the cards and gifts that have been kindly given today in the morning. I will message you all then.

Enjoy your starts to the summer holidays.

Much love
Frankie

Dear parents

I hope lots of you were able to see the Summer Production – the children were amazing! Today, as you can imagine, they were exhausted but the day was planned with this is mind… A letter as King Charles II first thing followed by baking and art!

The children put all their work in measuring that they have been doing in maths to the test. We made cupcakes which miraculously rose beautifully and which the children iced and enjoyed in the playground. I have added a picture to the blog.

Our main focus this afternoon was creating a piece of art inspired by Alma Thomas. She is a brilliant artist who was inspired by the colours in the natural world and makes beautiful, colourful works which use repeated brushstrokes of colour and are quite calming to recreate! These should be in the children’s bags.

Yesterday and first thing today the children were learning about Charles II and his Royal Warrant demanding that the Royal Hospital Chelsea be built for the soldiers returning from war with no one to care for them. We used drama to embed the events in which the children loved sitting in the ‘throne’ (my chair) as King Charles II writing and ordering footmen around from! This morning they pretended to write this Royal Warrant explaining what was needed and why. Next week they will learn more about Sir Christopher Wren.

On Monday, we have the Year 2 water fight. The children should bring a towel and swim wear and trainers (you don’t mind getting wet) to change into. They can also bring a (small) water pistol.

Sports Day is on Wednesday. Please let me know if you plan to drop your child at school that day so we know how many children we need to escort to Perivale. I look forward to seeing the rest of you there! Don’t forget to bring a picnic.

Finally, the Leavers Service will be help outside in the playground at 9am on Friday morning. It’s worth making the effort to come if you possibly can but it’s an emotional affair so bring tissues!

Have a lovely weekend.

Frankie

We are fast approaching the end of term and another academic year! The children are doing really well and are starting to feel like Year 3s… I overheard them this morning making sure that everyone had had a go at a game so that it was fair – completely unprompted and lovely listening! They are a very sweet group of children and I will miss them a lot!

Please make sure that the children are wearing suncream, have hats and bring a water bottle to school every day next week as it is due to be very hot.

We are going to start sending home old books from today to avoid the rucksack-breakingly heavy load right at the end of term!

There is no homework this week but instead we will send home the lyrics to the Summer Show song. I apologise for the double whammy of ABBA – class assembly and now Summer Show…

It is Sports Day next Wednesday and you should have received a Parentmail with all the information. Please let me know if you have any questions. There are also Summer Show productions next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There has been another email about collection (7.15pm roughly) from the main door. We are still missing costumes for about half the class! Please send these in on Monday.

This week, in Science the children learnt about minibeasts and the names for the different types of minibeasts including ‘arachnids’, ‘insects’ and ‘molluscs’. The children then had to categorise some minibeasts correctly.

In Maths, we continued revisiting the topic of ‘Measure’ with a specific focus on capacity. This culminated in a special lesson yesterday with Cookie. The children were given potion recipes that she had designed! The children then worked in groups to measure out the quantities needed to make each ‘potion’. The children had to round up to the nearest multiple of 10 in some cases when measuring in millilitres and some were stretched to identify equivalent fractions by sight by looking at their potions. The children were using their knowledge of fractions to identify and make 1 quarter of a cup, one third and half.

In English we have started an English unit based on Brownsea Island. The children will be creating their own fact sheet about the island next week after carefully researching and planning their work.

In Relationships and Health the children were in stitches as we learnt about the names for the different body parts of a male and a female. We then had a more serious discussion about which parts were ‘private’ and what that means.

In RE we read the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ and talked about times we had either done a good deed and been a ‘good samaritan’ or been on the receiving end. We talked about the knock on effects of showing kindness, how it makes us feel but also how it often encourages more kindness. The children talked about how it feels to be kind and also recognised that the characters in the parable had different views yet they were still people and one of them was in need.

In Art the children will be making some decorations for the Summer Show with Mrs Kaz!

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Hall

We had a great day today at Gunnersbury Park Museum. The children played in the adventure playground and then met ‘Florence Nightingale’ in the afternoon. They all had a chance to play a ‘role’ in the telling of her story. The children used props and costumes from the museum and were enraptured for the full hour and a bit! They responded very well to her Victorian teaching style… Thinking I might up my game…

This week we have been looking at the relationship between multiplication and division in maths. First we used objects and made groups and arrays, we then used this same amount of objects to do division sums. With this understanding, we then used three numbers to write four different calculations. ie. 5 x 3 = 15, 3 x 5 = 15 and 15 ÷ 3 = 5, 15 ÷ 5 = 3. Next week we will be revising measuring using the language of ‘half cup’, ‘full cup’ etc and millilitres.

In English, the children revised their understanding of different word types. They had to identify adverbs, verbs, adjectives and nouns in an exemplar story written from the perspective of the troublesome creatures in Mrs Noah’s Pockets. They then created their own word banks to help them gather some of their favourite language. They will use these next week when the children will be writing their own story written from the perspective of the troublesome creatures. We will then move onto a non fiction unit about Brownsea Island.

In RE we watched the parable of the Two Builders. The children then discussed the message and talked about who or what gives them their solid foundations in life.

In History we learnt about the life of Kamala Harris. The children wrote a diary entry as her on the day that she was elected to be Vice President of the USA.

In Relationships and Health the children discussed how they have changed since they were a baby. The children talked about what they could do as a baby, as a toddler and finally now. We then talked about what we would be able to do in 10 and then 20 years time that we can’t do now. Some of the children shared that they felt nervous about growing up so we ended with a circle time sharing what it was that was making us feel anxious.

We stripped back the homework slightly for this weekend to give the children a chance to catch up. We noticed that lots are behind with their Mathletics and some of the work in their homework books. This is a chance to catch up! There are spellings that have been saved in the usual homework area.

REMINDER: You should have seen a Parentmail about outfits for the Summer Show. Please may you make sure these are brought in next week ready for the show, the week after next. Time is flying…

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the Summer Fair if you are going tomorrow.

Frankie

What a week! Swanage was absolutely amazing and we were very proud of all of the children. We had multiple adults and members of the public tell us how polite and lovely they all were. They all suddenly felt very grown up! They were brave, kind and supportive to each other. We couldn’t have asked for anything more from them.

We all took Wednesday morning quite slow, making a watercolour seascape inspired by a view over Dulston Park that we visited on our trip. We did a wash using lots of water to dilute our colours. Once dry, we used stronger tones to add detail. Whilst our work was drying we wrote a postcard in our English book. Once marked, we responded to our marking and today we highlighted our favourite and most interesting parts with a yellow crayon and copied these into a postcard format in our best handwriting. We brought this altogether and these should now be in our bags ready for sending or delivering!

In Maths, we did some practical work looking at the properties of 3D shapes. We played a matching card game, matching the right properties (edges, vertices and faces) to the right 3D shape. Once we had done this we worked independently to complete a table with the correct number of faces, edges and vertices for each shape.

In Relationships and Health the children talked about the emotions around saying goodbye to someone. We talked about how it would feel to then say hello again to someone. We read a story based on this scenario and discussed how the characters might be feeling.

In History we revised our learning about Jesse Owens which lead us into today’s focus of the Olympics. We explored various aspects of the Olympics, including when and where they started; the events that are part of it and how they have changed over the years; and also why it is such a special event. We had great fun trying out some Olympic sports, including Karate and Tug of War in the playground. We even had a ceremony where we placed an imaginary leaf wreath on our champion’s head (Miss Joanna) and gave her a winner’s welcome home and a feast which is what would have been given to the champions in Ancient Greece when they returned to their home town.

In RE we read the parable of the ‘Sower and the Seeds’. It was very metaphorical and so we used drama to help us remember the different stories for each seed. The children had to guess which seed a group were acting out. We then discussed who each seed represented and finally what advice we might give them.

Next Friday we will be going to Gunnersbury Park Museum for a trip about Florence Nightingale. The children will also get the chance to play in the adventure playground in the park. There has been a Parentmail go out and a letter has been slipped inside your child’s homework book too. Let me know if you have any questions.

Have a great weekend. The children all deserve a good rest – it has felt like Friday every day since Swanage in terms of exhaustion levels! It’s finally here so I hope they have a restful weekend ahead!

Best wishes

Frankie

Hello Parents

I hope you have all been enjoying the sunshine! Luckily the forecast is looking much cooler for Swanage on Monday and Tuesday next week (around 19 degrees). We are all SO excited. The questions have been pouring in and hopefully the children are feeling a good balance of excited and nervous. I know they will have a lot of fun and think they will have a great sense of achievement at the end of it and will feel more on the excited side of things when the next trip comes around…

We will have Mrs Foster and Mrs Williams coming with us on the trip who organised the trip originally many years ago and who also know the children from Year 1. The full list of adults is: Mrs Walsh, Miss Lulu, Miss Joanna, myself, Mr Schumm, Alastair, Mrs Williams and Mrs Foster.

