Today we explored in more detail what a Mezuzah is and where it can be found. We started by reading some extracts from Exodus chapters 19 & 20 and discussed the 10 commandments which guide Jewish people. We then had a go at creating our own Mezuzahs, making sure we carefully placed the Torah scroll inside. We talked about how it is a reminder for Jewish people to always follow God’s law.
Today we learnt all about the things we need to survive. We had to distinguish between things that we enjoy having in our lives and things which actually keep us alive such as food, water, shelter and oxygen. We came up with an action to help us remember each one. Finally, we created posters to explain the 5 main things animals and humans need to survive.
Today we learnt about the impact of exercise on our bodies. We started by brainstorming the types of exercise we enjoy and why it is important to exercise. Afterwards, we investigated how exercise impacts our bodies by completing 1-minute exercises and discussing how we felt afterwards.
We started today by recapping the human life cycle and discussing how other animal’s life cycles can differ. For example, some animals come from eggs, and are not given birth to by their mother like mammals might be. We worked in pairs to try accurately matching animals and their young, talking about whether they came from eggs or not. We then looked in detail at the life cycle of a ladybird and created our own ladybird life cycle, using paper plates and paint. We learnt the new words ‘larvae’ and ‘pupae’, and created a ladybird life cycle display in our classroom!
Year 2 listened to a story called ‘Clean Up’ which was about a girl who encouraged others to help clean up a local beach, this was followed up with a video of children cleaning UK beaches. They learnt about the dangers of plastic to wildlife. Finally the children created posters to encourage others to ‘clean up’.
Year 2 had a very exciting day at Haynes Motor Museum! All children had the opportunity to have a tour of the museum. On the tour, we saw the first car ever made. We were even allowed to sit on it! We also looked at some other old cars and learned about how they work. Throughout the tour, we considered how cars have changed over time. We also had the chance to make some model cars. In our teams, it took us a long time to make our cars. However, we then learned about Henry Ford’s production line. We had another go at making the cars in a production line and were able to do this much quicker.
Our topic in Geography this half term was Kenya. This week we had a very exciting week creating lots of art related to Kenya! We started by looking at lots of pictures from Kenya, and noticed that the Maasai Tribe wear a lot of colourful clothes and jewellery, particularly red. We also spent some time analysing animal patterns such as those from zebras, giraffes and leopards. We practiced creating our own animal patterns using a variety of different mediums. Later, we used our favourite to become the background for our own silhouette pictures. We then went on to study a range of African masks, looking specifically at the patterns. we designed several and then chose our favourite to create our own African masks, thinking carefully about the colours and patterns that we used. To end the week we had a go at some colour mixing, to try and recreate the different sunset colours. We then designed our sunset backgrounds and cut out a range of silhouette African animals and trees to layer on top. See below to see the process we took and some of our final designs! See below for some of our work!
This week we have been focusing on artist John Dyer. We started by learning about John Dyer and looking through some of his art work. In small groups we discussed what we thought of each of the pieces. We noticed that his paintings contained bright colours and many of them were set near the sea. We chose our favourite John Dyer painting and practised carefully sketching birds, boats and daffodils in our sketchbooks.
Class 6 have settled into Year 2 well and have been working very hard at the start of the new school year. In English, we have written about the stories, ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’ and ‘On the Way Home’. In Maths, we have been learning the place value of numbers to 100 and used our knowledge to partition in different ways. In Geography, we have learned about the seven continents and five oceans.
Today we were lucky enough to visit Yeovil Library with our class. The librarian talked to us about how the library works and showed us how they section their books e.g. into fiction and non-fiction. They also explained how a library card works. We were allowed to spend some time exploring all the exciting books they had to offer and looked at some Roald Dahl and Julia Donaldson books because we have been using them in our English lessons this year. See below for some photos of our visit!
In preparation for our new history topic (all about different types of transport), Year 2 had a very exciting day at Haynes Motor Museum! We all had a go at three different activities. This included learning about the parts of a car, then having a go at making one by ourselves. We soon realised it worked better as a production line, because there are so many parts to remember and some of them were very fiddly! We also had a look around the whole museum, and had the challenge of finding as many car mascots as possible. We finished off with a guided tour and looked at loads of different cars throughout the ages. We learnt so many new interesting facts ready for our new transport unit.
