Week 7 (Science Week)

It's been all about bridges in Class 2 this week. Researching, designing, building and evaluating bridges. We had lots and lots of questions about bridges which started some very interesting discussions about materials, properties, shapes, transport, geography and history.

We spent some time doing research, using books and websites to find interesting facts about famous bridges around the world. We matched the bridges to countries on a world map to show where they are and some are very far away from us here in England But we discovered that there are also some very famous and fascinating bridges in our country too.

We were then given a specific design criteria and asked to design a bridge which could carry a train across the River Forth. We investigated various materials and learnt how some materials, which we thought weren't very strong, could be made stronger by combining them or changing their shape.

Then came the day that we were all looking forward to - time to build some brilliant bridges! Teamwork was our greatest resource and we used it in abundance. We had designers, instructors, builders and evaluators in each team. The bridge had to be big enough to bridge a gap in the tables and it had to be strong enough to hold a toy train. (Or two toy trains if we were really showing off!) I'm sure you will agree that the results were amazing and we definitely have a few pioneering engineers of the future here in class 2.

Week 7

Do you know how to use the internet safely? We do, because this week we have been learning about internet safety with Hector. Want to know more? Just click on the link below to meet Hector and his friends who learn all about staying safe online. There is also a link for parents who want to know more about how they can keep their children safe online.

Mrs Tordoff is worried that she is going to be late for important events like playtime and assembly so this week we thought we would keep her on time by learning how to tell the time. We can tell the time using either an analogue or digital clock but a bit of extra practise at home would really help because we really don't want to be late for anything. There is a link below to a game that we have enjoyed using this week to practise telling the time.

Common exception words, sometimes called red words or tricky words, are rebels! They don't quite follow the spelling or phonics rules that children are taught in Years 1 and 2. Leaning how to read and spell these words in fun ways really helps. Click on the link below for the words, find the most fun way to learn them and tell Mrs Tordoff all about it!

We started the 10 day active challenge this week and even though many children live too far away from school to walk all the way here, some have been doing a 'park and stride' by encouraging their parents to park a little further away from school and walking the rest of the way. A massive 'WELL DONE' to those children for being more active and also helping the school environment by reducing the amount of car fumes in the air around school.

Week 6

Rapunzel is till our favourite leading lady here in Class 2. This week we created story maps and then used them to write our own narratives based upon Rapunzel's adventures. 

In Maths, we helped Mrs Tordoff sort out her finances! We learnt about the value of each coin and used this to create the amounts of money that Mrs Tordoff needed to pay each of her bills. We learnt that the same amount can often be made in several different ways using coins of various values. So we investigated different ways to make 5p, 10p, 20p, 30p etc. 

The highlight of this week was definitely the Parent Topic Session. We made the most fabulous castles and each and every one was very creative and unique. Some parents/carers had done a little bit of preparation with their children at home which was fabulous and others started from scratch on the day which was like an amazing Krypton Factor challenge! Mrs Tordoff loved seeing the children leading the learning, interacting with parents/carers and sharing their knowledge of castles.

Thank you to everyone who attended and for the many, many positive comments. It really does make all the preparation worthwhile and proves that working together achieves the best possible outcomes for all. 

Week 5

Well it has been another action packed week here in class 2!

In maths we met a Monkey who likes to climb up and down the hundred square in our classroom. When we created the number sentences, we worked out that he liked to find ten more and 10 less that the number he started on - what a clever little Monkey!

In Literacy we have been exploring the story of Rapunzel. We became characters from the story using our special 'character cloak' and we were 'hot-seated' (the seat wasn't hot at all!) But we asked the character in the hot-seat lots of questions and they had to talk about how they felt and why they did the things that happened in the story.

On Tuesday we received a letter from Rapunzel, she is coming to visit! Where will she stay though? Even though she has been released from the tower, she still likes to live on the top floor and our school doesn't have one. So we went outside and had a go at building some towers. We worked out that a flat, wide base was needed to build the tallest tower and we were very creative with our designs.

