Week 1

Spirituality Day

Our week started with us revisiting the 4 areas of spirituality and how they apply to our daily lives. The children focussed on the "mirror" and spent time focussing on themselves by saying nice things about themselves to remind them that they can do anything if they put their mind to it. We then focussed on the "door" and discussed different scenarios and how we might resolve them taking into account other peoples' feelings. After that we looked at the "window" and went out onto the field to appreciate our natural environment. Finally we looked at the "candle" and thought about big questions we had.  

English - Pattan's Pumpkin

This week in English we have started our new writing journal, looking at an Indian traditional tale called Pattan's Pumpkin. To get a better understanding of the force of a flood, the children explored using different musical instruments to create a sound scape of an Indian flood. The children then sequenced and retold the story by walking through the story with actions before wallowing on unfamiliar words to work out their meanings.

Maths - Addition and subtraction

This week the children have continued to develop their number knowledge by working on their fluency, problem solving and reasoning by solving calculations involving adding and subtracting two two digit numbers both including non bridging and bridging tens. The children also looked for all the possible ways of making 10 or 20 by combining 3 one digit numbers and solved missing number problems using the inverse operations.

Butterflies

Around 3 weeks ago the PTA very kindly brought us caterpillars to care for and grow. This week our wriggling cocoons continued to be stubborn and remain in their chrysalis apart from one, who emerged on Monday and whom we set free in our own butterfly garden at the end of the week.

Geography - Uganda

This week we started our final geography topic by recapping what we have learnt throughout the year and expanding on it by exploring the question "are all rural villages the same?" The children had pictures of villages from around the world, including Catherington and Uganda, and compared their similarities and differences.

Art - African printing

This term the children are exploring the artistic technique of printing. This week the children learnt about the Namibian printer John Mufangejo who created artistic prints through carving out designs in wood before painting them and then printing them on paper and fabric. The children explored how African art is inspired by nature and things around them, how they like to use warm colours and how repeating patterns are used in linear and circular designs. The children explored creating linear prints by using things around them using traditional warm colours.

PE - Dance - Words

This term the children are using what they heave learnt this year to create movement pieces linked to words and word meanings. This week the children were given words such as "freeze" and "melt" as a stimulus to create different positions and movements using their bodies.

Week 2

Caring for God's Acre

On Monday afternoon we took the Children over to All Saints church to take part in love your burial ground week. The children learnt how to measure the height of trees by looking through their legs, went on a scavenger hunt to find symbols on graves that told us information about the people buried there, created gravestone rubbings, made bird feeders and got to enjoy taking time to admire the beauty of nature around the grounds looking at plants and wildlife including finding a slow worm!! 

The Final Straw Project Beach Trip

On Tuesday we were very lucky to be invited down to Hayling Island to have a fun day on the beach with Kate and Zoe from our supported charity The Final Straw Project. The children went on a scavenger hunt to find as many different treasures the beach had to offer such as a variety of shells, stones, seaweed, cuttle fish and crabs. The children then got creative by using the treasures they had found to create artwork before having lunch on the beach followed by a spot of paddling, stone throwing and skimming.  

English - Figurative language

This week in English we have looked at our focus text in detail to explore the different figurative language  Chitra Soundar, the author, uses for effect. The children developed their understanding of expanded noun phrases to describe the storm, revisited their knowledge of spelling rules when adding the suffix -er for comparative adjectives and explored using similes.

Maths - Fractions of shape, length and quantity

This week the children developed their knowledge of fractions by finding, recognising and writing fractions for different shapes, lengths and quantities.

Geography - Where in the world is Uganda?

This week the children reviewed their knowledge and understanding of the world by identifying and naming the world's 7 continents and 5 oceans before locating Africa and then Uganda. The children used atlases to find and colour in where Uganda is located in the continent of Africa as well as finding out the name of its capital city and national flag. 

PE - Athletics - Sprinting

This week in PE the children explored the importance of  incorporating different body movements to maximise the best results when sprinting. The children practised running with their arms by their sides compared to their arms swinging, running with high knees and running with their head down compared to looking forward. 

Week 3

PSHE - You can do it!

