Welcome to Seahorse Class 2023

Meet the Teacher

It was lovely to see so many parents at the "Meet the teacher" meeting on Wednesday. For those that weren't able to make it or for those who want to look back at the PowerPoint please see the link below.

Week 1

Wow!!!! What a first week we have had. The children have blown us away with how well they have all settled into Year 2 and have been so courageous by completing all of the weeks tasks despite the heatwave!!!

PE - Gymnastics (high and low) and multi-skills (beanbags)

Both PE sessions happened outside in the shade this week. On Wednesday, the children showed their creativity when they explored different ways of making different parts of their bodies really high or really low. The children practised using their arms to help propel them into their jumps and the importance of landing with bent knees. The children then explored how they could move from a high position into a low position in one smooth movement.

On Friday the children showed their creativity again when they demonstrated the different ways of balancing and travelling with a bean bag using different parts of their bodies. They then developed their hand eye coordination by kicking the beanbag up in to the air and trying to catch it and then moving on to throwing it up in the air and seeing how many claps they could do before catching it.

Maths - Place Value

To start off our maths journey this year we focussed on numbers and place value. This week the children had a go at solving number riddles to work out the mystery numbers, recognise and order numbers from 0 - 100, and recognise different representations of numbers.

Geography - Catherington and beyond

The children boarded "Dickenson Airlines" this week to take an imaginative flight over and Catherington village. The children were amazing at being able to recall so many different physical and human features that made up Catherington village which they could see during the flight. We then used Google Earth to help us see beyond Catherington and begin to look at the geographical differences between Catheington (a village), Cowplain and Waterloovile (towns), and Portmouth (a city).

Design and Technology - Wheels and axles

For the start of their DT topic, the children were set the challenge of creating a list of as many different things they could think of that had a wheel and an axle. The children didn't disappoint, not only did they come up with different transportation and toys, they also started to think about how an axle is used to make other things move such as windmills and fans too. 

Phonics and spelling

This week the children have been recapping their phonic knowledge from Year 1 by looking at alternative pronunciations of different graphemes and alternative spellings for different phonemes.  

English - Dougal's deep sea diary

Our first book stimulus this year is Dougal's deep sea diary by Simon Bertram. The children showed great curiosity when they came up with lots of different questions they wanted to find out when the front cover of the book was slowly revealed. We explored the power of words using a zone of relevance by sorting words from good to amazing e.g the word "happy" is okay but the word "ecstatic" is so much more powerful. The children finished the week by searching a double page spread of Atlantis and creating noun phrases by post it noting as many different nouns that they could see and then creating powerful adjectives to go with them.

Week 2

English - Features of a postcard

This week in English the children have learnt to be able to recognise and identify the features that make up a postcard. The children looked at different postcards and labelled the different features and were also able to identify expanded noun phrases and questions. This then led to the children planning their own postcards in preparation for next week when we will be writing them and sending them off. 

Maths - Counting on and back in 10s

This week we have been continue to develop our knowledge of how numbers may be represented before moving on to counting on and back in jumps of 10 from 0 and other numbers. We learnt that when we count in 10s the "ones" number remains the same and the "tens" number changes.

PE - Gymnastics - High and low body parts

This week the children took what they had learnt from their floor work from last week and applied it to using different pieces of apparatus. The children then explored shifted body weight to aid balance to enable them to hold different high and low positions whilst on different apparatus.

DT - Wheels and axles

The children were told about a problem we have in class. what happens if you are at one end of the table but the pencil pots are at the other end? How are you going to be able to get a pencil without leaving your seat or disturbing the whole table? The solution - a pencil pot trolley!!! The children were then given a variety of wheels and possible axles and were set the challenge of exploring what makes a good axle, where to position the axle, and how best to join the wheel to the axle. It was discovered that shorter wooden axles were far better than longer straw ones.

Science - Our field and evidence of supporting life

As part of our science field study, we will be making different observations throughout the year and consider how it helps support life. Last week we investigated what all living things need to survive and this week we went out to find evidence to support our hypotheses. 