Please note: We have moved the children’s PE session to Wednesday next week. Please may the children come in in PE/Gym kit on Wednesday and Thursday next week. Please remove any earrings and make sure hair is tied up if longer than shoulder length!

This week we have been revisiting some of those foundational Year 2 Maths lessons to ensure that the children are confident and will be ready to take on Year 3 (time is going so fast!). We have revised number bonds and subtraction facts to and from 20 and 10. We then looked at 2D and 3D shapes, today using 2D shapes to create 3D shapes. We practised the language to describe the properties of shape, such as, vertices, corners, sides, faces and edges.

In English the children used expanded noun phrases and adverbs to describe the storm in Mrs Noah’s Pockets. They also did and exercise to practise using commas in a list which we picked out as a tricky area for lots of them. We will continue to practise these next week. Next week we will start to write a non-fiction text about Brownsea Island using facts that we have learnt.

In RE we read the parable of the Two Sons and discussed the message. In History, we used the iPads for the first time to do a knowledge collecting exercise using QR codes. The children had to complete sentences about Jesse Owens using the information behind the QR codes scattered around the classroom which they loved. In Relationships and Health we discussed teamwork and communication after working in pairs with one person blindfolded and the other leading them around an obstacle course. The children had work closely together, giving clear instructions and encouragement to their partners.

If anyone has any questions about Swanage please do email me. I will be checking my emails over the weekend incase you have any last thoughts or questions!

Have a lovely weekend and I am looking forward to seeing you at 8am on Monday.

Frankie

Dear Parents and Carers

It has been a full on first week back – Jubilee picnic and today’s amazing Notting Hill Carnival Parade! Some representatives from Mangrove Steel Band came into school and gave us an amazing assembly on the history of the Notting Hill Carnival. A lady called Siobhan talked to us about her family tradition of making costumes for Carnival and the children got to try on some of the amazing creations that she brought in. We were inspired by her uncle’s wire shaping that made them so amazing. We then used shaping wire to make our own ornate shapes to attach to our headdresses. We wrapped this is tissue and attached card and feathers to decorate our head dresses for the Masquerade (or Mas).

We’ve started a new book in English called Mrs Noah’s Pockets by James Mayhew. We read the book and then spent some time sequencing the story using pictures and retelling it in our own words to a partner.

In Maths, we have finished the Year 2 syllabus and are now working on some of the areas that the children find hard. This week, we focused on place value and partitioning numbers into different combinations of tens and ones.

In Relationships and Health we used role play to explore some different scenarios that might happen in the playground. We discussed our choices in each situation and thought about how our actions can affect other people’s emotions.

In RE we started our unit on Parables starting with the story of the Rich Fool. The children worked in groups to act out the story and we discussed the very clear message being given through this parable.

We are about to start a brand new unit in History called Remembering History through Significant Figures.  We will start off looking at Olympic athlete Jesse Owens, then the US Vice President Kamala Harris and finally The Chelsea Pensioners.

A little bit of Swanage admin. Hopefully, you will have received an email about the letters which have come home with the children today. There are several forms and a small brown envelope which need your urgent attention. Could you please return the Contact Details Form, the WhatsApp Consent Form and the brown envelope with £5 spending money to Miss Annora ASAP and by Tuesday at the latest.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Hall

Well done to all the children! We have completed the SATs (some of them are still asking when they are which is how we like it – low key!) and all of them have worked very hard and deserve a great half term. In that spirit we have just given them a Jubilee themed crossword and colouring activity to do over the half term instead of homework. If you want to do more, then we would suggest looking at the red words or revisiting adding the -ful, -less, -ed and -ing suffixes to words.

The results will help to inform our overall teacher assessment and this will be shared in the July reports.

Today we had a special end of half term ‘party’ with ice lollies in the playground and some extra time in the adventure playground and/or cricket!

In English this week, the children wrote wonderful stories about an imaginary friend based on Simon James’ book ‘Leon and Bob’. Today we did a detective-style response to marking with green pen making sure we made very single correction.

In Maths, the children practised their arithmetic skills by creating a board game in pairs. They then worked their way around the board answering questions correctly to make their way to the end.

In RE the children loved learning about Diwali, in particular, the story of Rama and Sita. The children then brought together all of their learning from this term and used it to help them choose sybols and patterns in creating their own Rangolis. Rangoli’s are a key decoration made during Diwali out of rice or flour and petals. They are patterns made on the floor to invite in the Goddess Lakshmi into their homes during Diwali.

In Geography, the children used all of their knowledge of mapmaking and worked in groups to design a 3D town. They had key features to include and had to make a key as they went along. We made these using lego and duplo and by thinking very carefully about scale and the use of colour to make our maps accurate and easy to ‘read’.

In Relationships and Health we identified the parts of the body and labelled them.

In computing the children continued their work on coding with a particular focus on debugging instructions.

Wishing you all a very happy half term break.

Best wishes

Frankie

Thank you to all of those who came to the Cabaret last night!

Today the children designed their own dog and owner in the style of those in Mr Scruff. The children used some of the techniques used by Simon James the author such as rhyme and alliteration. They also practised using their -ful and -less suffixes to make words to describe their imaginary characters. They then illustrated – like Simon James does – their characters.

In Maths, The children practised counting totals in coins. The children then made their own totals using coins. The children have been doing lots of practise on word problems this week, thinking carefully about what calculation needs to be done and picturing problems in their heads before working out the answer.

In RE the children learnt about Raksha Bandhan. The children then completed sentences about this Hindu festival and we finished the lesson in the playground, in the sun, making bracelets like the children do during this festival for their brothers.

In Geography, the children were given the challenge to redesign a town. The children were given a key and had to map the symbols, thinking carefully about what should be close (school and houses) and what should be far apart (rubbish dump and houses).

In Relationships and Health, we leanring about the body. the children were completely fascinated by the inner workings of the body and played a game where they used a dice to practise identifying the function of each body part. This involved rolling a dice and colouring in the right body part which was the answer to the question. A lot to like!

In Science, the children did some more work thinking about the different animals that are suited to different environments. Excitingly, we have some sessions coming up with the Scientist in resident who is going to be working with the class in small groups and doing activities around food chains with them. Madan have already started and are loving the sessions.

This week, Father John who is a practising priest (I hope that’s right…) joined us for a day. He did some Q and A with the children and just supported some of the children with their learning.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Frankie

Another week down! Next week is ‘Walk to School Week’ and the children will be given housepoints for walking in. Where possible we encourage the children to either walk, cycle or scoot to school. The Year 6s will be coming around to collect the stats each day and the winning class will be given an extra PE session with Alister before Half Term.

Today we carried on with our Art project, adding comic book collage to our superhero outlines from last week and they are starting to look amazing… our classroom less so! It was great see them all though so engaged with their projects and working so well together.

In RE yesterday we learnt about Puja which is the name for Hindu worship at home. We learnt about how Hindus use all their senses when they worship to really focus their mind. We learnt about some of the items in a Hindu shrine and their symbolism.

In Geography the children were cartographers. They were completely absorbed in the task which was to create a map of St Stephens. The children chose symbols to add to their key and mark on their map. It was amazing to see how some of their brains are so clever at mapping out spaces – far better than I can!

Maths has been a rollercoaster of revision – a mix of topics like measure, coins and time to break up the arithmetic! A spot which some of the children are finding tricky is missing number problems. Any practise of these at home would be very helpful to them.

In English we wrapped up Dear Juno by writing our diary entry as Juno about our grandma’s visit and lots of the children were so brilliantly in character that they made for great reading! We then practised some grammar and punctuation, playing games to sort word types and lots of whiteboard work on the carpet. Today we started our new English topic which is based on a few books by the author Simon James. Today the children learned about the charity Greenpeace in advance of our first book Dear Greenpeace which we will be reading on Monday.

In Relationships and Health the focus was on exercise and the other ways that we can keep our bodies healthy. I ran a ‘bootcamp’ outside and then we lay down in the classroom and felt our breath slow down and our heart rate drop. We discussed what was going in our bodies and then talked about all the different types of exercise and which ones were our favourites.

In Science the children were playing a sort of ‘Snap!’ with animals and habitats. A match would be an animal and a habitat that it could live in. The children had to justify why it was or was not a match in some cases. Soon the children will have their scientist in residence sessions with a professional scientist who will be planning and delivering specialist sessions to small groups of them!

In computing the children were creating code to direct a character around the screen.

Most of the children have now done their reading comprehensions for the SATs and I’m really pleased with how they have done. Next week we will complete the Maths Arithmetic papers and start the Maths Reasoning papers.