Friday was 'British Values Day' in school and we were all thinking about how to be excellent British citizens. Thinking about Mutual Tolerance and Respect, we listened to the Rainbow Fish story and thought about how Rainbow Fish felt because he was different to the other fish but he was not a good friend. We learnt that being kind and polite is more important that being beautiful.

Thinking about the Rule of Law, we played games which taught us the importance of working together and abiding by the same rules. Then we played games where the rules weren't very clear and it became obvious that when people cheated, it was not fair and spoilt the game for everyone. What an important lesson to learn!

Week 4

After our trip to Conisbrough Castle last week, we thought it would be nice to let the staff at the Castle know that we really enjoyed learning all about life there 850 years ago. So we decided to post 'Thank you' letters and we used time connectives to write, in the correct order, about the fantastic activities we did on our visit.

In maths, we investigated all of the number pairs that make a total of 10. We were so good at this that we were able to use what we had learnt to investigate ways of making 20!

During our ICT lesson this week, we were lucky enough to have a visit from Miss Lassu. She taught us about coding and how to use a programme that teaches us how to code. The programme we used is called 'Hour of Code' and is free to use. Simply click on the link below to find the website.

Week 3

We love exciting, interactive learning experiences here in Class 2 and this week has been full of them! In PE we were Knights defending our castles from attack by catching the cannonballs and sending them back to the enemy. This also gave us an opportunity to learn how to use a chest pass and aim accurately, but mostly it was about being brave Knights!

Of course every great Knight should have a fabulous shield decorated with their very own coat of arms. So we learnt all about design, pattern, colour and symbols and used this information to start creating our designs. We are looking forward to evaluating and improving our designs before actually making our shields.

Remember that poet who came to visit? Well, we used the ideas that he gave us to write our very own poem about 'The Dragon in the Castle'. Our adjectives were so amazing that Mrs Tordoff admitted to feeling a little bit scared of our dragons! We worked so hard that we even managed to learn about using alliteration too.

In Maths, we continued to use place value to solve problems and our favourite activity this week was a problem solving game where we had to use our knowledge of place value to work out the missing numbers. We can be very competitive in class 2!

The grand finale this week was our class visit to Conisbrough Castle and what a fabulous day we had. We dressed up as people who lived in the Castle hundreds of years ago and we explored the very grand Keep. Hope you enjoy our photos from the visit....

Week 2

We had a very exciting start to the week here at Sacred Heart with a visit from a real author! Paul Cookson (Poet, Performer and Average Ukulele Player!) launched the day with a very entertaining assembly which inspired every child and adult in the hall. So we were very enthusiastic when Paul joined our class to write an amazing poem called 'The Dragon in the Castle'. The poem is not completely finished yet but we are VERY pleased with it so far - watch this space for the final published version.

If you would like to learn more about Paul Cookson then just click on the link below.

In preparation for our visit to Conisbrough Castle next week we have also been learning all about the history of Castles. Did you know that Castles weren't always such grand places? In fact, they started out as just a collection of huts with a wooden wall around them, sometime during the Iron Age. The Iron Age was a very long time ago - even before Mrs Tordoff was born!

In Maths we have been placing numbers on a number line and counting in multiples of 10. Then on Friday Mrs Tordoff dropped her shopping in the classroom and pasta went EVERYWHERE! We decided to find out which group of children could find the most pasta and we used counting in multiples of 10 to help us solve the problem as there was A LOT of pasta!

Remember we have the visit to Conisbrough Castle next Friday 21st September and your child will need a rucksack to carry their lunch and drink in, even if it is provided by school, because their hands will be very busy doing lots of fabulous activities. For more information about the visit please click on the 'Letters to Parents' link below.

Week 1

The children were very pleased to see each other again and eager to share the stories of their summer holiday adventures. We made the children who have joined our class feel very welcome and we decided that we would become the 'Wise Owls' because we are all so clever!

We have had many discussions about the importance of making good choices and we created our class rules to guide us with this. 

Our class rules are:

• Eyes looking
• Ears listening
• Mouth quiet
• Raise hand to speak
• Keep hands and feet to self
• Have fun and learn! 

One of our many exciting tasks this week was to work with a friend to build an owl. We had to listen carefully to instructions and to each other - it was great fun!