PE - Games - Throwing and catching with a ball

This week we focussed on developing our throwing and catching skills. We started off looking at the importance of when we release a ball to help send it in the direction  we want as well as being on the balls of our feet to help move ourselves into good positions to receive our returning balls. We also focussed on using the cupping position and motion to help us catch the ball before moving on to one handed catching. To finish the children created games using the techniques they had been developing.

Week 3

Geography - Catherington Lith field trip

This week as part of our geography topic on villages and cities, we ventured out in the blustery wind up on to Catherington Lith. From there the children were able to look across the village of Clanfield and identify all the physical features that make Clanfield a village - houses, lots of fields, trees, a windmill, and a few shops. When we turned around to look south out on to the Solent the children were able to identify the naval barracks on top of Portsdown Hill. With some assistance, and by really squinting through the on coming rain clouds, the children also identified the Spinnaker Tower and the many buildings that make up the city of Portsmouth around it.

PSHE - Good listening and problem solving

This week in PSHE we focussed on the importance of good listening skills to help solve problems. The children were given a range of real life school scenarios and in groups were given the task of acting out the problem and then thinking about how they would resolve the problem positively. Working in groups made the children understand the importance of good listening when listening to their friends ideas and adding their own thoughts on how to solve their different problems.

English - Planning, writing, editing and publishing

This week the children used their plans from last week to write their own postcards from Atlantis. They then edited their own work by looking for missing capital letters, finger spaces and full stops before looking at how to improve their postcards by adding adjectives. Finally, the children used their neatest handwriting to publish their postcards before giving them to their chosen recipient or taking them home.

Maths - Number bonds to 10 and 20

This week the children have continued to develop their place value knowledge by focussing on finding all the different number bonds to 10 and 20. The children looked at using a system and finding the pattern to work out all the different ways 10 and 20 could be made.   

Science - Where does our food come from?

This was the question the children answered this week. After initially suggesting shops, the children delved deeper and came to the conclusion that a lot of our food comes from plants. This then got them thinking about how plants are grown and where their seeds come from and then whether or not all seeds were the same. The children were shown a variety of fruits from commonly recognised apples and oranges, to less well known fruits such as pomegranate and aubergine. These were cut open to reveal their seeds which the children made observational drawings of labelling the different seeds.

Music - Storm Soundscapes

In this weeks music lesson the children were given the task of composing a piece of music that created the effect of a storm using vocals and body percussion. The children drew different symbols and pictures that related to a vocal sound or body percussion before nominating a conductor who conducted the others when performing their pieces to the rest of the class.

Week 4

Spirituality Day

On Tuesday we had our first spirituality day where we focused on what "spirituality" actually means by doing different activities and making key symbols to help us remember. A mirror = (Looking in) thinking about self, A window = (looking out) thinking about the wider world, A door = (empathy) thinking about others, and A candle = thinking beyond things we can see and that are bigger than us. 

English - Poetry and rhyming

This week we started our next writing journey by looking at the use of language for effect in poetry through "Commotion in the ocean" by Giles Andreae. The children started by looking through the poems and identifying the rhyming words and getting an understanding of rhyming couplets and how they are used. The children then moved on to look at expanding sentences further by the addition of adding verbs and adverbs and how some adjectives can be transformed into adverbs by adding "ly".

Maths - Place value problem solving

This week in maths the children used their mathematical knowledge and understanding of place value to help them solve addition and subtraction word problems. 

Music - Musical soundscape with instruments

Following on from last weeks lesson, the children learnt the song "Portside Pirates" by Oscar Seaworthy, and thought about the different soundscapes portrayed in the song. The children then got themselves into groups and explored the different musical effects that could be created by using different instruments. They then rehearsed in their groups before coming together as a whole class to perform the whole song, taking it in turns to use their instruments to create a soundscape to match the different parts of the song.  

Geography - Human features of Catherington and Portsmouth

This week the children explored aerial photos of Catherington and Portsmouth with the task of identifying the human features within them. We then discussed the difference between the photos and the reasons why there are more human features in and around Portsmouth than Catherington.

Week 5

English - Under the sea poems

This week the children have worked so hard thinking about how to use adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and even prepositions in sentences to make them exciting and interesting. The children used Commotion in the ocean as an inspiration to create their own under the sea poems. The children's poems will be made into a class book to be shared in our reading area and on Friday the children used a green screen to go under the sea to read their amazing poems.

