Cashes Green Primary School and Children's Centre

Back to the home page      Link back to the classes page     Have a read on the Mental Wellbeing page

Year 2

To contact Mrs Marsh please email lmarsh@cashesgreen-pri.gloucs.sch.uk (Mon-Wed)

or to contact Mrs Folley please email cfolley@cashesgreen-pri.gloucs.sch.uk (Thurs-Fri)

Notices. 

Mrs Marsh and Miss Bliss co-teach Year 2. Mrs Marsh teaches Year 2 on a Monday, a Tuesday and a Wednesday morning. Miss Bliss teaches Year 2 on a Wednesday afternoon, a Thursday and a Friday. Miss Bliss is also SENCo. However, because Miss Bliss is off sick at the moment it's slightly different. Mrs Marsh is teaching the class Monday - Wednesday and Mrs Folley is covering for Miss Bliss every Thursday and Friday.

PE will be on a Monday this term, please ensure your children come in to school wearing their PE kit. 

April 2004

Our book this term is The Man whose Mother was a Pirate.

The children are really enjoying all the work linked to the theme.

In the story the man is very boring and straight laced. He wears a brown suit buttoned up all the time. His mother, however, is a flamboyant pirate. One day she announces she wants to go back to sea so they set off on the journey in a wheelbarrow with a kite. On the way they meet a farmer and a philosopher who both try to put them off their journey. When the finally reach the sea they are offered a position on a sailing ship.

In science we have been look at every day materials once again.

We have considered what materials would be used on a pirate ship and what properties would make them suitable. For example a ships’s wheel, the deck and the mast might all be made out of wood due to its strength and waterproof properties.

We used this knowledge to design our own pirate ships. The children enjoyed creating their design.

In art we have been looking at the work of Kurt Switters. He created collage pictures using everyday objects which may normally be thrown away such as receipts, tickets and labels. We took these principles and created our own pirate ship collages.

We have also been learning about tessellation in art so we coloured in some tessellation shapes and created a sea for our boats to sail upon.

In maths we have been looking at fractions. So far we have learned about fractions being made up of equal amounts and about halves and quarters. Maybe the children can tell you what they know. They could even demonstrate with a cake or a pizza!

The children are working really hard with their hand writing and spelling too. Their diary entries which they have been writing this week have shown their hard work is paying off.

We are sorry that there was some confusion over our PE slot at the beginning of term. The change is to allow all classes a chance of having dance lessons.

The children are loving our new book - The adventures of Paddington.

They have worked really hard to writing exciting descriptions of him and also London. They imagined what he must have felt like on his journey from Peru to England when he was a stowaway on the boat and wrote a diary entry as if they were him.

They also wrote a letter to Aunt Lucy who he left behind.

In maths we have had great excitement measuring EVERYTHING! The practical sessions have proved really popular.

Design and Technology has led to them designing their own teddy bear. The children then had to select their choice of felt and after cutting the two pieces out carefully they have been sewing them together. They are still a work in progress but the children are very pleased with their efforts so far.

In science we have been looking at the properties of materials - we tested various items to see if the are flexible, if they stretch, if the squish and so on.

Time is flying by so quickly , it doesn't seem possible that it is February already!

The children have been working hard in English where they have created a new character for the story, written a diary entry as if they were the Tear Thief and written a letter to her asking some questions such as why she steals tears, where she lives and if her parents are invisible too!

In maths we have been looking at multiplication and division. The children have used arrays and bar models to help solve the questions. They have looked at halving and doubling as well as odd and even numbers. 

In science we have looked at how we have changed since we were a baby and what animals and humans need to survive. We have looked at healthy foods, tasted space food and matched animal babies to their parents. This week we have thought about the question - Do bananas make us run faster? As scientists we have decided if we think this is possible and have thought of ideas how we can test and find.

In art the children have worked really hard on a variety of pieces of work in the style of Paul Klee. We have created our theme book front covers using his approach to tints and tones, we also have used a variety of media to create a picture in the style of Blue Night and looked carefully at his work Senecio to draw our own faces.

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to the new term. The children were very excited to share their news from Christmas although that seems a long time ago now!

Our theme this term is all about every aspect of healthy living and is centred around The Tear Thief, our new book.

Since getting back the children have already looked at the work of Paul Klee and tried creating their own piece of artwork using different tints of blue. Ask your child how they made these different tints, the children had great fun experimenting with colour.

In maths we have been looking at equal grouping which is the start of multiplication.

We revised our skills from last term in English and have written a non – chronological present tense report. This was all about healthy living. See if they can tell you what you need to do to stay healthy.

PSHE and science also focus on healthy living. We have revised what humans and living creatures need to survive. In our book the Tear Thief goes to the moon to deliver all the tears and we used our scientific knowledge to work out what we would need to survive and what we would take to make us happy.

Our door is always open so any questions or concerns don’t hesitate to catch before or after school.