Let me know if you have any questions and have a great weekend. Thank you to those of you who made a donation to ‘Phoenix Farm’ which we visited a few weeks ago. Here is the link again if anyone else wants to: Donate – Hammersmith Community Gardens Association (hcga.org.uk) .

Thank you

Frankie

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been an amazing end to the week with Grandparents Day! We loved meeting some of the children’s Grandparents and I’m sorry if they were asked how old they were… Penelope Wilton was brilliant and lots of the children were completely enraptured.

This week we started the English reading SATS papers. Some of the children have done both papers and the rest will be doing them over the next few weeks. They are all doing brilliantly and seem to be enjoying the whole process!

In English, we’ve been revising word classes (noun, verb, adjective and adverb) and verb tenses using our class book dear juno. Next week, the children will be planning and writing a diary entry – imagining that they are Juno just as he has found out that his grandmother is coming to visit. We will then move onto a few weeks work on some different books by Simon James.

In Maths, we have been revising multiplication and division and yesterday revised coins. In Science, we are continuing our work on habitats and this week have been looking at seaside habitats and some simple food chains. In RE, we watched a video about worshipping in Mandirs and learnt some of the rituals that Hindus follow when they pray.

Have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes

Frankie

Thank you to those who sent in the comic books to be used in our new Pop-Art-inspired art project. The children will be creating these art works up until the end of term and we look forward to showing them to you then!

Yesterday, we were in Phoenix Farm pond dipping, scavenger hunting and planting seeds. The children loved spotting the signs of early Spring in the gardens and using enormous magnifying glasses to look into some pond water. We also saw a bee coming out of its ‘bug hotel’ for the first time this year! As you know, the tour was free. This was because it was St Stephen’s first visit. I know the gardens would be very grateful for any donations: Donate – Hammersmith Community Gardens Association (hcga.org.uk) . The team there were brilliant and we will definitely be going back!

In Relationships and Health, we read a book called ‘William Wobbly’ to help us understand how sometimes a certain part of our brain can take over and the body can do things that we don’t mean to do. We then learned about vaccines and other things we can do to stop germs and illness spreading.

In English, we started ‘Dear Juno’ and revised conjunctions and comprehension skills. Today we drew a picture of the dream described in the story, including all the little details given by the author.

In Maths, we revised division (sharing) and multiplication. We did some missing number problems and flipping the questions around to make them slightly trickier. Next week we will be looking at the relationship between division and multiplication which will help us to answer missing number problems using the inverse ( if 15 divided by 3 is 5, then 5 times three is 15).

In Humanities, the children continued their work on ‘Map Making’. The children made a plan of our classroom from an aerial view.

In Science we learned about habitats, matching animals and some plants to the correct habitat. We discussed how different habitats were suitable for different animals and how.

In RE we were learning about the Bhagavad Gita and making comparisons between this religious text and some others that we know. The Bhagavad Gita is the longest poem in the world and was told by Lord Krishna to guide people to live a happy life.

Have a great long weekend! See you on Tuesday.

Frankie

Dear parents and carers

Thank you all for the time and care taken over the SATs papers that went home over Easter. We will be looking through them next week to look for any common errors which we can revise in class.

On Wednesday, the children wrote a recount of a couple of things that they did in their holidays. We then started a short poetry topic, looking at our new Summer term poem which is attached in the ‘Homework’ box if you would like to look at it at home. The children were unscrambling the lines of the poem and practising performing it. Today we learned about Vikram Madan (the other Year 2 class are named after him) and specifically his poem ‘Roller Coaster’. The children then used a wordbank to swap out some of the words used in the poem with their own.

In Maths, we revised finding a fraction. We went back to finding a fraction of a shape (too easy), then finding a fraction of some objects (less easy) and finally a fraction of a number. I now feel confident that all the children have got strategies for finding a quarter, a half and a third of a number. Next week we will be trying to find two quarters, two thirds etc. as well as doing some missing number problems ie. Half of ? is 6.

In Science, the children were sorting picture cards of objects into the categories; ‘dead’, ‘living’ and ‘never alive’.  We then went into the playground to see what we could find and categorise there.

In RE the children created their own symbol/picture inspired by the Aum symbol and Hinduism. We learned about the one God ‘Brahman’ and how this God can be represented in three different forms. This term we will be learning about the importance of symbols, teachings and beliefs in Hinduism.

In Geography, we have started a unit called ‘Map Makers’. The children designed a treasure map and used directional language, including north, south, east and west to navigate around it.

In Art the children were creating different ’emotions’ using only the eyes, eyebrows and mouth.

Our new Relationships and Health unit is called ‘Being my Best’. So far we have discussed the ‘Learning Line’ and thought about where we are on it and how it can feel at different points. We discussed the importance of practise and also encouraging each other. We then put this into practise throwing and catching beanbags in partners, offering each other advise and trying over and over again. We noted that we had improved and that encouraging each other felt good!

Next week, we will be starting a new book in English called ‘Dear Juno’ by Soyung Pak.

Please note that there is no need to make a nest as part of the homework! It is just a comprehension activity.

Next Thursday, we will be going to Phoenix Farm as per the Parentmail. If you haven’t already, please give your consent on Parentmail (I’m told there is just a box to tick). We would be very grateful for any donations in envelopes next week…

Have a great weekend!

Frankie

Happy Easter everybody!

I hope you have a wonderful break. I am absolutely loving teaching your children, as are Mrs Kaz and Miss Joanna. We really look forward to next term with them and just can’t believe that will be the last before they are Year 3!

In English, we read the story ‘You’re Called What?!’ by Kes Gray and Nikki Dyson. We then did a couple of SPAG lessons about ‘compound nouns’ and using the ‘-er’ and ‘-est’ suffix. We will revisit these after Easter and the first week’s homework will be to practise these.

In Maths, we started a topic called Position and Direction, using language, such as; forwards, backwards, clockwise, anticlockwise, quarter turn, half turn and full turn. The children also need to understand the meaning of a three quarter turn. We will continue with this early next term.

In History, we read the story of Mary Seacole’s amazing life. We made some links between her and Florence Nightingale. We then were given a role as one of these women and asked and answered questions in character.

In RE, we focussed on the symbol of the cross. We learnt about some different crosses around the world, such as, the Salvadoran Cross, the Anglican Cross and the Celtic Cross. We then used our learning of symbols to decorate our own Salvadoran cross and coloured it in.

In Art, we decorated superheroes which were sent to us by the WRWA team who gave us a recycling workshop last week. We used scrap paper and felt tips and finally added a cape!

I spoke to some parents about mathematical language to support the children with their maths. These words might help the children understand what it is that they need to do to find the answer.

Multiplication: ‘groups of’, ‘lots of’ or ‘times’.

Division: ‘Share’, ‘shared between’.

For finding a fraction of a number, I recommend drawing a shape and breaking it into fractions (related to what you are being asked to find). Then the number can be shared equally between the parts equally.

If you have any questions, email me.

Best wishes

Frankie

Dear Parents and Carers,

It was lovely to talk to you all at Parents’ Evening. If you weren’t able to make it and would like to have a chat then please do email. I have now attached (below the homework) a list of all the spelling rules that children need to know in Year 2 for those children who need to practise their spelling over half term. This can be done in the form of hangman and scrambled up letters to hopefully make it more interesting…

Today was DT day! We started the day with an experiment. The children predicted which structure would be the strongest and most stable out of a triangular prism, a cuboid and a cylinder. We then tested the structures by piling books on top of each one. We used a tally chart to record how many books each held and made sure it was a fair test by using the same books each time. We learnt that the more corners or vertices a shape has the less stable and strong it was.

We then read the story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. The children discussed the structures they spotted in the story and what they could do to make baby bear’s chair stronger. We had each brought in our own teddy who would be key to our challenge! The children had to make a chair that was ‘just right’ for their teddy. We talked about a design criteria, the children made suggestions and then off we went with our knowledge of strong, stable structures and our teddies and got creating!

We finished the day sat outside in the sun with our teddies on their new chairs. We worked in partners to evaluate our chairs using some questions to prompt us. What a great way to end the week!

This week, in English, we have been focusing on our comprehension skills by practicing some past SATS papers.  In Maths, we have been learning about time and on Thursday, the children made a clock to help consolidate their learning.

In Science, we looked at the cress that we planted last week and recorded our results in height and in pictures we drew. In Humanities, we looked at pictures of Scutari Hospital in Turkey. We examined the pictures before and after Florence Nightingale arrived there and thought about the huge positive impact her changes made.

A couple of bits of admin. Please could you make sure that your child’s library book is returned to school on Monday, if it hasn’t been already, so that you don’t incur a fine.

