Easter is near!

Andras jumping through the air in Gymnastics!

This week in Numeracy we have been looking at Fractions. We learnt how to find fractions of numbers and fractions of shapes. We looked at a pizza and found out about how to cut it out halves and quarters. Some of us even had a go at adding some fractions together!

In Literacy we have been looking at Fairytales. We looked at what all Fairytales have in common with each other before looking at some modern alternatives of classic fairytales and seeing how they were different. We really enjoyed reading the story of the Three little wolves and the big bad pig. Mr Merchant's favourite part is when the pig tries to use a Pneumatic drill to get into the Pig's house!

In Science we looked at which exercise is best for us. We did 5 different exercises for the same amount of time and counted our breaths after each one. We found out that jumping on the spot was the best exercise for us because it made us use up more of our oxygen than the others. Next week is the last week before Easter.

We are looking forward to hearing the Easter story and eating all of those Easter eggs!

Mr. Merchant and 2M :-)

Explorers Day!

On Thursday we had our Explorers day to mark the end of our Explorers topic. Some of us went to Miss Porter's class and some went to Mr Merchant's class. We started off by thinking about why people explore and what they may be looking for when they explore. Then we thought about what we should take with us when we go exploring and what the best things to wear would be.

After play we received a letter from Alfred Cook (Son of the great James Cook) who wanted to test our exploring abilities. He told us that he had left us some treasure but we needed to follow the clues to find it. Then he left us a list of objects that we had to find around the school. Miss Harris's group came first and Mr. Merchant and Mr Nelson's group joint second.

In the afternoon we did some role-play about an exploring adventure and then created a mindmap for everything that we could remember about exploring and explorers.

We had a great day.

Our topic next term is the Seaside so we are looking forward to that too!

Mr. Merchant

Olympic Week 2011

We had great fun at Olympic week. We tried lots of different activities including Parachute games, Capoeira, Yoga, Speedstacking and Gymnastics. Please find above some photographs of the fun that we and the whole school had during the week. We are looking forward to Olympic week next year as 2012 is a special year for sport!

A reminder that we have our Explorer day on Thursday where we will spend the whole day taking part in Explorer based activities. Children are invited to come to school dressed as explorers for the day. We look forward to seeing your costumes! Don't forget your explorer tools too - they may come in useful!

Amazing Work!

On Monday Mrs Crouch from Chigwell Infants School came in to work with some of us in the forest. We had great fun finding hidden cards, playing the 'Wake the dragon' game and building a house for a rat! The children who didn't get a chance to take part in the session will have their session this week.

In Literacy we worked extremely hard with our Reading and Writing assessments :-)

In Numeracy we enjoyed mental maths week and reminded ourselves of Number bonds to 10, 20 and 100, Odd and Even numbers, Ordering numbers and Right angles.

In P.E we finished and performed our jump and travel sequences and performed them to the rest of the group. We spoke about what was good about our sequences and how we could improve them.

We are all looking forward to Olympic week next week. Please ensure that children have their P.E kit in school each day and bring 1 pound to come dressed as a sporting hero on Friday.

Mr. Merchant

'Stop, Look, Listen, Think'

This week Year 1 and 2 had Mrs Cray from the Redbridge Road Safety team visit to talk to the children about how to keep safe on the roads. We enjoyed acting out the different vehicles and thinking about how to cross the road safely. We learnt how important the words 'Stop, Look, Listen, Think' are when we are crossing the road.

In Numeracy we have been thinking about measuring. We learnt about the difference between standard and non-standard measures and how to estimate and measure accurately. We looked at an investigation into 'Do taller people have bigger hands?' and found out that they don't.

In Literacy we have been looking at the book, 'Bob's best ever friend' We created a new friend for Bob thinking about what makes a good descriptive piece of writing. The children may have told you about the alien spaceship that landed in the playground, yet we are still to find the alien so he may still be in the school somewhere!

Next week we are all looking forward to mental maths week and getting better at our number skills.

Homework this week is Literacy, due in Wednesday. Children have also taken their road safety competitions home to complete.

Mr. Merchant

Money Money Money!

Well done for all your hard work this half term :-)

Above are some photographs of our jumps that we have been practising in Gymnastics this half term!

This week in Numeracy we have been learning about money. We learnt about why we need money, how to add coins together, how to find amounts and how to find change.

In Literacy we have been looking at poetry and we looked at lots of different types of poems and thought about the features of a poem. We wrote our own funny poems.

Next term in Design and Technology we will be making our own Explorer vehicles out of junk materials so please bring in any old food packaging i.e. cereal boxes, cardboard tubes, plastic containers etc for us to use.

We also have our Explorer day coming up when children will be invited to come into school dressed as an explorer and we will spend the whole day exploring our school! More details will be out soon!

We hope you have a lovely half term and will see you back at school on Monday 28th February.

Mr. Merchant and the Year 2 team

China Week!

This week we were very busy because it was China week! In Numeracy we learnt how to count to 20 in Mandarin. We also had a go at counting backwards too which was a little more tricky! We had a go at some addition and subtraction calculations using Chinese numbers as well as some word problems with Chinese numbers. We also looked at special shape patterns called Tangrams. We had to use the shapes to copy some patterns. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can guess what the pattern is of.

In Literacy we listened to some stories told by a special Chinese storyteller called Tony. We learnt how to write our names in Chinese as well as write a Chinese factfile about ourselves.

In P.E we learnt a traditional Chinese martial art called Tai-Chi.

We had great fun and learnt a lot about China and the Chinese way of life.