Y1 and Y2 children were very excited to walk to Westlands Entertainment Venue to watch the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra deliver their Curious Creatures and Adventurous Animals concert. Children participated well, behaved beautifully and thoroughly enjoyed this experience.
We have recently been learning all about animal adaptations in our science topic and next term, we are starting our new topic on Kenya in Geography. In preparation for this, we were lucky enough to have some special visitors from Longleat today! Some Longleat team members brought in a range of small mammals and creatures for us to explore. We had great fun learning all about these amazing animals and learnt so many new and interesting facts! See below for some photos of our visitors.
This week we celebrated Maths Week in Year 2. We participated in a wide range of activities to develop our reasoning and problem-solving skills. We used dice to find different combinations of numbers up to 12, and read the story of Spinderella to find out how many legs different football teams had…this was tricky because there were spiders on each team, and they had lots of legs to count! We completed two open ended investigations to work out which coins Ben might have in his pocket and which numbers from 0 – 50 could be made with ladybirds who had 4 or 7 spots. We learnt how to work systematically to investigate this. Finally, we completed some word problems, linking this closely with our current addition and subtraction topic. See below for some pictures of our week.
Class 6 have been learning about Bread in DT. We have talked about different breads from around the world and how bread is made. In English, we have been learning about instructions. Therefore, we followed instructions to make our own bread rolls. Next, we will be writing a set of instructions for someone else to follow if they wanted to make their own bread. Our instructions will include time connectives, imperative verbs and adverbs.
Class 6 were extremely lucky to have Darcy, a professional dancer and ex pupil, in to visit. Darcy discussed mental health with the children; what it is and how we can look after it. She explained that she uses dance to help her manage her mental health. We were then taught a dance which we performed together.
Arts Week:
This ‘Arts Week’, we made a winter scene. We began by practicing some sketches of foxes before drawing and colouring one for our final piece. Then, we looked at mixing blue, white and purple to make several different tones. To create our night sky background, we started by painting the white moon and snow, then progressed to dark purple. Next, we created the silhouette of a tree by carefully drawing around a template, cutting it out and sticking it down carefully. This work will be displayed in the class room and the Year 2 corridor.
This week we had so much fun experiencing foods from around the World. We began our lesson by recalling the names of the seven continents and five oceans. We tested our locational knowledge on seterra.com. Then, we learned about, and tasted, some traditional foods from each continent (apart from Antarctica). We had: croissant from Europe, naan from Asia, coffee from South America, blueberries from North America, figs from Africa and vegemite from Australia. The children shared their opinions of their favourite and least favourite foods!
Class 6 have settled into Year 2 well and have been working very hard at the start of the new school year. In English, we have written about the stories, ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’ and ‘On the Way Home’. In Maths, we have been learning the place value of numbers to 100 and used our knowledge to begin partitioning. In Geography, we have learned about the seven continents and five oceans. Soon, we will be making our own globes!
Today we had so much fun visiting Carymoor Environmental Centre! During the Spring Term we innovated the story of Stick Man, so the team at Carymoor put on a special Stick Man day for us. We began by re-reading and acting out the story. Then, we went for a walk in the woods to identify how many Stick Man figures we could find! We talked about the different characters in Stick Man and had to follow the clues to work out which animals had left footprints or items around the site. For example, we found a swan feather and Santa’s hat! The staff at Carymoor taught us about the different trees, before we worked in teams to make Stick Man a new home. See our photos below.
We held a celebration at school for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. We had so much fun singing songs, dancing and eating food! We were also asked to design a special crown! See below for some photos of our afternoon.
Today it was International Dance Day and we were so lucky to be invited to Westfield school to take part in a safari themed workshop! We had so much fun creating and showing off our dances. See below for some photos of what we did!
We celebrated by dressing up as our favourite book characters. We spent some time looking at each other’s outfits and talking about our favourite books. We then shared our favourite books and read aloud some of the pages we enjoyed reading the most. See below for some photos of our outfits!