Finally…….TWITTER @StStephensLBHF

Do you follow the school Twitter account? If not, then why not give it a go; you’ll see lots of events that children from across the school have taken part in as well as photos, films and links celebrating these and forthcoming FOSS events too. Used to showcase the school’s achievements it’s also a way for you to ‘like’ <, share and comment too. We never mention children’s name and all is GDPR compliant – it’s a great way to keep in touch.

Follow us on Twitter

Have a lovely weekend.

Frankie

Back to normality this week after Arts Week and the very exciting class assembly!

Thank you to those of you who came to the SATs meeting on Tuesday. I have now uploaded the presentation for those of you who want to see what was shared.

In English, we have continued with ‘La Princesa and the Pea’ which the children have really enjoyed and now know almost off by heart! The children have been doing some drama and written work focussing on the thoughts and feelings of the characters. We have been using our inference skills to help us think about what might be going on inside the character’s heads. The children have been practising writing questions and using the –ful and –less words which have been our grammar focuses as part of these written thoughts. Next week the children will be writing a letter as the queen to an imaginary sister or brother about what has happened.

In Maths, the children have started the unit ‘Measure’. They have been reading scales which can involve counting in 2s, 5s and 10s depending on the scale. The children have continued to practise their arithmetic skills around the new unit. I have just reassigned a lot of the children work on Mathletics which they did not do as well in (60% and below), so you might find that your child has a lot to do! Take your time and just revisit the units set when you can. Email me if you have any questions or issues.

In RE, the children continued with the Easter story and had a chance to rewrite the story using the pictures to help them.  In Relationships and Health we looked at our environment. We talked about some of the things that we can do to help the environment as a whole, but started small with our classroom. We talked about what we can really do as a class to make our classroom a nice place to be and also environmentally friendly. We then went on walks in smaller groups to observe some other spaces in our school environment. The children had some amazing ideas and we came out with a checklist of things to do!

In Computing we learned about computers in the 1970s which were almost unrecognisable. We discussed how not all information online is true and accurate. The children then did research on a specific site into computers and shared some of the facts that they discovered.

We still have Science, Art and History to come (it is Wednesday as I am writing this)… In Science, the children will be learning about the dispersal of seeds. In Art the children will be creating wire figures. In History the children will be continuing their Florence Nightingale learning, stepping into the shoes of interviewers and thinking about what they might ask Florence about at certain points in her incredible life.

I will not be in on Friday. Feel free, as ever, to email with any questions. I look forward to seeing you at parents evening next week.

Thank you

Frankie

Dear parents

Thank you all so much for all your support with the class assembly. They looked brilliant for starters and performed so well. Thank you for all the outfits you helped us to put together and for helping the children learn their lines. I’m sure you will be happy for a break from ABBA and Dolly Parton…

We were so impressed by them all and have had so many compliments from children and staff since.

A HUGE thank you to Mrs Kaz who made the flowers, banners and transformed the children into bees with black and yellow tape! She was also behind a majority of the dance moves!

Thank you to all of those who came to the Arts Café after school today. All money raised by the cake sale will be going to:

Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal | Disasters Emergency Committee (dec.org.uk)

This week the children retold the story of ‘The Pea and the Princess’ which is the traditional fairytale from the pea’s perspective. The children were practising using the simple past tense, adjectives and contractions. We finished the week reading ‘La Princesa and the Pea’ which is another version of the traditional fairytale based in Peru with Spanish words interwoven. The children practised using the glossary today to translate some of the Spanish words in the story.

In Maths, the children continued finding a fraction of an amount and then of a number. This is tricky and needs some more work which we will continue to do in smaller groups. The children did another practise Arithmetic paper to help them get comfortable moving between different calculations. Next week, we will be starting Measure.

In RE the children looked at a collection of symbols linked to our new topic. There was a cross, an egg, water, wine and a palm leaf. The children then practised retelling our new story which was the ‘Easter Story’ to each other using the symbols. The children then stuck the symbols down in the correct order on a strip of card and decorated it. This was then turned into their Easter crown which they proudly wore home today!

In History, we have started learning about Florence Nightingale. In Relationships and Health we discussed how we can help each other to do our best and what we can do to make sure that we are doing our best. Today we read ‘My Mouth is a Volcano’ and decorated a volcano with a couple of ideas about what we can do if we ever feel like our mouth might ‘erupt’ (we are feeling angry, cross or scared).

Have a great weekend everyone!

Dear Parents and Carers,

And so we come to the end of another Arts Week! It’s been busy, creative, messy and fun. What more can I say? Thank you to Sophie (Lizzie’s mum) for doing a workshop with the children. They really loved your input and were inspired by the tasks.

We have been studying the Turkish artist Fahrelnissa Zied (1901 – 1991) who is best known for her large scale abstract paintings. We will be celebrating Arts Week on Friday 11 March with an Arts Café. We will be raising money for Ukraine so please bring some money to buy some cake and a drink if you can. It will be in the main hall after school so please come along and have look at what we have done. Every child will have something on display and I think you’ll be very impressed!

World Book Day was lots of fun and the children all looked amazing! We spent the day reading books and plays. We learnt a bit about Shakespeare and read Macbeth. Then the children wrote a recipe for a witch’s potion that would give them powers to make prophesies.

We also read The Dish and the Spoon by Mini Grey, who also wrote our current class book The Pea and the Princess. We talked about what the children liked or didn’t like about the book.

Finally, we’ve made a few changes regarding reading books. Given that the children have had two years of interrupted school, it doesn’t make sense for them to work through every reading level. Children will now be able to miss out levels if we feel that their reading skills are not being challenged. Miss Bell has read with all the children this week and they will be allocated books from their new level next week. Please feel free to email me if you have concerns about their level being too high or too low and I will read with them to reassess.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Hall

What a way to the end the week! We were blessed with beautiful weather for today’s puppet show in Little Venice. We walked along the canal and over a bridge (huge excitement) to the Puppet Barge. We squeezed into the barge on the water and then the lights were dimmed and the show began. The children were completely mesmerised by the story of the little boy and his red balloon. The story was told without words, only music and the incredibly skilful puppeteers who created characters through the clever movement of the traditional marionette puppets.

This week the children have got back to basics in English looking at the sentence. We have been identifying verbs and subjects to help us understand the ‘rules’ to making a sentence. The children had to descramble words to make sentences, identify sentences and complete phrases and clauses so that they became sentences. At the start of the week we read the traditional tale of ‘The Princess and the Pea’ which was written in 1835. Yesterday we read an alternative version called ‘The Pea and the Princess’ written from the perspective of the Pea. In the week after arts week we will be reading another version called ‘La Princesa and the Pea’ based in Peru.

In Maths the children have started fractions. We have started by finding fractions of shapes that were shaded and then yesterday moved onto finding a fraction of objects. We will keep working on this next week and the children have been set Mathletics to support this learning.

In Science the children launched an experiment. We were planting seeds in soil and placing them carefully to ensure a fair experiment to help us see with our own eyes what happens when seeds are given water, sunlight, water and soil and what happens when they are given one or a combination.

The children have started to rehearse the class assembly and are doing brilliantly. THANK YOU all so much for helping them learn their lines over half term. They almost all have them nailed! I hope we are not sending anyone mad with ‘Honey Honey’ and ‘9 to 5’ practise. It would be great if the children could practise the actions (and words) to ‘9 to 5’ over the weekend. ‘Honey Honey’ actions to come…

Next week is Arts Week. We have planned some art, Geography and Maths lessons all linked to the art of Fahrelnissa Zeid. If you want to find out more about her, take a look here: Fahrelnissa Zeid – Exhibition at Tate Modern | Tate

Have a great weekend!

Hello parents

A huge thank you to Mrs Kaz for taking the class for the last few days. It sounds like they’ve had a lot of fun!

Here is a video of our recent DT Day made by Mrs Kaz:

In Maths the children have been continuing their learning about shapes. The children have taken on loads of new language which we will continue to practise using next term. The children should be able to label the vertices, edges and shapes of faces on 3D shapes. The Mathletics will really help the children to practise. I have set them lots but won’t be setting anymore for a couple of weeks at least so take your time!

In English the children wrote amazing descriptive pieces about an adventure underwater. The children used adjectives and similes to describe and wrote in the past tense. I was really impressed by their stamina and descriptions.

In the foundation subjects the children have been completing their topic for the half term and completing quizzes on that topic.

In art the children brought together all the skills they have learned this term and created planets in oil pastels. The children crated tone and depth by using different pressures and colours.

We have decided to do something a bit different for homework over half term. The children will have been given one or two SATs papers that can work through in small chunks as independently as possible over half term. There is no time limit on sitting them and can be a real test of concentration besides anything else. So do break them down into a couple of sessions at least!

