Author: Tara Oughton

We have had another busy week at  school. 

Thank you to our science visitor who came in this week to talk to Year 2 about their project involving turtles. We were amazed that the temperature of the sand affects whether the eggs hatch to become male or female turtles. With climate change, this is resulting in increasing numbers of female turtles!

In Literacy we have been continuing our work on Emperor Penguins – we are now such experts that we are preparing to publish our own non chronological reports. We have been writing our introductions and subheadings and are ready to continue next week. We can’t wait to show you the final books.

In maths we have started to look at measuring temperature and reading the scale on a thermometer. We measured the temperature of water which had been left in different locations to see how this varied too. You might want to continue using ‘Hit the Button’  to practise number bond recall. We have been using this to investigate what happens when we add odd and even numbers. What patterns do you notice?

We have enjoyed looking at symmetry and using both pencil and pastel to create our final pieces of artwork ready for display. We are really proud of our tiger artwork!

Tuesday 7th February is national Safer Internet Day. The children have spent time in class discussing and learning about how to stay safe online. The main focus of our learning has been the importance of talking to a trusted grown-up if the children come across anything they don’t like or are unsure of online. We have also touched on our SMART rules for using digital devices and the internet and the different places we can go for help. Ask your child at home about what they can remember about our discussion and for any further information or guidance about staying safe online or Safer Internet Day please visit http://www.damers.dorset.sch.uk/parents/online-safety/ or https://www.saferinternetday.org 

It’s the end of another week and January is nearly at an end too!

We’ve been enjoying learning about the polar regions and why they are often very cold. We started to look at some of the animals which live there too.

Also, we’ve been thinking about different animals and their habitats. We explored the school grounds and found lots of insects and even a slow worm! We then designed a habitat for an animal which may live in the school grounds and thought about what it might need to provide shelter, food and water in order for it to survive. 

We’re looking forward to welcoming you into our classes next Tuesday 31st January for our next ‘stay and…’ session.  The children are keen to share their learning with you and we hope you can make it. 

If you are able to make it, please join your child as they walk into their classroom for their usual arrival time. Sessions last approximately 20 minutes but you are welcome to leave earlier. 

For future dates for the whole school, please see: 

http://www.damers.dorset.sch.uk/parents/stay-and/ 

Starting today it’s The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2023.

This will be taking place from Friday 27th –  Sunday 29th January. If you sign up for Big Garden Birdwatch you’ll get a free informative guide on how to take part, which includes an ID chart to help you spot familiar UK garden bird species. https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/birdwatch-take-part/ 

Simply count the birds you see from your garden, balcony or local park for an hour, then go online to tell RSPB what you saw. You can watch from inside or wrap up warm and sit quietly with the birds outside.Here are some birds to look out for https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-to-spot?utm_source=20230501_EBGB_Nurture%202&utm_medium=email&utm_term=&utm_content=17&utm_campaign=BGBW23

What a busy week it’s been. From sunshine and ice to a short lived downfall of snow! 

We’ve been multiplying in our classes and have been recalling our 2, 5 and 10 times tables. You may like to have a look at this website for a fun game. http://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

We had a familiar visitor in class earlier this week. We enjoyed learning about how plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces and makes its way through the river catchment to our rivers and streams before ending up in the sea. We then had great fun looking through water samples and looking for different invertebrates under a magnifying glass.

We hope that you all enjoyed Year 2’s performance of A Christmas Carol. The children have worked so hard and I am so proud of them all, they were amazing on stage!

Things are beginning to feel festive with the Secret Shop and class rehearsals.

Meadow 2 have been rehearsing all week and we cannot wait for you to come and see the performance of A Christmas Carol. I am so proud of them all! Please have a look at the lyrics below and learn these ready for next weeks performance. You should have received a costume letter, please send costumes as soon as possible so that we can ensure everything is ready.

We have been busy practising our Christmas play, ‘A Christmas Carol’ which we are looking forward to continuing next week. Hopefully you will have received a costume letter today, please speak to your child’s class teacher if you have any questions. We are also doing lots of singing in readiness for our performance.

Thank you to everyone who came to our ‘Stay and… spell’ session, it was lovely to see you all and to share the different methods we use for practising our spellings in school. Here are some of the ways we practise them in class. We are using these with particular focus on our Year 1 and 2 common exception words.

We really enjoyed our festive ‘Bling Your Bike’ morning and there were lots of festive scooters and bikes, well done to all who took part. It was great to see your creativity as you paraded around the playground.

We are looking forward to continuing our work on the Christmas play next week, we hope you have a restful weekend.

Another week has flown by. We have been using different methods for subtraction. 

We can use a number line.

We have also been learning to use column subtraction supported by dienes on a tens and ones grid too.

In literacy, we have continued to read the book  ‘Here We Are’. You might like to share this story at home with your family too. We have enjoyed reading about the world around us and also thinking of the things we love about the world and describing them using adjectives such as ‘graceful otters’.

In science, we had great fun making lolly stick catapults and seeing how far different objects travelled when they were launched!

Another week has zoomed by! We have been learning why some people choose to wear poppies at this time of year and have discussed why the 11th November is remembered in this country. We created our own poppy pictures too.

We enjoyed our trip to Shire Hall and learning about a VIctorian child called Harry Parker. We visited the courtroom and also the cells. Thank you to the adults who came with us on the trip, your time and support is greatly appreciated.

In maths we have continued using the column method to add one digit and 2 digit numbers. We have talked about ‘renaming’. We add the ‘ones’ first, and sometimes this makes a number more than 10. Here’s an example of how we’ve set it out in our books: 

43 +8 = 

First, we add the 3 ones and the 8 ones.

This makes 11 (so we’ve renamed the ones and made a new ten). 

Then we add the four tens (from 40) and the one ten (from 11). 

Sometimes we do not need to ‘rename because the ‘ones’ do not add up to make a number that is 10 or more like in this example:

In literacy, we have been thinking about diversity amongst people by looking at these characters from the book ‘Here we are’. 

We have used verbs to describe what the people are doing and have used adjectives to describe what they are holding. We have tried to use two adjectives using a comma too. Here’s an example:

The musician is holding a tall, wooden instrument. 

The chef is carefully cooking some tasty, green food with a hot, metal pan. 

The musician is playing a large, wooden instrument. 

Thank you for sharing your children’s home learning with us about the tin foil boats! The children shared their photos, pictures and boats with the class! This week, we’re thinking about different materials used for buildings.