Today we celebrated Mental Health Day at Huish Primary School. We all wore scarves, which stands for Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience & Friendship! We started by learning about what Mental Health means and read the story of Ruby’s worry. We retold the story to our talk partners and then shared some examples of times when we have had a worry. One of the biggest solutions to solving our worries is to share them! We drew a picture to represent what we look and feel like once we have shared our worries. After breaktime, we learnt about a strategy to cope with our worries, called Mindfulness. We worked as a class to try some of these strategies. For example, we used ‘rainbow relaxation’, breathing techniques and bubble bouncing to help us relax. To finish we were tasked with completing some Mindfulness colouring and some of us had a go at drawing ‘our happy place’. See below for some pictures of us in our scarves!
Today we celebrated International Day at Huish! This year we learnt all about Spain. We started by learning facts about Spain’s history, geography and population! We then created a Spain factfile which we shared and compared with our peers. Later in the afternoon we were lucky enough to participate in a Flamenco dance workshop…it was so much fun!
Class 6 have finished making their globes!!! Over the past few weeks, we have been busy making our globes. We started off by covering balloons with Modroc. We then painted our globes blue, cut out our continents and carefully stuck them in the right place. Class 6 were very pleased with their hard work.
This week we had so much fun experiencing foods from around the World. We began our lesson by recalling the names of the seven continents and five oceans. We tested our locational knowledge on seterra. Then, we learned about, and tasted, some traditional foods from each continent (apart from Antarctica). We had: crossaint from Europe, naan from Asia, coffee from South America, blueberries from North America, figs from Africa and vegemite from Australia. The children shared their opinions of their favourite and least favourite foods!
Over the past two weeks, Class 6 have been focusing on non-fiction texts in English. We have identified some of the key features of non-fiction writing, including headings, contents pages, indexes and captions. As we have been learning about the seven continents of the world in Geography, the children worked in teams to produce a non-fiction report about each of these. Next week, they will be writing a full report about one of the continents.
The first few weeks have flown by as Class 6 have been busy settling into their new classroom and routines. In English, we have been learning about ‘On the Way Home’ by Jill Murphy. The children have learned about verbs and adjectives and created their own versions. In Maths, we have been developing our understanding of place value and numbers up to 100. We have sequenced two-digit numbers and begun to count in 2s, 5s and 10s. In Geography, we have been learning about the continents and the oceans of the world. We started to make our own globes, but the balloons kept popping!! We will be trying again soon and keeping our fingers crossed. If you would like to test your children’s learning, use seterra.com and select the continents and oceans quiz.
Year 2 celebrated ‘RE Day’ by learning about marriage. The children were keen to share their experiences of weddings. We started by discussing why people get married, where people get married and that not all marriages are the same. Then, compared the similarities and differences between a traditional Christian and Jewish wedding. To finish the day, we held our own Christian wedding. We had a bride, a groom, ceremony and even got the chance to have a dance and some food.
This half term, we have been learning about Kenya! We started with pick n mix homework. The children produced some fantastic work, including craft animals, top trump cards and maps. In school, we began by learning some key facts about the location and features of Kenya. We learned about Kenyan exports, the Maasai Mara tribe and the ‘Big 5’! After this topic, we wrote a non-fiction report about Kenya and all we have learned. Finally, we produced some Kenyan art. This included tribal masks and animal fur patterns.
In our first week back at school, we enjoyed Science Week. As we have been learning about Shackleton and Antarctica in History, we decided to think more about what explorers and researchers should wear in such freezing cold conditions. We decided to use a range of materials and test which was the best thermal insulator. In our investigation, we placed six cups of warm water into a freezing, icy tray. Then, we covered the cups in cling film, bubble wrap, fabric, cotton wool, tin foil and nothing. We discussed how we could make our test fair, so we used the same amount and temperature of water and left the cups in the tray for the same amount of time.
After our experiment, we also learned about a famous scientist, Charles Macintosh. Charles Macintosh is famous for inventing waterproof material.
Many of Class 6 have been completing their own experiments at home as part of their pick n mix homework. It looks like these experiments have been great fun!
