What type of houses are there in Egremont?

This morning our classroom had been transformed into Bookwell Estate Agents! Everyone was busy searching the property ladder for houses that were up for sale in our local area. We learned that there are lots of different styles of housing such as detached, semi-detached, terraced, bungalows, flats and even caravans, all of which are very VERY expensive! 

Database Digging 

In computing we have been exploring databases, exploring how questions are able to sort through information and how they are designed using a binary tree. Working with a partner, we were challenged to find the names of a class of children by only answering yes or no questions on a database. Miss Giles was very impressed with how quickly they completed the challenges and even used their knowledge to debug a binary tree that had lots of errors. 

Ross Mackenzie

Today wasn’t the average Tuesday! We interviewed a real life author, Ross Mackenzie who popped into school to take part in some writing workshops with the junior classes and talk about his award winning book ‘The Nowhere Emporium’. We couldn’t help but steal him away to ask him a few questions. He gave us some brilliant advice for when we run out of ideas when writing… ‘Ask questions, they help to explore and link ideas that you would never have dreamed of.’ Ross told us his favourite question to ask is ‘What if…?’ Which leads to all sorts of strange and fascinating ideas. 

Local Area Walk

We have been studying our local area in Geography this half term. One afternoon, we decided to leave the classroom and head out to explore what human and physical features we could find. We took our iPads and recorded some of our findings by taking photographs. We spotted lots of physical features like hills, river Ehen and vegetation as well as human features including the castle, roads, statues and houses. 

Seder Meal

This week Year 2 enjoyed the experience of a Seder Meal, a special Jewish tradition that is celebrated every year during Passover to remind them of the story of how Moses led the Israelites out of slavery. We soon learned that each food was for a specific purpose, such as the bitter herbs to remind us of the Israelites suffering and salt water to symbolise the tears shed when working for the Pharaoh. 

Whose turn is it to read to us this week?

On Fridays we look forward to finding out which adult in school will read us our story at the end of the day. I wonder who it will be this week? 

Local Art Exhibition

Year 2 had a blast at the Beacon Museum after being invited to take part in a National Gallery exhibition. We viewed a painting by Jean Simeon Chardin, a famous artist known for his still lifes and paintings of objects. We then took part in an ‘House of Cards’ workshop inspired by Chardin where our artwork is now on display. In the afternoon we explored the Beacon Museum. Why not pop into the Beacon and see the painting (and our own artwork) for yourselves! 

Woolly Farm

If we can’t travel to the farm, the farm will come to us! We had a fantastic day meeting Santa, petting guinea pigs, walking goats and some very stubborn alpacas! It’s a day we won’t forget! 

World War 1 Workshop
Today we got one step closer to finding out what life would have been like for soldiers living in the trenches. Thanks to the Beacon Museum, we were able to look closely at the uniforms, helmets and even gas masks that were worn to help keep them safe from the enemy!

Half Term History Project

Year 2 couldn’t wait to share their projects on the first week back at school. They were given the task of making a timeline to show some of their most memorable events from the past. There was a mixture of first holidays, moving to new homes, welcoming baby brothers and sisters, first day at school and even an ambulance ride. It was also a brilliant way to show how we have changed and matured as we have grown older.

Little Red Reading Hood

We have been practising using the story map to perform our warning tale and internalise some of the language features to prepare us for writing our own story in the future.

Computing

As part of our coding unit, we explored how to create an algorithm using coding blocks. In ‘Design Mode’ we set some instructions so that when an object collided with another it would make a sound. In this case, it was when a plane collided with a helicopter a loud explosion noise could be heard. 

A huge thank you to Nat who shared his story of how he became wheelchair dependent after an accident and muscle wasting disease. He later shared his passion for sport and taught each class how to play wheelchair basketball. Everyone absolutely loved their training session and some enjoyed it so much they added a wheelchair to their Christmas list! 

Year 2 have been getting to grips with the Cuisenaire rods in Maths this week to support them in securing their number bond facts up to 10. We began to notice a pattern as the first rod began to get smaller by one and the second rod began to get bigger by one. 

Today year 2 were given a mission to find items around the school that might belong to a story. They soon discovered lots of tangerines hiding in plant pots, under bushes and nestled behind the gazebo! They also found a zebra, ostrich, parrot, elephant, antelope as well as 7 delicious pieces of fruit. What could the story be you might ask? Handa’s Surprise of course! 

Year 2 enjoyed their first PSHE session with Jigsaw Jo in the September sunshine. Jigsaw Jo was very nervous about starting a new school year and Year 2 gave some fantastic advice about ways to squash those worries and who you can speak to in school who can help when you feel that way.