What a miserable day! Despite the rain and very little outdoor playtime, the children managed to keep their smiles for the class photo in church today.

It’s been another busy week revisiting some old topics in Maths, we have gone over adding and subtracting two-digit numbers and the children have done brilliantly. Next week we will be looking at multiplication and division.

In English, we completed our final lesson on the book How to Find Gold. The children wrote some beautiful pieces of descriptive writing on what Anna could see under the ocean when she dived in with Crocodile. Their work was packed full of adjectives, expanded noun phrases and similes – which will stand them in good stead for Year 3!

In Science, we were continuing to look at plants and how they grow, focusing on why some plants come from bulbs and not seeds. In Humanities, we started a new topic on holidays and how they have changed from the past.

I think the highlight for the children was helping each other across an obstacle course in the playground while one of them was blindfolded! It was part of our Relationships & Health unit on how we can help and support each other.

Finally, Miss Whiting has been rehearsing again with the children to get them performance ready for the End of Year show!

Have a lovely restful weekend.

Mrs. Hayes and Miss. Hall

It is so nice coming back to school with the sun shining! Please just remember to send your child in with sun-cream already applied, a full bottle of water and a hat.

Despite the four-day week it’s been a busy first week back. At the beginning of the week in English, the children learnt about the suffixes –ment and –ness and today we had a really fun lesson thinking about using our senses when writing descriptive passages. Next week we will be writing descriptive pieces based on the book How to Find Gold.

In Maths, we are revisiting everything the children have learnt this year. This week was adding two digit numbers and my class were excellent! Next week we will move on to subtraction and then multiplication.

We have started learning about the Parables of Jesus in RE. We learnt why Jesus told parables and discussed that a parable is a story with a special meaning. In History, we used the laptops to do some research on Mary Seacole. We found out that she worked alongside Florence Nightingale but more importantly she was a real trailblazer for both women’s rights and also in defying racial discrimination.

In science we are learning about plants and flowers and every child in the class planted their own sunflower seed which have been watered daily. We are hoping in a week or so, beautiful shoots will begin to appear and then (fingers crossed) some cheerful sunflowers will grow.

Rehearsals have started for the end of year summer production which this year is Bugsy Malone. Year 2 will be singing ‘There’s no Business Like Show Business’ (not actually from Bugsy but still a good song!) Here is the link to the song if they would like to practise it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a1TwHzqkV8.

Find lyrics attached alongside the homework. The children need to practise these over the next couple of weeks. Thank you!

Have a lovely, relaxing weekend.

Mrs. Hayes and Miss Hall

What a brilliant first half of term! Well done to all the children for working so hard.

This week, we have continued working on our book How to find Gold. The children started the week creating the most imaginative and scary sea monsters out of coloured paper, cardboard and scraps of material. They then learnt how to write persuasive letters offering ideas to Anna about how she should spend the treasure. What a selfless and kind class we have – all the children agreed the money should go to charity and came up with some excellent persuasive reasons why!

In my Maths class we finished the topic of time this week. The children really impressed us with their hard work on this tricky topic but do keep practising at home whenever you can – particularly quarter to and quarter past the hour.

We also finished our science topic on materials, which the children have loved. The last lesson involved making a house out of different materials – Lego, playdough, cardboard, paper and sticks. There were some excellent efforts especially from the playdough group as their material was very hard to keep upright!

We wrote a great timeline on Florence Nightingale in history which we will hang across the class before next term. Finally, in RE we finished learning about Hinduism and look forward to beginning our lessons on the Parables of Jesus after the break.

We are hoping to try and plan a trip or two in the final half of next term – I will let you know details as soon as I can.

Have a wonderful restful half term.

Mrs. Hayes and Miss Hall.

One if this week’s highlights has got to be making paper! Carrying on with our science topic on everyday materials, the children worked in groups to make their very own paper out of recycled scraps. Each group made a paste, sieved it though a deckle and finally rolled their sheets of paper to make them thinner. Unfortunately, the paper is still drying but hopefully by next week they will each have a small piece of hand-made paper to bring home with them.

I have been so impressed with how hard the children are working in Maths. We are carrying on with the topic of time which is definitely one of the trickier units to grasp. However, I am pleased to say that most of the children are now confident at telling to time to the nearest quarter with many also recognising the five minute intervals too.

We finished Mama Panya’s Pancakes in English and the children wrote some excellent stories packed full of exciting adjectives, adverbs and even similes. The children were also taught how to edit and upskill their work to make it even better. We began our new book today, a charming story about a girl and her crocodile looking for treasure called How to Find Gold. The children predicated what the story might be about from looking at a picture and then drew their very own treasure maps complete with venomous snakes and quick sand!

In humanities, we learnt more about the amazing work of Florence Nightingale and discovered all the changes she made to the hospital at Scutari and the influence of her work on health care in general.