10th November

We have had such a busy start to the term. We have enjoyed reading our new book "The Rainbow Bear". The children were amazed when the polar bear became a rainbow bear but this led to great sadness. ask your child to tell you what happens next! Thankfully it has a happy ending, but was it all a dream? Some of us say yes, the rest say no! We have started making the front covers for our theme books. We had to carefully use pastels to make small strokes which look like individual hairs.

We have been busy practising our assembly. The children have really enjoyed looking back at all their work from last term. They couldn't believe just how much work they actually had completed.

We had an amazing day out at The Bristol Zoo Project. The rain held off and the children all had a fantastic time. We were really lucky when we reached Bear Wood as a keeper came to do a talk. We were the only people around so had our own private introduction to the wolves, wolverines, bears and lynx. We couldn't get over the size of the bear footprint - it was HUGE. Lots of volunteers gave the children fascinating facts about the animals especially the giraffes, ostriches  and lemurs. Did you know that a male ostrich can be 2.75 metres tall or that there are over 100 species of lemurs?

Friday 27th October

We made it!
The children have worked really hard these last two weeks.
We came in from play last Monday and found the classroom trashed. The children  decided it was the giant who had been in. They wrote a set of instructions on how to catch a giant. So ask them if you ever have a problem with a giant at home!
This week we have been writing a present tense report all about Guy Fawkes. Ask your children if they can tell you what year the gunpowder plot took place, who had the initial idea to kill the king and who the king was they wanted to kill.


We have finished sewing our giant faces in DT. The children have tried really hard to create a multi media piece of work.


We are all very tired so please enjoy half term and enjoy the rest. Keep reading though as this is really important.

Friday 13th October

The children have been working really hard over the past two weeks writing their version of Jack and the Beanstalk. We have been working on sentence construction and presentation, trying to make our work look inviting to read as well interesting.

In maths we have been counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. The children are great at counting forwards but have found it more of a challenge counting backwards. See if they can show you how clever they are this now. We have looked at numbers which are greater than and less than other numbers and are able to use the crocodile signs to demonstrate this. The number gator song on you tube is a fun way to remember the correct way the sign faces.

In Design and Technology the children have designed a giant's face using a variety of different media. They explored the best material for eyes, hair, etc. They have also started to cut out all the pieces they need. They have been very creative.

Our amazing designs.

In History we have looked at houses from different periods in time. We discussed the differences between them and compared the old houses to houses today. We talked about the various materials that they were made of in the olden days which was more often wood and discussed how different a wooden house would be to one made of bricks like most of our houses.

In history we have also started studying Guy Fawkes. We used the information we already know to complete a sheet all about him. 

29th September

We have had a busy few weeks learning about Jack and the Beanstalk. We've read several different versions of the story and have been talking about the similarities and differences in the stories. As mentioned before the children had great fun acting out the story as you can see from a snapshot of photos. They were fantastic playing the different parts.

We have been working hard at different genres of writing and at making our writing more exciting.  The children wrote a set of instructions telling other people how to grow a beanstalk. They also created a poster trying to persuade people to buy Daisy the cow.

In Maths we have been thinking about place value. We have used whole part models to split numbers into tens and ones - ask your child to show you how clever they are at working these out. Some of us have used sticks and conkers as an extension to represent numbers - the sticks are tens and the conkers ones.

In DT the children have looked at different fabrics and what might be suitable for making a giant's face. They explored different ways of joining fabrics to choose the best way for their design.

Our beanstalks have all grown ( a miracle!) and many have them grown beyond the top of their supporting stick. The children will continue measuring them each week until the end of term to see how large they grow. We all planted daffodil and crocus bulbs in our outdoor area - we will have to wait a long time to see them flower though!

As scientists we  created a fair test to see if seeds really need water, soil, light and warmth to grow. We planted four pots of cress. We put one in the fridge, one in the dark, one we didn't water and the last one was a control and we made sure the seeds had everything they need to grow. We made predictions about what would happen. Now we have to wait and see!

The children have been amazing at remembering to bring in their reading books each day. They are desperate to earn their reading certificates so please help them by reading as much as possible at home.

Hello!

Its lovely to see all of the children bubbling and excited about their return to school and ready for their new learning. We have such a busy time ahead of us!

Our book this term is Jack and the Beanstalk. The children have immersed themselves fully in the book – acting out the story, planting their own beanstalks and writing descriptive sentences about the giant. We even wrote a letter to the giant asking him lots of questions.

In maths we have been thinking about numbers to 20 – putting numbers into the correct order and filling in missing numbers. This will then lead into work linked to place value.

 Our science topic this term is about growing plants from seeds and bulbs. We will be looking at what plants need to grow and growing a variety of different plants.

Reading is a key part of the day to day learning. Please ensure your child brings their reading book and record to school every day. Please hear them read as often as this will help them with all aspects of learning.

Please make sure your child has a named pair of wellies in school as they will be needed at playtime and lunchtimes whenever the weather is wet. Please also send them with a named coat as they will go out to play whatever the weather.

Any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to catch myself or Mrs Folley on the gate or email one of us. We talk to each other every day so can pass on any queries.

We planted beans to grow our own beanstalks. The children were very excited when Jack's name appeared on his beanstalk.