Some tips for the children:

For the reading comprehension most of the answers can be copied almost word for word from the text – so don’t make it harder than it needs to be.

For the arithmetic, check the symbol and unless really really confident with your mental maths, do the working out. That can be tens and ones, number lines or drawing groups. It doesn’t matter what but it will help and you have all the time you need!

Have a great half term!

Frankie

The children finished the week on a real high with DT Day and Lunar New Year celebrations today. There were so many amazing shows of kindness and teamwork and the result is 5 ferris wheels of different sizes and strengths but all standing and spinning! I have uploaded some pictures and we would like to invite you up the stairs on Monday at drop off to come and see our creations! Thank you for all the egg boxes that were key to the designs!

At the end of the day, Mila’s mum kindly came to talk to us about the Lunar New Year and their family traditions. The children were completely enraptured and very excited to find out ‘their animal’ and what that meant. The children then made dragons with lollipop sticks and a folded tummy so it can move. These will come home on Monday night once the glue has dried.

In Maths the children covered statistics. They should now be able to make a tally chart and be able to identify and answer questions about information shown in a block chart or a pictogram, using language like ‘how many more/less…. than …..’. The children then started work on 2D shapes building on their learning from Year 1. The children were confident with counting sides and finding lines of symmetry. Next week we will be counting corners/vertices and finding quadrilaterals. They will then start looking at 3D shapes and their properties and even making some of their own!

In English the children wrote a persuasive letter to Anna and Crocodile, the characters in our story ‘How to Find Gold’. They persuaded Anna and Crocodile to do what they thought best with all the gold. Next week the children will be writing their own story based on Anna and Crocodile’s adventure. In grammar we looked at the –ment and –ness suffixes and also the simple past tense.

In Computing the children used an image online and added text to make it into a poster about how to save bees. In Relationships and Health the children used a hoop to help them understand the meaning of personal space. After that we watched the PANTS video by the NSPCC and discussed the meaning of the acronym. The children created their own handprint with the names of 5 adults who they could tell if a situation that made them feel unsafe or uncomfortable ever arose.

In Science the children compared and contrasted plastic and metal. The children thought about their properties and the benefits and disadvantages of using each for certain objects. The children then learned about how plastic is made and some of the problems it can cause. The children felt sad about the plastic in the ocean and so we made posters to encourage people to reuse and recycle plastic. These are now up the classroom and dotted around the school.

Something creative for a rainy weekend? Entries are now open to the ​Fourth Plinth Schools Awards 2022 | London City Hall .The deadline is March 12th. There is lots of information and inspiration on the website.

We now have all the parent helpers we need for our puppet barge trip. Thank you all for your support.

Have a great weekend!

Hello Hoberman parents,

Next Friday it is DT Day. I will be revealing what we are making then, however, in preparation please may you send the children in with any of the following that you have at home (cleaned!):

• Small yogurt pots
• Egg boxes

On Friday they are welcome to bring in one toy on wheels if they would like to.

In Maths this week the children have been adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. They did a practise arithmetic test and a reasoning test. Next week we will be moving onto statistics, looking at pictograms and recording data using tally charts. We will then start our unit on shape, looking at and describing 2D and 3D shapes.

In English, the children completed a punctuation and grammar test and a reading comprehension. We then went through some common mistakes and revisited some of the areas which the children found tricky. We then started our new story called ‘How to Find Gold’ and met Anna and Crocodile as they set off on an adventure. The children created a treasure map with all sorts of terrifying and imaginative obstacles on it which they presented to the class. Today the children dreamt up their own sea monster which they described using adjectives in expanded noun phrases and also similes. We had some amazing language being used, my favourite being ‘the sea monster was as lonely as a tree without leaves’.

In Relationships and Health the children were thinking about when they would need to say ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘I’ll ask’ or when they would tell an adult. The children used drama to act out different scenarios and the children watched and offered suggestions as to what the children should do in that scenario.

In RE we continued thinking about the Lord’s Prayer and picking apart some of the language. This week’s focus was ‘Give us this day our daily bread’. We discussed the difference between ‘want’ and ‘need’ and the children then completed questions about these specific lines in the prayer.

In art, the children (and teachers) enjoyed some calm drawing time. They had to identify the darkest and the lightest areas on a silk ribbon before carefully adding tone to their drawing.

In Humanities, the children were learning about some of the incredible animals that live in Kenya. The children then placed animals on a map considering what that animal likes and needs to survive. For example the hippo was in the water, whereas the rhinos were near the rocks. Any animal that were prey to another were placed very carefully so they weren’t too near to their predator.

You may have seen the email about the RA’s Young Artist competition. Let me know if you have any questions!

Have a good weekend.

Best

Frankie

Here are some activities for parents and children at home:

ENGLISH

Listen to our new story here:

Viviane Schwarz reads HOW TO FIND GOLD – Bing video

Now draw your own sea monster and think about some interesting adjectives and language to describe it:

Describe a Sea Monster

Homeschool – Tuesday and Wednesday

MATHS

For lesson one, find something in your house that you can collect data about. For example how much of each fruit and vegetable do you have? Collect this data in a tally chart and then complete the graph in lesson 1 to represent your data (information).

Challenge Cards – Tally Charts

Lesson 1 – Statistics

Lesson 2 – Statistics

Lesson 3 – Statistics

SHAPE

Lesson 1 – Identify and describe 2-D shapes including number of sides and vertical lines of symmetry.

Lesson 2 – Identify and name 2D shapes

Lesson 3 – Making-3D-Shapes

Lesson 4 – Faces of 2-D shapes on the surface of 3-D shapes.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Burns Night Reading Comprehension Burns-Night-Wordsearch

Snakes and Ladders with 2, 3 and 5 Times Tables Board Game

Toilet Roll Animals

Hello Hoberman parents

The children completed their bee reports this morning, using all the interesting new vocabulary and facts that we have been learning. The children used questions as their subheadings and included a glossary at the end. Next week we will be revising ‘there’, ‘their’ and ‘they’re’ and doing some practise spelling, punctuation and grammar tests to inform our focus areas for our next unit.

In maths we have been doing word problems, encouraging the children to identify the key information and choose the right symbol/calculation. The children are starting to recall their multiplication facts quickly and easily for their 2s, 5s and 10s which is brilliant! The homework this week will be revising the some of the times tables which will be tested on next week along with the spellings.

Today in art the children learned a new word ‘frottage’ which is the French for a ‘rubbing’ of a texture. Last week the children learned how to take ‘rubbings’ of different textures. This week they learned about Max Ernst and saw how he used frottage in his art work. The children then carefully tore shapes out of their frottage and arranged it on their paper to create an animal.

In RE the children were focusing on the line ‘Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done/ On earth as it is in Heaven’ in the Lord’s prayer. The children discussed the meaning and drew what they believed heaven to look like. There we lots of lovely ideas shared and drawn.

Today in Humanities we used our observation skills to pick out clues about the climate in Kenya. From our observations we could see that Kenya is hot and dry and sometimes very wet. We compared this to the UK where we have four seasons. We learned that Kenya has just two, one dry season and one wet season. The children then worked independently to sort sentences into two columns one with statements that are true for Kenya and one for the UK.

In computing the children had a session with Mr Faith where they practised using a mouse to click and drag. That sounds very boring, but each click and drag released coloured sand which gathered at the bottom and the children seemed completely mesmerised by!

In Science the children learned the meaning of ‘natural’ and manmade’ when it came to materials. This can be confusing when it comes to paper and sand which start off as natural materials however completely change form and have things added to them which make them appear very much manmade. Brilliantly, the term ‘manmade’ was challenged by a child who pointed out that women make things too!

One of the teachers has shown me the new ‘White Rose’ maths app which is free. This is the maths scheme that we follow at St Stephens and should be a fun way of practising more Maths if Mathletics just is not enough. I was also made aware that the arrays maths on Mathletics last week included questions which expected the children to be able to count in 8s and 7s. In Year 2, the children only need to know how to count in 2s, 5s, 10s and (if those are mastered) 3s too! I have now taken that one down however think lots muscled through it already…

We currently have one parent reader which is brilliant. If anyone can spare thirty minutes on a Monday or a Thursday between 2.45pm and 3.15pm we would be so grateful for another!

Have a lovely weekend.

Frankie

Dear parents

The children are just rounding off their week in a History workshop. From the sneak peek I got, it involved lots of dressing up, acting and props! The theme was the Great Fire of London. The children’s favourite part was ‘learning about the plague’, quote India and it was ‘brilllllllliant’, quote Cara.

The children are enjoying being back in the routine of the school week and definitely seem to be growing up really fast!

In English, we continued finding out about bees and the children are full of interesting bee facts! They have been practising using conjunctions and apostrophes as their grammar focus.