Finally, Imperial College are running a few free workshops for children during half term which may be of interest. See the links below:

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/white-city-campus/community/​

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/imperial-white-city-community-events-22727582165

Have a lovely weekend and fingers crossed it stops raining soon!

Mrs Hayes and Miss Hall

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you’ve all had a good week. In Maths we are learning about Time. It’s a tricky topic and the children are picking it up very well – in fact one or two are whizzing through all the challenges with astonishing speed! It would be very helpful if you could incorporate ‘time’ into their everyday lives at home so that the vocabulary becomes more familiar and eventually commonplace.

In English we have been learning about writing formal and informal letters and today we wrote a thank you letter from one of the characters in Mama Panya’s Pancakes. Later in the term we will be writing a more formal persuasive letter.

In History we continued our work on Florence Nightingale. We learnt about the Crimean War and the journey that Florence made from England to a hospital in Scutari in Turkey where she went to help save the wounded soldiers. The children wrote a letter as Florence Nightingale to her sister Parthenope describing the horrific journey and the terrible scenes that awaited her at the hospital.

The children created some beautiful Henna designs in Art and have been looking at traditional Mehndi examples for inspiration while in RE, they learnt about Puja which is Hindu worship at home.

We are doing a lot of work on kindness and friendship in our class at the moment. We are really encouraging the children to look after each other and be supportive and collaborative in the playground. We are also enforcing a blanket ban on play fighting. Thank you for your support in this matter.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Hayes and Miss Hall

It’s been a busy week in Year 2!

Today was the inaugural school Math’s Day and the children were brilliant. We started the morning working out which child in the class has the largest hand span by seeing how many pieces of pasta they could carry. We then put all the data into tallies and a bar chart. After break, we then measured each of the children in the class to see who was the tallest and who was the smallest. Interestingly, the top three tallest children are all girls – I wonder whether that will remain the same in a year? Finally we compared whether being tall meant you also had a large hand span and put our findings into a Venn diagram.

After lunch we created some Mathematical Art inspired by Paul Klee. We measured out buildings and drew 2D shapes as rooves before colouring in our buildings according to odd and even numbers and following lines of symmetry. Despite being off timetable the children worked really hard and were focused and enthusiastic all day – we were so impressed!

This week we started our new book in English, Mama Panya’s Pancakes, a lovely story set in Kenya. The children did really well in a comprehension on the book and also predicting what might happen next.

We have started Time in Maths and many of the children have demonstrated a good understanding of o’clock and half past. Next week we will be looking at quarter past and quarter to, as well as consolidating what they have already learnt.

Finally, a child in Y5 is collecting money for Eden Reforestation Projects. Just 10p can plant a tree. If you have any loose change at home please do consider bringing it in on Monday.

Have a lovely, restful weekend.

Mrs. Hayes and Miss Hall

Today the children wrote their very own information text on honeybees in English. Each child gave their text a title and included three different subheadings on honeybees including ‘How bees make honey’, ‘All about queen bees’ and ‘Where honeybees live.’ They then drew a picture and added in a glossary of tricky words. I have been so impressed with the whole class who have stayed focused and interested throughout this topic – they all know some brilliant facts about honeybees!

In my Maths group, we continued thinking about what mathematical language to use when describing position and direction. The children looked at shapes and worked out whether they had moved a quarter turn, a half turn or a full turn. They also recognised if the shapes had moved clockwise or anticlockwise. We will be finishing this topic early next week before moving on to time.

The children are loving our new humanities focus on Florence Nightingale. I was very impressed with how much they know about her already and we read some interesting facts and learned that she was determined to be a nurse against her father’s wishes. Next week we will be continuing to find out more about her life and the great things she did.

We are still learning all about materials in Science and this week looked at the difference between man-made and natural materials. The children really enjoyed watching a short video on how glass is made.

Finally the children will be coming home with their amazing Mona Lisa portraits. They loved making this famous painting their own and the results are brilliant.

We hope you have a lovely bank holiday weekend and look forward to seeing the children back on Tuesday.

Mrs. Hayes and Miss. Hall

What a fantastic first week back! The sun is shining and the children have been working really hard across all the subjects.

In English we are learning all about honeybees and focusing on information texts. We started the week reading all about how and why honeybees make honey, where they live and what beekeepers do to extract the honey safely. We then revised possessive apostrophes and finished the week today with a bit of comprehension.

In Maths our new topic is on position and direction. We used the ‘beebots’ – which the children love! – to think about moving forwards, backwards, right and left across a map of the world. Next week we will also be introducing the idea of quarter and half turns, both clockwise and anticlockwise.

We looked at materials in Science and the different ways we can group them. We talked about rough and smooth materials, rigid and flexible materials and even discussed the difference between transparent and opaque. The children did so well at remembering all this new vocabulary.

In R.E the children really enjoyed creating their own religious symbol. We focused on Hinduism and what the different symbols mean in this religion before the children were challenged with coming up with their own symbol and thinking about what it would mean.