Our week started by the children learning about how we learn. They thought about things that they can do now that they couldn't do as a baby and how they learnt to do them. They learnt about the learning line and the journey we go through to learn new skills and the importance of encouragement from others to get there. The children then put this into practise by trying to learn how to juggle.

English - Innovating a traditional tale

This week in English the children have been learning to create their own cultural traditional tales by using Pattan's Pumpkin as a stimulus. The children changed the characters, the vegetable and how the flood started and have created some exciting new tales which they will be publishing next week and making it in to a new book to go in our reading area.

Maths - Counting in fractional steps

This week in maths the children have been developing their knowledge of fractions by exploring counting in fractional steps. The children used fractional shapes, apples and number lines to show physically show the calculation of fractions. The children then were able to apply this into finding missing numbers in a fractional step sequence and solve problems.

Sports Day

On Wednesday we were lucky to have amazing weather and CM Sports to host our sports day. The children had a great time and were able to show our values through tackling different sporting challenges and cheering each other on.

Art - African circular prints

Following on from last weeks exploration of print making with things from their immediate environment, the children looked at examples of how repeated patterns were used in circular prints and had a go at creating their own.

Queen Elizabeth Country Park

As part of of geography topic on Uganda, the children spent a day a Queen Elizabeth Country Park which is twinned with Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. The children spent the day looking for different tourist attractions visitors to the park could use along with the different types of animals seen living in or around the park. The children will then be researching what Queen Elizabeth National Park is like to compare similarities and differences.

Week 4

Maths - Fractions and time

This week the children continued to develop their understanding of fractional counting by playing a game of fraction bingo. The children took it in turns to choose a fraction and if it was their chosen shape they had to add it to their board in the right place to create a continual sequence showing counting in halves quarters and thirds. The children then used their understanding of fractions and applied it to help them tell the time in quarterly intervals, recognising  quarter past, half past, and quarter to. The children also used their knowledge of the 5 time tables to help them work out the time to in 5 minute increments.

The Romsey Project

In preparation for their leavers service at Romsey Abbey, the children have focused on the theme of the service which is courage. The children had a really good discussion about what courage means to them and then created posters to show this. These are going to be put together to make a giant courage poster. The children also wrote prayers on having courage to make a difference. These have been made into one long prayer which will be read out by a couple of our children at the service next week.

Eddie the Penguin saves the World

The children have really thrown themselves into our end of year show. This week the children have worked really hard to learn their lines, lyrics to all of the songs and the actions with them. The children are really excited about performing on the stage next week in preparation to performing to audiences the following week.

Week 5 

Spelling - Contractions

This week in our spelling unit we focussed on contractions and how an apostrophe is used to show where a letter or letters have been removed. The children created flip-flap strips to help them make and remember the contracted forms of words.

English - The Hunter by Paul Geraghty

This week we started our final writing journey linked to our Uganda topic by exploring Paul Geraghty's The Hunter. Before looking at the book the children were given the challenge of sorting a bag words under headings of "character", "setting" and adjectives. Once they had sorted the words, the children then made their own predictions about what they thought the story might be about before looking at the front cover to see if they were right. As this story deal with an unfamiliar topic of poaching the children listened to the story and then took on the roles of the different characters to understand how the characters might feel throughout the story and the powerful adjectives that could be used to show how strong the emotions are and change.

Maths - Money

This week we revisited money and explored how we can use different coin combinations to make similar amounts. The children were able to work systematically to show increasing combinations and were able to use the polya method to problem solve.

Geography - Africa and the UK - Cities

This week the children used their knowledge of cities to compare similarities and differences between cities in Africa and the UK including Uganda. The children were able to recognise that all cities had similar human features such as skyscrapers, shopping centres and sports stadiums whilst some had different physical features depending where they were. 

Year 2 Romsey Abbey Leavers Service

On Thursday we all boarded a coach and took the long journey to Romsey Abbey. When we arrived, we got to explore the incredible abbey through doing a scavenger hunt and finding answers to different questions on things in and around the abbey. We were joined by three other schools to commemorate our Year 2's moving on to their next adventure. The theme of the service was courage and lots of our children showed this when they took on roles being flag bearers, speaking in front of a full abbey, sharing our art work on courage and reading out our prayers we wrote about courage. We will be sharing our artwork and prayers in our leavers service at All Saints Church in a couple of weeks.