In Maths, the children are now confident making groups to represent a multiplication sentence and vice versa! Arrays demonstrated to the children that multiplication can be done in any order. They found these more tricky but understood the concept that two numbers could be multiplied in any order and make the same answer.

In RE the children are focusing on prayer and in particular the Lord’s Prayer. In Geography, we have started our unit on Kenya by looking at a map and locating the continent of Africa. For art the children were taking ‘rubbings’ of different textures using a wax crayon. For computing we learned the word ‘copyright’ and started the steps to build up to creating a poster about bees linking to our English. Science was all about materials, feeling them and describing them. For Relationships and Health the children were lucky enough to have an online Life Bus session with Harold the giraffe. The children held up their sad or happy emoji faces that they had made to help Harold make the right decisions during his day. The children showed a sad face if Harold was about to do something unsafe and a happy face for good, safe decisions. We followed this up by practising what we would do if we needed help in different scenarios.

Reminder:

There is a Swanage meeting at 6pm on Wednesday 19th January. I will look forward to seeing lots of you then!

Have a great weekend!

Frankie

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year! I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas break. Thank you all so much for your very generous gifts that we found on our desks on our return. We are all so glad to be back with the children and have had a really great couple of days with them.

We’ve got a very busy schedule planned for the term with lots of exciting opportunities for the children. Next week, we kick off with a workshop on the Great Fire of London and a remote visit from the Life Bus where the children will explore the topic of friendship, looking at both its positive and life-affirming attributes as well as the issues it can present and ways to tackle them! If you want to find out more, see the blog post below this one.

Our English topic this half term is Honeybees and the children will be working towards planning and writing an information report as well as thinking about the critical role that bees play in our ecosystem and all things we can do to protect them. The children also did a poetry lesson inspired by Mary Ann Hoberman and wrote their own version of the poem ‘Ice Skating’ which is attached along with the homework as our poem for the Spring term.

In Maths, we are moving on to multiplication and division. In RE, we will be looking in depth at the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer. In Geography, we will be learning about Kenya and in Science, we will be studying the properties of different materials.

In art today we experimented with pattern using lids and pots to create a pattern with paint. This term, the children will be exploring the formal elements of art: pattern, texture and tone; children will create printed patterns using everyday objects; take rubbings using different media and learn how to make their drawings three dimensional.

As ever, please do get in contact with any questions you have. Homework resumes today and the children have been asked to do a short comprehension as well as learn their spelling words.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Hall

Dear parents and carers,

The Coram Life Education & SCARF team will be visiting our school virtually this term with their SCARF Live Online workshops.

The children’s charity Coram Life Education provides Health and Wellbeing Education support to schools. Workshops are delivered by skilled educators and the SCARF resource is the framework of our PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) education curriculum.

Workshops – Live Online

The fun, interactive and age-appropriate workshops help children to understand the importance of physical and emotional health; they learn vital life-skills that are also known to help their overall achievement.

· Early Years and Key Stage 1: children learn about keeping their bodies healthy, managing feelings, and being a good friend.

· Key Stage 2: children explore emotional needs, choices that can affect health and wellbeing, qualities of friendship and also learn strategies for looking after their emotional needs.

Wider PSHE education and SCARF

Over 45,000 teachers across the UK are now subscribers – here are some reasons why our school has chosen this resource:

· SCARF provides a whole-school approach to building the essential foundations for children to achieve their best, academically and socially

· Supports learning across all ages

· Timetabled lessons to support mental health & wellbeing

· Covers all the new DfE statutory requirements for Relationships and Health Education

· Regularly updated online curriculum

· Supports our school in meeting Ofsted’s expectations

· UK’s leading charity provider – not for profit

To find out more about Coram Life Education and SCARF visit their website: www.coramlifeeducation.org.uk

Wishing you all an amazing, healthy Christmas break! I am really looking forward to a new term with the Hoberman children and parents. Thank you for all your support and kindness since September but especially over the last week. It is not the end of term that we would have wished for but there is certainly lots to be grateful for. The amazing Nativity couldn’t have been better timed for one! The children have worked really hard and I am so proud of everything that they have done in the classroom but also their kindness to each other and their energy and enthusiasm that makes everyday different and a lot of fun! Miss Joanna, Mrs Kaz and I love teaching them and playing with them. They are a great class. We feel lucky to have them. Bring on the new year!

A mini update from on the ground in St Stephens…

Merry Christmas!

Miss Hall

Hello everyone!

What a strange last day of term! Thank you everyone for all your support. I have tried to choose activities with a feel of the end of term about them…

ENGLISH

Option 1: Write a letter to Father Christmas! Start with ‘Dear’ and remember to sign off at the end (‘yours sincerely’) with your name. Success Criteria: Use adjectives, use an expanded noun phrase and make sure your handwriting is its best to impress!

Option 2:

If you have BBC iplayer then watch ‘The Highway Rat’ (the book would also do if you have it…) : https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09kkt1k (25 mins long) then work through the presentation and create your own wanted poster!

Presentation: Homeschooling The Highway Rat

Worksheet: Wanted poster proforma

MATHS

I have had a formatting battle trying to label coins. If they are too hard to see, I suggest that the children create their own combinations of coins to complete the question themselves! Some of these are really quite tricky so encourage your child to just move on if stuck!

Maths Challenges: Maths Problems

Proud to be me activity: Why I am proud of myself

If you have the time and resources, here are ideas for getting creative: https://iheartcraftythings.com/christmas-arts-and-crafts-ideas.html

Have a great day and I will let you know once I have set a time with the whole class for a Zoom. Email me with any questions.

I probably will not get a chance to see any/many of you before Christmas so… Wishing you all an amazing, healthy Christmas break! I am really looking forward to a new term with the Hoberman children and parents. Thank you for all your support and kindness since September but especially over the last week. It is not the end of term that we would have wished for but there is certainly lots to be grateful for. The amazing Nativity couldn’t have been better timed for one! The children have worked really hard and I am so proud of everything that they have done in the classroom but also their kindness to each other and their energy and enthusiasm that makes everyday different and a lot of fun! Miss Joanna, Mrs Kaz and I love teaching them and playing with them. They are a great class. We feel lucky to have them. Bring on the new year!

Best wishes

Frankie

Hello everybody,

For today…

Here are some activities which are linked to the story that we read through yesterday on the Zoom call:

Mrs Armitage on Wheels Activities

MATHS

Presentation: Homeschooling Lesson 4 – Making amounts

Can the children now find different combinations of coins that they could use to buy each item? Can they make the exact amount each time.

Worksheet: Lesson 4 – Worksheet

ENGLISH

If possible, print pages 2 – 4 of this activity and the children can become the teacher! Can they mark the work and correct all of the mistakes?

Spot Mr Whoops Mistakes Y1 Y2 Common Exception Words

Have a great day and hopefully see you all at 3pm!

Hello homeschoolers,

MATHS

Presentation: Homeschooling Lesson 3 – Counting coins and notes and using £ and p

An adult will have to check the quiz answers.

Worksheet: Homeschooling Lesson 3 – Worksheet

Start with the second sheet.

ENGLISH

Read through your English story from yesterday. With a different coloured crayon see if you can mark your own work. Can you improve any adjectives?

Next draw a new book cover for ‘Look Up!’. Include Jamal in your illustration. Think about what he might be doing on your book cover and who else might be there. What are they doing?

SCIENCE

Presentation: Homeschooling Lesson 3 – Presentation Exercise

Worksheet: Homeschooling Lesson 3 – Exercise

There will be a 3pm Zoom if you want to join.

Link to be sent around parents whattsapp.

Frankie

Good morning everybody!

If anybody wants to arrange a Zoom with me today then let me know. I propose 11.30am and am happy to do some English or Maths with whoever wants/needs it!

MATHS

Today they will be identifying pound coins and notes, so any you have to hand would be helpful.

Presentation: Homeschooling Lesson 2 – Notes and Pounds

Worksheets: Homeschooling Lesson 2 – notes and pounds

ENGLISH

Presentation: Homeschooling – Look Up Lesson 12

Worksheet: Homeschooling – Lesson 12 English Rewrite

Use the pictures to retell the story in clear parts. Only write about the part shown in the picture to make sure your story has real structure.

You could also just read through the story pretending that you are Jamal. Either take it in turns with your child or they could take the lead. Remember to use ‘I’ not ‘Jamal’ when retelling the story.

English grammar games:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zd63xyc/articles/zdp4pg8

Crafty activity from Mrs Kaz (if you have a printer):

https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/christmas-tree-template/

Have a great day!

Hello parents/carers who are deciding to homeschool this week,

I thought it would be easier to put today’s work here for you.

MATHS

The children are starting their new topic of ‘Money’ this week. Lots of the children have never used coins before and so some time just looking at coins and learning to identify them would be really useful for them. I have given you extra worksheets incase the children want more to do!