Many children in Class 6 have been working hard from home over the last few weeks. We have finished our unit on Multiplication and Division, written instructions, made bread and enjoyed learning about Australia on ‘International Day”. Thank you to children and parents for all of your hard work! Have a look at the pictures to see some of our work.
We had such a fun time in Class 6 as we prepared for Christmas! Hopefully, you have seen our Christmas singing video. We also spent time doing lots of Christmas crafts, making wreaths, snowflakes, cards and other things. The children enjoyed their Christmas party too, where we played games such as musical statues and have a good dance! We hope you all enjoyed a safe and happy Christmas and wish you the best for 2021.
This half term in History, we have been learning about Florence Nightingale. The pick n mix homework was a fantastic starting point for this unit and it was clear that the children had already learned some interesting facts at home. The children discussed what they did for their homework and some of it was displayed in class. Throughout the unit, we completed a series of different activities. To name a few, we compared what hospitals used to be like and what they are like now, we created a timeline of her life and we compared her work with Mary Seacole’s. To finish the unit and consolidate their learning, the children wrote a recount of Florence’s life. This writing was fantastic and will be displayed on our writing wall soon.
We all know that this year has been particularly tough for the most vulnerable in society. With this in mind, Year 2 decided to send some Christmas wishes to staff and residents of The Ferns Nursing Home, Yeovil. We wrote letters, made Christmas cards and designed some decorations. The children spoke about how they felt to be doing something kind and caring for other people.
On Earth Day, Class 6 thought about the ways we can help to save our planet. In English, we wrote a persuasive letter to the Yeovil community. We wrote about plastic pollution and what we can do to help. Then, we watched ‘The Lorax’. This film is all about trees and how important it is to save them. Finally, we made our own tree posters using tissue paper and fallen leaves from the playground.
This ‘Arts Week’, we made a winter scene. We began by practicing some sketches of foxes. Then, we looked at mixing blue, white and purple to make several different tones. To create our night sky background, we started by painting the white moon and progressed to dark purple. Next, we created the silhouette of a tree by carefully drawing around a template, cutting it out and sticking it down. Lastly, we sketched a fox to colour, cut out and stick down by our tree. See the photos below.
We continued our learning of the different continents, looking at some typical foods we might find in each of them. We tried croissants, naan bread, figs, blueberries and coffee. The croissant and naan bread were very popular. The coffee… not so much!!
In Geography, we have been learning about the seven continents and five oceans. We used a paper mâché process to create our oceans, using balloons, newspaper and blue tissue. Then, we cut out and labelled the continents before carefully sticking them in the correct place. It took us all a couple of attempts, but we had plenty of fun making them (students and staff)!
Class 6 have made a super start to life in Year 2! In English, we have been learning about ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ and ‘On the Way Home’. The children have used verbs and adjectives to edit the stories. In Maths, we have been developing our understanding of place value and numbers up to 100. In Geography, we have been learning about the seven continents and the five oceans. Soon, we will be making our own globes with balloons!
Here are some of our creative contributions for the art topic of ‘Summer’.
Children in class 6 have been enjoying their Home learning Science lessons.
Well done to all of the children who have been working so hard on their Kenya reports last week. These were really interesting and show how much you have learnt about life in Kenya.
As we rounded up our topic on Kenya, lots of you have produced some fantastic arts and crafts which are ‘Africa’ inspired. I have loved seeing lots of the the work you have produced.
I have received lots of pictures from class 6 children this week showing me all the fantastic African themed art work they have been doing. I am really impressed with how well some of you are drawing and how carefully you looked at the prints of the animal fur. I have enjoyed seeing the African masks you have made and decorated. Well done to all of you who have also researched and written about ‘The Big 5’. I hope you have been enjoying your geography work on ‘Kenya’.
Well done to all of you who took part in some of the VE day activities. I know lots of you enjoyed wearing red, white and blue on VE day and enjoyed making posters, bunting and flags to help decorate your homes. Some of you have also made delicious cakes to share with your family. I hope you all had an enjoyable day.
One of your activities this week was to make a “kindness” themed poster. I hope you have all been kind to your family and loved ones around you. Lots of you have been sharing with me some of the kind things you have been doing. Keep this up class six!!!