Finally, in art the children are reinterpreting the Mona Lisa. Using cut outs of Mona Lisa’s face and arms but adding in their own accessories and bodies, the children are creating their own versions of this iconic painting. We can’t wait to see the finished pieces next week!

If you have any questions or queries please do feel free to email Miss Hall or myself on v.hayes@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs. Hayes and Miss. Hall

We have had a busy final week in Year Two! The children have been amazing. They have worked really hard right up to the very last day – well done them!

The children have been given homework which doesn’t need to be handed in until April 22^nd so by all means enjoy the break and get it done on the other side!

In English we did a final piece of writing based on our class text ‘Seriously Cinderella’. The children were challenged to write their own version of the story. They changed the characters, setting and the naughty things that the character got up to! We had some really imaginative stories, including loads of adjectives, adverbs and interesting sentence starters.

We have focussed on the topic of ‘Measure’ in Maths. The children have been thinking about how to measure using thermometers, measuring jugs and weighing scales.

In RE the children focussed on the symbol of water and what it represents in the Easter Story. The children designed their own town in Geography, carefully placing each building and park to make it a great place to live!

Have a lovely Easter holiday!

Miss Hall

We’ve had a great week here in Year 2! The children have worked extremely hard and are super excited for the lead up the Easter.

In English, we have been looking at the contrasting version on Cinderella, which is called ‘Seriously Cinderella Is So Annoying.’ The class loved writing a letter to the prince from the perspective of the stepmother explaining why he shouldn’t marry Cinderella and the real truth about what she was like.

In Maths, the class have been working hard using all of their fraction knowledge to find fractions of an amount. Today we started working on measure. We had to estimate and measure a line as well as drawing a line with the measurements we were given.

In Humanities, the class became a cartographer for the day. They designed their very own map of St Stephens School using symbols and colour codes. We created keys for our map. This was something that the class really enjoyed doing.

In Science, we used a Venn diagram to categories herbivores, omnivores and carnivores. The class amazed me with how much they know about animals. Animal experts to the rescue!

In R.E, we drew a salvadoran cross and learnt about the meaning of different crossed for Christians around the world.

In Art, we looked at the artist Kazimir Malevich and his suprematism style.  We discussed how he used different shapes and few colours in his art work.

Have a brilliant weekend!

Miss Hall

The excitement has been at a high all week in Year 2!

On the homework we refer to an activity for International Women’s Day. You will find out more in the blog entry below. The document is attached alongside the homework.

In English the children started a new story called ‘Look Up’. They used this story as the inspiration for their own vivid descriptive piece of writing. They used adjectives, adverbs and interesting verbs, such as, ‘zipping’, ‘gliding’ and ‘zooming’. Some of the children were stretched to even include a metaphor in their work.

In Maths we have been consolidating multiplication and division. The children wowed us with their ability to reel off their multiples of 2, 5 and 10 and some are confident in the multiples of 3 too. This has been incredibly helpful this week as children have been able to identify patterns (3 x 4 = 12 and 12 divided by 4 equals 3) without having to do the physical working out using resources. A great exercise here, would be to take 3 numbers (ie. 15, 3 and 5) and ask the children to write down 4 number sentences only using these numbers. Two need to be made using multiplication and two using division. We finished the week by solving word problems. The children needed to identify from the language used whether to multiply or divide.

The children made some beautiful clay ‘pinch’ pots which should have hopefully made their way home to you (it may be worth digging around the bottom of the school bag!). There is another little treat which should appear on Sunday… Again it might be at the bottom of the school bag…

In Humanities the children became ‘practising’ architects, using their understanding of a birds eye view to create a classroom plan.

In Science, we revisited food chains. The children had a chance to organise animals into food chains in pairs before completing incomplete food chains independently.

For RE, the children had a mystery to solve. The mystery bag was full of clues to the new story. can you solve it? A stone, bread, wine (cardboard cut out), a cross and an egg. We then revealed the story and the children practised telling the story to each other using the symbols to help them. They then made their Easter crowns using the symbols.

They all deserve a very restful weekend, after a very exciting week back! They have done brilliantly. Thank you all for all that you have done with them at home.

Have a good weekend and Happy Mothering Sunday!

Art’s Week Assembly

What an exciting week we have in store! I love Arts week! It is one of my favourite weeks of the year!

There are lots of activities set on the Arts week page that you can choose from. Each morning on the 9am zoom Miss Whiting and I will make suggestions of what activities we think would be good for the day but ultimately the decision is up to you. Aim to do at least 2 activities a day (10 for the week). Each day, please bring a long work to share in our 3pm zoom. I’d love to see all of your incredible work!

I have also set lots of activities you can choose from on Busy Things.

You will still have your live English on Tuesday and live Maths on Thursday along with Mr Schumm’s live lesson on Tuesday.

Here are the final chapters our Year 2 book ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’:

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Have an amazing week!

Miss Hall