Week 6

Eddie the Penguin saves the world - Year 2 end of year show.

Wow!!!! Seahorses blew us away with 3 amazing performances this week - a dress rehearsal to the whole school and 2 show to our grown ups. The children have worked so hard learning their lines and song lyrics and actions - it was fabulous seeing it all come together so well. The children showed how courageous they were and what can be achieved when we push ourselves out of our comfort zones. A huge well done to the whole Seahorse class, we are so proud of you.

Maths - Measurement

This week in maths the children have put their knowledge of measuring using standard metric units to accurately measure the lengths and weigh the mass of different objects, including themselves. The children then used their knowledge to read scales and work out the length and mass of a range of items. 

English - Features of a non chronological report

This week the children reviewed what features are used in a non chronological report in preparation for creating their own reports on the African big game animals. The children looked through examples of non chronological reports on other animals and identified and highlighted the known features.

Art - Printing using John Muafangejo techniques

This week the children learnt about Nigerian print artist John Muafangejo and how he used the things he saw around him to inspire his artwork and use wood to carve his designs to create a printing plate. The children chose examples of Muafangejo's artwork to create a printing plate template using a sharp pencil and polystyrene tiles.  

Computing - Reprogramming 

This week the children learnt how to use two new programming tools within Scratch Jr. The first was how to run a programme by tapping on the sprite instead of setting up an algorithm with the starting flag. The other tool was introducing different commands that were said by the sprite that led to the background changing. The children were set the challenge of creating a program using these tools which when run made it look as if the sprite was able to command the four seasons to change.

Geography - Uganda Homework

On Thursday the children shared their amazing homework with their friends and the rest of the school on what they had found out about Uganda. Thank you to all the parents for the help and support they gave their children in creating such visual and informative pieces.

Science - forces that work against each other

This week the children learnt about resistance forces that affect how things move. The children initially discussed and explored gravity before on to exploring air resistance and friction. The children set up experiments using marbles and board with different materials on them to explore how these forces impact on the motion of the marble. The children recorded how far marbles rolled when things were changed such as: the size of the marble, the material and the gradient of the slope.

PE - Athletics - relay and hurdles

This week the children focussed on the importance of sportsmanship alongside collaboration and cooperation when competing against each other in a range of different relay events. The children used what they had learnt in their PSHE lessons about encouraging their team mates to help them perform to their best ability. The children then explored how stride pattern, balance and hand /eye coordination can help them when introducing hurdles whilst maintaining speed.

Week 7

RE Week - Belonging - Good news

This week was RE week and the children thought about what "Good news" meant and how Jesus and his disciples spread Good news about God. The children made their own "Good news" cards and thought about who might like/need to receive it before delving deeper into what the good news Jesus and the disciples were talking about. The children explored the importance of forgiveness and peace and thought about how the church for some Christians helps them give thanks for the Good news, as well as thinking about their own special places that help them show love, forgiveness and be peaceful.

Openbox Theatre visit

On Monday we had an end of year treat with Openbox performing their twisted tales stories. The children and teachers had a good laugh as Kenn and Iain performed their versions of Little Red riding hood and Jack and the beanstalk.

Maths - Measurement and geometry

This week the children finished off using their knowledge of standard metric units of measurement to accurately work out the capacity of various containers. We then moved on to using our properties of shape knowledge for 2D and 3D shapes to solve different problems such as mystery shapes, tangrams and stability of structures. 

Art - Printing

This week the children finished their own printing work inspired by John Mufangaejo. The children used paint rollers to coat their polystyrene plates before carefully pressing down onto paper and removing to leave a print and negative of their artwork.

PSHE - I don't like that!

In PSHE this week we reviewed the NSPCC PANTS rule by looking at what is appropriate and inappropriate physical contact. The children looked at different types of contact from giving high fives and hugging to kissing and hitting. The children discussed WHO it was okay to have this contact with, and even IF it was appropriate contact at all. The children then discussed who they would talk to if they felt unsafe about anything.