I know lots of you have really enjoyed your science activities this week. Many of you have been planting all different kinds of seeds and have been investigating which conditions the seeds will grow in the best. You have been making some very sensible ‘growth predictions’. I am looking forward to seeing some of your photos once the seeds start to grow.
Well done to all of the children who have been working hard on their ‘Cat in a Hat’ activities this week. I have enjoyed reading your character descriptions and the stories you have been sharing with me.
Children in year 2 this week have been making time capsules. They have put all sorts of interesting things into their capsules. Some children have completed some writing, some have drawn pictures and some have put things that they think people of the future may find exciting.
We are seeing such creative work from so many children. Ellen has been working on this beautiful art work over Easter and has also made a habitat for her penguins.
Welcome back everyone! I hope you have all managed to enjoy some sunshine this Easter and have had a good break. Thank you to everyone who has been sending in photos of all the wonderful home learning and easter activities you have been up to. Keep up the fantastic work!!!!
A birthday card for Captain Tom - I’m sure he will love this, Bethanie!
'Under the sea’ habitat projects
Easter Crafts - They look super cute, Jessica!
Children in year 2 have been making ‘Rainbow’ themed pictures and paintings to hang in their windows to help people stay happy and positive as they stay in their homes. Children have produced amazing ‘rainbow’ pictures with the motto: “Stay home, stay safe, stay positive”.
As part of our unit on Living things and their habitat, children have enjoyed spending time in the sunshine, outside in their gardens, finding habitats and carrying out a minibeast hunt. They used identification keys to help familiarise themselves with the creatures they may have found. Lots of children sent photos of their creepy crawly findings!!!
To continue our history work on the theme of ‘Explorers’, children have thought about where in the world they would like to explore. They have thought about where they would go and why. They have researched some of the places they might like to explore to find out more about them. Some children have even dressed up as explorers and have enjoyed exploring around their own homes.
Well done to everyone in class 6 for dressing up for World Book day today. All of the children looked wonderful and made such a good effort. We had princesses, super heroes, animals, fairies and wizards and many more amazing characters. We enjoyed reading and sharing stories with each other throughout the day.
For International Day, the school focus was ‘Africa’. During the morning, Year 2 took part in an African Dance workshop, which used elements of various African dances and tribal moves. Each class then had a chance to perform using the new hall lights and sound systems. It was a great fun taking part and watching the performances.
In the afternoon, Miss Major gave a presentation on Rwanda and her visit to the Mountain Gorillas. To follow up, the children learned how to draw Gorillas and make a collage background forest out of different papers. Look at our display outside the classroom, next time you visit!
This half term, children in Class 6 have been doing a Design Technology topic on
‘Bread’. We started by tasting some different breads, before going on to learn about the journey of bread and making our own bread rolls. The children got to take home one of their bread rolls, as well as taste one at school. The bread rolls were a success and there were lots of positive comments on how delicious they tasted. Within the topic, we also combined some mapping skills to find out where different breads came from and how they might be eaten with different foods.
In DT we have been learning about bread making and production. We have been learning about different types of breads and different breads from around the world. In our English lesson, we have been learning about following and writing instructions. Today, we had to follow the instructions very carefully in order to learn how to make our own bread rolls. Once they were cooked, we evaluated our rolls to see how they tasted. They were very successful as we all really enjoyed eating them.
Well done to all of those children who worked very hard on their Pick ’N’ Mix homework over the Christmas holidays. We have seen a good variety of work and it has helped prepare the children for our next geography topic. Today, we shared the maps of our journey to school that the children have completed at home. There was some really good examples and children were able to talk about the road names and places they may pass as they come to school each day.
After lots of rehearsals and singing lessons, today the children in year 2 performed their Christmas Nativity - ‘The Meaning of Christmas’. All of the children did an amazing job. We had great singing, fantastic narrating and super actors all performing on the stage. It was a lovely start to Christmas. A massive well done to class 5 and class 6! Thank you to all of the parents, family and friends who came to watch. We hope you enjoyed it!