Presentation (made for the classroom but useful for you to see the steps):

Maths Presentation – Counting and Comparing Coins

Worksheets: Maths – Coins counting comparing

ENGLISH

The children are retelling a familiar story from the perspective of another character. They will need to use their inference and retrieval skills. They might need help with different words for emotions.

Presentation: English – Look Up

Email me if you have any questions.

Miss Hall

Dear Parents and Carers,

We hope you enjoyed the The Inn-Spectors! The children loved showing you what they have been working so hard on over last few weeks. It all paid off – they were brilliant! We didn’t have a Star of the Week assembly today but the whole class received the Star of the Week certificate in the classroom.

Today the children made healthy muffins to be sold at the Christmas Fair tomorrow. The children worked in small groups with Mrs Kaz and George’s dad to make their muffins. Mrs Kaz has been test baking for weeks, and the result today was an incredibly delicious and entirely sugar free muffin. You’ll have to buy one to believe me…

This week, we have been finishing off addition and subtraction in Maths. The children learned the language ‘double’ and ‘half’ and practised their reasoning skills. Next week we will be starting our new topic ‘Money’. For homework, we have asked the children to familiarise themselves with coins and to think about the value of each one.

In Humanities, we are coming to the end of our work on the Great Fire of London. Next week, we will be making replica medieval houses out of paper and lollypop sticks. We will then put these houses very close together in the playground and set fire to them so that the children can see how easily wooden houses catch fire, particularly when there are lots of them squashed into a small area as they were in 1666.

On Thursday, we have our school trip to see the puppet show in Little Venice. We will be leaving school at around 11.40am and will be back by 3.30pm. For those of you coming with us, I will be sending you an email early next week with more details.

Finally, we will be having a little Christmas party on Friday with music and games.

I hope to see some of you at the St Stephen’s Christmas Fair tomorrow. Please do stop by for a home-made muffin. We baked them today and I can confirm that they are super healthy, nut-free, sugar-free and most importantly delicious!

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Hall

Please find a message about the Daunt Books Children’s Short Story Competition from Mrs Pereira below.

Dear Parents/ Carers,

Last year, many of the children at St Stephen’s entered the Daunt Books Children’s Short Story Competition. Indeed we even had some winners from our school over the past few years. What an honour to have four published authors in our own school. This year, I would like to encourage any other keen writers from St Stephens to enter, as it is a wonderful opportunity to write a story for pleasure and potentially see it in print!

The competition is open to all children aged four to fifteen. The story must be all your child’s own work and must be between 300 and 1500 words.

How do I submit? You should email your story as an attachment to l.pereira@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk by Friday 21st January. Please put your child’s name, age and class as the email title and on the story attached.

Eg: Sally-  Y4 Rosen (Age 9)

Please make sure that the stories are typed, double-spaced and single sided. We will then forward all St Stephen’s entries to Daunt bookshop by the closing date. A copy of the children’s stories will be kept in a special folder in the Library for all to read.

Results will be announced in April 2022 and winning stories will be published in during summer term. A copy of all entries will be kept in the school Library as a keepsake for the children to read.

Good luck and I look forward to reading your children’s stories!

Yours faithfully,

Lia Pereira

This week we have been working really hard at the Nativity. Thank you for helping the children learn their lines.

In English, the children practised answering comprehension questions, focus on inference and retrieval skills. The children then had a chance to write their own questions. Today we focused on green pen work, which is how the children ‘respond’ to their marking. The children were given a piece of writing about our book, ‘Look Up!’, which was full of mistakes. The children worked slowly through it making the corrections.

In Maths the children were adding three one-digit numbers which they will be practising in their homework. Next week they will be practising starting with 10 or twenty and subtracting two one-digit numbers from it.

RE introduced the concept of Jesus as the ‘light of the world’. The children thought about a world without light. We then thought about words which describe how light makes us feel. This helped to start to understand why Jesus might have this title.

In History, the children are loving learning about The Great Fire of London. They have made miniature books which sequence the story and which they will have the chance to decorate with pictures for each scene. Today we learned about the meaning of a historical ‘source’ and worked in partners to think about what we could learn from each source, whether it be people’s emotions at the time (a letter) or what London looked like (drawings and paintings).

Next week we have a lot going on…

On Thursday 9^th there will be two Nativity performances; one at 9.30am and one at 2pm. Please wear a mask. We will be collecting for charities so bring some change! It is also home clothes day.

On Friday 10^th is DT day! The children will be baking. We will be telling them more next week.

From now on we will be changing the homework slightly to (hopefully!) make it more fun and varied for the children. There will continue to be a grammar focused sheet each week but less sentences to be written as part of the spellings!

Have a great weekend.

Miss Hall

This week Hoberman class have been working really hard on the Nativity. It is all starting to come together! Thank you very much for helping the children with their lines.

In English, the children have been bringing all the vocabulary that they have been collecting from ‘Look Up!’ including interesting verbs, adjectives and now adverbs to make exciting sentences about meteor showers. The children have practised making their own adverbs from adjectives by learning rules like dropping the ‘y’ on happy before adding the ‘i’ and then ‘ly’. We then helped the children to edit their own work which they found really difficult but we will be revisiting lots over the year.

In Maths we introduced the word ‘inverse’ which means doing the opposite sum (for example, 7 + 3 = 10 would become 10 – 3 = 7). The children then used the inverse to check calculations. Today was all about the skill of estimation. The children started to use the language ‘more’, ‘less’ and ‘about’ to explain why they had made a certain estimation of an amount. The children then worked in small groups or pairs to practise estimating an amount of different objects. We used the strategy of counting ten and then reassessing our estimation and perhaps amending. The children had to be comfortable with not knowing and doing their best using all the information they had to make an estimation.

In Science the children were matching different foods to the different food groups. The children were learning big words like ‘carbohydrate’ and ‘protein’. In History the children started to create their own little booklet about the Great Fire of London.

The children really enjoyed the author and book day on Wednesday. They started the day with a special assembly by a famous illustrator and author called Fiona Lumbers who wrote Luna Loves Library Day and Clem and Crab. She did a follow-along illustration session after reading the children two stories. In the afternoon the children watched a performance of Mr Benn’s theatre production which they absolutely loved.

Have a great weekend!

Miss Hall

The nativity rehearsals are in full swing! This week we have been learning some of the choreography and next week we will be looking at our script work. Before next Wednesday, the children will need to know some of their lines off by heart. The scripts were sent home before half term but if it has been misplaced please contact your class teacher for a new one.

It would be great if you child could go over the choreography they have learnt this week before our next rehearsal on Wednesday. Below is a list of the songs and video links to myself doing the choreography. Your child only needs to go over the choreography for the song they are in.

We’re Going Home!

https://youtube.com/shorts/zhCdACyIgGg?feature=share

Everything Has To Be Perfect!

https://youtube.com/shorts/R-Ll6g-6AiE?feature=share

Ooh, Ooh, Singing the Blues

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vEeTQC9eLmQ?feature=share

As Wise As Can Possibly Be

https://youtube.com/shorts/lNQ8JtEguy4?feature=share

Fit For A King!

https://youtube.com/shorts/WDjI_gkLXNU?feature=share

Have a great weekend!

Miss Whiting

The children have done really well to handle a lot of change in routine this week – nativity practises, school photos and today a surprise Drama session with mark!

Reminders and Notices:

Author and Book Day: The children have a session with an illustrator in the morning where they will be having a go at illustrating. The children can bring in money (in an envelope please!) to buy a book after the session.

Nativity lines: Keep practising!

In English, we have been reading ‘Look Up!’by Nathan Bryon. The children are really enjoying identifying the use of interesting language, such as, adverbs, adjectives and even metaphors. The children will be continuing to learn about adverbs next week. We have now covered nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. A lot to remember so if you can point some out in your reading that would be helpful!

In Maths, we have been thinking about the relationship between numbers. Using bar models and part whole models we have been thinking about how the numbers can be arranged into different number sentences.

In Science, we looked at a food ‘pyramid’ which can help us to understand what a balanced diet could look like. The children then sorted different foods into food which we should lots of, a bit of and not too much of.

In Art, we continued our collage work inspired by Phillipino artist Pacita Abad and her version of the Statue of Liberty.

In Relationships and Health the children shared what they thought made them special and then they shared what they thought made other people special. We wrote some of these down anonymously and shared them to start the day!

In RE the children were thinking about the Ten Commandments and starting to think each message.

Have a fantastic weekend all!

Miss Hall

Time is flying as we start to prepare for the Christmas Nativity! Miss Whiting has started to take the children through their moves and lines.

