Author: Miss Harrison

This week we have continued with our Christmas celebrations and activities! On Tuesday we made our own handmade Christmas cards. We cut out different sized circles to make a snowman and then we folded some of the circles to make our snowmen 3D! Afterwards we used pens and glitter glue to add detail to our snowmen. We were very pleased with our Christmas cards!

On Monday afternoon it was the P1 and P2 Christmas party. We played musical bumps, musical statues, pass the parcel and the corners game. We also had party food and we welcomed a very special visitor! Santa came along to our party and gave each class a present.

In Numeracy this week we have been using our knowledge of our number facts to solve problems involving money. We had to use our number bonds to add money amounts and find different ways to make given money totals. This week we also completed an addition assessment to check our understanding. It covered adding 10 to a number, adding a single digit to a teens number, bridging 10, addition facts for 20 and adding 3 numbers. We definitely need our holidays now!

In Literacy this week we have revised all of our consonant blends. We used our blends to make different words on the magnetic boards and we created mind maps for a blend of our choice. On Thursday we wrote sentences by finding the missing ‘gr’, ‘pr’ and ‘tr’ words.

Thank you for reading all of our blog posts in 2019! We hope that you have a happy and healthy Christmas and a fantastic new year.

P2B and Miss Harrison xxx

This week we performed our nativity ‘Lights, Camel, Action!’ to our families and friends. We went down to St. Michael’s Church on Tuesday for our dress rehearsal in the morning and then we had our first performance in the afternoon. On Wednesday night we had our final performance. Everyone was incredibly proud of us. Our nativity was amazing and it was a huge production for such little people!

To celebrate the success of our nativity, we had a party on Thursday afternoon. We had some party food, listened to music, played party games and watched a film with popcorn.  Miss Harrison said that it was very well deserved.

In Numeracy this week we have been learning to find different ways to make 20. We have also been revising all of our number facts to 20 and we have been learning to add three numbers. When adding three numbers, we added the first two numbers, kept that answer in our heads and then added on the third number. Some of us were also learning to add numbers to 100.

In Literacy this week we have been revising our common words. We have been creating our own sentences containing some of our common words, playing common word board games, making our common words with play dough and playing common word games on our Promethean board.

In our Short Read lesson this week, Miss Harrison read us a very funny story! On Wednesday afternoon, we listened to the story, ‘The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas’! We explored the rhyming words in the story and answered questions about the text. Afterwards, Miss Harrison put some parts of the story on the Promethean board but there were some words missing! We had to work out what words should go in the empty spaces and when we were finished, we read over the text to make sure that it made sense.

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

P2B and Miss Harrison xxx

In Literacy this week we have been learning the sounds ‘sn’ and ‘sp’. We wrote a sentence containing ‘sn’ words and we made ‘sp’ words on our magnetic boards. Some of us also learned the sounds ‘fl’ and ‘gl’. In our Short Read this week we looked at ordering a piece of text. We read a story called ‘The Mischievous Elf’ but it was all jumbled up! We worked together to put the paragraphs in the right order using clues from the text.

In Numeracy this week we have been learning addition facts for 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19. We have been using number lines, concrete materials and counting on to help us to solve different number facts. We have also been using our knowledge of ‘number families’ to explain our addition strategies and we know that it doesn’t matter which way round the numbers in an addition are written as they give the same answer. Some of us have also been learning to use our number bonds to make given totals to 100. We have enjoyed playing different addition games on the Promethean board to revise our number facts.

On Tuesday we went to St. Michael’s Church to practise our nativity ‘Lights, Camel, Action’. Miss Harrison was very proud of us as our behaviour walking to the church and back was excellent. We were also confident with delivering our speaking parts on the stage and we participated well in performing the songs. On Wednesday we had our first dress rehearsal! We put on our costumes and we performed our nativity to St. Michael’s Day Care Centre and the children from the nursery. Our audience really enjoyed our performance and we hope that our families and friends will enjoy it next week too!

On Thursday we had our Christmas lunch. We wore our Christmas jumpers, listened to Christmas music and had either turkey, macaroni cheese, steak pie or our own packed lunch. Christmas has definitely arrived in Springfield!

On Friday it was the PTA Christmas Fair. We made reindeer, elf and snowmen lollipops and 3D Christmas trees to sell. Before the Christmas Fair we had to decide on a price for our products. We enjoyed running our own stall and experiencing running an enterprise. Thank you to everyone who supported our stall at the PTA Christmas Fair. As well as running our own stall, we got time to browse the other stalls and we got to meet a very special person, Santa!

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

P2B and Miss Harrison xxx

This week, we have been learning to write a newspaper report. We looked at an example of a newspaper report titled ‘Bears Burgled’ which told the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We looked at the headline and discussed how the picture gave the reader more information. Afterwards, we worked with our learning partners to share our ideas on what would happen if a dinosaur came to school! We created our own headlines and drew a picture to help the reader. On Wednesday Miss Harrison gave us a copy of the newspaper report ‘Bears Burgled’ and we looked for ‘who’, ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘what’. Finally we used our pictures to help us to write our newspaper reports. We used an opening sentence to tell what our reports were about and we included who, where, when and what. Some of us also included an eyewitness quote!

This week our new sounds have been ‘sk’ and ‘sm’. We created our own ‘sk’ sentences and we made ‘sm’ words on our magnetic boards. Some of us were also learning the sounds ‘bl’ and ‘cl’. We also revised our common words ‘could’ and ‘where’ and looked for our common words in our reading books.

In Numeracy we were learning to add bridging 10 (9+4, 8+6). We used ten frames to help us to make 10 first and then we counted how many were left and added this to 10 to make our answer. Some of us used our fingers to count on and some of us used number lines to solve our addition tasks. This week we were also learning to recall addition facts for 11 and 12 as well as solving missing number sums.

Even though it’s still November, Christmas activities have started in our classroom! We have been working hard during our nativity practices and we have been making products to sell at the Christmas Fair. On Thursday afternoon we made reindeer, elf and snowman lollipops! We used different materials to make our own lollipops and we were very pleased with our results.  On Friday Mrs Anderson came to help us to make 3D Christmas trees. We used pipe cleaners for the tinsel, lots of glitter and pom poms for the baubles. We are looking forward to selling them next Friday at the Christmas Fair.

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

P2B and Miss Harrison xxx

This week we have been creating our own imaginative stories involving Stick Man. We watched a video of Stick Man and we discussed what he was used for in the story. Afterwards we used a mind map to record ideas for a new part of the story. We thought about how an animal or a person could use Stick Man for something else. Some of our ideas included using Stick Man in ballet lessons, for a dinosaur’s nest, as an angel on top of the Christmas tree and to help with cooking! We drew pictures of our own ideas and used these as a plan for our writing. On Wednesday we created our own imaginative stories. We made sure that we included the main character, used interesting vocabulary in our sentences and we ended our stories in a similar way to the author of Stick Man. Our stories were excellent and Mrs Hocknull is going to display some of our stories in our Stick Man themed play area.

This week we have also been revising the blends ‘bl’, ‘cl’, ‘fl’, ‘gl’, ‘pl’ and ‘sl’. We listened to a song about blends, made words on our magnetic boards and wrote words and sentences containing our blends and our common words. Some of us were also learning the blends ‘gr’ and ‘pr’. We wrote ‘gr’ words to match ‘gr’ pictures and made ‘pr’ words on our magnetic boards.

In Numeracy we have been continuing to look at addition. We have been learning to add 10 to a single digit number (10 + 9, 7 + 10) and we have been recalling doubles and near doubles. We also learned to add a teens number and a single digit. We have been using different strategies to solve our addition tasks and we know that it is easier to start with the bigger number and add on the smaller number. Some of us have also been adding a single digit to a two-digit number.

On Friday we had our second BEAR event. We brought in books and a torch from home and we closed the blinds, turned off the lights and read our books by torch and fire light. During our BEAR event, we completed a Short Read activity. We looked at a non-fiction text about the Stegosaurus and we used information from the text to make a diagram. Afterwards we went to our school library and then we were given Read, Write, Count book bags to take home. We very much enjoyed our second BEAR event.

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

P2B and Miss Harrison xxx

This week we have been learning all about dinosaurs as part of our IDL Book Study. We have been listening to different fiction texts about dinosaurs and using non-fiction texts to find information. During play this week we have been digging for fossils in our tuff tray, creating our own dinosaur pictures and writing facts about dinosaurs. On Wednesday we watched a video about dinosaurs and discussed the word ‘extinct’. We also looked at different carnivores and herbivores. At the end of the lesson, we told Miss Harrison which dinosaurs we would like to learn about in more detail. On Thursday, we listened to a dinosaur song, explored each dinosaur closely and then Miss Harrison gave us dinosaur fact cards about the dinosaurs we had selected. We went around our classroom and chose which dinosaurs we would like to learn about and used the fact cards to find information. Our chosen dinosaurs were the Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex, Diplodocus, Pterodactyl, Velociraptor and the Triceratops.

In Literacy we were learning the sounds ‘pl’ and ‘sl’. We made ‘pl’ words, drew ‘pl’ pictures and we wrote ‘pl’ and ‘sl’ sentences in our jotters.  Some of us were also learning the sounds ‘dr’ and ‘fr’. To help us to learn our common words, this week we looked at the shape of the words. We also looked for our common words in our reading books.

In Numeracy and Mathematics we concluded our work on 2D shapes and 3D objects. We explored the properties of 3D shapes. We played a game on Education City and we counted how many faces and edges were on each 3D object. This week we also began our work on addition. We have spent a couple of days revising our number bonds to 10. We have played ‘Hit the Button’ and we have looked at how to solve missing number sums. Next week we will look at addition to 20.

This week we went to a Remembrance Assembly on Monday morning. We watched a video from Poppy Scotland about the journey of the poppy and what it means. On Friday our assembly was about one of our school values, ‘kind’. On Wednesday it was World Kindness Day and we listened to a story called ‘Have You Filled a Bucket Today?’. We learned that everyone walks around with an invisible bucket and when we smile, give a compliment, treat others with respect or do something kind then you fill a bucket. Miss Harrison set us a challenge to carry out random acts of kindness and we did a great job!

This week we have been continuing to practise our songs for our nativity ‘Lights, Camel, Action’. Some of the songs are pretty catchy! On Thursday and Friday we also started to run through the script and practise our speaking parts. It’ll be here before we know it!

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

P2B and Miss Harrison xxx

 

In Art and Design this week, we explored colour and shape. We talked about firework displays that we have been to recently and we watched a video of fireworks at Disney World. We discussed the colours and the shapes that we could see and then we created our own fireworks pictures using oil pastels. This week we have also been making fireworks with glitter and chalk in our tuff tray. There is glitter everywhere!

In writing this week we have been learning to write our own poems. We talked about firework displays that we have been to recently and we watched a video of fireworks at Disney World. We discussed the colours and the shapes that we could see and what we could hear. Afterwards, we drew fireworks pictures to help us to plan our writing. On Wednesday and Thursday we created our own acrostic poems about fireworks. We used interesting vocabulary to describe the colours, shapes and sounds and we checked that each line in our poem made sense. Our poems were absolutely fantastic!

This week our new sounds were ‘fl’ and ‘gl’. We created our own ‘fl’ sentences, wrote ‘fl’ words on a graffiti wall and made ‘gl’ words on our magnetic boards. Some of us were also learning the sounds ‘br’ and ‘cr’.

In our Short Read lesson on Monday we completed an activity called ‘Spot the Silly Word’. We listened to a song about a Triceratops and then Miss Harrison showed us a non-fiction text about the Triceratops. Reading the text carefully, we had to spot the silly words and then suggest sensible words to replace them.

In Numeracy and Mathematics we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. We have been learning about the properties of 2D shapes and we can confidently talk about how many sides and corners each 2D shape has. This week we have also been continuing and creating patterns with 2D shapes and identifying 3D objects. On Wednesday, we had some special visitors in our classroom to watch our Number Talks. We have been continuing to look at ‘Number Sense’ and next week we are going to be using our addition facts to work out how many dots are missing under the splat!

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

P2B and Miss Harrison xxx

We have had a busy couple of weeks in P2B!

In Literacy, we have been learning the sounds ‘tr’, ‘bl’ and ‘cl’. We made our own ‘tr’ mind maps, highlighted ‘tr’ words in a postcard, drew and wrote ‘bl’ words and wrote sentences in our jotters and made ‘cl’ words on our magnetic boards. Some of us have also been learning the sounds ‘oa’, ‘ow’, ‘ng’ and ‘nk’.

In Numeracy and Mathematics we finished our learning on numbers to 100. Last week we looked at counting on in twos and identifying odd and even numbers. We also learned to estimate numbers on a number line and to round numbers to the nearest 10. This week we revised all of our learning within numbers to 100 and then we started to learn about 2D shapes. We learned to recognise different 2D shapes and we used our knowledge to complete a Halloween haunted house 2D picture. We also discussed the properties of 2D shapes.

In Number Talks, we have been exploring ‘Number Sense’. Miss Harrison has been showing us an image and we have been estimating how many objects are in the container. After our initial estimates, Miss Harrison has then shared with us another three images of the same container but with a different amount in each. We have been using our number sense to compare the quantities in each container and we have been sharing with our learning partners how we got our estimates.

Last week we concluded our IDL focus on the seashore. We used what we had learned to create our own postcards from the seaside. We created seashore pictures on the front of our postcards and then we used our knowledge of the physical features of the seashore and coastal wildlife to write a message about what we saw at the seaside.

In Literacy this week we have been looking at the story ‘Funnybones’. On Monday afternoon we completed a Short Read lesson. Miss Harrison read us the story and then on the Promethean board there was part of the story but with some words missing! We had to work out what word should go in the empty space and read over the text to make sure that it made sense.

In Writing, we created our own imaginative ‘Funnybones’ stories. We discussed the main events in the story and created our own ideas about other places that big skeleton, little skeleton and dog skeleton could have gone. We thought that they could have gone to a fun fair, soft play, Dobbies, a haunted house, a restaurant or crazy golf! To plan our writing, we drew pictures of the skeletons in their new setting. On Wednesday, we used our plans to write our own imaginative stories. We made sure that we included the main characters, used capital letters and full stops and included three or four interesting sentences describing where our skeletons went. We worked really hard on our writing and Miss Harrison was very impressed with our stories.

This week we have been using chalk, crepe paper, tissue paper and art straws to make Halloween pictures during play. On Thursday afternoon we went to the PTA Spooky Event. Mr Wells read us a spooky story, we played the corners game, we danced to some spooky songs, we played a game called ‘Dress the Mummy’ and we had juice and a snack. We really enjoyed our afternoon and wearing our spooky costumes!

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

P2B and Miss Harrison xxx

 

We have had a very busy last week of term in P2B!

On Monday afternoon we went litter picking with some of the P7 Buddies. We were pretty shocked to see the amount of litter left in our playground. On Tuesday we learned about why litter is bad and we decided to create posters to encourage people not to litter. We created fantastic titles and drew interesting pictures. On Wednesday we added facts about litter and used colour to make our posters eye-catching. Miss Harrison was very impressed with our work. We are going to display our litter posters around the school to encourage people to keep our playground clean.

This week we have been learning the sounds ‘gr’ and ‘pr’. We made ‘gr’ and ‘pr’ words on our magnetic boards, wrote ‘gr’ words to match pictures and made prisms using construction materials. Some of us also revised the sounds ‘ai’ and ‘ay’.

In Numeracy and Mathematics, we have been learning to compare numbers to 100. We have been finding the smaller or larger number when given two numbers and we have been finding the smallest or largest number when given a group of numbers. This week we also learned to order numbers to 100. We played ‘Eggs to Order’ and ‘Caterpillar Ordering’ on our Promethean board. In Number Talks, we have been continuing to solve ‘Esti-Mysteries’. We are getting really confident with making our estimates and after each clue, making new estimates.

On Tuesday, we learned about lighthouses in the past and present and how lighthouses are designed. In groups, we worked together to plan and build lighthouses using wooden blocks. Our STEM challenge was to create the tallest lighthouse! We talked about the stability, balance and shape of our lighthouses. Afterwards, we discussed what went well and what we could do differently next time.

On Thursday, we looked at photographs of lighthouses and discussed the shapes and lines that we could see with our learning partners. Afterwards we used paint to create seascape backgrounds. Later in the afternoon, we drew lighthouses and once our backgrounds are dry, we’ll add our lighthouses. We really enjoyed creating our lighthouses and we are very proud of our work.

On Friday we had our first Be Excited About Reading (BEAR) event. We brought our favourite books from home, a teddy, cushions and blankets! We got comfortable in our classroom, read our books, shared our favourite books with our friends and had some hot chocolate! Afterwards we worked in pairs to complete a short read activity. We highlighted the key information in the text and then we used the key information to help us to draw a picture. To conclude our BEAR event, we went to the school library and picked a book to take home. We will be going to the school library every Friday.

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that you have a happy and safe October break.

P2B and Miss Harrison xxx

As part of our IDL focus ‘From Front Door to Seashore’, we have been learning facts about coastal birds and marine mammals.  We have also been exploring seashore minibeasts and underwater plants. This week we used non-fiction texts to find out information about otters and puffins. Miss Harrison read us a story called ‘Dylan’s Amazing Dinosaurs’ and we noticed that Dylan used a fact file to record information about a T-Rex. Using our facts, we selected whether to create a fact file about an otter or a puffin. We explored the layout of a fact file and Miss Harrison told us about the different subheadings. Using bullet points and sentences, we created our own fact files. Miss Harrison was so impressed with our fact files and we displayed our school values, confident and resilient, when writing our information.

In Literacy this week we have also been learning the sounds ‘dr’ and ‘fr’. We practised word building on our magnetic boards and we created our own sentences containing ‘dr’ and ‘fr’ words. Some of us also revised the sounds ‘oi’ and ‘oy’.

In Numeracy, we have been learning to find 10 more or less than with numbers to 100. We used a 100-square to help us to count on or count back in tens. Later in the week we looked at comparing numbers. We were able to find the larger or the smaller number with numbers to 100. Some of us played a game where we picked a number each and the person with the larger number scored one point!

In Number Talks, we have been looking at ‘Esti-Mysteries’. Miss Harrison has been showing us different objects in a glass and we have been giving our own estimations. After different clues, we check to see if our estimate is still possible and if not, make a new estimate. Finally, we explain why we chose that estimate. We are really enjoying our Number Talks!

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

P2B and Miss Harrison xxx