Maths - Measurement

In maths this week we used our knowledge of numbers and place value in the context of measurement. At the start of the week the children explored measuring length using the metric unit of cm and getting an understanding of mm and metres through estimating and measuring actual objects. During the week Mr D wanted to open a wool shop and the children were able to help him sort out his wool by measuring the different lengths and ordering them accordingly. At the end of the week the children started to look at money and explored how different amounts could be made using only 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, and £1.

Science - Seeds

This week in science we went out onto our playground and field to find different examples of seeds. The children found a plethora of different seeds and thought about how these seeds were dispersed to end in the ground and hopefully reproduce.

Bounce for books

On Wednesday the children had a great time when they joined in with the rest of the school to help raise money for new home reading books. Thank you for everyone who sponsored and helped us.

PE - High and low body parts using apparatus

Following on from last weeks floor work, the children used their knowledge of high and low body positions and explored applying it when they were on different apparatus. The children travelled around the hall and over, under, and through apparatus whilst having different parts of their body being the highest or lowest. The children then explored adopting different balanced positions holding high and low parts before looking at how they could move on and around the apparatus from a high or low position to an alternative position smoothly.

Week 6

Class Assembly

We are all super proud of Seahorse Class for showing great courage when standing up and presenting examples of their learning from this term to their grown ups. You were fantastic.

Maths - Money, money, money

This week in maths we have been developing our knowledge of money by solving addition and subtraction problems. The children were able to help Mr Dickenson, Mrs White, Mrs Woodings, and Miss Watts with a range of money problems. The children then used their previous knowledge of step counting in 2's, 5's, and 10's in the context of coin values to show counting with 2ps, 5ps, and 10ps.

English - Emily Gravett's Tidy

As our value theme for this term is about pollution we started to look at our next book for our writing journey stimulus this week. We looked at photos of sea and land pollution around the world before reading Tidy. We started off by looking at different view points and thinking about how each character might feel throughout the story and using our Spiritual thought skill of "the door" to emphasise and role play what the characters might say during the story. We then moved on to look at features of an apology letter and identifying these in examples before moving on to planning our own apology letters as if we were the main character of Pete the Badger.

DT - Table top pencil pot carriers

After weeks of exploring wheels and axles and designing and editing their plans, the children made their table top pencil pot carriers this week. Some children took the wheel and axle idea to a different level by designing and creating a zip line style carrier whilst others went for the more conventional chassis on top of wheels and axles. There was a lot of modifying during the creation process and the children will be evaluating their designs next week.

PE - Bridging

Continuing focussing on high and low body parts, this week in PE the children explore how they could create bridges and move under and over them. 

Week 7

It was a mixed week of emotions this week in Seahorse class. The children were very excited about it nearly being half term after working courageously during the last 7 weeks. However, we had to say goodbye to two of our friends who are leaving our school for different reasons. We wish you both every success in your new schools and we will miss you.

RE week

This week was RE week and the children explored the importance of rest and looking after our world through developing their knowledge of the Christianity belief on creation. First of all, the children explored the difference between being busy and resting through listening and moving to two contrasting piece of music. We then thought about busy people in our own lives and what we could do to help them, before moving on to exploring and understanding Genesis Chapters 1-2 and relating it to their own lives and how they can make a difference in helping to look after the world.

English - Creating apology letters

This week the children planned, edited, and published apology letters from Pete the Badger to his animal friends in the woods. The children used what they had learnt about apology letters to plan and edit their work and ensure their letters were successful before using their neatest handwriting to publish them. We hope to send these off to Emily Gravett to show her our amazing work based on her story.

Maths - Adding and subtraction

This week the children have worked really hard solving problems involving money. The children have managed to successfully add and subtract 1 digit numbers from a 2 digit number, add and subtract tens from a 2-digit number, and adding 3 1 digit numbers together.

DT - Evaluating Pencil pot carriers

After last weeks fun of creating their designs, the children did the final crucial task and evaluated their designs. The children thought about what they liked about their design, the different problems they faced, how they overcame their problems, and what they would do differently next time.