We’ve had great fun in P2/1 learning the signs for our daily routine with Mrs Ryalls.

We’ve had another busy week in P2/1. We’re spending a lot of time thinking about how to work together, share and take turns and have been playing games practising these skills . We’re also continuing to think about how we’re similar and unique – this week in circle time realising how much we all have in common.

We had fun reflecting on the week at the end of today and looking at some of our photos. Here are some of the children’s highlights:

‘Making wiggly worms’ Isla

‘Playing Snakes and Ladders’ Amber

‘Playing games’ Noah

‘Making new friends’ Eva B

‘Making the alphabet’ Daniel

‘Building with the cuisenaire rods’  Finlay B

‘Making snails’ Leah

‘Playing games in PE’ Charlotte

This  week p2 listened to the story ‘The Spell Shell’ and learned the rhymes im and ab. We explored the dictionary and learned that it is in alphabetical order and can show us the spelling and meaning of words. We loved looking for words with a partner!
In maths we are counting coins and looking at numbers two more or less than numbers to 100. This can be challenging crossing a 10! We wrote a recount of a visit to the big tree at Grandpas’s farm, and a description of an Easter animal, a rabbit or a chick. We shared a great deal of knowledge about pets too. Our handwriting practice is capital letters. We made some Spring art. First, we mixed shades and tones of green paint to create a stained glass effect background, then we stuck on a 3D daffodil flower. Final photos will follow next week.

The highlight of our busy week was starting the next part of our Wild Challenge and finding out all about worms and setting up our wormery. On Wednesday afternoon we learned some interesting worm facts – like worms have five hearts and are covered in tiny hairs – and then looked at some worms through our magnifying glasses to identify the different parts of their body. We then went outside on a worm hunt, using warm water, stamping on the ground to encourage them up and looking under logs and stones. We found lots of worms in our outdoor classroom! We had a chat about being respectful to the worms, handling them as little as possible and returning them to where we found them.

In literacy this week we’ve been looking at the rhyme patterns -un (bun, fun, run) and it (sit, fit, admit). We also did a great job of our recount writing about our afternoon looking for worms. We’ve also revised the ee and or sounds, thinking of words with these sounds and making our own plasticine donkeys. The children did a great job of listening and following instructions and we were all very impressed with the finished result!

In numeracy we’re continuing with our subtraction and numbers to 100, looking a lot this week at the language of numeracy and words like less than, count back and the difference between numbers.

We’re continuing our signing with Mrs Ryalls and are learning to sign along to an Easter song – check back again next week to see how we’re doing! 

Firstly, here are the answers to last weeks’ riddles.

What goes up and down but never moves? Stairs

I am tall when I am young but short when I am old. What am I? A pencil

You can only put this type of coat on when it is wet. A coat of paint

The beautiful sunshine this week got us talking about shadows. Drew explained why shadows were long so we drew around him and wondered if his shadow would change over time. We spoke about how the Earth moves around the Sun as the day goes on. When he stood in the same place later on we noticed that his shadow was in a different place.
Here are our unique fingerprints made into a wish. These are the things we wished for.

We had a busy week writing about how we made paintbrushes in the playground, counting coins to make different amounts and describing the properties of materials that make them suitable for different items, such as, brittle, flexible and absorbent.

P2 combined science and outdoor learning this afternoon. We are learning about different types of materials and how their properties make them suitable for different things, for example, glass is good for windows because it is see through and plastic makes good bath toys because it is waterproof.

Today we looked outside for natural materials that we thought would make a good paintbrush. We tied things we collected around a stick and tried out our paintbrushes! We remembered what to do if things went wrong, and sometimes we had to change our design and start again. After we had painted a picture we reflected on why our brush was successful. We used words like ‘fuzzy’ and ‘moves easily’.

We’ve made a good start with our Wild Challenge in P2/1. We’re regularly spotting chaffinches, great tits and blackbirds among many others on our bird table and in the playground.

On Tuesday afternoon we learned about what birds and other animals need – Shelter, Water, Air and Food (SWAF). We talked about where the birds could find each of these things and then made our own fat balls and kebabs for the children to take home for the birds where they live.

We had great fun with the fat balls in particular – squidgy, slimy and absolutely disgusting were just some of the words used to the describe the texture!

Also this week in literacy we’ve been doing recount writing, reading and writing lots of rhymes and have been practising spelling some tricky words. We’re also doing lots of reading with the grown ups in the classroom and to others in our group.

In numeracy we’re continuing with our subtraction, linking subtraction and addition facts and sequencing numbers to 100. We’ve also been doing some problem solving, working on our communication skills and working together as a team.

This week ended with a riddle challenge from Mrs Wilkinson. Many children solved these riddles, can you try them at home?

What goes up and down but never moves?

I am tall when I am young but short when I am old. What am I?

You can only put this type of coat on when it is wet.

Answers will be posted next week!

Everyone planted some flower seeds this week and decorated the pot. Keep them watered and in sunlight! We talked about what the seeds looked like and what they need to grow.

A group challenge was set – arrange the flowers in height order while working as a team. We discussed team work, good listening and talking and keeping everyone involved. It was an opportunity to think of different strategies for solving problems and how to change strategy if it doesn’t work.

The highlight of this week has been World Book Day on Thursday. The bell rang at 10 o’clock and everyone in school stopped to read. We have been reading books all week including some silly stories from The Stinky Cheese Man including Chicken Licken, the Princess and the Bowling Ball and Little Red Running Shorts. We then spent some time talking about our favourite stories.

After break we did some descriptive writing about the Stinky Cheese Man (an alternative of the Gingerbread Man story). In the afternoon we read another version of the Princess and the Pea and drew some fantastic pictures using oil pastels. We then painted them using watercolours before adding a little glitter for the crown. We learned lots about using these different materials, including how the pastels resist the paint.

At breaktime we did a book trail around the school, looking for characters from some well known picturebooks. We had lots of fun and found all the clues.

This week the children helped to write the blog. Here are some of their highlights of the week:

‘The book trail was exciting and everybody loved it!’ Isabella

‘I liked reading The Princess and the Pea’ Kyle

‘I liked reading The Stinky Cheese Man’ Leah

‘I loved subtracting’ Rowan

‘I liked painting’ Finlay B

‘I enjoyed reading A Child of Books’ Finlay D

We started our week by going our the months of the year because it was a new month. We talked about the four seasons and when each of our birthdays were. In maths we learned about duration in time, and counted how long something took if we know when it starts and finishes. We are practising subtraction from numbers up to 20 using number lines or counters.  In the playground we worked in pairs to make a chalk clock with stick hands to practise telling the time. We wrote a recount of ‘The bird and the cat’ and are remembering to write our opinion too.
Thursday was World Book Day and we listened to the teachers read ‘It’s a Book’ on screen. We found picture book clues in the playground and started to make our own book. In health and well-being we learned that we have similarities and differences but are all unique. We made prints of our fingerprints to show that we are unique.