A massive thank you to all of the parents who came in to share with the children the work that they have been doing so far this year. The children were so proud to be able to talk about and show people what they have done. All of the children did an excellent job as they spoke to parents and presented their work. It was a very enjoyable afternoon.
Children in year 2 have produced some excellent art work with the theme of “Winter”. Children used blues and purples to create a wintry sky. They used careful cutting skills to create a silhouette of a tree. As part of their homework, children drew British countryside wildlife. They then sketched and drew a fox to stick onto their finished painting. They look wonderful!
Today we were introduced to our new history topic on Florence Nightingale. During this half term we will be thinking about ‘Why do we remember Florence Nightingale?’. We will be looking at the impact she has made on modern nursing of today. In today’s lesson we discussed and shared some ideas about Victorian medicine and modern day medicine. We role played as nurses and patients and compared the different ways we may have been treated.
In today’s Geography lesson we talked about foods from different countries. We were able to try some of the foods that we discussed. We have a variety of opinions on what we thought about the things that we tasted. Some of us loved them, some of us were not so sure! The important thing was that we learnt about what countries and what continents some of our everyday foods have originated from.
Some of the foods that we were able to try were: Coffee from Brazil, Naan bread from India, Croissant from France, Blueberries from USA and Figs from Egypt.
Well done to all of the children in class 6 who have settled into year 2 so well. All of the children have been working very hard and are adapting to the new challenges of year 2.
In English we have been enjoying the stories of ‘The Tiger who came to Tea” and “On the way home”. In maths we have been learning about place value and extending our understanding of numbers to 100. In our geography lessons we have been learning about our world and we are learning about the 7 continents and 5 oceans. We have been trying to make our own globes using balloons. It has been messy but lots of fun!
To help us learnt the names of the 5 oceans we have also learnt a song to help us. We have enjoyed singing this in class.
As an introduction to our new history topic on Transport we visited Haynes Motor Museum. We were given a really interesting tour of the museum where we saw many different types of car, ranging from the first ever car invented to fast, expensive supercars of the modern day. We were able to ‘ride’ on a motorbike and also sit very comfortably in an old American Cadillac. We took part in a workshop where we learnt about the assembly line of Henry Ford. By working as a team and having specific jobs to do, we were able to build our own small model cars in a much quicker and more efficient way. We had a fantastic day and many of us have said we would love to go back with our families!
As an introduction to our new geography topic on Kenya we took Year 2 children on a school trip to Longleat Safari Park. Despite the rain and cold weather we had a fantastic time and children’s behaviour and enthusiasm to learn about the animals was excellent. We began our day with a trip around the safari park. Although some animals were looking rather cold and wet, some definitely came out to ‘perform’ for us. The lions and tigers were all on the prowl and the wolves took a liking to us and were trying to circle around our coach! We managed to find the one and only dry spot in Longleat and enjoyed our lunch together. We followed this with a jungle cruise. The highlight of this was when the man fed the very hungry sea lions. They were splashing up against the boat to try and catch some fish. It was a wonderful day and we all want home very tired.
In RE we have started learning about the Easter Story and why Easter is an important celebration for Christians. We worked in teams to match pictures and sentences telling the story. We had to organise the pictures into the order in which they happened.
Today we enjoyed a poetry session with Pete the Poet. Year 2 focussed on the ‘Otter’. We enjoyed thinking about vocabulary connected with otters and their behaviours and characteristics. We all worked together to help produce a poem about this wonderful animal. We are hoping to share our poem with some of the children in other year groups in this week’s assembly.
A massive well done to all of the children who worked so hard with their recent ‘pick and mix’ homework on Earnest Shakleton. We received some amazing posters, fact files and handmade ships. The children were all able to share their homework with their peers and show off some of the great work they have been doing at home. A huge thank you to some of those parents and grown ups who enjoyed helping out with this!!
As part of our RE unit on celebrations we have been learning about weddings. To help us to understand what happens during a christian wedding, we held a year group wedding of our own. We all had different roles to play within the wedding such as bride, groom, bridesmaids, best man, mother and father of the bride and guests. We enjoyed dressing up for the wedding into our smart clothes; a wedding ceremony; a best man’s speech and the cutting of the cake. We all had lots of fun.
