Heating Materials!

In Science this week we were looking at what happened when you heat different materials. We heated different materials over a candle (chocolate, cheese, bread, oil, cracker and water) and saw whether they melted, burnt or stayed the same. First we had to make a prediction (this means a guess) about what we think would happen.

We also thought about how to make the investigation a fair test. Some of the ways to make it a fair test were using the same size of each material and heating for the same amount of time.

Look at the photographs above of the results of the investigation and see if you can guess what the material was before it was heated and what happened to it. Did it burn, melt or no change?

Can you remember what happened to the water?

Exploring Claybury Forest!

We had great fun this week when we did some exploring over Claybury Forest. First we walked through the puddles and mud and then reached the giant hill. We did some hill races and played a game called 'welly wanging' where we had to see who threw the wellington boot the furthest. Then we built some dens using old wood, before having a scavenger hunt and exploring the adventure playground. We enjoyed ourselves and did lots of exploring along the way.

Thank-you to everyone who helped to make the trips a success!

Mr. Merchant

Explorers!

This term we are all very excited because we are learning all about Explorers! We are also going to do some exploring of our own!

We started the topic by writing down everything that we already knew about explorers - what a lot we already knew!

Then we had to do some exploring of our own. We had to explore some unusual objects and try to guess what they were. One was a typewriter, one was a sieve, one was a compass, one was a religious vase and one was a pair of binoculars. We think we may be able to use some of these in our own exploration!

2M will visit Claybury Forest on Monday 17th and 2P on Tuesday 18th, where we will do some exploring of our own. Children should come to school in old clothes on this day with wellington boots and then bring clothes and to change into when we are back at school, as it will be very muddy over there.

Unfortunately I was off school ill on Thursday and Friday but heard that you all worked really hard so well done! I will hopefully be back on Monday.

Mr. Merchant



A video to introduce our topic. Please turn your sound up to enjoy the music!
Can you name any of these Explorers? Do you know what they explored?

Christmas Party and Christmas homework details

This week we have been very busy!

In Literacy we were looking at the Nativity story and its importance at Christmas. In Numeracy we were learning about doubling and halving numbers and word problems.

Today we had our Christmas party which we all really enjoyed. We had fun playing games, dancing and ofcourse eating our party food.

We wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year and look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 4th January.

Mr. Merchant and Miss Porter

Please find details of the homework for over the holidays below:

Christmas Homework

To be handed in on Wednesday 5th January 2011 please.

Literacy (In Homework books please)

Please write a diary for a week of your Christmas holidays. You can write about all of the exciting things that you did during the week, who you saw, what you played with, how you were feeling etc. You can also include pictures and photographs if you would like to.

Please remember to include the following in your diary:

- The date at the top of each entry.
- Full stops, capital letters and finger spaces.
- Connecting words.
- Adjectives (describing words)
- Different sentence starters – See if you can start your sentence with a different word to 'I'
- Your neatest handwriting.

Numeracy

Please continue to learn your 2,5 and 10 times tables.

Once you know them really well try solving some word problems which you need to use your times tables for such as;

- There are 6 people in each group. How many people would there be in 2 groups? (6 x 2 = 12)

- There are 8 sweets in a packet. How many sweets are there in 2 packets?

- There are 5 marbles in each jar. How many marbles would there be in 5 jars?

- There are 10 people in each classroom. How many people would there be in 10 classrooms?

Maths Challenge Day 'X-Maths'

Year 2 had great fun on maths challenge day. This term it had a Christmas theme and was called X-Maths. Some of us thought that the X stood for times tables but some of us knew that it meant 'Xmas' which is short for Christmas.

First of all we had to make up some Christmas word problems with a partner and share them with the rest of the class to solve. We came up with some excellent problems. Then we went into the hall where there were some hidden Christmas puddings. On the back of each Christmas pudding was a question which we had to solve with our group. Then we did some number games using the parachute.

Back in class we made some 3D star models which were a little tricky but looked great once they were done. It was good practice for our cutting skills!

We have also been rehearsing for our play. I hope you like the picture of all of us in our costumes.

Have a good weekend,

Mr. Merchant and the Year 2 team

Let it snow!

This week, amongst lots of rehearsals for our Christmas play, looking at money in Numeracy and looking at Julia Donaldson books in Literacy we had fun playing in the snow!

Please bring in your child's costume for the Christmas production as soon as possible if you have not already done so.

Some photographs of us having fun in the snow will be up soon!

Have a good weekend.

Countdown to Christmas!

This week we have been busy rehearsing for our Christmas performance. We enjoyed performing one of our favourite songs from the play in Good works assembly on Friday. The performance is called 'Countdown to Christmas' and follows a family's run-up to Christmas. The performance will be on Wednesday 15th December with Nursery AM, RB, 1J and 2P performing in the morning and Nursery PM, RC, 1M, 2M performing in the afternoon.

Please bring in your child's costume as soon as possible if you have not already done so.

In Numeracy we have been looking at tally charts and bar charts and how they can help us to collect data and look at the information and what it tells us.

In Literacy we have been looking at books by the author Julia Donaldson.

Homework this week is to learn our times tables for a test next week.

Thank-you for your continued support,

Mr. Merchant and the Year 2 team