In English we continued with our poetry and really got to grips with repetition and following a pattern (that of London’s Burning). We started to perfect our use of the progressive form of the verb in the present and past tense and put it to use in our own rhymes which followed the pattern of ‘London’s Burning’!

In Maths, we have been focussing on subtraction. We continue to secure our understanding of tens and ones – there are ten ones in one ten – this helps us to ‘exchange’ if we need to.

In R.E, we have been learning about the Ten Commandments. To understand the importance of rules now and in History, we imagined a world without any rules and decided it wouldn’t be a very nice place to live!

In Humanities, we made a timeline out of different periods in History. We learned how to sequence the years before making our own ‘Great Fire of London’ tile which we added to our timeline in the right place. We looked at some drawings of London in the 1600s to help us draw a picture of London on our tile. These were so brilliant that we have added them to our classroom timeline.

In Art we started our new topic of the figure. We looked at Pacita Abad’s version of the Statue of Liberty where she changed the figure to be one who she thinks should be celebrated and who was not celebrated in history. We thought about the people we look up to and think should be celebrated. We then placed them ‘on the pedestal’ in a ‘strong’ pose in our drawing and started to create them a gown made from collaged paper.

In Relationships and Health we started to think about ‘Valuing Difference’. The children shared some ideas about what makes them different and we thought about ways that we can respond to each other when we are sharing something that we can do or enjoy.

I hope everyone has a good and restful weekend.

Miss Hall

It has been a very exciting week for Hoberman with their first ever school trip! They were all great representatives of St Stephens and we were so proud of how engaged and enthusiastic they were throughout the day.

In English we have been looking at using the progressive form of the verb in the present and past tense to show that something is in progress. We picked apart the poem ‘I’m a Tree’ by Tony Bradman’ identifying the progressive verbs and thinking of our own. For the last couple of the days the children have been planning and writing their own letters about the school trip, using adjectives, questions and their very best handwriting.

In Maths, we have been adding using tens and ones frames and today using a 100 square. Next week we will be continuing to add two 2-digit numbers before moving onto subtraction.

In Science we did a revision session on everything that we have learned so far in Year 2 about animals and how and where they survive!

In Art, we have been making something which you will be able to buy a version of in the run up to Christmas…

I will be adding some pictures of the trip to the blog soon!

Have a fantastic weekend all!

Miss Hall

Hoberman Class have had a busy week. The children are really getting into the swing of things and have already done some brilliant work.

We continued reading The Lion in the Meadow and a story based on it called The Tiger Under the Stairs. We then started to plan our own version of the story. The children’s imaginations ran wild and they have finished the week by planning their own story. The focus will be on capital letters, full stops, adjectives and expanded noun phrases.

Thank you all very much for sending in the baby photos. We had a brilliant Science lesson guessing who was who! Mr Schumm even joined in the fun! The children then recorded what they were able to do as a baby, before thinking about and recording what they can do now.

In Maths, we have been looking at ‘greater than’ and ‘less than’. We then practised counting forwards and backwards in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s.

In R.E, we were doing some ‘Karma drama’ – using our acting skills to demonstrate what ‘good karma’ looks like. We learnt how most Hindus and Bhuddists believe in Karma.

In Art, we continued to work on our line drawing portraits, adding some bright ‘pop art’ colours and starting to work on our own ‘Litchenstein’ spots.

In Relationships and Health the children started to name and ‘show’ their emotions using their faces and body language. The rest of the children had to guess the emotion from each child’s performance. We discussed how no emotion is ‘wrong’ and it is normal to feel different emotions.

Harvest Festival 

It is wonderful that we are getting back to some semblance of normality at St Stephens and that we can all meet together to celebrate our church festivals. On that note, you are all invited next Thursday morning at 9pm (September the 30th) to our Harvest Festival where we come together to thank God for our harvest. This will be held in St Stephens Church.

Every year we collect non-perishable goods to go towards feeding those in need at a local charity. Like last year, proceeds will go to the ‘Upper Room’. You would have all received a parentmail with the list of appropriate goods. We look forward to seeing you there.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Hall

The children have done an amazing job at stepping up to Year 2!

This week we have been reciting our class poem ‘Brother’ by Mary Ann Hoberman and using this to inspire our own poems. By the end of the week, the children knew most of the poem by heart and had some actions to help them along the way. We now have a whole host of amazing, imaginative poems about cars, hoovers and family members ready to go up on our English board in our classroom.

In Maths the children have been working on place value which is all built on our understanding that (in a two digit number) one digit represents the tens and one represents the ones. We practised making numbers using dienes and then moved onto ‘partitioning’ which is the focus of the arithmetic homework this week. We also looked at spelling numerals as words which is our spelling homework for the week.

In Relationships and Health we talked a lot about any worries we might have, if the children weren’t scared of spiders they might be now… The children then wrote about or drew any worries and ‘fed’ them to our ‘Worry Monster’. The idea is that by writing about or drawing worries, they get smaller.

In computing the children practised logging in and then had a play on J2E (lockdown memories) and found a picture of a piece of work they did last year and had a play with adding text of different sizes and colours to ‘label’ it.

In RE the children started their Hinduism topic. The children were interested to learn about the importance of family in Hinduism. We then thought about the importance of family to themselves and about anything that is similar between their family and a Hindu family.

Humanities was all about London! The children finished the lesson by playing a board game which involved true or false quiz cards which they had to answer correctly in a race to the end of the board!

Homework

Homework is on the blog in the side box labelled ‘Homework’. Please may this be returned by Thursday at the absolute latest next week. The sooner the better! Your child’s red homework book is (should be!) in their bag. If anyone cannot print the homework and really needs us to print it for them and send it home each week, just email me.

There will be a label inside the front cover of their homework book that explains if they are in green group (6 spellings), purple group (9 spellings) or blue group (12 spellings). This will be something that is fluid throughout the year. They will need to learn their spellings for a relaxed spelling test each Friday as well as writing each of the words 4 times in the front of their homework book to help them remember how to spell them.

Following this, they will need to write 4 sentences using words from their spelling list in the front of their homework book.

There will be a small Arithmetic task set at the bottom of the homework sheet, which is to be completed in the back of the homework book. For this week, we have given the children a sheet to help them layout their maths homework which is stuck in at the back.

Each Friday we will set tasks on Mathletics which are to be completed by the following Monday.

PE

For this week coming the children will have PE on Friday instead of Tuesday. Please may the children wear their gym kit on Thursday and Friday. It will then be back to Tuesdays and Thursdays!

Reading Books

If there are still any at home, please make sure they come in on Monday and we will change them as a one off! They need to be in on Fridays going forward.

Science Request

Please may you email me one picture of your child as a baby for an upcoming Science lesson.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Miss Hall

We have had a great start to the new school year. Mrs Kaz and I have both had a lot of fun getting to know the children and are looking forward to meeting you all further down the line. Drop off and pick up don’t often make for a good chance for a chat!

The last couple of days have been all about learning how Year 2 works, getting to know each other and a whole lot of art! We spent this afternoon focussing on the story of Frida Kahlo and looking at how Mexico inspired her artwork. We have begun our own self portraits and will be adding inspiration from countries which are important to us next week.

Please find below useful information about Year 2:

Homework

Homework will set each week on a Friday and will need to be returned by the latest on Wednesday the following week. Your child will be given a homework book to complete their spelling homework, sentences and Maths homework in. The homework sheet will be uploaded to the class blog on a Friday each week.

The children will have a set of spellings to learn. There will be a label inside the front cover of their homework book that explains if they are in green group (6 spellings), purple group (9 spellings) or blue group (12 spellings). This will be something that is fluid throughout the year. They will need to learn their spellings for a relaxed spelling test each Friday as well as writing each of the words 4 times in the front of their homework book to help them remember how to spell them.

Following this, they will need to write 4 sentences using words from their spelling list in the front of their homework book.

There will be a small Arithmetic task set at the bottom of the homework sheet, which is to be completed in the back of the homework book.

Each Friday we will set tasks on Mathletics which are to be completed by the following Monday.

We don’t want to overload the children with homework at the beginning of the term as the main thing is that they feel settled and happy in Year 2 so the homework will start on Friday 10^th September.

Instead the children can start to learn their Hoberman class poem called Brother over the weekend. The poem has been uploaded in the homework box. If the children would like to they could also draw some pictures about the poem.

PE

PE is on Tuesday and Gymnastics is on Thursday so the children need to come to school in their PE kits on those days.

Reading Books

Reading books will go home on Monday each week. They must be returned by Friday with a signature inside the yellow reading book to let us know that they have read the book and the books can be changed.

Red Words

These are the tricky words (cannot be spelt phonetically) which the children need to learn how to spell by the end of Year 2.

Please email me if you have any questions at all.

Have a great weekend!

Miss Hall

f.hall@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk