Our first week in Year 2!

We have had a great start to year 2. It has been 'building learning communities' week so we have been playing lots of games and doing activities which develop our skills for working as part of a team. One of the games was 'tangles' which involved everybody linking hands across, around and even underneath each other! Then we had to work together to get out of the tangle.
We had a class photo taken by Mrs Shepherd, see if you can spot it in the school foyer. It might look a little bit different to this one!
On Thursday something very excited happened. Mrs. Hicks came to year 2 to show us a bottle that she found floating in the estuary and a box that had washed up on the banks when she had been travelling in from Shirehampton that morning. Inside the box were lots of mysterious objects which looked like they might belong to a pirate. Inside the bottle was a very old, tattered letter which gave us some clues as to who the box belonged to. We were instructed to go out to the playground and collect letters which spelt out the owners name. When had them all they spelt out Blackbeard! We have lots of things we would like to find out about this notorious pirate!
Next week we should be able to tell you lots of interesting facts all about Blackbeard.

The End of Y2!

Well, the last week in Y2 has been just as busy as the rest of the year!
On Monday Sarah Derrick (Emily in Y5's mum) came in to show us her police riot van! We looked at the special clothes - and equipment - a police officer carries. Many thanks to Sarah for giving up her spare time for us.
On Wednesday the Y2 recorder players invited Mr Hill into our class to help them perform to the rest of the children. They did a splendid job accompanied by Mr Hill on guitar who then joined us for a school dinner - what dedication!
At the end of the day on Wednesday we had a treat when Mickey's mum brought Rosie the hamster in to meet Y2 - you can just about make her out if you look closely at the picture - what a cutie!
Thursday was a very special day indeed - Wellington's party! Look at these pictures of Wellington, the children and their bears (and Ms Gower!) celebrating. The children were thrilled that at the last minute Charly, Wellington's German cousin, was able to join them!
We had a lovely last day of term and to reiterate the letter the children took home .. many many thanks on behalf of Ms Gower and myself for the lovely cards and gifts, we were both very touched.
Y2 have been a lovely class to teach and I look forward to seeing them all again next year when I cover Mrs Christmas' P.P.A.
Have a wonderful summer everyone!

Countdown to the end of term

With just one week of Y2 to go Y2 haven't started to slow down yet!!!
We started our week with a very special visitor to our classroom - little Victoria Hedges. To help us with our 'Our Changing Lives' topic Victoria's mum, Bridget brought her in and talked about life with an 8 week old baby. Everyone got to have a close look at Victoria and Bridget and I were very impressed with some of the very thoughtful, sensible questions Y2 asked. You can just about make Victoria out on this picture.
On Wednesday we had Profile Evening - it was great to see so many parents there to look at their children's work. Look at the pictures that show some mums and dads enjoying themselves with their children.
On Thursday Ms Gower and Y2 started planning a very special event - Wellington's birthday party next week. The children all thought about what they could do to celebrate and so they made invitations for their teddies at home to come along and asked mums and dads to contribute just a small amount of goodies to eat. Hopefully next Thursday should be lots of fun!
On Friday we started looking at Nonsense Poems and laughed at Spike Milligan's On The Ning Nang Nong - a great way to end our English for the year!!!
Also shown on this blog are the photos promised from last week - of skeleton making and our Tagtails Virtual Festival.

Tag Tails, Skeletons and Teddy!

This week we have had lots of help from our Ashton Park girls Jemma and Verity - they helped Y2 make skeletons out of toilet rolls and kitchen rolls - the pictures are on Mrs Hillberg's camera so we will put them on next week's blog. You can see them for yourselves though if you pop into our classroom during profile evening on Wednesday. Many thanks to Jemma and Verity! We said a sad goodbye to Verity on Friday but we are lucky to have Jemma with us next week, too!
On Tuesday we played Tagtails as part of our KS1 Virtual Festival - again the pictures are on Mrs Hillberg's camera so we'll put THEM on next week, too!
Well done to everyone in Y2 who played well and fairly.
On Friday we had our Sports Day, everyone was a star! Look at this picture of the children in the Sack Race.
There was a surprise for Y2 on Wednesday - when they came in from play Teddy had made a secret visit! Dogs aren't usually allowed in school but Mrs Shore had special permission from Mrs Roberts to bring her dog in to meet the children on her planning day. The teachers were as excited as the children because we couldn't wait to see Y2's faces when they entered the room!
Finally - apologies for last week saying there was a photo of Dan, our Community Police Officer on the blog, there wasn't but it's here now!

Dancing, policemen and a trip to the countryside!

Y2 had something of a whirlwind this week. We started off with our May (in June!) Dancing on Monday. Although it was really hot everyone did well and thanks to all the lovely parents who came to support us! There was some great dancing there mums!

On Tuesday Dan, our community police officer spent some time in Y2. He helped us to practice for our assembly - you can see the picture of us singing 'Dem Bones' to the rest of the school. We had a dramatic moment when Dan was called away to deal with someone stealing from a shop in Bedminster but when he came back we had a long chat about it and spent time talking about right and wrong and taking responsibility for ourselves. In the picture Dan is asking the police radio controller to say hello to Y2 at Luckwell across all the police radio network in Avon and Somerset!

Wednesday was the highlight of our week - our trip to Avon Valley Country Park. It was scorching hot but fun was had by all as you can see from the photographs! Thanks to mums Lorraine and Rachel who emailed me pictures from their mobiles to add to the blog.

Finally, on Friday Y2 spent an hour in Y3 with Mrs Christmas choosing the topics they are interested in next year. I'm told that they have chosen Egypt and India - I will look forward to seeing what they do!

Bodies and Goodbyes!

This week we have had a big focus on English and worked on similes - the children were AS GOOD AS GOLD and AS WISE AS AN OWL thinking of lots of similes to write about to publish for their profile. We also moved onto to using a 'net' in tennis - look at the pictures to see you can make anything out of unlikely items if you think about it! Pete, our tennis coach, is off to Wimbledon next week (which is fine for us as we're on our trip on that day!) and has told the children to watch the players on the t.v. and look really closely at their technique.
Y2 had a big goodbye and thank you to do this week because Mr Ellershaw finished his placement with us on Thursday. We all want to say a big thank you to him for the fun lessons and his hard work. Before he trained to be a teacher Mr Ellershaw was a scientist and I think Y2 will all join me in saying that he certainly used his skills to make science really fun in our classroom. Here's a great picture of Ollie showing what his insides might look like!
We all wish Mr Ellershaw good luck when he takes up his teaching post in Y6 at Southville Primary in September.

Eggshells, Bones and Staying Safe

This week we have continued to find out about the human body. We have focussed on teeth and looked at what happens when eggshells (which have a similar composition to teeth) are left to sit in various liquids for a few days. Look at the picture which shows the children holding up eggshells in water, orange juice and cola.
We have been newspaper reporters and written reports for our 'newspaper' The Luckwell Times about the explorer Indiana Ellershaw's discovery of bones at a secret location near school........... we are in the process of publishing our work for display in the classroom next week.
Finally we were all reminded how to cross the road safely when we were visited by the Road Safety Roadshow on Wednesday.
Have a lovely weekend and remember to stop, look, listen and think before you step out!